Home Sweet Home

Getting our camera battery charger after waiting so long was almost as good as Christmas morning! The funny thing is that after so long of not having a camera, I have to make a conscious effort to actually take pictures now, I forget that I actually have a camera! Anyway, I thought the most appropriate way to start my photo journal in Philly would be to show a bit of our living quarters! To keep this photo-tour genuine, I opted not to clean before taking pictures, so that you might see what it looks like on a day-to-day basis. I only did this for your benefit, you're welcome :-)

Our living room. The entrance is at the back right corner of the picture with a small storage closet facing the door, and a much larger storage closet in the hallway. I really love our apartment because the rooms are so much wider and offer a lot more floor space then we're used to. We can actually put our ottoman in front of our chair where it belongs!
The office. It's actually where the dining area is supposed to be, but since our kids are young and ridiculously messy eaters, we kept the table just in the kitchen and put the office in the dining area. The office is where I spend more time then I'd like to admit!
(Do you like how Jayda managed to sneak into all the pictures!) One view of our kitchen, the closet that Jayda is leaning against is actually where our washer and dryer are. It's kind of weird having the two appliances in the kitchen, but still a lot better then hauling our laundry downstairs like we used to. We had a buy a cheap little table and chair set from the IKEA to fit in our kitchen, but it's perfect for the stage our family is at right now, and we all fit at it very nicely.
The kitchen from the opposite entrance. The kitchen was probably the one place where I have a lot less room then I had in our house in Poky. It was hard getting everything to fit at first, but we managed to turn our hallway storage closet into a makeshift pantry, so everything fits great now.
Our living room from the entrance. We have a huge balcony with a gorgeous view, but right now it's also being used as a place to hold all of the stuff we really should have gotten rid of a long time ago. We're probably going to spend the next few months trying to sell or donate whatever we can, and by the spring I'm really excited to use to balcony to grow a small garden and set up some chairs and a table for some nice weather reading and lounging.
This is obviously the kid's bedroom. Ironically, this is probably the place that Jayda has slept the least since we've been here! Still scared of Skyler, who can blame her? Anyway, this is probably the room that I'm looking forward to working on the most. It's a really big room, so I'm hoping to really turn it into a fun room for the kids, plus then it keeps all the toys, crayons, etc, in their room!
Our room, what a mess! It's also a really big room with a lot of potential. We've talked about putting a futon or couch along the wall next to the rocking chair, but time and money will tell if we actually do it. Our room is also accompanied with two closets and another bathroom, they're around the corner to the right. Having a bathroom separate from the kids is nice!

So there you have it. We LOVE it here. And the area, as well as apartment complex we live in feels so safe. It's going to be fun to continue to turn this place into more of a home after living here for a few years.