Two Weeks In

We have officially lived in Connecticut for two weeks.  In some ways it feels like it went fast, in others it feels like the two years has already passed.  Our two big "field trips" have been to the Timex Museum and the Aquarium.  Ethan loved both of them!

At the Timex Museum we learned all about the history of the watch company, Timex, and it the museum itself is in a building that actually used to be a watch factory.  I was surprised how much Ethan enjoyed it, but he really did!  He even made his own working clock.

Thursday we ventured to the aquarium in Norwalk.  It isn't nearly as big as the one we are used to in Baltimore, but it was still really fun and very hands-on.  Ethan was able to touch sting rays and even nurse sharks!

The house is really coming together and is almost done.  I am waiting for one more curtain to be delivered for the living room, looking for curtains for the family room and Owen's room, and have a couple more pictures to hang up.  I think we only have one more box that needs to be unpacked - which is full of Sean's clothes.  Aside from those things (and a couple others) all of our things are put away.  Sean is getting used to the riding lawn mower and tomorrow I'm going to tackle some pesky weeds while he mows.

Last Saturday we drove 2 hours to meet my dad, sister and her family, Aunt Debbie and my cousin Page, and some extended family in Tannersville, NY.  We had a mini-McGinnis family reunion and it was great seeing everyone!  Dad had taken Ethan and I there two years ago where we saw where our ancestors (who came from Ireland) were buried, the house my great-grandpa built, and where my grandpa is buried.  It was nice to pay our respects to them again while we were there.

On Tuesday, Dad drove to our house on his way back to Virginia.  He stayed the night and it was absolutely fantastic having him visit!!  (Ethan and I tried to convince him to just live here since he would have his own room...)  He is so funny and always knows how to make you feel better - which was exactly what I needed. Monday I had a case of severe homesickness, so having him over was perfect!

We met our neighbors last week, too - they have two boys - 6 and 2 - and Ethan and their boys get along great!  In fact, every day now Ethan asks me if we can see if they can come out and play.  It is so nice having great neighbors - makes a huge difference!

This weekend was lots of fun!  We checked out two parks that are nearby - one of them has  a pond full of tadpoles and frogs.  Ethan had so much fun catching (and letting go) frogs!  We hiked a little, too - it was a really pretty day and it was neat to see some of the historical sites that the park has (from the Revolutionary War).  We also went to another park that has two playgrounds and a pond, but the pond was more like a swamp.  We played on the playground and tossed the frisbee.

Pictures coming soon - promise!  Just need to find where Owen hid that cord...

We Are Officially Living in Connecticut!

That's right, folks - we made it!  Last week was a whirlwind of packers, movers, driving up to CT, scrubbing the house top to bottom before our things arrived, and then unpacking.  To top it off, Sean and I both woke up Friday morning with colds, but we plowed ahead and unpacked the moment the movers arrived at 8AM on Friday until 10PM.

It was really hard saying 'goodbye' to our home - we absolutely loved it and had many fun times within those walls - and it was so weird (and sad) seeing it completely empty.  The packers came Monday morning and so we stayed at the Lansdowne Resort Monday and Tuesday night.  Wednesday morning we left Virginia and made the drive up to Connecticut.  The kids were great - Owen slept nearly 3 hours of the ride, and Ethan watched two movies and slept a tiny bit.  We drove straight to the house, since I had never seen it  (aside from a couple of pictures online and some descriptions from Sean to help me try and envision the layout).

Now that every possible surface has been scrubbed and 'Clorox-ed' and we have our furniture (and are just about completely unpacked - just one or two more boxes left and hang pictures), it is starting to feel more like 'home.'  I absolutely love the layout - it is very open.  It even has 4 bedrooms!  That leaves one room just for visitors (HINT HINT!!)  When Baby is born, he will sleep in the sitting room (that's right, the master bedroom has its very own sitting room!) and then hopefully sleep in Owen's room.  In the meantime, the guest room will be basically empty, except for a dresser and [someday] a small table for my sewing machine.

Just like every house, though - it definitely has its quirks...  Huge linen closet but hardly any cabinet space in the master bathroom; gigantic master bathroom but tiny shower; washer and dryer across from each other and not next to each other (ok, not a big deal, but it is faster just to bend over and throw them in instead of taking handfuls of wet clothes and walking the three steps to the dryer), hideous wall paper in the kitchen and 3 of the 4 bedrooms; NO garbage disposal - I took that thing for granted way too much before!!  Oh, and Owen's bedroom is painted pink (shh... don't tell!)  - Hopefully we will get a chance to paint it a different color soon - with the approval of our landlord... Who, by the way, is super nice - even bought us a new fridge, washer, and dryer before we moved in!

Instead of buying dining room furniture to use only a handful of times, we decided to make the dining room a 'kids room' - complete with a fooseball table!  Ok, so not exactly what I envisioned for one of the first rooms guests will see, but I love it!  And hey, pretty much everyone who comes over will have kids, so they will understand and their kids will definitely enjoy it:)  Sean built a bookcase from IKEA for me that is perfect for holding all of Owen's toys (and hiding his diapers and misc. toys) - it is one of my favorite pieces of furniture, I think.

The yard is HUGE!  The front yard even has a white picket fence:)  In the front, there are huge trees that keep it nice and shady, and the backyard is very open - perfect for playing in the sprinkler, baseball, kickball, Bean Bag Toss - you name it!  There is a bush that butterflies seem to really enjoy - and Ethan loves to watch them and occasionally catch them.

We are also really close to shopping - 2 minutes down the street is "The Big Y" (grocery store), about 8 minutes away is Target (yay!), and about 15 minutes away is the mall.

