The Cottage Homestead

Here are some pictures of our new home.  The first pictures are from when we first arrived at our new home, and they seriously do not show how dirty, ugly and neglected the house was.  The later pictures are pictures of how our house currently looks.  Thank you to our family for all of your hard work and help to make this place a clean, cozy, and properly functioning home!

Disclaimer: this is a project house, so we are in the middle of several things, the most notable being prepping the trim for painting.  The house has really come a long way though, and even though it is small we look forward to coming home to it every day.

The living room, along with a beat up garbage can that came with the house. 

This is the kitchen and dining room all rolled into one! Notice the ugly and very dirty fluorescent light, which is now sitting in the Missoula landfill.

This is Isaiah's room, or will be once we're through with it!

Here is our bedroom. There are major plans in store for this room down the road...

Our finished living room! We still have trim to paint, but it is now relieving instead of stressful to sit in here.

Isaiah chillin' in his room.  We still have the windows to paint, but new carpet and paint do wonders!

The craftsman era of the early 1900s and the 1950s wonderfully collide in our kitchen/dining area. Again, more trim to paint, but it looks so much better now. That nasty old light is replaced with track lighting which looks awesome!

Our bedroom, which we still have major plans for. He doesn't do it that often, but we were lucky enough in this picture to catch Isaiah doing his weird door jam climbing thingy. Is this normal?

Oh the Places We've Gone (aka Moving)

Here are pictures of the big move over to Missoula.  The whole process was quite impressive from a baby's perspective: mountains of boxes higher than the eye can see, this big truck that was the size of like 10 of my rooms, and friends and family seemed to come out of the woodwork to help.  I think my favorite part about moving is that, when there is no where to put baby, baby gets to be held.  I had a lot of quality time with my extended family which I really enjoyed.

Grandma Stewart has baby duty. We make each other smile so much. 

Grandma hugs, they're the best.

Look! I'm holding my own bottle for the first time! Just look at that steady hand (thank you fast shutter speed).

Our house in Spokane before the move.  Every room took on this rich Victorian ambiance for a few weeks. 

My Great Aunt and Uncle Bozeman came over to visit one last time before the move. They can't get enough of me (but I can't get enough of them either!)

Grandma and Grandpa Reiswig and Great Grandma Reiswig chillin' with me on the couch.  We have such good times together, as this picture obviously shows.

This game was a big hit for several of the nights. Mommy won every time, which is a trend I'm starting to observe. Here I'm studying the board, trying to figure out how to help Grandma win. My strategy? Insert all colorful opponent's pieces into mouth. Grandma never let me execute my master plan, but her loss (literally).

Grandma with a strawberry milkshake. I decided to grasp the glass (I can do that now, see bottle picture above) to take a sip, but realized that milkshakes are cold. That just wouldn't do, I only accept things that are warmed. We all have our personal standards to uphold.

This was my bed for my first week in Missoula while my family fixed up the house.  Salem and I, both being connoisseurs of naps, staked out this place on the first day. When it comes to naps, I am Batman and Salem is Robin, I am Maverick and Salem is Goose.

This is most of the work crew at our house in Missoula. Grandma and Grandpa Reiswig, Grandma Stewart, Great Aunt Scooter, and my parents.  Grandpa Stewart also came later to help out. And then me, too. I like to think of myself as the entertainment for the group.

Back at our house in Spokane before the U-haul truck was loaded up. I wasn't joking about mountains of boxes. The amazing thing: everything we brought actually fit in our little cottage in Missoula.

Goodbye to our beautiful house in Spokane. This was the first house I lived in. Maybe we will be back some day...

Unpacking in our cottage in Missoula (we are using the term "cottage" loosely for "very small house"). It seemed impossible, but everything ended up fitting in the cottage.

My two Grandpas during a VERY big moment: the truck is empty!!! This truck was packed full from front to back, top to bottom. 



I am starting to roll here.  I'm not quite making it to my stomach from my back yet, I'm slowing exploring the new horizons before me.




My crib is set up in Missoula, and Salem wants a piece. She knows where the good naps are at.



Grandma Reiswig has baby duty. Baby duty has to be one of the most fun jobs in the world, I always have a blast on my end.



Grandpa Reiswig's turn for baby duty. I have a great lineup in my rotation.



Grandpa Stewart is up, and doing a pretty good job. We slept like this for quite some time.



I have TWO teeth! As if my body wasn't changing enough, now I have these two chompers to deal with.