HO HO HO

We visited Santa Claus today (at Bass Pro... I will never go to the mall and pay $50 for a picture of santa and my kid again)  There were no lines.  And they have free games and rides for them afterwards.  And she loves Santa... unlike some cousins that we know... you two know who you are!  I have photographic proof of you torturing your children :)  We then had a Mommy and Daughter lunch at Bass Pro, too (bribing was involved to get her to eat her food). They sat us by the fish tank which was fun as well.

As for the giant tree, yes it is still standing!  I'll start the tour of our house as well here.  This is the room across from the front door (which is to my back).  When Christmas is over, it will be empty.  I assume it was supposed to be a small family room.  On the left wall is a space for a TV and a few shelves (one 12 inches off the ground, the next shelf 8 feet off the ground, and the final shelf 11 feet off the ground).  I think it would be neat to make a large floor to ceiling bookshelf in that space with a library ladder to reach the top. 

Next up - Tessa's playroom

There have been rumors of a giant Christmas tree making it's home at our house.  I'll let you decide if it is true or not.

Balance Bike

It's been 1 year since Tessa got her balance bike.  I would say she finally got the hang of it!

flooded

We didn't irrigate today, but our neighbor did... and I am not sure if this is going to be a regular occurrence, but no one was there watching it and it flooded the lower part of our front yard, but I'm not complaining... it's free water and it was FUN!

And if you're wondering, the farm is getting ready for harvest :)

Barry James, you are an Ironman

14:06:52

Congratulations Barry!

We didn't stay for his finish (damn babies) but we are thrilled that we caught him around mile 15.

We are in awe.

Beep beep

We don't have fencing around the entire property yet (just on the sides, between us and the neighbor's yards... and speaking of neighbors, I have a story for a different time).  We will get one put up, but it makes me a little sad since I have seen this guy in the back yard several times.  I chased him from window to window trying to get his picture (he would look at me each time and then take off again).  If birds could talk, I am sure he would have called me crazy camera lady.

So without further ado, crazy camera lady would like to introduce our roadrunner:

In other house happenings, Tessa's room has been painted.  Everything has been painted.  The ceiling in her room was an off white, as well as the trim and doors.  The walls where tan with a poop brown accent wall.  So the ceiling, trim, walls, doors and closet was painted.  Good news is it is done.  Bad news - the rest of the house has the same colors.  We have a lot of work ahead of us... finding a painter that is :)  I still need to pick out some white bedding for her room.  The wall hangings are cross-stitches my grandmas made.  My Grandma Ruth made the little girl holding the doll, and my Grandma Nonny made the bed with the little girl praying.  I had them re-frammed this summer to match her other artwork in her room.

We move in this weekend, which will be bittersweet.  It's hard to leave your first home.  And even harder when your parent's live next door.  I keep on reminding myself that it's only 7 miles away.  I could run 7 miles.  

Officially a farmer

We closed on the new house last week!  We plan on officially moving in a few weeks, but started the process yesterday, moving the little stuff over (I am happy to say we have an entire empty room at "old house").  And yesterday we officially became farmers to the 20+ orange trees on the property.  They get watered by flood irrigation, and our first time was yesterday - it was a success!  We have a valve at the front of the property that I turn on at a specific time and it runs down the size to the back.  The first picture is right after I opened it.  Our neighbors hadn't closed theirs yet, but in the second picture they did and you can see it was flowing!  Also, we had a huge, long dust storm yesterday right during our irrigation time.  

Dust storm + having to be outside for 1.5 hours = not so fun.

Watered trees make me happy though.  Thankfully when it was time to shut off the valve my Dad was there to help, because even with me standing on it, I couldn't get it to close all the way with the water pressure.  It was Tessa's nap time, so she didn't get to see it, but I think she will love it!