We Are In

We have moved in. Walls painted and cleaned. Yucky carpet ripped out and new lovely and wonderful carpet in (can you tell that I like our carpet a lot?). The boxes are almost all unpacked. The kitchen is organized, and oh how nice it is to have SO much space to work with. We just have pictures to put up on the walls and books to unpack. All of the books that are still packed are mostly Danny's chemistry things, and they can stay in boxes as long as Danny wants.

Our house is truly beginning to feel like home. The more money we use to fix things the more grateful I am to patient in-laws that let us live with them for such an extended period of time to save and find the perfect home. It has made all of the difference unpacking, knowing that I will not need to pack everything up again in a few years. We even threw away all of the boxes that we have been holding on to for who knows how many years and moves.

I know that I heard and learned about all of the "little expenses" from various people, and thought I was prepared. But these things add up so quickly. I never would have thought that I would need to purchase new shower curtain rods, because the rods left behind don't let our shower curtains hang down far enough. Or purchase new toilet seats, because the ones left behind we too gross to even want to clean, and I just threw them out.

Anyway, it is fun and so good to be done with all of this extended move. Sorry, to all of you out there that want to know my new phone number and address. We still don't have our Internet services figured out. So, I am posting this from my in-laws, and hopefully I can shoot you all a quick e-mail with all of the info. Thanks for all of your support and interest.

Swinging

It seems like all of my posts have been home themed lately. Thankfully, Allen has helped me mix things up a bit. Then I remembered that I had this video of all of the kids together swinging. It is just too cute to not post, so here is another video. This time of my adorable kids swinging together :)

Allen Is Walking

Just in the last week something clicked in Allen's head and he figured out how to go from cruising around the furniture to walking. I haven't been helping him with figuring out walking because I am still not quite ready for another kid to chase around. But he decided to do it all on his own. Even though he is already causing difficulties with his new found ability, he sure is cute to watch toddle around. Where has the time gone? Where is my little baby? Anyway, this is a video of him when he was first starting to figure things out last week. He is much better now and can walk across a room if he wants to.

The Pink Room

After some persuasion I am posting pictures of the hideously ugly room that we are repainting in our home. Unfortunately - or maybe it is fortunate - the pictures do not do the room full justice. The paint is so bright that you can see a pink glow reflecting in the hallway before you even enter the room. Furthermore, the neon green diamonds are sparkly. How many coats of primer and paint do you think it will take to cover up this sight-blinding room?

FINALLY

We finally closed on our home today. I can truthfully state "our home", because it really is now :) So, now I get to dive head first into picking paint colors, unpacking (another FINALLY), settling in, getting to know a new ward and planting a real garden! I can taste the fresh tomatoes already. Yum!

Our Soon To Be Home

So, I realized (thanks Sarah) that I still haven't posted anything about the home we are trying to purchase. We have just two weeks until we close on "our" home. So, I think I am safe posting a picture of the home and giving a little more information about it. This home fits all of our requirements that we decided we didn't want to budge on, except it is not a rambler. It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs. The upper level of the home is actually two levels, because the master suite is on a level all of it's own. It has an unfinished basement, which we like because it gives us room to grow. It has a fenced in backyard and plenty of space for a garden and play area for the kids. It is on a very quite street, which is awesome, because one of the homes that fell through was on a busier road and I was never quite comfortable with that. Much to Mary's delight, it has a bright pink bedroom with neon green diamonds that sparkle (I wish I had a picture, it is one of a kind). Unfortunately for Mary, we are going to paint over it before we move in. The bright pink and green are just a little to much for me to handle :) I can't think of anything else I want to say about it right now, and since the kids are calling . . . I will call it good for now.

Valentine's Day For Me

The first part of my Valentine's Day awesomeness started back in December with me receiving a new Miche diaper bag for Christmas. For those of you foreign to Miche, of which I am now surprisingly a big fan of, it is a purse company which make bags with outer exchangeable shells. I received the base bag and a diaper bag shell for Christmas (the super trendy green one if you actually look at the site) and Danny got me a new superfabatasic shell for Valentine's Day.All of you out there who know me, know that I am not a bag/purse person. I am satisfied carrying the diaper bag that you get for free from the hospital when you have a child. However, these shells make it SO fun to carry a purse. There is a huge variety of shells, and there are several that actually fit my personality and style. Furthermore, they release new shells every month, thus retiring older ones at big discounts :) which takes a way the guilt/qualms I have about spending money on a purse.

O.k. I have rambled enough about the fantastic Miche Bag Co. On to part two. What part two, you might ask, Danny really when above and beyond this year! We acquired an old oak gliding rocking chair awhile back when some neighbors up the street moved out. It was beat up and ready for the Salvation Army as far as I was concerned, but Danny saw potential and decided to fix it up and refinish it. Well, that was months ago and I had forgotten all about the rocker. So, when I got to see it all spruced up and refinished, it just made me deeply thrilled. I have wanted a gliding chair for awhile, and even more since Sarah got one way back when in Ohio. So, this just really made me happy. I don't have any pictures of it yet because I keep forgetting to take some. It is currently in the garage because there is no room in Danny's parents home for it, but soon we will have a home of our own and there will be plenty of space to fill in our new home.

Which, leads me to part three! Not completely related to Valentine's Day, but still has made me recently ecstatic. After months of looking and walking through what seems like hundreds homes - we have finally finished all paper work, loan stuff, grant stuff, home inspections (yada, yada, yada) on our end of everything and are closing on our very first home on March 24! In just a little over a month we will be moving out of Danny's parents house! Even though it has been a great experience and we are grateful and deeply indebted to them, we are so excited to be out on our own again. So, that is the excitement that has been our life for the last little bit. I will post more about this home in the future as things become more solidified. Sometimes, these things can just not work out in weird ways. Right now we feel good about everything so we don't see that happening, but no use getting your hopes up as well as mine if things don't work out :)