It's a beautiful NIGHT in the neighborhood...

At the risk of things sounding too perfect, I have to say... I love my neighbors. I love my neighborhood.

One of the things that tipped the scales for this neighborhood when we decided to build a house was that we already knew 5 other families nearby (3 in our immediate neighborhood and 2 in the neighborhood that connects to it). When we found a floor plan that included EVERYTHING we were looking for, we called our search to an end and started building! When we moved in, it was just comfortable from the start. Over the past 10 months, we've been able to meet most of the other families in the neighborhood and we are so blessed to be surrounded by some of the nicest people I've ever met.

Our backyard backs up to two other families and since the warm weather arrived, we've been doing lots of stuff with these families and several other neighborhood families. The kids all love playing together and inevitably we end up eating together at least one weekend night. Last night, one of our neighbors ordered pizza and we all ate pizza and the kids played outside until dusk. Then the guys hung a movie screen up on the outside of the screen porch, we laid down blankets, and watched the Jungle Book. The kids LOVED it. The mommies got to sneak inside for a while for some pleasant conversation and the daddies hung out and watched the movie with the kids. I snuck away at one point to grab my camera because I realized I was witnessing a great blog entry. :)

I think there's something about moving into a newly built neighborhood...where everyone is new at practically the same time. I observed close relationships forming in my parents new neighborhood and am so pleased to see the same thing happening for us. We're happy, our kids are happy...yes, we are really HOME.