Our Colonial House In Massachusetts

Steve found our house!  Today our offer was accepted..  I LOVE it.  It's so colonial!  It has a huge yard, over an acre but yet in a neighborhood with sidewalks.  The kitchen is white with black granite counter tops.  I can not wait to get there and decorate!  Steve kept telling me we need to buy a house when we get to Massachusetts because the interest rates are so low now.  3.25% interest is what is making this dream come true.  Steve is awesome!  This is the 3rd time he has gone ahead of the kids and I to buy a house and every time he keeps getting better at it.  

Neopolitan

 I am in denial over moving...I have been crocheting all the time.  The other day I crocheted some new neapolitan wash clothes for my kitchen.  Sweet huh?

This little guy is sweet too.  He plays basketball ALL day!

SOLD!!!

 WOW!  Things are happening all so fast.  We have been so lucky to own a beautiful California home in a neighborhood with them most wonderful neighbors.  I am going to really miss it here!!!!  Yesterday my house  went on the market and today it sold...CRAZY!  And here is the real kicker.  They bought it for ten thousand more dollars than we were asking...they were afraid of multiple offers.  Like I said this whole thing of me being a California Girl has come and is going by fast. I do feel very blessed.  Below are some pictures of my California home:

 This is the formal living and dinning.  I have put pictures of the family room and eat-in kitchen on here before.

 This is when you are standing in the kids playroom/loft.

 I love the upstairs in this home.  It's so open and pretty.

 This is the kids playroom upstairs.

So I wonder what kind of house we will get in Massachusetts?  We are moving near Boston...I need to work on my accent.    Here we go: "I need to park the car".  Did you hear it?  Ha

Garlic Capital Of The World...

 We went to Gilroy, California...the garlic capital of the world.  They grow 90% of the world's garlic in this valley in California.

 They sold all sorts of Christopher Ranch products...Christopher Ranch is my FAVORITE.  I want to go back at the end of this month to Christopher Ranch for the Garlic Festival.

MMM..the goodies I brought home.  I am going back to stock up so I can take lots of these things with me when I move.  We are moving AGAIN!!!!!  I know I have only had my things in my beautiful California home for 9 months...What the...  It's all good though, it's just I need a break.  This will make 5 different homes in 23 or 24 months.

Dresden...

I enjoyed quilting another dresden plate.  They are really fun.  I think they are beautiful.  With this, I made a huge Euro sized pillow case for Madi's room.  I need to go shopping to get the pillow to fit inside.

4th of July In The San Francisco Bay

 We had a GRAND time celebrating the 4th of July!  We went over to San Francisco.  We stayed at a hotel right at Fisherman's Wharf so we could park and just walk everywhere.  Good thing we got there early on the 4th, they close all the streets next to the Bay....it was the 4th of July but seemed like a huge New Years Eve celebration...people everywhere!  Our hotel had a heated pool the kids spent hours in having fun.  Our hotel was PACKED TO THE GILLS with families.  So lots of kids in that pool.  In the above picture we are next to Pier 39 and you can see Alcatraz in the background too.

 We walked down to Ghirardelli Square for some chocolate treats.

 Our hotel was 1 block away from the Boudin Sourdough Bakery...I ate it everyday we were there.  While walking by one of the workers tossed Ben a loaf and he caught it.  We scarfed that sucker down.  Ben got another one later that evening too.

 We ate dinner on Pier 39...looks like everyone else had the same idea.  It was shoulder to shoulder people.

 This was the view from our table at dinner.

 We were walking around Fisherman's Wharf just before the fireworks began.  That large building you can see is the Boudin Sourdough Bakery.  Ben thought this overflowing trash can was funny and wanted his picture taken with it.  Looks like most people ate bread bowls filled with chowder.

This is the view of the San Francisco Bay while at Ghirardelli Square.  It was a beautiful day!  We had a wonderful time in San Francisco celebrating America's Birthday. The fireworks were HUGE.  They had a couple of barges in the water shooting them off so you could see them in every direction you looked.

Needle And Thread

Every chance I get I have been cross-stitching.

Needle book

 I needed a place to keep my needles and scissors...so I made a sweet book to keep them in.  Everywhere I go I take my crochet, cross-stitch, hexagons, stitchery...  And I am constantly loosing my supplies, and everyone else is always finding my needles in the least likely places you would think to look.  Not anymore.

 I used thick wool felt for the page inside to hold the needles and elastic in the back to slide the scissors into place.

 The back has a little patchwork.

I am tickled over the little white button on the front that's used to close the book.  Awww and what a sweet hexagon flower on the front.  I just love this little thing.  It's already gotten some use the last couple of days.

George And Abe Sitting In A Tree...

 ...aren't they the cutest couple for this time of year!

 I live in the most wonderful neighborhood.  My kids have so many friends and play all the time.  I have bought so many water balloons and pop its.

I know it's summer but I am enjoying cross-stitching for fall.  Cross-stitching takes forever too.

North Lake Tahoe

 Today was a great day for a drive up to Lake Tahoe.  We live two beautiful hours from North Lake Tahoe. Last Fall we went to South Lake Tahoe so today we wanted to try the north side.

 I like this picture I took.  See Steve out there.  And holy cow look at all the shades of blue in the water.  It was dreamy out there today.

This is Donnor Lake at Donnor Summit...see Ben out there?  He wanted to go walk down farther on his own until his dad reminded him to keep an eye out for bears.

Carmel, Pebble Beach, 17 Mile Drive and Monterey

 We drove down Highway 1...THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE!  You bet we did 17-Mile Drive!!!

 There are 19 pull-offs on 17-Mile Drive.  This is stop #2...we were up in the mountains looking out at the Pacific.

 It was Father's Day and Steve enjoyed his special day at Pebble Beach.  He could not get over the golf course and homes with the view.

 Madi took a ton of pictures with her new IPOD.

 The golf course is on the other side of the street from this....AMAZING!

 The Lone Cypress is stop 17 I think on 17-Mile Drive.

 Carmel-By-The-Sea has to be the most beautiful town in all of America.  It was so breathtaking and fun this is the only picture of the city I took.  

 Took the kids to the Carmel Mission.  We are trying to see how many of the California Missions we can see while living in the state.

 This is Monterey Bay

 Monterey Bay.

 Vista Point along Highway 1.  We were going to drive down to Big Sur but the fog rolled in so we headed back up to Carmel.

I lived in California for 1 year when I was younger.  My dad worked at Ft. Ord which sadly closed.  This is the house I lived in Salinas long ago.  We also drove by my school where I attended the 5th grade.  All these places we just took our kids to my parents had taken me to the same places when I was Madi's age...how cool is that.  I just LOVE California!