Our New Home

It is going to take us some time to feel like we have truly "moved" into our home, so as things get up on the walls, bookcases are in place, and decorations are beautifully displayed, I will take more pictures of the inside of our home.  For now I will simply give highlights from our first couple weeks in our new home (the first couple weeks of September.)

Our first sunset looking out on our backyard, pond, and neighborhood.  I am totally in love with our large palm tree in the backyard and fully plan on draping it with Christmas lights come December...Dallas will be the one climbing it :)

We moved in right at the beginning of the rainy season and holy cow it pours here!  With any tropical climate, the rainstorms don't usually last a long time.  But when it rains, it pours!  The storms last about 5-10 minutes and the warm rain pounds down in a deluge.  I couldn't help but bring Daxton outside to dance in our first tropical rainstorm the day we arrived.  Now every time it starts to rain, Daxton tries to get outside to continue on our tradition.  He's such a sweetheart!

Within the short storm, the amount of water dropped is crazy.  It quickly floods the lawn and streets.  We noticed, that first rainstorm, that several frogs like to congregate on our front walkway trying to escape the flooding lawn.  We had a blast watching them hop around through the window.

There are several playgrounds in our little neighborhood, so while mom and I were unpacking Dallas took Daxton around to explore the area.  Most or the playgrounds have sand in them instead of wood chips that rot easily from all the moisture.

While my mom was visiting, she not only spoiled us, but Daxton as well.  She got him a perfect chair, just his size that he immediately fell in love with...

And all sorts of fun toys to add to the playroom.

Mom was in town for our first Sunday together as a family.  I was so glad she could get a quick picture of our sweaty family.  Our ward is extremely diverse.  It's 1/3 Creole, 1/3 Latin, and then 1/3 white.  Everyone has been so welcoming and within a week of us arriving we were asked to serve in the Young Women and Young Men's presidencies.  Daxton will be joining the nursery, which makes me cry every time I think about it.  I have no clue how he has grown so quickly!

After church we showed mom around Fort Lauderdale.  We loved putting our toes in the Atlantic and watching the waves.  Since it was Sunday we didn't swim or bring extra clothes for Daxton...thus his lack of clothes when he wanted to play in the sand.

My mom and I

Can't even put into words how much I love and appreciate her and all she has done and continues to do for us.

These next few pictures were taken the week after mom left.

Daxton and I needed to be housebound for the majority of the week due to different furniture and package deliveries.  I was so glad that he had more than enough to occupy him throughout those days.  He watched Yo Gabba Gabba while lounging in his new chair, rode loudly through the house on his new Mickey car (courtesy of grandma as well) and played with all sorts of toys and kitchen items.

 Some of the different rooms Daxton has claimed as his own...

Top left: the all windowed playroom.  Top right: the living room.  And Bottom: his bedroom.  We both LOVE the organization skills of grandma for Daxton's closet!  So many books!

My favorite room of the house is the kitchen.  I feel so grown up to have an actual cooking area instead of the dirty closet we had at our old apartment in California!  I am also madly in love with our new dining room set.  The distressed wood, leather padded chairs, extra leaves to extend the table, seating for eight...I love it!

My other favorite addition to our home...this gorgeous carpet from West Elm.  I've been a bit crazy about no shoes and no food anywhere near it.

Our neighborhood is absolutely gorgeous with several different ponds that run throughout.  There are hundreds of different birds that have made residence in the area which Daxton loves to watch.  They definitely have the right away and don't seemed phased with making cars wait for them to cross the road.

The bottom left picture is a view of the back of our house.

Daxton is in heaven and loves going on walks to explore all the different areas around our home.

He also has a new found love...fruit snacks!

This is how happy he gets whenever he is given them.

It's been so nice getting to know some of the members in our new ward.  Within the first week, I met the most amazingly sweet girl who has three kids.  We met up at one of the local parks for Daxton's first play date.  Her littlest boy is only a few months older than Daxton and they immediately hit it off together.  I can see many more play dates in our future! 

It seemed only fitting that our first big dinner party be for the missionaries.  Our stake is the highest baptizing stake in the US, which is pretty amazing.  There are several sets of missionaries, three of which are in our ward.  It's going to be a big responsibility being a member in a ward that demands so much help with reactivating and retaining new members, but we are excited about the opportunity to serve here and know that we have much to learn!

Overall our move has been successful.  It'll still be awhile before I feel totally at home with everything, but we couldn't feel more blessed and excited about this new adventure!