Home-Owners' Adventures

So, we have now been living in our new home for just over two weeks. I am so not on the ball at keeping this blog up-to-date. So, sorry to those of you who have checked back wondering what has been going on in our lives.... Things have been going great. We are really enjoying our home and are kind of settling in a little now. There are still boxes to unpack and still the occasional inconvenience of not knowing which box something is still packed in, but we are getting there. I figure if all I manage to do is unpack even just one box in a day, then eventually the boxes will all be unpacked. Right? We are kind of still living out of some boxes in our master bedroom since we still need to buy a dresser. We threw out our old splintering one when we moved and we haven't managed to replace it yet. Anyone know where we can buy a nice dresser for a bargain?

Saturday we bought a lawnmower. Actually we went on a shopping spree at Lowe's. Well, we had a 10% off coupon, so we bought a whole bunch of stuff at once. We dropped Dallin off at Primary activity day at 10am, rushed to the store and went through the aisles and got a bunch of things that we needed. Then we rushed back to pick him up just in time, at 11:30. Later that day, Mark and Dallin mowed our very first lawn for the very first time. That was pretty momentous for us after five years of apartment and townhome life. Silly me, I could've cried if I let myself. It is really something to see my boys playing outside in our own backyard. When we moved in the lawn was beige and dead, and already, with just two weeks of watering it is fairly green. It makes me smile to look out the window at the greening grass. What is it about plants that elicit so much satisfaction? Not to mention these cute guys...

I had this vision of three square picture frames with black-and-white pictures of our boys on a wall in our family room. I'd talked about what I was going to do some day with Mark and so for Mother's Day he had the pictures done for me! He chose and enlarged three photos, put them in the frames, and even had some custom mats made. I was so impressed. I know, I know, you are all jealous of my husband's skills. Here is what they look like on our wall:

We'd love to have you over if you'd like to see our house!!!

Fun Times for Dallin

Our little Dallin is growing up so fast!! A couple of days ago he went to a primary activity day in our new ward. They asked the kids to dress up as missionaries and they got to go on a "plane ride" and travel to different countries. Before he left for the activity we took these pictures.

Today he went to a birthday party for our next-door neighbor, Jimmy. Dallin was so excited to go. He was in the bathroom getting dressed into his swimming suit and I could hear him talking to himself: "Yeah! Water games! That is fun! And.....AWESOME!!" I just LOVE his enthusiasm about life. Why don't I ever let myself get that excited about anything?

He colored the wrapping paper and wrapped Jimmy's gift all by himself. Then, I wrote Jimmy's name and Dallin's name on a separate paper as an example and Dallin copied it as best he could on his gift. In this picture you can see some of the letters for "Jimmy" scattered around, and "Dallin" is almost readable. Pretty good for 3 1/2 I think! When he got home from the party he was telling Mark and I all about it. Take a lesson from Dallin and get so excited about something today that you yell, "Yeah!"

Is there finally a movie worth seeing out there?

Hey, if you haven't heard of this movie yet you've got to check out this trailer:
http://www.expelledthemovie.com/video.php


Looks intriguing, right? It starts this Friday, April 18th at select theaters, though who knows how long it will stay at theaters--so go see it while you can.

So Small

I am not too into music videos but somehow I happened across this one of Carrie Underwood's "So Small." I think you should watch it. Then, you might want to show it to some of the people that you love. I tried my best and I could not get the video to show on my blog. If you are interested, check it out here: http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--49495368

I still think of this video and the message of the lyrics sometimes, though it might help if I thought of them more often. Isn't it interesting how often in our lives we tend to forget to look at the bigger picture of our lives? We get caught up in tiny, insignificant details and forget what life is all about. I definitely need that reminder to wake up and remember that hey, when I look at my life as a whole instead of focusing on the grains of sand, I am floored by how incredibly I've been blessed!

Marily

Buying a Home!!

So yes, we are finally buying a home of our very own! YEAH! We should close on the home in about two weeks and plan to be moved by the end of the month. Of course we are sad to leave all of our nearby friends, but we are looking forward to having our own home, and a backyard for our boys, a kitchen that has counterspace, and some room (if only a little) for company. Give us a couple of weeks into May then STOP BY (though I'm not bold enough to post the address here...you'll have to call)!

Here's a picture of my kitchen:

We actually went to see this home months and months ago, towards the end of last year. We saw it once and really loved it but it was a bit out of our price range. So, we hoped the price would go down and looked at other houses. After a few months we saw many more homes and nothing that we liked as much. The house was still on the market but the price hadn't dropped so we decided we'd be silly not to at least make an offer that we could afford, even if it was rejected. It was rejected. But, two days later the seller's agent called our agent and after a little negotiating, the rest is history!

By the time we had the inspection done we had only seen the house one time, and that was four months prior so I was actually a little worried that things were not going to be quite as great as I remembered. But, to my surprise, the house seemed even more beautiful than I remembered. After the inspector left and we were there with just our agent I remember laying on this counter you see in the front of the kitchen and stretching my arms out. I could not even reach the edges of the counter. I was so excited since the counter space in our townhome was divided into one to two foot portions around the kitchen.

Sweet Little Adam

Hopefully I am not branding my children for life. I find myself saying, "Dallin is the funny one and Adam is the sweet one." I probably should stop saying that before they get old enough to get it engrained into their consciousness. Because of course Dallin is often sweet and Adam is often funny and I don't want to lock them into an expected personality for their entire lives.
That being said, Adam does have a sweet side that sets him apart from his brother. He loves to carry an animal around with him and lately he has been SO into giving hugs and kisses. It is definitely every mother's dream. He'll give Dallin and I random hugs and kisses often throughout the day. We might be wrestling on the bed and just when you think you're getting a tackle, instead you get a hug and a smooch. So sweet. If a lady notices him at the store, Adam cocks his head and gives his shy, sweet little smile.

Our Funny Dallin

Ever since Dallin could make eye contact, he's been making people laugh. At 1 1/2 years old, he had a stand-up routine. He would take our microphone and babble, "bah buddah bah, buddah," pause, then laugh loudly, "Ah hah hah hah!" He is always making jokes. One of my favorites lately was this exchange:

Mom: Dallin, could you go upstairs and get me a diaper? No, could you get me two diapers?
Dallin: What's two diapers for?
Mom: One for Adam and one for the diaper bag.
Dallin (with a slight pause and a smirk on his face): The diaper bag needs changed?

I thought that was a pretty good joke for a three-year-old. Better than most of mine at least.