New House!

Whoa! It's been a while since I updated. Crap. Where have I been? What's been going on? Why have I been delinquent on posting?

Well ... drumroll, please ... get excited ... are you ready? ... Alright, here goes: I have been moving. Not moving as in dancing, but moving as in packing up our entire house and moving all our crap, ahem, stuff to a new location. Now, it's not the only reason that I've been incredibly far behind on updating the blog, but it's the reason I'll blame.

Here's the story:

Cory and I moved into our old house in October of 2003 when we were but wee babes and had been married for less than two years. We had almost no furniture, and I didn't really know my true decorating style yet. But, I did love our house. Fast-forward 10 years and two kids: I still loved a lot about our house (memories of bringing my babies home and them taking their first steps chief among the things I loved), but we were bursting at the seams.

Bringing Molly home to our house in 2007. (Eeek, and I thought I didn't get swollen while pregnant!)

We've always loved entertaining and having parties at our house (see all the parties on the party page), but, oh boy, our house was getting progressively smaller as our parties kept getting bigger. I guess that happens when you keep adding kids and the kids keep growing.

So, every once in a while, I would get an itch and start searching the internet for a new house. The problem was, I loved our neighborhood and neighbors a lot. I was willing to put up with a lot in our tiny house to stay in our neighborhood. But, then my BRF (best running friend) Sarah moved away. It had been so convenient to have another running stay-at-home mom to two girls living right across the street. When she moved, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I started looking in earnest.

That's when I came across the listing for our new house. It had previously been foreclosed, but then had been flipped. Originally, Cory and I thought we might want a fixer upper. He had a lot of experience and contacts after fixing up so many rentals. But, then we fell in love. Yes, with a house.

We had some back-and-forth, but ended up getting it (obviously), and gained possession the week before Thanksgiving. We thought we might have a lot of time to move slowly and get everything ready. But, then we found the perfect people to rent our old house, and they needed to be in before December. That meant turning on our supersonic speed moving skills. It was insane.

But, we made it.

Our new house!

And, of course, I had already agreed to host my faith club's annual Christmas dinner before anything about the move happened. I decided to keep the date and use it as a deadline of sorts for myself to get our house semi-ready. I had about three weeks to do it.

Our kitchen.

Dining room all set up for the big dinner party.

Living room complete with Christmas tree.

Entryway. I've since purchased a dresser for the entryway.

My faith club ladies enjoying dinner in my dining room.

Ok, so I got everything unpacked and ready for the party, then, I've kind of stagnated. I have a lot more decorating to do, but I had to take a couple months off.

 But, I did turn what is supposed to be the formal living room into my very own library:

At Christmas, I had a Christmas tree decorated in my race medals.

We have since added an awesome reading chair in its place.

After the stagnation period, I'm just now finally starting to get in the mood to look at Pinterest and HGTV Magazine. My master bedroom and our basement are very, very blank slates that need lots of help.

The girls bedrooms are pretty cute, but still need a little help:

Molly really wanted a turquoise room. My mom helped me put up the chandelier decal.

Charlotte's room still needs some things on the wall ...

And, the rooms that need the most help:

Totally blah. What the heck am I supposed to put on that huge wall?

Basement playroom. 

Basement TV area.

So, yeah, I've still got a lot left to do. But, we've already had Charlotte's 4th birthday party in the new house, and it was so much better than the previous parties crammed in our old house. (I'll put up a post about that one soon!)

Anyone have any great ideas? What the heck am I supposed to do with that giant wall in my bedroom? How do I brighten up the basement when it has no natural light? I'd love to hear any ideas. I need help!