ALL DONE!

This has needed to be posted about for a bit. A few things in the last little bit are now all done.

We got an offer on our house and we accepted it!!! YEAH!! It couldn't have happened a moment too soon. We got the offer and then a few days later we had our final walk-through on the new house. It was great to go through the house with the arcitect and have him talk to us about warrenties, home care and other things to help us understand what is going on with our house. One tip he gave that I think everyone should hear is about touch-up painting. He talked about when the paint gets dinged up on the corners. He suggested you use a q-tip to touch up the paint. What a great idea and no brush stroking issues.

So, the house is ready for us and we just have to close on both of the houses and then we can move in. Right now the closing date is the end of Sept. but we are trying to work with those that are buying our house to see about moving the date up to the middle of the month. We'll see what happens with that.

My baby is now 1 yr old. It's crazy to think that's he's been around for a year. We were able to celebrate with family and dinner and cake with ice cream. I also made some cupcakes and filled them with ice cream. It was different, but no one complained about them. :)

My oldest is now in 2nd grade and his teacher is in our ward, so that's fun. He's liking school and seems to be doing ok....it is only the 2nd week, so there's still a lot of time for anything to happen.

My second started kingergarten this week. He has the same teacher that #1 did and that's fun. It's a little crazier for me to go back and forth 3 times a day. The afternoons are fairly calm with 2 at school, 2 napping and 1 awake. Maybe I can get more things done?

I think that's all for now that's going on. I think that's probably enough for now anyway. I will post pictures of the events in the next post.

BUSY TIME!

Since my last post we have had some big/fun changes with the house, my brother came home from his mission in Germany and we enjoyed a great time with family at the beach in Oceanside. I wish I could go back. I had a dream last night that we were going to drive down for the day and I thought that it would be great. It really was a great trip.

I've got pictures of everything but my brother coming home. I had left my camera at home. :(

To go chronologically my brother came home first on Thursday. His flight didn't arrive until about 9:00PM so that made things a little tricky. I have a Johnson bro-in-law that lives in Wyoming and his family was down here and would be heading up soon so all the brothers got together while the girls and the kids hung out for awhile. Afterward we headed out to see the Returned Missionary and visit with my family. It turned into a late night with the drive home and all, but it was great to see him.

Friday we spent getting ready to leave with a couple house showings in-between. It was busy, but we got it done so we were ready to get up at 3:30 to get out by 4:30. All went well and we made it to CA by about 4:00PM. We spent a lot of time at the beach and the pool. We also went to the Mormon Batallion Museum in San Diego. We also celebrated our 9yr anniversary while we were there and we went into San Diego and had dinner at Panevino (a nice Italian place). For a little back story, my wedding ring broke a few months ago and I haven't been wearing it because of that. Well, I got my wedding ring back all fixed. It was so fun to get it back. I had been missing it. I realized how much I LOVE my ring. My dear husband did a great job getting it fixed and I didn't really even know that he had. (I had freaked out earlier that week because I couldn't find it and was going to go see about getting it fixed.) While there we also went to the Maritime Museum. We had a tour and our tour guide was WONDERFUL! He was an actor in Masters and Commanders and had lots of tid bits about that. We then came home late Sat. night.

Mormon Batallion Pics:








Beach Time Pics:











When we got home we had to go see how things had changed at the house. As of this morning the light and fixtures are pretty much all in, we have all the cabinetry done. The appliances are almost all in. The counter tops have been installed. So, now we pretty much just have to get the cooktop and sinks in and it'll be good.









Life is good/interesting. This isn't a very complete update, but it's fairly simple. Maybe it's more complete than I think too? Anyway, it's been a great couple of weeks and it's just going to get better at this point. :) There are a bunch of things coming up, so stay posted.

Update of the House

We have had some big changes at the house in the past few weeks. Most of the exterior is done. The finish work has also been added to the interior.

Here are some pictures of the house:
This is how the house looked before I left for girls camp.


Flooring in the house:






Finish work in the house:






Exterior almost done:

Half Marathon

My dear hubby ran his first half marathon (and maybe his last as well). He did a fantastic job. He ran it under 2 hrs which is amazing to me.

The kids and I were able to see him run in and finish. Things just worked out right in order for that to happen.

Fun With Food

We have had some fun with some new recipes. I tried my hand at making some different cupcakes as well as cake bites. I know I posted earlier about that with links, but I found some pictures of the cake bites and thought I better share them.







We also tried some new pizzas one night. We did bbq chicken and an chicken, spinach, artichoke pizza. Here are some pictures of that as well.

Appliance Time....

Apparently it's time to go appliance shopping. The sooner we get the shopping done, the sooner they can start working on the kitchen. :) It's amazing how fast this process is. I'm anxious/excited for this time. So, this weekend we will be out buying a gas cook top, double wall ovens, microwave, and a dishwasher. If you have any thoughts about appliances, please share. I'll be gathering all the info I can between now and Friday/Saturday!

Things seem to be changing everyday. We now have shingles on our roof and insulation up in the basement (which is how it'll be for awhile). It also looks like all the electrical work has been put in. I got to run out there this morning for my run and it's fun to see the changes that happen and also to see it before anyone is there. I have seen some arriving during my runs, but that's about all.

Life sure is interesting, isn't it? I am so blessed!

House Update!

Here are the latest house pictures!

Front of house...


Back of house...


View from front room into the garage...


I have a ton more, but I don't think you can really tell what everything is, so that's why they aren't on the blog. If you want more, let me know and I will add some.

Last we heard, the finish date is for July 28th. We know the date may change, but for now that's what the plan is. For those wondering, we still have yet to sell this house. We started this path feeling really good about it and felt like we were directed in this route. I know that things will work out. I wish I knew the details, but I don't. We keep going along and things will be good. It's amazing the clarity we felt when we first thought about building. We had gone to the Temple and felt so good and then we talked to 4 different builders and only one got back to us. It sure made it easy for us to know where we needed to go next.

We are very excited about the progress on the new house and anticipate the sale of this one and the move that will follow. Trials make us stronger and through this one for me/us, I have gotten stronger (the lesson isn't over yet, so I have yet to get stronger) and learned much. I am grateful for the things that I have learned and the struggle that it has been. I just have to keep enduring to the end. :)

Thank you all for letting us bore you with the details. Also thank you for your help and advice and suggestions it has been great. Any other ideas and suggestions are welcome as well. :)