getting settled

about a week ago, we made the big move into our new place. 

we are so thrilled! 

this move was a long time coming and the anticipation of it was looming over our heads for too long. it's a huge thing to finally be checked off the to-do list! our new place still has lots of unpacking. i wish i could just act like the boxes in the garage didn't exist... sometimes i do! and of course there are 1 million things to do to feel settled into a new house but, surprisingly, none of it really bothers me because we are here! and we are just so happy to be in the place where we will bring this baby girl home.

last night, we ate sunday dinner outside. one of the big perks of this new house is that it has a back yard (!!!!!) 

{you should have seen carter when we took him looking for houses. the first time he saw a backyard he yelled "mom, dad, look! i'm inside... now i'm outside! i'm inside.. now im outside!" over and over while hopping back and forth. can we all just agree that backyards are game changers????}

after dinner, carter and daron sat in the lawn chairs while watching the sunset. our new house is about 5 minutes from the beach which is totally nuts. i've never lived so close to the coast before. the weather is incredible. i've lived in southern california most of my life but have never experienced weather this good. sometimes i think it's a joke or something. 

anyway, back to watching the sunset outside. i couldn't help but capture this moment. 

there is a lot about these pictures that cracks me up. 

like the lawn chairs... daron came home the first day in our house so happy about these. they happen to be in a neighbors yard with a sign saying, "free." daron called me way too excited them. however, i will admit they have already come in very handy.

carter is in his favorite pajamas which are his christmas pajamas... 

and yes... that is his jack-o-lantern from halloween with halloween candy inside on his lap. i had forgotten all about the thing but the little squirt found it during the move and now requests it every. single. day. 

we make him wait until after dinner and then let him pick one candy. daron keeps telling me to just throw it away but i can't! it makes him so happy! and i haven't minded having a little halloween around the house. 

^^ "dad! what's this?" alllll day long.

once he gets his jack-o-lantern, he goes through each piece of candy asking what it is.

i try and tell myself that at least he will be really knowledgeable about candy. 

knowing what almond joys, lemon heads, whoppers, starbursts all are is important, right?!  

later, i went inside to do the dishes and while daron and carter finished watching the sunset, i watched them. 

i couldn't get enough of this scene. 

a few other notable things since we moved in...

daron was making his merry way to the bathroom when he noticed a little visitor...

we may leave the back door open too much because this little guy was in our bathroom.

daron and i couldn't wait to show the little critter to carter so we excitedly woke him up from his nap to show him. 

carter was elated.

also, finding lots of spiders on our new, free lawn chairs.

"look dad! there he is!"

and helping dad to do a serious cleaning on them.

oh, we also took a trip to ikea on saturday to find a dresser and a zillion other things that we didn't buy because i can't make small decisions. they are the death of me. but we did get a dresser. and when daron bought the dresser, thanks to the price, he remembered why he loved ikea so much.

then, after he spent almost 4 hours putting it together, he remembered why he doesn't like ikea so much... 

yay for all things moving ;)