Family Photos 2015

We've come a long way from Family Photos 2014. But even though Alex is now 19 months, Ashton is 4.2, I keep waiting for things to get easier because everyone promises me they will! Haha. Stillllll waaaaaaiting, especially because Alex's new favorite word is the big fat "N-O".

In preparation for our family photo shoot this year, which was at Regis College and shot by August and Iris Photography, I took the boys for their requisite haircuts. Jason usually does them, but he has had a super busy fall and I just knew he would not get to it. So we went to SnipIts, the haircut place for kids. Ashton was done in about 5 minutes - that lady knew what she was doing. Alex, I fear, got an inexperienced stylist who took forever. Which meant he cried for 30 minutes while bits of hair clung to his cheeks (made sticky by his lollipop and tears). It was actually a disaster. I finally told her to please just stop, stood back and studied my red-faced toddler with the choppiest, most uneven haircut you've ever seen. Sigh. I went to the counter, and, too tired to sugar-coat it, told the receptionist I wasn't leaving until someone fixed it because we had our family photos coming up and while I usually would not care I was paying a lot of money for the photos and a lot of money for the haircut and really didn't want both to come out bad. She understood. I actually think the entire salon did - Alex's hair was a mess. Back in the chair he went and after more tears, more lollipops, and more teeny weeny bits of hair stuck everywhere, he was nearly perfect. Good enough.

Next I had to pick their outfits. I wanted them to coordinate yet not match exactly. I went bin-diving in the basement to see what old stuff we had that Alex could wear and squeezed Ashton into one of last year's sweaters. I had shopped quickly for a cute fall outfit for myself, but of course ended up throwing on something that's been in my closet for (no joke) a decade.

Lights, camera...

The day of the shoot was Saturday October 10. We were getting ready to go, Jason was meeting us there, and of course I was already running late when my neighbors, whom I had not met yet, decided to stop by and introduce themselves. 15 minutes ticked by, Ashton was still in his sweats, Alex was still napping, and I was trying to be polite. When they left, I realized Ashton had had an accident, which required a tub, and then I woke Alex up, who cried his face off the entire way there and through the first five minutes of the shoot. Ashton would not stop grimacing, I was cranky and like last year, just wanted to go home.

But, also just like last year, the pictures say none of this. The photographer did a gorgeous job in the 25 minutes we had and this one in particular that she captured of Alex...I die.

My two peas.

And a couple more favorites (some of these are not high-res so if they look fuzzy, that's why - I have the originals).

And a couple more.

And what the heck, a couple more.

So that's the Nills, 10/10/15, cliche fall photo shoot in hopes of getting a good christmas card picture. We'rrre so-oh vaaaain... ha ha  :D

Weekend awaaaaaay!!

So Jason and I managed to get out of the house this past weekend. Three days, two nights, zero kids. It was poetic. We attended a fabulous wedding, shopped til we dropped at the Tanger Outlets, went out to dinner and slept late. And I did not change one diaper or perhaps more significantly, I did not wash one dish. I wasn't in the kitchen at all! Sorry to say, I loved every minute :) STARTING WITH the completely gorgeous wedding of two of the most beautiful people ever: Evan and Kaelyn. I am 100% certain they don't read this but I'm going to post about it anyway. Evan is one of Jason's best friends from college, he and Kaelyn live in Manhattan and we try to make it to a Giants game with them every fall. Except this one, because they were busy getting married :) This past Friday, October 16 at Wolffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack, NY, this was my view at approximately 4 pm:

That's rosé, of course. Some of my other favorites from the wedding and events:

.

The story about my dress. Back in September, I had ordered two dresses from Rent the Runway for this black-tie-optional occasion. I wanted to wear a really special cocktail dress and knew that even if I could find what I was looking for in a store, I didn't have time to shop for it. So I picked out a couple of sparkly numbers to have delivered to me on Thursday, the day before the wedding. 

Fast forward to last week. There I am in TJ Maxx and I think to myself, "I should really have a backup dress for the wedding, just in case the dresses from RTR don't fit, they don't come, etc." I perused the racks, found a gold one, forty bucks, loved it, done. I ask you, when is TJ Maxx not the greatest.

I won't bore you with the long saga of what happened but the dresses from RTR were not delivered in time. I was very stressed and very disappointed, The package did eventually arrive (sometime when we were already at the wedding) so I tried them on for fun the next day.

Excuse my morning-after hair and makeup ha! Although the dresses were fabulous (the navy blue one has an open slit in the back), in the end my backup dress was perfect. Funny how things work out.

