Olivia Ann

I decided last minute to add some updated photos of the girls to our family Christmas card. So I thought I would just snap a few of Livy since I didn't have any Christmas-card-worthy pictures of her yet. LOL It was an exercise in futility! Here are a few that I took that really captured her personality...

 ALWAYS busy and on the move!

 LOUD. So very loud!

 Big, Cheesy grin!

 But she looks so cute and innocent. If only!

 This is a Mary Ann face if I've ever seen one!

 Always has to have SOMETHING in her mouth!

 I don't know what to say about this one, except that she's adorable and completely hilarious sometimes!

Thanksgiving in Colonial Williamsburg

Thanksgiving was pretty quiet this year. We didn't have family or friends to visit or invite over for Thanksgiving dinner. So since it was just the three of us, I did not want to make a huge feast for 2 1/2 people. Taking Liv bug out to restaurants lately has been more than a challenge. So we had take IN!
I ordered the traditional Thanksgiving meal from Homemades by Suzanne. Excellent choice, the food was beyond incredible! Breaking away from what was my traditional Thanksgiving schedule growing up; we at Thanksgiving dinner later in the evening. That left us the whole day to do.....something lol!
We decided on Colonial Williamsburg. I love it, I have been there twice before and and Eric had never been before. It was surprisingly quite busy. And warm, something else we are not used to on Thanksgiving day!

 Me, in the stockades. According to Eric, 'finally paying for my crimes'. LOL

Eric and Livy in front of Americas oldest, still operating, store.

Eric & Livy in front of The Capitol building. Williamsburg was the capitol of the Virginia Colony until 1780 (https://www.williamsburgva.gov/Index.aspx?page=124). 

Virginia is rich with U.S. history and we can't wait to explore all it has to offer.

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Final Goodbye to Indiana

Being out here while the moving company packed up our house was bittersweet. It was nice to see friends and enjoy the beauty that Indiana has to offer, one last time. But it was so hard to say goodbye and leave such a beautiful place with so many memories and such good people.

Livy loved playing in the leaves and hearing them crunch underneath her little feet!

One last look out our front door... :(

On the road again! Back to Virginia. Livy LOVES books. They were part of our saving grace on the trip. That, and the fact we rented a minivan with a dvd player. :) But more often than not, little snugga always has her nose in a book!

New Kent Branch Trunk or Treat

New Kent Branch Trunk or Treat

This was all of our first time being at and participating in a Trunk or Treat. In the olden days (hehe) when Eric and I were little, we just went door to door. This was Eric's first time dressing up in about 20 years apparently...I was lucky to convince him. He is an old man if you can't tell. LOL

He is also dressed up as an old man! ;) hehe I am a very DIYish, modest version of Ariel the Little Mermaid. Olivia is a cowgirl. And yes she actually kept her hat on the majority of the time!

She's so cute it should be a crime!

Livy is not a shy girl. The minute I set her down, she out and about making friends in the branch!

                                                Eric is so thrilled to be wearing make-up :)

Our meagerly decorated trunk. Not bad for our first time though!

Makes me miss my long hair....and my pre-baby figure! hehe

Making the rounds to get mommy, I mean Livy ;) candy!

Fall in Virginia

Gallmeyer Farms Pumpkin Patch

We decided to support one of the local farmers that is a customers of Eric's facility in Richmond.
Great little pumpkin patch for being in the middle of a city.

Livy is definitely the cutest pumpkin in the patch!

Home Sweet Home!

Well we FINALLY found a house out her in Virginia! Its actually just outside Richmond and a little southeast. We're only about 20 minutes from Williamsburg (ahem. HINT HINT. Come visit us!). The town is called New Kent. It's a perfect marriage between rural and the suburbs, much to our delight. We have realized living in Richmond that we are definitely NOT city people!

