I love Melissa & Doug!

I have to say that I remember enjoying Melissa & Doug toys when I was little. They were great then, and nothing has changed. Colten already has several Melissa & Doug toys and puzzles in his arsenal. So, I was really excited to find out that they are having a contest through 12/2 to win their activity and one of my all-time favorites of their toys, a train set. Go on over and submit your entries. There are lots of chances to win an EXCELLENT toy for your kids!

http://blog.melissaanddoug.com/2010/11/20/giveaway-multi-activity-table-train-set-closes-12210/

So we moved and...

I really desperately wanted to post pictures of the new house and our getting settled in. Unfortunately, after leaving the rent house, I was without internet access for almost four weeks while the phone company had to lay over 900 feet of phone line to get to the house and then get it installed. We also spent a little over two weeks without TV of any kind. It was nice in a frontier style sort of way, but it was nice to get connected to the real world again.

We are definitely moved in although we still need to get a bed for the spare bedroom and a bigger table for the kitchen (for family nights and holidays and such). Unfortunately, we aren't officially settled into our mortgage. We had an appraiser who provided an estimated value that we (and the bank) thought was too low. We spent almost three weeks attempting to get a new appraisal. Everytime they would call out, somehow this same guy was getting our job although it is supposed to be random. Turns out that there is a database that you get loaded into and then appraisers self assign jobs as they need work. This guy kept pulling ours to...annoy us? upset us? mess with us? Who knows. We finally got a new appraiser who gave us a better value (although still not really what we thought or need), so we should finally close our mortgage the week after Thanksgiving.

Enough with the drama, here is what I know that you all came here to see. Enjoy pics of our new abode! Oh, and maybe one gratuitous one of Colten.



Our (almost) 2 year old boy


kitchen


living area


spare bath


office


spare bedroom


Colten's room


laundry room


looking down the hall from the master


master closet


master tub



master bathroom


master bedroom


from another angle