Our new place

We are in love with our new place. It is small, cute, homey, and cozy. The kids love the easy access to the front and back yard, and Lily seems to be in heaven. So far every day has been sunny, and we have views of the mountains and ocean from our deck (our deck that we can't walk on because it is unsafe...but still...)

We closed escrow on Feb 11 after 5 weeks of ups and downs, and moved in Feb 26. Not bad considering we had to tent for a week, paint the whole place, pack up our entire place (ok, not everything but most things).

A big thanks goes out to Adam's parents for dedicating two full weekends to painting and moving. And another big thanks goes to my parents for making us dinners, and watching the kids while I worked and Adam and his parents painted. It really did take a village for us to buy and move into this home, and we will be forever grateful for our village.

Originally I was a wee bit concerned about moving my stomping grounds all the way to Montara. I have spent the past 4 plus years walking around downtown hmb, at Ocean View park, biking along the bluffs, walking to the beach....exploring an entirely new place seemed just a bit daunting. But it only took a few mornings in this beautiful neighborhood for me to realize we hit a goldmine.

Yesterday morning while waiting for our friends to arrive we took a walk down the street to meet some of our furry neighbors. Two cute goats were there to greet us and the kids were so excited. Right by the school is a llama farm that we are going to be visiting today. We also have Montara mountain in our backyard, and Montara beach. I am excited that we have so many new places to explore.

With something unbelievable great comes the fear of loss. I keep feeling like this is too good to be true. Like something terrible might be right around the corner. I am trying to live in the moment and just appreciate how wonderful life is in this moment. I feel in awe of Adam and how hard he is working both at work and with this house to make things comfortable for us. I watch him act so lovingly with the kids as the stress of moving and a changed routine takes it's toll.

There will be definite adjustments. I work in HMB and PES, preschool, swim class, and tennis classes are all in HMB making the day more chopped up by driving than I like. We forced Kate to drop her nap a few months ago for many reasons, but now loading her up in the car for a 15 minute drive at 2:30 is just asking her to take a car nap. Yesterday I was driving while turning around and tickling her and rolling down all the windows just she wouldn't fall asleep. Cuz napping at 3 is not allowed in this family.

Here is our house. We haven't put up any pictures and there has been no decorating yet. But we are simply people so I can't promise much for than this for a while. We LOVE having a fire place, it is gas and very efficient and heads up the main room very nicely.

I spend a lot of time cooking and baking in the kitchen and I love the look and feel of this kitchen. I realized quickly when unpacking that we don't have very much...but I will add on with time. Oh and my fridge and freezer are those two bigger drawers. We have another fridge in garage but I love having a smaller space in the kitchen. I am hoping it will help with my new food budget.

The bathrooms are very small, cold, but cute.

We finally went for bunkbeds and we all love them. Julia and my parents treated my kids to beautiful pottery barn sheets/quilts as a house-warming gift. So far the first two nights went very smoothly. Both kids climbed into their beds and were asleep very shortly after. Adam and I waiting quietly on the couch. The first night we overheard: Kate are you awake? Yes, are you? Yes. Good night, Kate. Good night, Charlie. And then they both fell asleep. We were amazed , especially since it was only 7:15.

It has taken a few days but the kids are finally playing with their toys and together again. And as I blog they discovered that "couch play" can continue at this new house.

We asked the kids if they each wanted their own rooms or if they wanted to share two rooms, a sleeping room and playroom. We were proud when the both chose to have a playroom and sleeping room. They love "cooking" and playing babies together so we creating a corner for that kind of play.

We moved the nursing chair into the playroom because we didn't have room in the living room. But I like to think I will spend many mornings holding and nursing a newborn while my kids play around me.

There is a lot more work to be done, but for now we are very comfortable and very happy.