November in a Nutshell with a little bit of October thrown in...

To say that our November was a busy month for us is a bit of an understatement.  With the big move and all the stress, headaches, and unpacking that came with it and not having internet for a month, the blog took a major hit.  Although we still don't have internet (boy, has that been an ordeal!  Let's just say Frontier is on Derek's list and it's not a good list to be on) I am using Derek's wireless network card to finally do a few updates on here.  So buckle your seatbelts and get reading....Here's our last four weeks in a nutshell...

Halloween Weekend
  

My parents came to visit on Halloween Weekend. They were able to take a few extra days off of work and come for an extended visit. They have come to visit for the last several years on Halloween and we really enjoy having them come to visit. We were also excited to be able to show them the new house. On Saturday we took advantage of Dad visiting and rented a uhaul for stage one of the big move. Dad and Derek moved some of our bigger furniture and hard to manage items. We really put Dad to work and are so grateful for all of his help and for Mom's help in keeping the kids at bay as we packed and moved. Sunday we all went out to eaty at Logan's before an evening of trick-or-treating. After Addy's afternoon nap we planned to get the kids dressed in their costumes and take pictures. Adalyn woke up from her nap on the wrong side of the bed and was quite the bear through dressing and picture taking. Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot of quality photos of the two together. Addy did warm up to the idea of trick-or-treating as she remembered that candy was involved and made quite the little Doctor. She chose her costume herself and had asked to be a doctor in early October. Thank goodness she madde up her mind early, as there weren't any toddler doctor costumes to be had at the stores and amazon.com had to come to the rescue! Although less original, Carter did make one cute monkey and did his part by providing those cute chubby monkey cheeks! Although it started out a bit rocky, trick-or-treating was a success and Addy was beside herself with her bucket full of goodies.

Trick-or-treating at our house.  My mom manned the door while we did the neighborhood circut. 



Addy and I decorated a pumpkin at the local nature center.  Addy called it our Grandma Pumpkin:)



Picking out the perfect pumpkin

 

Trick-or-treating at the Wietings'

Even Olive and Brutus were dressed for the occasion! 



The following day was November 1st and was the day we headed to the bank to close on our new house.  Forty-five minutes and many, many signatures later the house was ours and we were headed there to drop off yet another load of things.  The first week with the house in our possesion I really wanted to get the kids' rooms painted.  The entire house is painted a neutral brown and can be slowly changed, but I wanted to get color on the walls in the kids' rooms before we moved in their furniture.  Derek's mom came up to help us move.  She was mainly assigned to kiddie duty, which she and the kids were totally ok with.  The following weekend was our big move.  Unfortunately sometime during the week's worth of preparations I aggravated my knee and by the time Saturday rolled around my knee resembled more of a cantaloupe than an actual knee..convenient timing, I know!  Thankfully we had many wonderful friends and family here to help us get moved and all went as smoothly as we could have imagined.  Thank goodness for family and friends!

The rest of the month involved unpacking, unpacking, and a little more unpacking.  Derek also managed to squeeze in a short trip to Buffalo, NY the Monday after we moved and we headed home to Indiana for Thanksgiving, which will be featured in a future post!  We are slowly settling in to our new home.  It feels a little more like home everyday.  I love the fact that we are closer to town now and that the kids and I can run errands and not take the entire day to accomplish them.  We have become regulars at the library's toddler story hour which both Adalyn and Carter love.  Addy loves to visit the library to pick out books and go to her "class."  During the story hour the teacher reads several stories and leads the kids in several songs.  Addy's favorite song to date that she has learned is "Shake your bushy tail."   

Mirror, Mirror on the wall...

Such a cheeser!

Enjoyin their new house!

Despite the cold weather we ahve also met several of our neigbors.  Several of them have even brought us goodies to welcome us to the neighborhood!  We have also learned that we have several high school girls living around us, which means prime babysitting prospects!  We are excited about that!  So far we are enjoying the transition to our new surroundings.  Although that's not to say that the move hasn't brought frustrations.  Being unsettled during the holidays isn't my favorite thing in the world and we already have had issues with a leaking spa tub.  Add the issues we have had getting the internet and we have had our share of headaches!  However, it's great to see Addy and Carter settling in and loving their new house!  We will post pictures of our progress on the house very soon!