Connecticut is very different than Northern Virginia.  I can't quite pinpoint how, but it totally is.  The pace of life seems a lot slower here.  Most of the roads are two lanes.  Houses are off of these two lane roads - very few are in neighborhoods.  There aren't many 'big name' stores (except, of course - at the mall) - most of them are small Mom-and-Pop type places.  People here are so nice - my first time at Target I ended up talking to the Cashier Supervisor for nearly 10 minutes, the cashier at McDonalds and I talked about how convenient it is that they have a list of items and their calories (and then proceeded to laugh together on how we still order what we want, even though the calorie count is through the roof!), when I was checking out of a store I had bottled water under the cart and was holding Owen - a lady in another line heard me ask the cashier if she could use her 'gun' to scan them and came over and took them out for me and the cashier (smiling and saying that she remembered when her kids were Owen's age).  Wow - it is so different than Virginia!

Now, don't get me wrong, I desperately miss my family and friends in Virginia.  It is so weird to look at my calendar and see blank spots on each and every day (OK, not every day - the missionaries are coming over on the 19th so that is on there...).  Every month for the past year I have had at least one thing each and every day - playdates, etc.  I really hope that I will meet some great fellow stay-at-home moms and that my calendar will fill up again.  I skyped with my parents for the first time last night.  Oh, how I ached to hug my mom and pat Dave on the back as I told him "Hey Old Man!"  I'm grateful for the technology so that I can at least see them, but it isn't the same as being with them.  Thankfully they are coming to visit for a couple of days in September, we are going down in October and then in December.

I will post pictures very soon - my camera battery died and I just unpacked the charger last night and keep forgetting to actually put the battery in the charger.

Our Lil' Fisherman!

Ethan is officially OBSESSED with fishing!  That is basically all he wants to do. All day.  Every day.  Last week I took him fishing but we didn't have real worms so the fish didn't even nibble.  Saturday we went as a family - that time with real worms.  Ethan caught at least five!  As soon as Sean would get a worm on a hook, Ethan would catch one!

This morning while Owen and I went to breakfast with Jill, Sean and Ethan went fishing again.  Check out the great pictures of one of his many catches of the day!

We Found a House!

That's right, we finally found a house in Connecticut!  It took a lot longer than we were anticipating but we are very excited with what we decided on.  We had narrowed it down to a 3 bedroom townhouse, or a single family home.  After lots and lots of prayers and thoughts (and yes, pros and cons charts!), we decided on the single family home - mostly because we were worried about having enough space in the townhouse - the one kid bedroom was incredibly tiny and we didn't think we would be able to fit two toddler beds (which in a couple of years we will have) and we wanted to give Ethan the other room since he is getting older and needs his own 'space.'

The house is absolutely beautiful!  Ok, well the people who lived in it before decorated with some pretty crazy wallpaper that we don't really care for, but we can live with it for two years:)  It has tons of space and a HUGE backyard!  I can already picture the boys (and Josie!) running around playing baseball, tag, catching lightning bugs, and just plain having fun.  There are 4 bedrooms, so the boys can each have their own room (although we may have Owen and the baby share a room once the baby is sleeping through the night, we'll see), and we can have an extra room for visitors HINT HINT!!! ;)

Although it has taken me awhile to get used to the idea of moving, I am actually looking forward to it in a way.  It will be fun to get to meet new people and explore a different part of the country.  Now don't get me wrong, I am going to miss my family and friends terribly, and our wonderful neighbors, but I didn't really think we would live here until Ethan graduated high school anyway, so we are just leaving a tad earlier than I thought when we bought the house.

Another Prince (or Princess) Will Be Joining Our Family!!

We are so excited to announce that we will be having another sweet baby join our family in December!  We were a bit surprised when we found out, but excited for another little one in the house.  This pregnancy has been very different than Ethan's and Owen's...  I had nausea and dizziness for the first trimester and wasn't sure if it was ever going to go away.  Also, while we were on our cruise I had a subchorionic hemorrhage (after a trip to the ER when we got back we found out that that is what it is) and have had a follow up ultrasound to see if the tear has gotten any smaller (it hasn't - so I will probably get another ultrasound in the next couple of weeks to check on it).  Thankfully, the little baby is OK and both times we have seen him/her, it has been dancing all around:)

My official due date is 12/12/12 - what a cool date!  I really hope that will be the baby's birthday but I doubt it.  Both Ethan and Owen were early, so this one probably will be, too - but who knows - this one has been totally different, so maybe it will continue the trend and not be early!  (Which I hope it will be early, so we can come back to VA and be with family during Christmas...)

I think this time it is a girl - only a couple more weeks until we will know for sure!  I have already started throwing name ideas out there, but Sean doesn't like 99% of them.  It is hard to think of a girl name that starts with a vowel and ends in an 'n'!  We may just have to stop with that little pattern that we have going...

Ethan is super excited, and Owen, well he doesn't quite understand yet, but he will soon enough:)

Trip to Connecticut

Last week we flew up to Connecticut in search of our home for the next two years.  Talk about a stressful whirlwind of a week!  We looked at over 10 houses and none of them felt like 'home' to us.  We did really like one, but the school wasn't that great so we decided not to proceed with it.  It was a little frustrating coming home without signing a lease (especially since the packers are coming in 2 weeks!) but it will all work out somehow:)

Aside from house searching, we found a really fun park in Ridgefield that the kids really enjoyed.  Our Realtor also suggested a Mexican restaurant that was a lot of fun - Ethan and Owen loved the guitar player who came to our table twice and sang to them.

I did take a couple of pictures and I will try and remember to post them later...

My Mothers Day Card... From Ethan

Ethan made me this Mothers Day card on Friday, before we left for vacation...

He knows that I love flowers, so I thought that it was really cute that he added pictures of them:)  Also, that I can take as many naps as I want?!  Awesome!

:::Best Mother's Day Card Yet:::