Our 1st House

Welcome to our FIRST home.  We (Steve purchased, but we shopped together) got this house my senior year of collage.  Steve and I knew we would be getting married, Steve had a good job, and his housing situation had recently changed so it was the perfect time to buy.  Not to mention interest rates were very low.

For a single guy then a married couple with no kids, the house had more than enough space.  When we first moved in, we had rooms that weren't being used at all...no furniture.  Slowly, over the past 4-5 years rooms have been filling up.  We added pets to the mix (first two cats, then a dog) and that made the house shrink a little.  THEN we had a baby.  Our first son.  All of the sudden every corner was filled.  We currently have 0 extra space.  Honestly, we could probably live here forever and be just fine.  How much room do people really need??  Living here longer would just mean we would need to start purging a lot of the "stuff" we have accumulated over the past few years and doing a lot of organizing.

This is our entryway

From the entry, you go strait into the living room 

The kitchen we renovate 

Our granite countertops  

Our eating area (no dining room)

Anyway, due to some exciting life changes, we will be moving from our first house.  We have made many wonderful memories here.  This is where Steve and I started our lives together.  This is where we worked on many projects together.  This is where we started our family (fur babies), and this is where we brought our newborn baby to live with us.

Master Bedroom 

Master Bathroom 

Bedroom #2 (Hudson's room) 

 Full bath (main and guest bath)

Bedroom #3 (guest room) 

It has been a wonderful house and I am a little sad to leave.  Hopefully the next owners will love it and make many great memories, like we did.  Thankfully I am reminded each day when looking at my husband and baby that "home" is not a specific place or location.  It is wherever your heart and family are.  As long as we are together, I will be happy.

 To the basement (stairs in entry)

 Basement living area

Office area in basement 

Basement bathroom 

Exercise Room, looking at office area 

Backyard deck we renovated 

 Backyard we fenced in and landscaped

 Hard to believe it was nothing but dirt when we bought it

A Much Needed Calm Before The Storm

In the midst of all this moving chaos, my man and I got escape reality for a whole week!  There were no diapers to change, baths to give, or little mouths to feed.  I missed my sweet little boy, but the get-away was WONDERFUL!!!

We left our house on Mother's Day after having lunch with Steve's parents.  

Happy Mother's Day to my mama!

My parents had offered to watch Hudson while we were gone.  My mom took off a whole week of work just so Steve and I could get away.  How awesome is she!  So we drove to Indy to drop off Hudson and Sadie (our dog).  Monday morning bright and early (5:00am) my dad drove us to the airport so we didn't have to pay for parking (He is so amazing).  I was terrified to fly, but the first flight to Atlanta couldn't have gone smoother.  The flight from Atlanta to Jacksonville, Fl...well, that was a different story.  We made it safe and sound though, so that's all that matters.

Once we were in Atlanta, we ran into a lot of Steve's co workers.  Did I mention this was a trip for Steve's company?  He had a good year, and this was his work's way of celebrating.  I'm so proud of Steve.  He works so hard EVERY SINGLE DAY to provide for our family.  Anyway, once we arrived in Florida, we picked up our rental car and headed to the Ritz Carlton Hotel on beautiful Amelia Island.

I have to say, the hotel was fabulous!  Steve and I NEVER stay in places like that and we were defiantly fish out of water!  I mean, who takes pictures of the hotel bathroom?!?!  We felt like royalty with our beautiful room looking out over the ocean, and the Hotel Service/Staff was amazing.  I have never had people open my car door, take our luggage (and the car), and escort us to our room!  Usually I am hauling all my bags tripping over myself the whole way.  They even did a turn down service at night where they got your bed ready and left little chocolates on the pillows!  A girl could definitely get use to this!

We had so much fun getting to know other couples from the company! We spent a lot of time out by the pool and ocean.  Steve got to play some golf and I had the most wonderful spa day!  Such a treat!

Steve's company sponsored lots of fun events.  They had fun dinners out overlooking the ocean each night that also included live music. There was an awards ceremony one evening and a 5k walk/run on the beach one morning.  We were entertained, but still had plenty of time to relax and recharge.

The weather was absolutely perfect the entire trip.  The first few days were were there, there wasn't even a cloud in the sky.  

Friday, we checked out of our hotel and took one last drive around the island.  Steve and I ended up having lunch at this great little mexican restaurant downtown before heading to the airport.  It was a perfect week and we decided that we need to do this every year.  It was so nice getting away just the two of us.

We got back to Indy around 11:00pm.  My wonderful dad picked us up and drove us home.  I have such wonderful and giving parents.  :)  We stayed to visit for the rest of the weekend and came back home to a half packed house on monday night.

Reality really started to set in when I realized that we had about 1 week to finish packing before the move....  AHHHHH  We so enjoyed our little calm before the storm.  Let the crazy begin!