At long last ... house photos

(Sorry about the random order.)

Breakfast nook

Half-bath -- with stained-glass window No. 1

More half-bath

And more

Dining room

Living room, dining room and built-ins above cabinets that hide all the TV components (!)

Living room -- with hard-won antique mantle

Landing -- with stained-glass window No. 2

Upstairs loft/office space

Claire's room

Evan's room

Upstairs playroom

Upstairs bonus room/workout room/room where TVs come to die/guest bedroom in a pinch

Downstairs playroom/office

Built-in bookshelves -- how better to use a wall?

Master bathroom

Master bedroom

The other side of it

Front

And again

Screened-in porch

Back yard

Rear view

Last but not least ... kitchen

Still kicking

I'm just posting to prove I still remember how.  Things have been c-r-a-z-y since we moved, but in a good way. I don't like the heavy lifting of moving, but none of that was my responsibility (and it was done in one long day anyway). The past three weeks have been full of unpacking and organizing and decorating and that part I love. The downstairs was pretty straight within a few days but the upstairs is another story. There aren't enough hours in the day!

I'll be back to blogging soon. The stack of boxes is waning, and so is my enthusiasm for dealing with them. This weekend everything that's still boxed goes in the attic -- if we've gone this long without it, it can't be that important. Right?

How to put off packing

I have started about a dozen posts in my head in the past two weeks but I never seem to make time to sit down and actually write them. Things have been crazy, mainly just with finishing up the house -- we're supposed to move on Saturday -- and I should definitely be packing right now, but procrastination's kind of my thing, so here we are.

The hoopla over Valentine's Day never ceases to annoy me (who in the world do those Kay's commercials work on?) but, as usual, ours was lovely. We have celebrated 16 or 17 of them together now and Matt well knows that overpriced flowers are NOT my thing. Even though I honestly have no expectations for the day, he always seems to do a little something to make it special. This year we grilled steaks and ate them with homemade potato chips. On his way home from work Matt also swung by the grocery store for chocolate-mousse ingredients and some other goodies.

Matt: "I was wondering if I'd get some looks from cashiers, buying flowers, champagne and whipped cream."
Me: "Haha! So did you?"
Matt: "I did self-checkout."

Unrelated: The new house is looking so fantastic. I don't usually get attached to houses, for obvious reasons, but this one is something special. I keep taking pictures but none of them have made it to the blog because by the time I get them off my camera they're already outdated. I will most definitely get some good ones in the next couple of weeks and post them here. Here are some pictures of the two vintage chandeliers I painted:

Office: Before

After

Breakfast nook: Before



After

 I LOVE how they turned out. My only regret is that the green chandelier, now that it's hanging in the house, really seems to bring out the green in the walls, and it's a little too much. So it's probably going to get a third life as yellow or blue, eventually. But that is waaaay down my list of priorities. Overall I'm thrilled with how much color we have in this house. We may have to tone it down some when we sell it, but right now there's no beige anywhere, and that's the way I want it.

While I should be sleeping

I absolutely love the way our new house is coming together -- it has as much character as you can possibly hope for in brand-new construction -- and it just feels wrong to fill it with mirrors from Kirkland's and light fixtures from Lowe's. Therefore, I have spent an unhealthy amount of time the past couple of weeks searching for thrifty, awesome alternatives.

I've squeezed in a five- or 10-minute run through practically every thrift store I know of around here, but haven't found anything I couldn't live without. I've also done plenty of searching online, everything from Craigslist to Etsy to eBay to the big boxes. Although that's provided a lot of inspiration (and confidence -- other people have pulled off spray-painted chandeliers, so maybe I can too), most everything online is either ugly, boring or more than I want to spend.


We ended up getting really lucky with the light fixtures. After bemoaning the lack of "different" options at A Light Source in Aberdeen, the salesman took us in the back and showed us two gorgeous antique chandeliers they'd rescued from a home renovation and were rewiring. They sold them to us for $120 each. Score! I probably will end up painting one of them because it has great detail but the finish just looks rusty. The other has a nice oil-rubbed bronze finish and we'll leave that as it is.

Our dining room chandelier we actually did get from Lowe's and I love it. I'm hoping that it will hang high enough above the table that no one will notice that the "crystals" aren't really crystals. For that matter, I'm hoping that globe at the bottom is glass, not plastic -- we haven't taken it out of the box yet.

