Autumn 2011

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year! I love the cooler weather, fall decorations, autumn smelling candles and sweet pumpkin treats. I got to decorate the new house for the fall and we were able to enjoy our first fire! 

 Avery liked the cooler weather too!

 Thankfully I was off this year for Thanksgiving. We spent the majority of the day at Josh's grandma's house enjoying fried turkey, meatballs and red gravy, broucalloni, 10 different types of casseroles and just as many desserts!

 Josh got the honor this year of carving the turkey. He turned it into a surgical operation, that is the Dr. in him :)

And of course Avery thoroughly enjoyed the holiday revolving around food. She filled up on all the goodies and was the entertainment for the evening.  After leaving their, we went to my mom's for round 2. It was a great holiday, and I know I have said it before, but we are so thankful to be back home where we are able to spend the holidays with our families.

Halloween 2011

We had a fun filled Halloween this year! Like I said in the previous blog, my crazy self decided to throw our 4th annual Halloween + housewarming party less than 2 weeks after we closed on the house. After cleaning, moving, putting away and organizing like a crazy woman we were ready to party!

Josh went as Sean Payton, after his knee injury! I was Jimmy Graham, the Saints player that hurt his knee, and Avery was our little cheerleader :)

Geaux Saints!

 We had a nice spread of chili, hot dogs, dips and desserts!

 Josh's parents, grandparents, my brother Josh and a bunch of our friends came to celebrate with us.

Russel Brand, Katie Perry and a deviled egg

 The kids enjoyed the playroom (yay!) and we had a great night.

Halloween night we went over to Chip and Tanya's for trick or treating. They live in a great, very family friendly neighborhood. I made her costume this year. She is obsessed with Elmo, and I couldn't find a costume that I loved. So I made her tutu and ironed on an Elmo applique on her shirt.

Trick or Treat!

Filling up before a fun filled night.

 The Curtis kids took her under their wings to show her the trick or treating ropes :)

 Josh got off of work in time to share in the fun.

 It took Avery about 2 houses to figure out the swing of things. After that she went running up the driveways with her little tutu swishing around her, said trick or treat and thanked everyone for her goodies.

Mimi and Papa also came up to share in the fun. It was so much fun! We love watching her grow up and change from year to year. I am sure next year she will be up on the hay ride with the big kids and she'll probably want to pick our her own costume :(

Home Sweet Home!!!

I have been majorly slacking on this Blog! We have been crazy since the middle of October and most of it surrounded around our home buying adventure. When we moved out to Mandeville, we decided to rent for a little while so we could learn the area. Our contract was up in May, but Josh wasn't ready to start looking until he confirmed with his boss that he would be staying in the Mandeville/Covington area. They had that important meeting at the end of August so I was able to start looking. I knew I wanted a BIGGER house. We had moved 4 times in 5 years and I wanted to stay put even if we have another baby or two. So I was searching for 4 bedrooms. I also wanted a bonus/playroom, I wanted a good neighborhood, and I had to keep it within budget. Not an easy task! We were working with Josh's cousin's husband Dave. He was a God send! I could email, text and call him whenever and he would take care of us and set things up. Dave and I looked at 3 houses, and I wasn't completely happy with any of them. Sunday September 11th I got one of those generated emails with a house that had JUST come on the market. I emailed Dave that night and said "I want this house!" For some reason as soon as I saw it online I knew it was ours :) Dave was able to set up a walk through for Monday evening when Josh got off work. When we got done touring the home, Josh was ready to put in an offer! We submitted our offer Tuesday morning and were under contract by Wednesday! Fast forward to October 18th, after 10,000 phone calls and meetings with loan officers, inspectors, insurance agents, underwriters and title companies and we closed on our forever home! I got the crazy idea to throw a housewarming/Halloween party less than 2 weeks after we closed on the house. So I got in and got busy! Here is a little walk through of our humble abode :)

Foyer walking in the front door.

Dining room: before

Dining room: after

Kitchen

Breakfast nook: before

Breakfast nook: after

Laundry room

Living room: before

Living room after

Master bedroom: before

Master bedroom: after

Master bath

Guest room

Avery's room

Guest bathroom

Office

Patio

Playroom

The playroom is GREAT! It is a converted two-car garage. So Avery has tons of space! It is off of the kitchen, so she can play in there while I am cooking dinner or cleaning up. There is also a 1 car garage and workshop area off of the playroom. AND a guest apartment/loft off of that. We have so many options for this house! We still have a lot of work to do outside, and little fixing up we want to do on the inside. But I am so in love with our house! Like I said we are here to stay, so we are meeting our neighbors and getting settled in.

Happy Fall 2011!

 It's that time of year again! Time for pumpkin patches, cooler weather (hopefully!), jack-o-lanterns, bonfires, sweaters and FALL! We decided to head out to Hammond to Mrs. Heather's Pumpkin Patch this past Saturday to pick out our pumpkin for the season. Avery was too cute! Here she is before we left.

 Finally enough hair for piggy tails!

 This was our first time going to this particular pumpkin patch, and it was really nice. There were A LOT of spots set up for photo ops. Unfortunately Avery was NOT feeling the Momarrazi :)

 She did enjoy swinging in the big girl swing.

 And playing with the duckies and the water pump with daddy,

 So sweet :)

 There was a little petting zoo set up as well.

 Avery was so excited to see the "horseys" that go NEIGH!

 A real horsey :)

 Very interested in what this little piggy was eating

 Then it was time to pick our pumpkins. There were soooo many to choose from.

 This one looks good!

 Almost got it

 There we go!

 Mom, this is heavy!

 We stopped to rest under a little tent and Avery thought it would be fun to play peek a boo. She was hiding so well behind that big old pole, we couldn't even see her!

 There she is!

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch!