SOLD! OUR FIRST HOME!!!

Oh my goodness gracious! I am sorry children of mine. I can't believe how very far behind I am on this blog of ours. Well enough is enough time to update it! Laundry and everything can wait till our family journal is caught up! What a busy year 2013 has turned out to be! Finally after 7 years of wonderful wedding bliss we have bought our first home and LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! We moved in April 13, 2013!

 

 These pictures are the before pictures of what I took anyways! It is a split level, but the flow of it is so nice! So let the tour begin: This would be our "Home Teacher Room!" We have since replaced the flooring in the entry way with a wood looking floor that flows into the kitchen. We took down the blinds, replaced the carpet, Painted, and Doug put up some Crown Molding to make it look more formal. The end result is lovely. I am so happy with it!

 Another side of the front room going into the dining room. Which apparently this is my only shot of it. I have a better one in the after photos!

 Also from the main room are the stairs to go up to the bedrooms. This hallway has also been painted and the carpet has been replaced. The banister is gone right now soon to be replaced just haven't found what I want yet!

 Another shot of the Front Room!

 Sorry these pictures are out of order but my computer doesn't want to cooperate! We have a 3 car garage! Love it!

 The back of our lovely home!

 Inside the garage! We love how deep it is. We can fit Doug's truck in and still be able to work at the work bench! Awesome!

 Well now we are back to the inside of the house. This would be Jayden's room. We kept the carpet but have painted a brown stripe using the tulip border as a template and put his favorite animal FROGS inside! Turned out very cute if I do say so myself!

 These are our doors before. We replaced all our doors with newer updated ones. The main reason for this is that whomever lived here before seemed to be a little paranoid. He had placed keypad locks on all the bedroom doors. When we dismantled them most of them had some ugly holes that just couldn't be fixed so New doors it was!

 This is our laundry room. This is our most interesting room. I don't know how people did their laundry in here before or maybe they just didn't use the half bath... I don't know but whatever they did they were creative. We put our washer and dryer in only to figure out that they did not fit. We would have to put one of them in a totally different position in order for it to fit. So long story short We had no washer or dryer for a long time so that we could expand this room 3 feet. Looks so amazing now. I love to do my laundry now!

 Now we are upstairs to the master. This is our master bath. Since this picture we have a new shower, new floor, and new counter top. It is also painted a new color as well.

 This is the kids bathroom off the hallway. We have since replaced the towel rack, the floor, added some wall decals, and it is now the Frog bathroom!

 This is Karston's room. Although you can't really see it in the pictures these rooms are nice and big. Since this picture was taken we have kept the carpet but added some paint, chair rail, and replaced the blinds with some curtains. Still unsure of what I really want to put on the walls so for right now it is still pretty plain.

 This is our 4th level. It has so much storage space I am in heaven. We have decided that I must have been a great stacker because it is pretty full now.

 My AWESOME kitchen. My must have was a big kitchen. We have a big extended family so we need a big kitchen to fit everyone! I am in love with it! We have since replaced the floors, polished the cupboards, removed the wallpaper border, and added some new lighting.

 Off the dining room are the stairs to go down to the 3rd level. AKA The Kid Zone! I might be a mean mom but I don't let the kids play anywhere in my house but the yard and the 3rd level. We cleaned up the stones on the fireplace the best we could and other than that it still looks the same. Still don't know what I want to do there and I decided while I have little people around I will let them break it in and enjoy it before I spend the money to replace anything. I do plan on Painting my mantel on the fireplace and replacing the insert in he fireplace since the one in there has been used to the point where it isn't very safe anymore.

 This is the guest bedroom on the 3rd level. I am still unsure as to what I want to do there but I have plenty of time to figure it out!

 This is our Master Bedroom. In here we have new window treatments, replaced the carpet, and painted. It has a his and her closet and the previous owner was so kind he left us the closet organizers which are so nice to have!

 This is the view from standing at the back of our house. We have about an acre lot and KC loves it!

 Here is the front. We plan to add some shutters at some point and remove the rocks. But that will have to wait until next year!

