It's been about a month and a half since we moved into our new home, and while we are still getting settled, we have been enjoying every minute that we get to spend here. Although our to do list is still quite long, we are taking things a bit slower this season and enjoying our life, our new home, and quality time with family and friends. It seems with each passing year life tends to get busier in the fall, and as soon as the highly anticipated holidays arrive, they are over before you know it.

When Ryan and I were first married, I had every intention of sending out Christmas cards to all of our loved ones with beautiful photos from our wedding. Because it was the busier time of year, and we had our honeymoon and so many pre-planned events, and then the holidays, time slipped away from me and I never got around to it. Fast forward six years, and I still haven't "gotten around" to it. We started to joke that having never sent Christmas cards before, we might as well wait until we have something really exciting to announce before we send any out. Now that we've moved into our new home (and have a new address), we want to share that excitement with our loved ones, so this seems like a good excuse to finally get around to it! Which is why I am so excited to partner with Basic Invite to show you all a peek of our very first Christmas card!

It's been about six months since my last blog post and a little over six months since our beloved home renovation project began. I fully intended to post regular updates on the blog throughout our project, but fully underestimated how taxing this project would be on us, both emotionally and physically! All of our days were spent working at our full time jobs, our evenings were spent keeping up with day to day duties and chores while finalizing plans for the new house, and our weekends were spent working on various projects at the house alongside our hardworking contractors. As the saying goes, "The days are long, but the *months* are short." The days felt very long, but in exactly six months, we were finally able to move in to our new home. 
We are so excited and so thankful to be here, and to enjoy the fruits of our labors and see all of our plans and visions truly come to life!
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While we did move in in early October, the house is not completely finished. There are quite a few projects left on our punch list to finish out the spaces like built in features, baseboards and trim, landscaping, not to mention decorating and furnishing a new house. I have also recently struggled with whether or not to share more photos of the house until it's totally finished and "perfect," but like my sweet husband reminded me the other day, we have our whole lives to finish this house (Lord willing!) That was such a comfort to me, knowing and trusting that this house will be the home we have truly made our own, the home we host Thanksgivings and Christmas mornings in with our families, the home we bring our future babies home to, and so many more life changes and memories! With that, I was reminded it's not about perfection but about progress, and I am SO happy with our progress. We have already enjoyed delicious family dinners at our dining table, cozy fires in the fireplace, and  lazy, relaxing weekends.  As we do finish out spaces in the coming months, I would love to share those jaw dropping Pinterest worthy interior pictures, but for now, enjoy these never before seen photos of the progress and journey of our new home!