Happy Birthday!

Every year it is tradition for all Marines to attend a Birthday Ball to celebrate the birthday of the Marine Corps. This year because of our move we had to miss out on the ball and all of its fun that it entails. Since we missed the ball we decided we should at least celebrate the birthday by having some cake at home. Part of the ceremony at the ball is the cutting of the cake. The youngest Marine in attendance gets a slice and so does the oldest Marine. This is all ceremonial and then after the ceremony and after the guest speaker all in attendance get some cake. At our cake cutting ceremony Lane got to be the oldest and the youngest!

Happy 236th Birthday USMC!

Who's chubby little finger is reaching for the "cookie?"

She's so excited that it's someone birthday so we can get cake!

Blowing out the "canles."

Yay!

She reached right up and took a cookie off the cake!

Homeownership

As of November 4 we officially became homeowners! We closed on our house and wasted no time getting things together to start painting before our furniture got here on the 6th. We knew it would be easier to paint without having to work around boxes and furniture, so we have made about 1,000,000 trips to Home Depot to find swatches, get samples, get more samples, get tape, get more tape, and get more tape in order to paint the house. We finished the living room in on Saturday and we were able to half way paint the laundry room so the washer and dryer could go in and we don't have to paint around them {or move them out of the way.} We have primed the kitchen and we've started painting it. After that we have the upstairs hall and we still have to finish the laundry room...oh yeah, and start the half bath downstairs. They won't be too bad, but we have boxes to unpack and organize now too. I'll post the after pictures when I have some, but until then, here are some before and in between pictures of the house.

Patio off to the left of the front porch. The tree by the fence is a lime tree.

The mandarin orange tree, lime tree, and lemon tree.

Hot tub

Grapefruit tree in the back, far corner of the back yard.

Living room from the front door.

Living room. The tile starts the kitchen.

Kitchen from the view of the fireplace. The door on the right is a "coat closet" that we turned into a toy room.

Living room looking back to the front door.

Eden's toy room.

Top of the stairs. Eden's room is to the right of the pole and Baby Boy's room is behind the pole.

Eden's room.

Baby Boy's room.

Master from the top of the stairs {bathroom is behind me}

Master Bedroom.

Master bathroom.

Picking paint colors.

Painting with a curious toddler means you only paint the top of the walls while she's awake.

Action shot.

Living room painted.

Kitchen is semi-primed.

Furniture delivered, put together, but not put in place yet! Our house was total chaos.

The dogs are loving the sun spot in the kitchen.

The Journey

October 31 - Our car was towed behind our SUV, so it was packed completely full of stuff.

October 31 - Happy Halloween! Ready to get on the road and go to her new house in California.

October 31 - Texas

November - Day 2 of travel and we're still in Texas.

November 1 - New Mexico

November 1 - Gas stop in New Mexico.

November 2 - Mommy and Daddy gave up on Eden staying in the  pack-n-play when she was awake from 10:20pm - 2am and then woke up again at 5:30. She slept like a rock when she was in the bed with us.

November 2 - Arizona, the cacti were awesome!

November 2 - First signs of San Diego! There's hope that the trip will have an end.

November 2 - These guys were 4-wheeling up the sand dunes.

November 2 - Long trip, tired baby.

November 2 - The summit!

November 2 - The 6% grade went on forever. The longest stretch was 13 miles. The poor SUV is going to need new brakes from the car being towed behind it and pushing it down the hills.