easy bake!

clairely baked in her easybake oven for the first time today! she made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting - it was easybake delicious! haha! here's her very first solo baking attempt.

new house

ok, here are a few pictures of our new house! please keep in mind, that i have only painted the kitchen, and the bathroom in our room, so i'm sorry for all the stark white walls! also, the blue playroom is hideous, until i can figure out what to do in there! the boys desperately need bigger bunkbeds, or two separate twin beds, and matching dressers, as well.
we love the living room with the fireplace, but furniture is tricky in there - we either need a small sectional in there, as well as a new desk, or a loveseat, and a chair. Right now, all we have is my faithful green loveseat that has been with us for 10 yrs! my big green couch wouldn't fit. the border in the dining room will be coming down next week, and we have an ugly little bathroom on the first floor that needs wallpaper torn out, and a new vanity and toilet. some things you just can't paint! haha. so here's a peek:

Happy Birthday, Cameron!

our sweet young man turned 9 on Nov. 29 - i can't believe he will be a double-digit next year! cameron has matured so much, this past year, we are so proud of him. We had to celebrate the week we were moving to PA, so we did our best to make his day special - grammy and grampy's box came the day of his birthday, and so did nani and poppi's special card!! how lucky!
we love this boy of ours.

a really big mouse

i bought 3 1/2 lbs of grapes this week, and when tim went to the fridge to put some in the kids' lunches this morning, we found this. we have a really big mouse ... named caloway.

your story

claire has been asking lately for stories about how tim and i met, nani and poppi, grammy and grampy, and oma and opa - i must admit, my versions are a little fuzzy! so, just to make this blog a little interactive - tell me YOUR story in a nutshell! i'd love to hear it, and share it with claire.

what a boy

here is the latest installment in cameron's christmas lists - i gotta say, the boy's creative! after the long list of desired items, he closes with such a sweet sentiment! oh, how we love this boy!

catch up

internet!! what a beautiful thing, when you've been without for almost 2 weeks! so, to catch up a little, i will try to highlight the big stuff, and maybe a little funny here and there:

• moved to cranberry township, pennsylvania! God blessed, and clairely was the only one who got sick, and we were able to move without any problems.
  
• absolutely love, LOVE our new house - but now we're stuck with some extra furniture that doesn't necessarily fit THIS house, and need new furniture to replace it. ugh. one thing at a time.
• absolutely LOVE our new church - they've been so gracious and welcoming, and have made us all feel right at home!
  
• had thanksgiving at my house for the first time in 5 years! why haven't i done this sooner? dan, erica and the ava bean came, and we had such a sweet time together. i told erica, this needs to be our new thanksgiving tradition - go finnan family/holman family! :)
  
• since we didn't have any cable or internet hooked up for a week and a half, all the kids have been able to do is watch dvds. so clairely has completely worn out barbie diamond castle! well, on thanksgiving, she was watching and singing with it for the 15th time, and cameron came running into the kitchen, and grabbed my arm: "mom! you HAVE to turn off barbie diamond castle! it is hypnotizing claire to sing, and she won't stop!" HA.HA.HA!!!! no, cameron - sadly, that's not the problem, and we can't get her to stop singing! that seems to be the new fight topic between those two lately.
• caloway loves to sit next to cameron while he plays his ds, and cameron is becoming increasingly frustrated with how close cal sits to him. he comes to me, saying, "mom, tell caloway he's too close! and his breath stinks!" oh brother. now there's a kid whose breath really does smell like chips!
  
• we love where we live -have i mentioned that yet? we're only about 5 min. from the church, but we're outside of town, in a private wooded area, and can sit out on our back porch and watch deer in our backyard all day. seriously. or from my sink out my new KITCHEN WINDOW! i can't tell you how excited i am to have a kitchen window again!! you never know how nice those are, until you don't have one for 6 yrs.
  
• on a strange side note, my washer and dryer have never worked better - they, too, are over 6 yrs old, and my dryer used to take forever to dry stuff. now, even a huge load of towels dries in one 70-min. cycle! that used to take at least 2 cycles to get them dry. weird, but i am enjoying the efficiency and how much quicker my laundry gets done! must've had something to do with the 12-foot dryer vent we had to use in OH??
  
• tim absolutely loves his new job - we are so excited to get back into student ministry, and tim is really enjoying the people he works with, and the opportunities that are awaiting us here - the church is growing like crazy, and it's just phenomenal to see such excitement and growth. we've never seen anything like it!
  
• our school situation is still simmering - we don't get the luxury of picking our elementary schools here - you simply go to the one in the area where you live. we toured it today, but it hasn't necessarily clicked with me yet. we toured a christian school that i absolutely loved yesterday, and were it not for the price tag, would put them in yesterday! so pray that we'll make the right decision by tomorrow. this is pretty stressful.
• cameron celebrated his 9th birthday on nov. 29! i am saving a post for that, because i have a few pictures to share, and i want to give him his due space here on the blog. hehe.

well, hopefully that kinda caught everyone up briefly, and i'll try to get some more pictures up of the house and stuff - but there's still so much left to do! more later ...