Anyway, after my fashion show, Jason and I headed over to the Tanger Outlets and spent 2.5 hours in the Pottery Barn outlet. I'm telling you, I was in some sort of heaven. Feast your eyes.

No boys to worry about and nothing but time! Plus a new house to decorate...we got a new dresser, two rugs, a mirror, a lamp, bedding and all sorts of odds and ends that fit in my car no problem because oh yeah we had no carseats :D 

Then we headed over to JCrew, Banana, etc. before it was time to go home, change, and head out for cocktails and dinner in Southampton (Le Charlot and Tuscan House, for those that know). We got home on Sunday around lunchtime and I made a mental note to not let another 4 years go by before we do that again!! Ashton showed us how happy he was that we were back by sneaking into our bathroom during his quiet time and squeezing out the entire tube of toothpaste all over the place. I was so relaxed though, being fresh off our weekend, I didn't even get mad. I instead chose to savor how minty everything smelled. 

Anyway, it was a wonderful couple of days. Thanks so much to Evan and Kaelyn for getting married - it was the kick we needed to get out of the house! And thanks even more to Poppy and Mema and Jen and Mike for tag-teaming the boys while we were gone. Awesomeness all around. 

Happy things!

Two weeks down in our new house and there is so much that has made me happy so far! In no particular order:

1) The neighborhood. We have gone for some good walks and met so many families! There is a good number of them who are several years ahead of us but Ashton already has a new friend in Caleb who is 5. It's also fun to watch Ashton marvel at the bigger boys playing basketball - there are a LOT of hoops set up on the sidewalks and the kids just shoot from the street! There is zero traffic and it's awesome. There's also a beautiful pond you can walk down to and toss rocks into the water.

I wish there was a nature trail around it but for now, kerplunking the stones works fine.

2) The Hannah Williams playground. Technically, you have to drive to it and technically, it's in Wayland, But I am very much a "leave the house as much as possible" mom and this is the best destination I've found so far. The boys and I spent our entire morning there this past Sunday. The sandbox area had one of those diggers where kids can pull the handles to make it scoop - Ashton didn't get off that thing except when I made him because others were waiting for a turn.

Ashton is a great climber and can do the monkey bars and big structures all on his own and I don't even worry about him anymore! What??

This park had all the cozy coupes and push toys for Alex as well and in general was just a great spot! They both took 3 hour naps that afternoon.

3) My commute. I officially have my route(s) down - it depends whether or not I have Ashton with me, but when I don't, I can make it from my front door to my desk in 30 minutes. And the roads are beautiful right now. I avoid all the major highways because the traffic lines are red a lot of the time. So I take the back roads through Weston and Wayland from the lower left hand corner to the upper right hand corner (sorry for the small map, I guess you can't really see anything):

It looks far, but there are really no big stops and the roads look like this right now:

So it's beautiful and I'm happy.

4) Bargain finds!! This house needs furniture in a bad way. The boys have outgrown their gliders, we have more space, and the general filling-up process has begun. As it turns out, there is a place called ReStore in Dedham. There's a lot of these in fact - they are like thrift stores for furniture, appliances, etc. As it happens, Jen's boyfriend Mike has an uncle and his uncle works there. Occasionally, there is an "inside scoop" to be had. For example, if a movie is being shot in Boston, the furniture used on the sets might be donated to ReStore after filming. They get factory seconds, estate sale stuff, cabinets from kitchen renovations...it's generally a mish mash and you never know what you will find.

Enter relevance. Mike told me that Wayfair (the home decor site) was having a big clearance sale in downtown Boston on Friday night, October 2. Wayfair had told ReStore that anything that didn't go, ReStore was welcome to come get when the event was over. Boy do I wish I had been at ReStore on Saturday morning, October 3, when they opened. Apparently they had SO much gorgeous brand new furniture (and we are talking steep, steep discounts because whatever they make goes to Habitat for Humanity). Alas, we showed up at 11 am or so and a lot was sold. BUT, I spied these chairs:

They are big oversized comfy armchairs and I LOVED them. I bought two for $150 each!! And put one in each boy's room for their new reading chairs. They are huge and I am obsessed. Naturally I got right on Wayfair to rate my find and similar chairs by this designer are in the $700's. Yessssss.

I also scored a really sweet Land of Nod bookcase for Alex's room on Craigslist for $20. I love Craigslist.

5) THIS.

THIS is my new vacuum. It's cordless. And does a 360 spin. It's lightweight. And FUCHSIA.

You won't watch this, but it's the Dyson V6 Motorhead Plus Cordless Vacuum product video. No more sweeping, no more vacuuming on my knees. I zip around with this, take corners by storm, go under stools, over the rug, and I'm done. It's, say it with me, AH-mazing. Gosh, you know what, if you have hardwood floors, just get one. You will thank yourself.