Mirrors should have been easier to find, because virtually any of them can be made beautiful with a little paint and elbow grease, but it's been a tough assignment, because we need two sets of matching mirrors (one pair in the master bathroom, one pair in the kids' bathroom). And mirrors don't typically come with matches in thrift stores. So I've pretty much decided we'll have to buy four of the cheapest, most generic mirrors we can find in sets of two and plan on painting them whenever I get around to it. However, if you know of any great, inexpensive mirror resources I might be overlooking, do tell.

Even though I couldn't buy any of it, all the cute stuff I ran across online gave me the energy to finally get to work painting a mirror I bought for $5 at the Habitat store awhile ago. A lot of Habitat's mirrors are pretty pricey, but I always seem to find cheap ones in the mix. In fact, the mirror that's probably going to go in our powder room is one I found there, painted, distressed, and now love. It was also $5. I left the price tag on the back just for fun.

Anyway, the mirror I bought more recently is going to go over a cute antique (maybe just old) vanity Matt and I claimed from the side of the road on our way home from Charlotte one day last fall. Eventually I'm going to paint that too. It didn't come with a mirror, but obviously that was easily taken care of. We picked up a matching dresser and not-matching but adorable stool from that same spot on the side of the road.

(I have a weakness for seeing potential in free and cheap things. Our garage is FULL of painting projects. Not only can we not park in it, we can't even walk through it. Thank goodness we're having a yard sale next week so other people with the same problem can take some of our junk to their garages.)

Tonight I was finally inspired to paint the vanity mirror, so that's what I'm doing right now, alternating between blogging and reading "The Great Gatsby" (for book club) while I wait for each coat to dry, and falling in love with Pandora all over again. It really gets me.

C.S. Lewis drank here

A couple of days ago I ran across an ad seeking writers to come up with slogans and ideas for Christian T-shirts. You know: "Prayer -- the world's greatest wireless connection" (that's actually the example they provided).

I am not a wearer of Christian apparel but I couldn't resist responding to the ad. I always wonder "Who in the world comes up with this stuff?" and what if I were that person? Apparently any of us could be that person because the company posting the ad responded to my three-sentence inquiry with an invitation to start submitting ideas immediately.

I won't be doing that but I did challenge Matt to what was supposed to be a 15-minute competition. It turns out coming up with cheesy Christian slogans is way too easy. This is day three and I can't stop thinking of them.

Totally unrelated, Matt and I have been making mad progress on the house with the kids back in school yesterday and today. Things are coming together really well. Carpet, hardwood, kitchen appliances and light fixtures are almost finalized. Walls are being painted. Cabinets are being installed next week. The upstairs is trimmed out. Matt gave me a front porch swing for Christmas! When it comes time to sell, Matt's probably going to have to drag me out of there kicking and screaming.

"Modern Family" returns right now after the holiday hiatus so I'm out. Happy New Year, by the way!

Christmas Eve Eve Eve (right?)

I keep not blogging because it doesn't seem worth doing when I only have five free minutes at a time. But if I stick to that strategy I won't blog again until January.

It has been a crazy couple of weeks! No matter how much we try to simplify Christmas every year, there is always so much to get done. Last week was the kids' last week in preschool before the holiday break so I scheduled like a Type A person and crammed as much as I could into those three mornings -- I didn't want to waste a minute. The nights were full, too, with the kids' Christmas program, our book club's Christmas party and both magazines' monthly final proofing.

This week I'm not getting as much checked off my to-do lists but I'm having a great time with the kids. [Quit here on Wednesday, am picking up again today.] The weather continues to be unseasonably pleasant and we have gone to a different park almost every day. Claire is a little monkey and Evan desparately wishes he could keep up. Yesterday I took the kids shopping so Claire could pick out a present for Matt and Evan. (Evan is "giving" her a three-pack of princess shoes; one of her beloved purple "heels" shattered when an adult accidentally stepped on it.) She chose a little monster truck for Evan.

She really wanted to give Matt an airplane placemat like the one Dad made for her, but it's one of a kind (a large laminated Delta ad that he amazingly had saved from an elementary school field trip to the airport, I believe). Then she decided a flower was just the thing for Matt -- a blue one.

