NEW HOUSE!

That’s right. We finally bought a new house. After looking for quite some time and putting an offer on a house that didn’t work out, we found this beauty. We closed October 15th, 2013 and that is when our 2+ months of CRAZY started.

We loved the floor plan of the house, the neighborhood, the outside, the garages, etc. We had a list of wants/needs in a new house.. and this house fit SO many of our items on the list. It has a guest master/bath and I thought that would be perfect if Kelli and her family ever needed to stay with us. It was very dirty and needed a lot of work. It was only 4 years old and we could not believe the condition of the house for being relatively new. Clint always wanted a renovation project, and I wanted a newer house. We both got our wishes with this one, I guess.

Clint was super excited about it, and I was too.. but I was more aware of how hard that would be on all of us than Clint was. I tend to worry about EVERYTHING. Clint tends to go with his gut and fly by the seat of his pants. He is very cautious about everything though. He is definitely adventurous, with a master plan of safety and preparation.

Shortly after we closed on the house, the work began. Lots of stuff was left in the house/garage from the previous owners, so he started with getting a trailer and loading it up and hauling it all to the dump. Luckily he had a friend living in Bountiful who was able to get us access to the dump. Then the demolition started. Clint ripped out carpet/pad.. well all the flooring, the baseboards, door casings, window casings etc. His brother helped him take out the entire kitchen. He sanitized all the subfloor/concrete, etc. Clint spent endless hours working on this house. He would work a full day at the office, and immediately go to work on the house. His brother, Reuben, and also his friend, Jake, helped out a TON – but Clint worked himself so so hard. He would work until midnight, 1am, 2am or later before going to bed… At the house. On an air mattress, on the concrete floor. Poor thing was SO tired and so sore. Not to mention he had no microwave, fridge, or table to eat on. Fast food become our enemy during this time because it was the only thing that worked with our other house being so far away.

We missed him so much! I came out to help when I could, but it was so so hard with both the boys. We didn’t have internet (gasp) or anything else for them to do, and above all that it just was not safe for them. There was no safe place to eat or play or anything. Clint’s sister Ali was a God send, and watched our boys countless times! She fed them, entertained them, and put them to bed at her house! After working until midnight, I would go and get the boys and take them home. Thanks Ali, we could not have gotten through without all your help!  I looked forward to the weekends, because Clint slept at home. Well, the old home. Which we had a hard time renting out. We still made it to the house most of those weekends to do more work, but at least we saw each other more.

Anyway, it was a super stressful time in our lives. All the flooring is new, carpet, paint, all the wood work in the home (done by Clint and his brother.) There was lots of baseboards and walls to fix, floor boards needed to be nailed down, countless little projects that needed to be done, etc. I can’t even think of everything! There were so many ups and downs and unexpected things that happened. Thanks heavens we made it to the other end alive and still married, with our train wrecks for kids as a casualty of the war. It was just plain hard on us all.

There is still work to be done, but we are so blessed to have this beautiful home! And I am so lucky to have a husband who sacrificed SO much to provide it for us. He’s the best ever! I am so glad that we got this house. We were able to move in the weekend before Christmas! It was definitely an inspired move that has changed our lives for the better.

We absolutely love our neighbors, the church family, the area.. so far everything is so good.

And we were able to rent out the townhouse January 1st, which we were so grateful for. I will be sharing more before/after's to come. I have had quite a few requests for pictures… so be patient! I don’t want to share after pictures, until it’s really after! We will be closer in a few months. And if you made it this far in my rambling, HIGH FIVE.

Bode’s First Day of Preschool

For the third year… Let’s pretend this is being posted the end of August, 2013.

Bode was so excited to start school! He missed the first week because we were in Washington helping the Thurgood's. He was SO over the moon to start up. He loved his teacher, Miss Hollie.

He was too anxious to get walking down the street where it was to let me take many pictures. I somehow managed to take a ton anyway! Owen had to be in one too, of course.

I just love Bode so much and his eagerness to go to school. His teacher loved him and said he was a very good student. She said he was very attentive and participated in everything, and was a very good example to others. Good job Bode!

Sun Valley Wrap Up

The last random pictures from our fabulous trip! As you can see, we enjoyed feeding these beautiful horses. Bode was pretty scared to put food up to them and so he would chicken out and drop it too soon. Later in the trip, the dads (Clint and his step brother Brian) came to feed the horses too. Clint chickened out and dropped the apple a little too soon. I was laughing so hard! Like father like son, I guess. Owen was not scared. Of course not.

The cute cousins spent a lot of time exploring together outside the rooms. We had our own room with Ron and Bonnie, and Brian and Abbey had their own. We would go from room to room and it was such a blast. We watched movies, had dinners together, the dads (and grandpa) fished, we went grocery shopping, the kids fished.. checked out the ice skaters practicing (previous post) – fished as a family (also previous post..) Oh and Grandma Bonnie gave the kids quilts that she made! They are seriously incredible, and they loved snuggling with those during this trip.

Thanks to Ron and Bonnie for this fun trip! We look forward to them every year.

Sun Valley Resort

Bode was SOOO excited to see the fish in this pond. He wanted to catch them so bad. He leaned right over the edge and touched a few! The ducks were not very friendly and came right up to Owen and me. Man those things scare me.

The kids had so much fun splashing around in this pond! It was a nice day, but it was a lot colder than these pictures make it seem. The kids started rolling up their pants, but they got more and more wet. I look over and Owen has his pants completely off. A few minutes later and the shirt was gone. He cracks me up! He took the diaper off but I didn’t even have time to take a picture because I immediately put another one on him. That kid!!

The Chocolate Factory

When we were in Sun Valley last summer/fall, we decided it would be a good idea to stop for some goodies. Who doesn’t love chocolate?! Bode got the biggest peanut butter cup I had ever seen in my life. Griffin opted for some ice cream. Another favorite was the apple pie caramel apple. YUMMMM. I just love spending time with Grandma Bonnie and Abbey and the kiddos!

(I WILL catch up this blog to the current year at some point!)