So there you have it our home. Our neighbors are wonderful and my kids have already adopted a lot  more grandmas! Heavenly Father truly knew what was right for our family. We couldn't believe how smoothly everything went and how wonderfully this home fits all our needs. We are truly blessed and have been so very happy with our new big decision! Pictures to come with our new look!

Picture day with Paige!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE pictures. Especially when it means I get to take some and play with my sweet baby Paige! Oh I just can't even begin to express how much I LOVE my nieces and nephews. They are just all so amazing and have stolen my heart completely. So I jump at the chance I get to spend some time with them. We took these little things while her blessing dress still fits. I love them all but the second picture has to be my absolute favorite. She just looks like a perfect little angelic baby doll! So anyways here are just a few of my favorites!

 All cheeks and Gums! Love this smile!!!

 Porter wanted to take a picture with Paige and his mom So we snagged this little number! I thought it turned out cute. To bad Chet wasn't there would have made one dang cute family pic!

So glad I have a sister-in-law that will let me take pictures every once in a while of these cutie pies! Love them all so much!

EASTER!

I have a confession to make. This year momma hasn't done so well with the whole Holiday situation. With getting ready for the big move etc. I didn't even think about Easter so ya my kids got NOTHING! No new Easter outfit, no Easter Basket filled with all sorts of goodies nothing. In fact we didn't even dye Easter eggs that is how bad I was.

 My mom did do an Easter Egg hunt out at her house so they did get to participate in at least ONE Easter activity.

 They had lots of fun. Karston took Jayden for a walk and then we went home and took a long nap!

 This dog is so spoiled. It literally thinks it is a baby. It likes to be held like a baby. Everything. Cracks me up. If you don't know this is my little sister's dog Mr. Buster Brown! We love him even if he is kind of dumb!

Baby Powder and Happy Birthday!

This little gem was lost for a time but has now been found! This picture cracks me up. I asked him if he got into the baby powder and he looked at me and said "No" in his cute little innocent way. I think you did baby Jayden. Thankfully this was pretty much the extent of baby powder mess! Love this little stinker!

 Well Grammie had a Birthday!!!! One year older she is! We did a small little birthday party for her at our house. We had dinner and the kids got her an Easter Lily, and wrapped her gift!

 See.... this is how my boys wrap gifts. I couldn't undo it because it just cracked me up. Boys and the funny little minds! So they put all their shoes first followed by....

 Lots and lots and lots of their books and eventually you got to.....

 Les Miserables! Grammie LOVES this show so we got it as soon as we could.

 This really isn't her real age. They were the only candles we had at the time.

Anyways it was all in all a successful party. We sure love you Grammie and appreciate all that you do for us all. We especially love all the creative games you play with us and for the snuggles. Karston's favorite thing about grammie is... She lets me play with her ears when I am tired and when she talks on the phone with him. They both like talking on the phone!!!

Jayden likes to snuggle and read stories but mostly play the piano and the phones with Grammie!

Happy Birthday!

Blast Off and Island Park!

I LOVE being a stay-at-home mommy! Best job I have ever had. Watching these 2 munchkins grow and discover new things every day is so much fun. My friend Kelli and I and some other moms did a play date and went to Blast Off for their tiny kid play group they do. It was so much fun. Kelli and I have kids close together in age and hers are both girls so we have already arranged the wedding plans and all! They are so cute to watch together and I love it. Here is little Miss Madison and Jayden playing in the ball pit. They loved it. Jayden especially he didn't really ever leave unless he wanted to go do what he does best which is climb. It took him a while to understand what a ball pit was but once he did he had a Ball! (Hahaha I am so clever huh!)

 Karston is a ride stealer. He doesn't care who is on the Tonka truck if he sees someone put a token in he is right over there sneaking his way onto the truck. I don't know who this kid is but Karston is loving it. Thankfully he always tells whomever "Thank you so much" when its over. Little stinker.

 Hehehe I love this picture and the static hair look! See this boy does have hair after all just look closely! His hair actually only grows on the top kind of like a mow hawk. I don't know what's wrong with the sides but they sure don't want to grow.

 Loves to climb up on EVERYTHING even slides!

 Karston LOVED the Zip line. He got pretty fast towards the end. Cute flying baby!

 Getting a running start!

 Like every year the First week in February is Island Park week! This year we waited to go on Sunday after church. We did this so that I would be able to go to my sweet baby Paige's baby blessing which I didn't want to miss. Wouldn't you know though that because I changed plans to leave on Sunday instead of Friday Jayden got sick and I didn't get to go to the blessing. I was soooooo sad. The night before we went out to my in-laws ate and watched a movie. It was lots of fun. Turns out though that really you should put a limit as to how much Licorice your baby boy should eat. He ate so much that it made him sick. Can I just tell you that Licorice and Milk does NOT create a lovely smell. That has got to be the worst smell EVER in the entire world. I have a pretty good stomach when it comes to barf, poo and anything else nasty smelling except for the smell of Licorice and milk. It took all that I had to keep myself from joining him on his throw up extravaganza. It was terrible. So anyways even though I really wanted to be there I felt I should probably stay home just to make sure he got it all out of his system and of course he did. So I missed it and was very grouchy the entire day because of it.

Anyways since the throwing up stopped we decided to still go to Island Park that day. It was such a nice break. I hate being stuck at home for months at a time I have to go somewhere to keep myself sane. Thankfully I have been blessed with 2 babies that love to be in the car I don't know what I would do if they hated their carseat. Karston and Jayden were so excited to be there they tackled Grammy and wouldn't let go. It was so funny.

 After a while it was quiet time this apparently is what Grampy considers quiet time. Phone time!!! One thing about my boys they LOVE LOVE LOVE being with their Grandpa's. They have their own special thing they do with each one of them and you can just tell how much they love their time with them.  Eventually they did both fall asleep all snuggled up to each other.

 I found some clay so we took it up there and played around with it. Karston is really into Dinosaurs right now so he made a dinosaur. Didn't he do such a great job?

 Jayden mostly just liked to squish it between his fingers. He is really into squishing things lately. Cracks me up!

 Good friends making art masterpieces!

 We took long naps and slept in to which is the thing I love the most about going up there. It is just so relaxing and nice.

 We went swimming a couple times. I went more to sit in the hot tubs. Saturday Doug and I went skiing and snowboarding and there was NOT a muscle in my body that did not KILL me. I hurt so bad I could barely walk. I wasn't great but I was surprised that I did remember some of it since I hadn't been for 10+ years. It was fun none the less. Thankfully Doug's friend Mark and Tawnya came so that they could go have fun while I just did my own thing down the Bunny Hill until I felt comfortable going down the mountain. It was fun watching Doug have a good time. I wish he would take the time to do something fun for himself more often. Anyways back to Island Park.....

 Proof I was there just don't look to closely at this picture.

 At first Jayden wasn't to excited to go swimming so he hung out with Grammy for a little while. Then I put him in and he held on for dear life along the edge. He is my singer and when he gets nervous besides his chin shaking a hundred miles a minute he hums to himself "I am a Child of God." So as long as he was humming he was okay and slowly got braver and braver and let go of the wall.

 The boys walking up to the Swimming Pool. Hehehe they make me smile!

 Jayden wearing Grampy's hat and just being absolutely ADORABLE in it! He makes any hat just so cute!

 That face.... That sweet little Doug face just makes my heart skip a few beats. Love you Jayden!

 The boys all snuggled out in the living room and the girls got the back bedroom. The pull out bed however is a terrible bed so after the first night Grampy slept on the couch Jayden slept in the Pak-N-Play and Karston camped out by the side of the couch with Grampy.

 Lots and Lots of Snuggle time with Grampy.

 Of course you can't go to Island Park and not go sledding. Jayden would live outside if we would let him. He loved the sled and loved playing outside and eat the snow!

 Love these boys more than life itself. They are ready for their sledding adventure.

 Karston loved pulling/pushing Jayden around the front of the Condo.

Anyways that is what we were up to in February and I think I am just a couple posts away from being caught up. I love my family, I love my boys and I love love love the fact that I have been blessed with many people who love my family. February was a great month and the posts will just keep getting more and more exciting and adventurous so stay tuned!!!!