So I took her to Michael's, figuring she could choose from the rows and rows of artificial flowers. She was meandering, pointing at first one flower then another, then we turned a corner and BAM -- the biggest fake bright-blue flower I've ever seen. The stem must be four feet tall and the petal part's as big as a dinner plate. It was the one she had to have. Naturally, it was not $1 like all the normal-size flowers; it was $15.

I got in line and told to the cashier that I had left my 50 percent off coupon at home because I was expecting to spend about $1. I pointed to Claire, proudly holding this shockingly blue flower that was taller than she is, and explained this was her Christmas gift to her dad. The cashier graciously agreed to give me the discount even without my coupon. Thank goodness for kind strangers. (They pop up everywhere when you have two toddlers in tow, by the way.)

This morning Mom and Dad kept the kids for a few hours while Matt and I made great progress picking out house stuff: tile, plumbing fixtures, exterior and most interior paint colors, and some lighting fixtures. The paint is the only part that stresses me out. So many choices! And it's impossible (for me) to look at a paint swatch and know what it will look like on a wall. The one thing I know is I want more color in this house. I am sick of having five shades of beige. If I pick the wrong colors ... we can always go back to beige in the next house.

I'm going to stop here. Christmas starts in an hour for us -- with Ron and co. tonight, then Mimi's tomorrow, then Terry and Dan's Saturday, then Granny and Granddaddy's Sunday. Merry Christmas!

P.S. Amanda's Angel Tree project is finished and was a HUGE success. Read all about it here, and thank you again to everyone who helped! And a great big shout-out to Amanda, who spent untold hours in the past month or so coordinating a million details, shopping, driving all over the county (and beyond) for pick-ups and deliveries, wrapping countless presents, and doing everything else that had to be done to make sure every person on that tree -- 147 of them! -- will have something to unwrap and make them smile on Christmas morning. She shrugs it off like it was no big deal, but IT WAS A BIG DEAL. You are incredible, Amanda!

Oh, well

So much for November NaBloPoMo. Blogging didn't even cross my mind yesterday -- pretty surprising after 33 straight days of it. So much for "21 days to make a habit," etc. I never win participation prizes anyway, so no big deal.

We finally officially celebrated Caleb's birth with a small get-together last night. Evan and even Brooke and Johnathan's Anna Rae, 4 months, hardly looked like babies compared with him, while Claire and Riley might as well have been full-grown. At one point I peeked in on them curled up in a recliner in front of the TV, shooing away Evan, ignoring the adults and sharing a bag of chips, and I got a glimpse of what our life may look like in 10 or 15 years.

I also took a picture of our new house, slowly but surely taking shape next door.

TGIF

The college crew is coming to town tomorrow! Can't wait. A nice bonus: a clean house. I feel like I'm cleaning all the time but it's rare that everything is clean at once. Right now, it is.

Half the people who are coming tomorrow will read this in two or three days and think, "Clean?" Because it won't be by the time they get here. Fortunately, they're all in the same boat (with young kids), so they get it, and anyway, they're not judgey. But at this moment everything is unsticky and uncluttered and the air is full of fragrant chemicals. Aaah.

A few days ago I mentioned that one downside of living in an older house is that you're living with "layers of other people's filth." But I actually think that can be an advantage if you're only moderately concerned about immaculate housekeeping, as I am. In a new home, all scratches in the wood floors,stains in the carpet and stubborn patches of mildewed shower-tile grout are definitely your fault. That's a lot of responsibility and a lot of potential for guilt.

In a previously occupied home, you can always choose to believe someone else caused every imperfection. And the cleanliness standard is lower. All the scrubbing in the world isn't going to make this house sparkle, so I don't have to break my back trying. There's something to be said for that.

P.S. Fridays have been extra-special lately because we've been spending them with Riley! Check out these cuties.

Rethinking

I am in major procrastination mode. I have an article due at the end of this week. Once I get started it will be fine, but I have a hard time starting. I planned to sit down and knock out a chunk of it this afternoon while Mom and Dad had the kids, but instead Matt and I went to Aberdeen and spent two hours overanalyzing and second-guessing the layout of our new house.

We pored over those plans for two months, but once we saw the living room framed, we agreed it needed to be totally changed. The good news is that the new layout means the only spot for a TV is over the fireplace -- good because that means a new, smaller flat-screen TV.