As you can see it is not finished being built. I is a SPEC home that the builder had started and was at drywall stage. So, I (I mean WE lol) got to pick out all the interior finishes.With the exception of the items that were already installed (doors, molding, railing). I am obviously in my element making all these selections and having a lot of fun while doing it. Makes me miss my job a little bit. Eric has been very gracious in letting me pretty much have free reign on selections(within our budget of course lol). In his own words...'I literally grew up in a Milk Barn, so anything is an improvement on that'. Luckily, he likes most everything I have selected. We all knew I couldn't have married someone who was too particular about design, right?! 

This is a slightly skewed panoramic picture of our backyard. We LOVE all the trees behind us!

On a more spiritual note, I just want to bear testimony of how mindful the Lord truly is of us and our actual NEEDS. We have been looking for a house for months. We thought we had finally found one in a great suburban area of Midlothian. The house was a completely finished SPEC home that the builder was selling. It was a beautiful house! Lots of space, a decent sized yard and we both loved the finishes inside! So we proceeded with that home. Well, the Lord had something else in mind for us, because the deal ended up falling through. We were heartbroken. Certain that we were going to have to settle for something that we wouldn't love nearly as much; we headed back to the proverbial drawing board.

When we first began our search of houses out here, we started in New Kent (a somewhat rural area southeast of Richmond). There were a few homes there we loved and wanted to make offers on, but we had to sell our Indiana house first. In the meantime, both of those homes sold. So we focused our search more on the west side of Richmond. Fast forward a few months later and our search led us back to New Kent. To the same neighborhood where we first looked and fell in love with those first two houses we looked at. 

As we drove to this house through the pretty countryside and through the great neighborhood it hit us. Heavenly Father knew what we needed and where we needed to be all along. He must have been smiling and shaking His head as we tried so hard to make the house in Midlothian work! Everything with this home has just worked together perfectly. It is a MUCH better value for our money out here, which allowed us to stay below our budget but get a much nicer house than we would have had otherwise. The neighbors are so friendly and we are already loving our tiny little New Kent Branch(yes, branch not ward!)

We are so humbled by the Lord's hand in our life. We have so much to be thankful for and I feel like no matter how hard we try or how much we do, we will never be able to fully show the Lord just how truly grateful we are. The Lord really can make more of our lives than we can ourselves!
 

65th Annual Chickahominy Indian Tribe Fall Festival & Pow Wow

One of our first adventures here in Virginia was the Chickahominy Indian Tribe Pow Wow.
Just a quick history lesson...

The Chickahominy people were among the first to greet the European settlers along the shores here in Virginia. You may not have heard of the Chickahominy, but they are part of the Powhatan nation. Chief Powhatan was the father of the fabled, Pocahontas (which come to find out is not her real name, and Disney's Pocahontas movie was horribly inaccurate. But I digress...lol)

Anyways, this Pow Wow is one of the largest in the area and the most authentic Pow Wow. Tribes from all over the country came to dance/compete. Their dances and clothing were incredible! 

It was very hot and humid, so we didn't stay long since we had Livy with us. You can tell in the picture below she is beyond done and heat-exhausted! Sweet, patient girl. 

I was blown away by this guy's head dress - its made entirely of Turkey feathers!

This woman was so kind to us. Not only did she let us take her picture with Livy, she took the time to explain all about the Pow Wow and the Native American tribes in the area (Powhatan, Chickahominy, Pamunkey,Mattaponi to name a few). 

A beautiful dance comprised of just women. Wish I had take a video. The music was awesome!

I loved the colors of this head dress! So bright and colorful. Although I am guessing they didn't have things those colors a few hundred years ago. Lol

I have always been fascinated by the Native American cultures. Eric works with a man named Buck who is Chickahominy. I look forward to learning more about this culture since we will be living right next to their "village". (Side note: they don't really have Indian reservations per se out here, so tribes have their own cities. The city where the majority of the Chickahominy tribe lives is Charles City. Which is right next to where our new home is, in New Kent. Which brings me to my next post...