Halloween and Houses!

OMG!! Life is crazy busy, and I'm SO sorry for not posting something sooner!!! We have had a VERY busy month! I know I said I was gonna write an Ava update- but things just got too busy! So, to catch you up to speed... we bought a house(!!), we went to Burt's Pumpkin Patch, we carved pumpkins at Michee and Pop's house, we Trick-or-Treated in our new neighborhood, Ava is still a super great girl but sometimes really makes me want to pull my hair out (I'm talkin' bald, people!), Bella is smiling and cooing, sleeping through the night(!!!!!) for the past few nights, and otherwise doing wonderfully (although, she's still my "cry-baby" and totally wants to be held all the time...facing out....while you walk...just a few specifics). :)

I will have to go into more details about all of these things another time- but I wanted to share some Halloween and house pictures for now. We moved in to our new house 5 days before Halloween. We had a great time trick-or-treating and have already met many of the neighbors (all of whom have been so friendly and welcoming)! We actually went around with a pretty big group- a total of 4 families. One of the dad's pulled a little red wagon that provided extra room for the kids to put their candy when it got too heavy and, naturally, a place for a cooler so the dads could enjoy a beverage....or several. :) It really was great. We made it to all the houses in the neighborhood (a big change from last year when Ava visited 4 houses and then wanted to go home so she could eat her candy!) and had a great time!

Here are a few pics from Halloween!

This was my favorite Halloween outfit that Ava had- so I HAD to find it for Bella, too! Bella's not quite as big as Ava was at this point, but it's close. :)

Here are my sweet girls just before Trick-or-Treating! Ava thinks this is great, but Bella seems less than thrilled. :) (For those of you who are freaking out about the fact that Ava is holding Bella (Ashley), I was just out of sight of the camera. It was only a matter of seconds that Ava had her)!!! None of the cute Halloween things fit Bella, so I was a little lame and didn't really get her a costume. Next year, though!
Sweet Ava. She dressed up as Tinkerbell!
The fam at the new digs. This was the best family pic we could get!
Ava waiting for her neighbor friend to come trick-or-treat with her!
Waiting for candy....

For the first 7 or 8 houses, she RAN from one to the next!But, by the end of the night, she had my sweatshirt on and was hitching a ride with the beer!
She was so proud of all her candy! She ate 2 and a half pieces and said she was full and ready for bed. Gotta love her. :)

Okay, so to make a VERY long story short, we closed on our house on October 26th! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!! I have been WAITING for this day for what seems like forever! We started looking at this neighborhood about a year ago and started serious negotiations with the builder in May. And, now, here we are! Here's the transformation!

Beginning of July:
End of July:
Beginning of August:

End of August:
September:Finally done in October!!
Here's some inside pics just before we moved in...this is the family room (what I call the living room).

The kitchen...More kitchen!
The formal dining room and across the hall is the formal living room...
The master bathroom...
One of my favorite parts of the entire house...the master closet!! (I've been scared by 2 closets for an entire HOUSE for the past year and a half...so this is Heaven)!
The backyard...

So, there's a quick update of what's been going on. Since we've moved in, I have been running around like a crazy lady doing all that new house stuff! It's super fun, but also very exhausting. But I'm so happy to be in our own space with our own stuff- I'll take the exhaustion any day!

A special thanks to my parents who, for the last year and a half, have let me and my family invade their lake house and make it our temporary home. Although it's nice to finally be in our own space, the lake wasn't so bad. ;)

I've got some great pics of Ava and Bella on my camera, so I'll try to get those up soon....ish. ;) I'll also have an Ava update...and a Bella one too...as soon as I can.

Lastly, good luck to Patrick this week! He's got finals! He doesn't need luck since he's a total smarty pants, but a little luck never hurt!

Here's two more pics- just for fun. :)

Bella-boo looking funny at 14 weeks... (she's 16 weeks now....can you believe it?!?!) A-bay getting ready to carve pumpkins at Michee's...
That's all for now!!! I promise to update sooner than last time!! Thanks for reading!