Neither of us loves the idea of a TV hanging from the wall, but it really is the most unobtrusive option with the revised layout. We should be able to recess the TV into the wall and build some sort of cabinet that we can close over it when it's not in use. And we can hide the components behind cabinets in a nook between the living room, dining room and kitchen that will also house either built-in bookshelves or a dry bar.

I could make this a much longer post -- I am so excited about our new house, lot, neighborhood and next-door neighbors -- but I seriously need to get cracking on this article.

It's a new post!

The weeks continue to fly by without new blog posts here. Back when I had so much free time that I read not only friends' blogs but random strangers' blogs, I used to hate seeing the same old post at the top of those blogs day after day. (Google Reader solved that first-world frustration for me several years ago.) Once again, I'm sorry for being THAT blogger. While I was gone:

Granny had a knee replaced. She's still in the midst of painful first-week therapy, and it's no fun living in a rehab center for that, but she's a champ. With luck, she'll be home in a few days, and her doctor predicts she'll be back for the second knee in four or five months. The current one is a hot topic in Claire's prayers lately. We love you, Granny! And major props to Mom, by the way, who rises to occasions like this to selflessly display her unmatched caregiving skills.

Our house is being framed! Or, maybe that will start tomorrow, actually. Anyway, progress is being made. I spent some time this morning searching for a stained glass window to use instead of glass blocks in the master bathroom. Unfortunately, most of the old ones are small, most of the new ones are ugly, and most of the beautiful large old ones are, like, five times our budget. And we're trying really hard to be cost-conscious on this house. Something about building a house makes it seem like $12,000 is pretty much the same as $15,000, which I guess on a large scale and in a 30-year mortgage it kind of almost is, but I keep reminding myself that that $3,000 difference is real money.

Speaking of stained glass, remember these windows, from Matt's dad? They'll be prominently displayed in our new house -- one in the powder room, and one at the stair landing. I still love love love them and can't wait to see them every day.

The kids are both still loving school. Claire learned a new favorite song, "There's No One Like Me," which she unfortunately and hilariously belted out as "No One Likes Me" for a few days. Evan's rocking the schoolhouse too. One of the teachers told Matt that one of Evan's teachers told her (did you follow that?), "If Evan ever goes missing, don't come looking for him at my house." He's pretty irresistable, if I do say so myself.

We have never used a night light for Claire, but it occurred to us that she'll need one to see her way to the bathroom when she moves from her crib to a bed in the new house. Right now she's still sleeping in a diaper at night, even though she's been potty-trained for a few months, because I have no desire to be summoned for a bathroom break in the middle of the night if she wakes up and needs to go.

Anyway, so last night was Night 1 with a night light. FAIL. She woke up at 3:30 a.m., which absolutely never happens. I went to check out the situation and the night light was way too bright. She thought it was morning. I turned off the night light, pulled back the curtains to show pitch-blackness and held her for a minute, and then we all slept until we were rushed to make it to school on time.

I've been using some of my freed-up mornings to write for Demand Studios and I won't say I love it, but there are definitely some perks. The most notable benefit is that there's unlimited work to be done if you're inclined to do it.

It's not stimulating writing, and it's not work you'll ever include on your resume or showcase in your portfolio, but it's pretty easy money if you are smart about the articles you pick. "Adverse Effects of Potato Chips," yes. "Benefits of Saturated Fats," no. You don't have to be a stellar writer, just able to write coherently and accurately, so check it out if you'd like to earn some extra cash. And no, I did not get paid for that plug. Too bad.

A win-win for Matt and Jenn

After languishing unwanted on the market for more than a year, our house is suddenly a hot commodity. Over the weekend another family made a very good offer, so after another round of Saturday-night negotiations, we have a backup contract in place.

Then, yesterday, yet another agent called saying her buyers wanted to make an offer. Rather than being third in line for our house, they decided to move forward with their second choice. Sometimes all you can do is shake your head at the real estate game.

Our backup contract is void if our primary contract closes, as we expect it to, but it immediately goes into effect if our primary contract is terminated for some reason. The backup would close on July 1, so either way, the dates are perfect for moving into our rental house. It's a nice dose of extra security for us. Best of all, it looks like the backup buyers might want us to build them this house on another lot if they don't move into primary position.

When we move, we're going to experiment with canceling cable. We talk about this all the time but there always seems to be some (usually sports-related) reason not to bite the bullet quite yet. I think it's going to be easy. Matt isn't so sure.