6) My weekend starting tomorrow. Jason and I are heading to Long Island for one of his best friend's weddings. We will be gone two nights. Without the boys. Poppy and Mema are staying at our house for a night and then Jen and Mike are staying for a night and we will be home on Sunday. To say I'm excited is an understatement. I've been away from Ashton for a handful of nights in his past 4.2 years, but never Alex, and certainly never three days where we are out of town! I am so looking forward to the wedding, my sparkly dress, the mini-break with my husband, all of it. I can't wait.

Anyway, that's all I've got for the past week. We did get some bedroom furniture delivered today - due to the master closet in Watertown, we never needed any! I have a new bed picked out as well but for now our mattress and box spring are just sitting on the floor until I order it. After that, window treatments and then I should be able to do my first Craft Road before and after post. Happy things!! :)

02472 -> 01760

Well we officially did it – we are Natick natives! It seems like forever ago when, one warm June day, Jason and I stood on our freshly paved driveway and said, “We're done with our projects! Let’s be crazy and list it!” The house went up on Zillow on July 1 and the rest is history. We somehow navigated the sale of Edenfield Ave and the purchase of Craft Road without a realtor, closed both transactions the same day, and made it through unscathed! It really all worked out perfectly.

So Wednesday last week, September 30, was move day. As I mentioned we did have a storage container for our big stuff, but most everything else was taken by Berg and Jason on several trips over to the house beforehand. Things went very smoothly until we woke up that last morning in Watertown to, honoring its namesake, a town filled with water! A monsoon, to be precise. The storm drains were all blocked, the road was flooding, it was a MESS. We needed an ark! It was foggy, muddy, windy and rainy. It definitely dampened the mood (haha, get it).

Anyway, I got busy cleaning the house and Jason mainly paced around, waiting for some break in the downpour to get the rest of our stuff outside and packed in. At one point he went outside with his crow bar to pry open the storm drain - we were so worried the water was rising and would leak into the pod and ruin our stuff! I don't have any pictures of this treacherous time because we were very busy stressing out. 10:45 am came, the new owners pulled up with the moving van, we did one last run though, said our goodbyes and drove away! I thought I would be sadder than I was, I did love that house. But I had lots to look forward to in the new one so we were happy.

Alex was with Jen and Ashton was at school, so we found ourselves alone and temporarily homeless! The closing for Edenfield Ave was in the morning, and the closing for Craft Road was at 1 pm, and even though we had had legitimate access to Craft Road since the 20th it still felt weird! 

Later that night, after the boys were home and our container had been delivered, we set up the kitchen and the living room right away and all our stuff from Edenfield Ave was literally right at home. It didn't even look like we had just moved!

Although, panning to the left, it's a little more sparse.

[I think I mentioned we had the walls painted and the floors re-done before we moved in- it made a world of a difference and I'm so happy with how it all came out. The main wall color downstairs is Benjamin Moore Quiet Moments - it sometimes seems blue, sometimes green, sometimes gray, and it looks awesome. For anyone needing a good color.]

Overall, we have spent the last week trying to settle in. Of course we have a very big list of things to do: buy A, fix B, call for a quote for C, look at other options for D, build E, etc. But most importantly, the boys seem really happy. They are cozy in their rooms, play in the backyard, and we've walked around the neighborhood to the playground. It's actually at an old school that is no longer being used but hey, a playground is a playground, even if it's abandoned! 

Just means more room for us ;) [That's Route 9 in the background - hop on that puppy and in 5 minutes you have every kind of shopping you could possibly ever need or want - I'm loving our new location!] I'm hoping I will eventually meet other parents here but last night there were 3 ten year old boys playing and I was asking them all sorts of questions. Turns out they love their school, Halloween is a huge deal in the neighborhood, and one of them was having meatloaf for dinner. I said all of those things sound good!

I'll probably be posting a random assortment of things for my next few entries, just in the interest of getting settled and what I'm learning about my new surroundings. Even though I took most of last week off, I did practice my commute Thursday and Friday by bringing Ashton to school. It was not the fastest but not the slowest. I've figured out the best route when I don't have to bring him (which is T/R) but M/W/F will definitely be 50 minutes in the car from when we leave home to when I sit down at my desk. Still could be worse. I've decided to look for new schools for him in Natick/Wayland/Wellesley but it's a lot more expensive with a lot fewer openings. So that's a work in progress, along with finding Alex a little toddler program that he is desperately ready for, along with figuring out why our brand new washer won't balance, along with everything else right now! Objects in motion...