Getting Settled

We're slowwwwllllyyyyy getting settled into our new home. We love it here. The neighborhood is quiet but there's evidence of plenty of kiddoes nearby.
When we lived in NY, the house did not have central heat which meant we had to rely on space heaters. I felt like the girls were too little (and the heaters too dangerous) to be in a room alone with a space heater, so they bunked in with me. When we moved to Maricopa, I didn't like the locations of the bedrooms (the master was as far away from the other bedrooms as it could be and still be in the same house), and one did not have working electricity, so again the girls bunked in with me. Last night, the time came for them to spend the night in their own rooms.
I haven't decorated Allie's yet, I'm still trying to decide what to do with it. She nestled into her crib, grabbed her blankie that Grandma C made her and said "night night" and promptly went to sleep. (Whaaa my heart ached).
Victoria has long been asking for her own room and last night her wish was granted. I took her to Home Depot and let her pick out the paint she wanted. She chose regal purple, teal, and fuchsia. Needless to say its a brightly colored space. We also added silver glitter sparkles to the walls (not a lot, but enough to make it sparkley for a Princess.) She was so excited to go to bed she started asking before dinner if it was bedtime yet! At bedtime, she climbed between her new princess sheets and fell fast asleep. I spent entirely too long making sure she knew where my room was, where the bathroom was, the light switch, and that it was ok if she needed to crawl in bed with me, it was ok to be scared, it was ok if she wasn't ready yet. (Ok, I think by that point I was trying to reassure myself)
BOTH girls slept all night long, nearly 12 hours. You'd think I'd be well rested. Yeah, uhm, no. Once I stopped crying because my girls are getting so big, I made my first trip to their rooms to check on them. Surprisingly there is not a path worn in the carpet yet. Dave pointed out the neat path between the boxes though.
Victoria got up this morning and announced "I didn't get scared at all Mommy, and I didn't even miss you, I just slept all night long!" (thanks for the kick in the gut kid!)

Pictures coming as soon as we find the box with the camera in it!

Crocketts On The Move...

Here we go again...for the LAST time for a VERY long time. Meet our new home:

Dave took me to see the house he found for us. When I got there, instead of a real estate sign hanging from the arm was a GIANT red bow and a sign that read: To my beautiful wife for all you do for our family. Merry late Christmas!! I WAS STUNNED!!!!! I couldn't believe he BOUGHT a house all by himself!! Moving is definitely NOT going to seem like a chore!!!!


Built in computer desks. Not sure I like them, I'm a bit nervous about "Danger Prone Daphne" falling off and hitting the tile floor in the foyer.


I am totally crushing on the staircase though!!


And the answer to the million dollar question... It's in Casa Grande. Dave will be less than 10 miles from work. Ohhhh...and Mom? Dillards is a whopping 7 minutes down the road. (As is Michaels, Ross, Target, WalMart, Zumiez, HallMark, Best Buy, JC Penneys, Harkins... the list goes on and on!!!)

The Electric Light Parade in Casa Grande

It amazes me that we endured a winter in the frigid north of New York. We went to the Electric Light parade and temps only dropped into the 50's but you'd swear it was the 20's. The parade was a blast. There was almost 90 floats created by different organizations and business in the CG area. The company Dave works for made the "Abbott Express", their version of the Polar Express. We didn't end up with a picture of it though :( but it was adorable!

So it's been forever

I realized as I was reading some of my favorite bloggers that I hadn't been by my blog lately. I realized I was REALLY far behind when it loaded and there was still a Halloween background!

What have we been up to...

A very long overdue Thank You and blog update

By long overdue, I mean LONG, like perhaps 4 years or so. For my baby shower when I was pregnant with Victoria, Jenn made Victoria and I a beautiful baby blessing gown. I guess I never posted the pictures. Jenn, thank you for the gown. I LOVE having heritage pieces for my children to pass down to their children and beyond. I was also blessed by having both girls baptized in dresses made for them by their Aunt Jenn! Jenn, not a day goes by that I don't thank God for your love and support!

Victoria's (unofficial) 4th Birthday

We had a small party at home for Victoria to celebrate her 4th birthday. The big was is coming later in September when we can be outside a bit more comfortably. I made the cake, I wasn't happy with the way it came out. I think it would have been cuter if I had stuck with pink and purple but Victoria's favorite colors are green and yellow. (She's always been a John Deere girl!!)
I have no idea where she gets the awkward bent-over picture pose from but she seems to like it. Here's the birthday girl with her tiara on, apparently a must have for any birthday celebration!


A wish will come true!!!


Grandpa's turn at pin the tail on the donkey!


Daddy's turn


Victoria's turn!



The cake!

Headin' up the mountain...

We went to visit "white haired" Grandpa and Grandma in early August. The girls had so much fun spending time with their grandparents. They played on the swings and trampoline with grandpa and Victoria enjoyed baking and decorating cookies with Grandma.





Teeter Totter time!


Grandpa teaching Victoria how to pick corn. From the field right to the pot, made for a yummy dinner!


Relaxing with Daddy in the hammock!


Dave took Victoria fishing! They had no bait, but caught a couple of small fish and a whole lot of seaweed (pond weed???)


Allie was really sad that she couldn't head out on the water with big sister...






More jumping!!

1st Day of School!

Victoria started preschool at the big school this year. She goes three days a week, 3 hours a day AND rides the bus home. I wasn't sure I'd survive her riding the bus home, but she loves it and I'm learning not to panic. They had to wear uniforms for a few days but then the policy was changed because the parents were angry that the clothes were getting damaged by paint etc in class. Now they must be "clean and modest".

Allie's West Coast 1st Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Allie's birthday with our AZ family as well. Clarissa was sweet to host it at her house! Thanks Aunt "Crissa"!

The cake came out great! Everything is made from frosting!!


Miya the amazing!


Pool time!

Birthdays!

We had a combined Birthday/farewell party before we left NY. It was a bittersweet time, spent with my family. It was hard to say good bye. We had cake to celebrate Allie's birthday and the frosting fun was just too hard to resist.




Ashleigh started a frosting fight..

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