He watches DVR'd TV while he runs, and he definitely gets our money's worth out of ESPN. But the number of shows I watch has dwindled to four, all on network TV: "Modern Family," "Parks and Recreation," "30 Rock" and "The Office." I literally never turn the TV on during the day and I don't like reruns. I really don't think I'll miss it.

Wireless Internet is another story. That, we're keeping (so I can blog while Matt watches TV, apparently).

Book club meets again tomorrow night -- yay! This month's book is "The Help," which coincidentally I had read right before the last meeting. I liked it a lot but I bet it would have been better if it were 100 pages shorter. Parts of it definitely felt a little debut-novelish. Although, let's be honest, if I wrote a debut novel and it turned out half as good, I'd be overjoyed.

Choppy post, sorry. Can I blame it on being distracted by the TV?

We will walk to the park!

Around here it is HARD to find a reasonably priced rental house in good condition and in a good neighborhood. It's even harder to find a landlord who will accept less than a 1-year lease. We have to be out of our house in three weeks, so I knew our options were going to be limited for renting while we build in Aberdeen.

I checked the MLS, the newspaper and a few other sites for rental listings but nothing jumped out at me. Then I decided to start calling owners of vacant homes for sale to see who would consider renting instead. Friday afternoon I looked at about 10 of these in Southern Pines and Pinehurst.

It's funny how my priorities in a house have changed since Claire and Evan joined us. Having a fenced-in back yard is a huge perk that I would have considered a negative a couple of years ago -- I don't like the way fences look, but they sure are handy in keeping Claire in our yard. A split-bedroom plan is another big bonus -- I always preferred it for resale, but now I prefer it so whichever baby wakes up first won't wake up the other one.

Of all the houses I looked at Friday only one was a possibility. It had been on the market for a year so I was optimistic that the seller might be willing to let us rent. I called the listing agent, who told me it was an estate situation and the heir has no interest in renting, just wants to sell and be done with it.

But, the listing agent happens to own a house in that same neighborhood that she plans to renovate and move into once her own home sells. For the past year she's been renting it out six months at a time. And just that day, her current tenants had given their 30-day notice. Which means they'll be out four days before our home closes.

We met her this morning to walk through it and IT IS PERFECT. I don't have any pictures but believe me, I will. It's a late-1950s Cape Cod-style cottage in great condition with all the important updates and ALL of the character you could ask for. Plus a fenced-in back yard and a split-bedroom layout. The price is exactly what we were looking for -- even though it could easily go for more.

It even has a wooden swingset/clubhouse/sandbox that she said we can take with us when we move to Aberdeen. It's weathered and worn, but with a little work is going to be great -- especially for free.

I forgot to mention that this house is in a neighborhood Matt and I have dreamed of living in (Knollwood Heights, for you locals), but we could never afford most of the houses there. It is absolutely gorgeous and ridiculously convenient -- two minutes to church, a small park and the trails I used to run with Katie C.; five minutes to downtown Southern Pines and Matt's office; less than 10 minutes to the fitness center (which I joined today).

This may be the first house I get emotionally attached to. Actually, I think I already am.

We will walk to the library!

On Saturday the four of us plus Amanda, Bri and Hunter took a day trip to Charlotte to visit the wonderful Armenta family. It was so much fun to all get together! Ruthie, Bri and Claire are all within about six months of each other, and Wright, Hunter and Evan are within about four months.

The boys are too young to play together but the girls had a blast. Claire's only issue was figuring out which of Ruthie's toys to play with next (usually she settled for whichever one Ruthie was currently playing with). The weather was perfect and it was so good to spend a relaxed day with some of our favorites -- it had been way too long.

While we were in Charlotte an agent called wanting to show our house. My phone was in the car so I missed her call but Matt had a message from her. By the time he called her back she had called every Kirby in the phone book. She said she had clients who were basically desperate to get into our house. They had already walked all around the yard but hadn't gone inside because they couldn't get in touch with us.

The house was NOT in showing condition so Matt asked if they could come back the next day. But they really wanted to see it that day. We agreed, but explained we had rushed out the door that morning, had two kids under 2, etc., and asked them not to judge. (When we got home we were relieved to find it wasn't a total wreck -- the bed was made, all toilets were flushed, only one pair of underwear was in plain view -- it could have been a lot worse.)

On our way home from Charlotte the agent called and she and the buyers were still at the house and had some questions. A few minutes later she called back and said they were writing an offer. YES! It was a good offer that became very good with negotiations and by 11:30 that night we were under contract!

The buyers extended their trip by a couple of days so they could be here for the home inspection, which was done Monday morning. As always, anything could happen, but I'm feeling good about it. The due diligence period ends June 10 and at that point it will be pretty much a sure thing. We're supposed to close on June 24.

Considering how many times I have second-guessed whether we should even keep our house on the market (Matt is a very patient man), now that it's under contract, I am awfully excited. I do love to live in different houses and neighborhoods and I am SO excited to build in downtown Aberdeen! We'll probably rent while we build and with a little luck we should be in the new house by Christmas. Claire is not going to know what to do with herself when she realizes that our new house and Riley's new house are side by side.

Since our Aberdeen houses are in the historic district they are basically required to be super cute and cottage-y. I cannot tell you how many times I've dragged Matt through downtown Southern Pines houses and begged him to buy them. I have succeeded only once:

But these awesome old houses are exactly the look we're going for in Aberdeen, so today he told me to drive around Southern Pines and take pictures of some of my favorites to work off of in the design of our new house. Holler!

I got a little awesome-old-house giddy and took quite a few pictures. I won't post them all, but here are two homes that are near to my heart.

The very first "one that got away":

And the most recent one:

I'm also making a wish list for the inside -- stained glass, old doors, beadboard, hardwoods, built-ins and more built-ins ... ahh. It's fun to dream!

Floolooops

Here's one thing to like about Duke basketball: A late game makes Matt stay up late, which means I stay up late and get to blog. The house could stand some straightening up and wiping down, but I already did that once today and don't really feel like repeating it right now. These real estate agents really keep you on your toes, cleaning-wise -- I've been surprised how many calls I've gotten asking to show our house in an hour (or 15 minutes, or "I'm sitting in your driveway ...").

Speaking of which, we relisted today, dropping the price about 10 percent from what it was originally. I've gone through most of the stages of Non-Selling Home, from surprise to indignation to frustration to embarrassment: A Realtor who can't sell her own house feels uncomfortably comparable to an overweight personal trainer, in a "Why would anyone hire her?" way.

Now I'm mainly just intrigued by the situation. We get plenty of showings and glowing feedback, and if anything are underpriced. I feel like either we have a huge blind spot that no one is willing to point out to us, or we just aren't meant to move right now.

Evan woke up to eat while I was writing this (surprise!) and now the game's over so although I have blog build-up in my brain I'm going to stop here. Claire has MMO tomorrow so if the stars align and Evan cooperates and I once again can overlook the disarray surrounding me, maybe I'll write some more in the morning.

Almost caught up

Matt and I rarely set an alarm these days, since Claire is reliably up by 7:30 a.m. (and if she isn't, so much the better). But yesterday we set it to go off early because the clearing guys were coming to start work on our back yard and we decided it would be embarrassing if they showed up while we were still in bed. And today I had to get up early to interview an early riser for an article. The last thing I did last night was interview a night owl for the same article. I'm not complaining, though -- at least Claire wasn't babbling in the background either time.

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I started this post a few days ago in what seems like the only spare five minutes I've had in all week. I think I'm finally about to catch up and be able to breathe -- just in time for Claire's first birthday tomorrow and a beach week starting on Saturday. Special thanks to Ron, just back from the islands and reporting for babysitting duty, and Mom and Dad for giving me two solid afternoons without Claire this week. If it weren't for them, I would be operating on even less sleep.

We now have a back yard and it is awesome! Monday we cleared about a third of the trees, keeping a nice buffer for shade and privacy along the back of the lot while making room for some grassy open space closer to the house. Tuesday the sprinkler guys came, and today Matt, Jacob, Stephen and Jax's brother Winston laid nine pallets of sod by lunchtime. Quite impressive, especially for free labor. I love the new look!

On one hand I'm still glad we didn't have to water and maintain that much more grass the last couple of years, but on the other hand it now seems obvious that this is the back yard we should have put in in the first place. I hope it helps our house sell (that's the main reason we're doing it now), but until then we're going to enjoy it.

Matt and I are going to go catch up on some of that missing sleep now, but really quick, check out this exhausted, adorable baby. We spent Tuesday morning at the marina with Amanda and Bri and Grace and her girls and her Nana. Claire loved every minute but conked out on the way home.