Snow

All week we've been hearing about a big snowstorm heading our way. Wednesday brought with it a few flurries followed by brilliant sunshine - repeated over and over.

Katie enjoyed watching the big snowflakes

We woke up Thursday morning to about 6 inches of fresh powder. School was delayed two hours which was just enough time for the kids to play outside and enjoy a little sledding at the neighborhood park.

Abigail is always the most cooperative subject

Thankfully Carly still likes getting her picture taken

Easily influenced by his oldest sister

Justin worked from home and spent a little while outside starting snowball fights with the kids.

Poor Katie had to watch all the fun from inside.

Blessed

As much as I enjoy doing tax returns, I’ve got the best job ever!

Nothing, NOTHING, is better than being at home with my kiddos!

Katie asleep in my arms - taken on my cell phone just moments ago

House Update

We made two trips up to the house this week (Friday and Saturday). Friday was to meet with the superintendent to discuss an issue with the placement of the light fixtures in the master bath. The master bathroom has been one concern after another – some due to regretting some of the selections we made and other issues that were completely out of our control. The most difficult part of building this home is realizing it won’t be perfect. We stink at making decisions and I’m the Queen of Returns – neither which mix well with putting together an entire home. Thankfully, the awesome, wonderful things far outweigh the things I wish we would’ve done differently.

Changes this week include:

The fireplace being completed, carpet installed, and trim painted

The kitchen backsplash installed (still needs grout though) and most of the appliances are in place

Justin is double checking the measurements of the space for our fridge so we can purchase one this weekend

The countertops in the downstairs bath and master bath were installed

Here Jason is having fun playing with the drawers in the downstairs bathroom. This was the marble that was supposed to be installed in the master bath as well but they couldn’t find a slab long enough (sniff, sniff - I really like it)

The kids bathroom just needs a mirror and it’s ready for use (oh, and a little cleanup would be nice too)

The landscaping is complete and they were painting the fence yesterday afternoon.

Unfortunately, the homeowners association dictates the color of the fence and it’s a dull grayish color. This is the last picture of our fence looking a-natural.

Miss Piggy

Thanks to two older sisters that enjoy a good laugh – this little cutie…

keeps doing this…

House Update

Another busy week! Wait, it’s only Wednesday morning; we haven’t even reached mid-week yet. Good news is that after almost 3 months on the market we are finally starting to see some people out looking at houses. In fact we’ve had 4 showings in the last week and a half. Hopefully we will find our buyer soon.

Last Thursday I was heading up north to attend the temple with other women from our stake and thought I’d stop by the house beforehand. I roped a good friend into coming along with me – this was my first time having someone with me besides Justin so that made it even more fun to show someone around.

Justin and I had just been up there 5 days before (only 4 working days) but at the pace these workers are moving we knew there would be lots of changes.

First the landscaping in the front yard was done:

I met our painter while we were there and he said since all the millwork was in ahead of schedule he would be painting right away (likely already done by now). The living room and dining room prepped and ready to be painted:

The granite was installed in the kitchen and it looks fabulous. The stonework on the fireplace was also just about complete.

We went out back to check out the fence and noticed they had brought in dirt and laid some of the sod.

When I turned around to check out our “free” sidewalk I noticed we had a few visitors.

Three deer were wandering around the park across the street. We’ve seen deer on several occasions so I’m thinking they will be about as common as cats roaming around our current neighborhood.

10 Months Old

Few notables this past month:

I finally stopped swaddling Katie at night. I'm pretty sure we broke some kind of record.

Katie's second bottom tooth has emerged.

Katie has found her voice and enjoys squealing and growling.

Jason had Katie cracking up when I was taking her monthly picture today

Katie likes to play with the TV remote, try to open the cupboards and drawers in my bathroom, and get under my desk and play with cords.

Katie sleeps clear through the night - 12+ hours. I know this sounds crazy, but part of me misses getting up with her. Even stranger is that I have a harder time getting up in the morning now than when I wasn't getting a solid nights rest.

These two have bounded more this past month than in Katie’s whole short life. She's totally cool hanging out with him and he's comfortable enough now that I’ve regained some freedom of my own.

Katie also digs this little man

Katie is managing to get around in an army tuck n' drag sort of way. Here's are two video clips to illustrate:

Sadly, it won't be long before she figures out how to crawl (or heaven forbid, walk.)

And just a cute picture from my phone of Katie performing the yoga move “downward facing dog”

Happy Valentines Day!

The girls have been so excited for their Valentines Day parties at school today that they were up early – 6:30am early. That meant Miss Katie was also up earlier than usual. The day was even more anticipated because Grandma Fletcher bought each of the girls a special Valentines outfit to wear.

I need to try to a better picture of the girls after they get home from school. By this time Katie was already ready for a nap and wasn’t very cooperative. Letting her chomp on Abigail’s treat for her teacher only kept her still for a moment.

We had plenty of time for a special Valentines breakfast.

The kids were excited to open up Grandma Kesler’s Valentine – and were thrilled to find a $5 bill for each of them.

Happy Valentines Day!

House Update

Last week was quite the rollercoaster ride – we met on site Tuesday to discuss our options for correcting the front walkway – in the end we decided we would live with it as is and accept their bribe to pour a concrete path from the front driveway to the porch in the backyard. Every day there after there was some sort of decision/dilemma that needed to be made ASAP – placement of the prep sink in the kitchen island, specific diagram of our TV position above the fireplace, and the most recent dilemma of the countertop fabricator being unable to locate a slab of marble long enough for our master bath. I-yi-yi

Last night I responded to emails from our builder representative, the building superintendent, the lighting company, and our real estate agent. For a few moments the ball is out of my court, but I’m bracing myself for their responses. Yes, it has been stressful, but also very fun and exciting too. Thankfully, everyone we work with has been awesome.

We had to make yet another trip up to the house on Saturday to deliver the TV mount we purchased (and spent all evening assembling) on Friday night. Although it had only been a few days since our last visit there were lots of changes.

Unobstructed view of the front of the house.

We have interior doors. This was taken from the office looking out into the entryway and coat closet. The doors and trim work still need to be painted.

We have a mantel, although I think a tad bit high for mounting a television above it. Do you agree?

We have fence posts.

We have bathroom tile.

Justin selected this small glass tile as an accent in our master bath. So far that's my favorite thing in that bathroom.

House Update

I’m shocked! Again, two weeks went by since my last visit to the new house and the amount of work that has been done since then is really amazing. Justin drove by last week so I knew that the exterior had been painted and the concrete poured (not to my liking, thus the reason for the visit on Tuesday), but I was shocked to walk into the house and see the wood floor installed and most of the cabinetry in place – some of the tile work in the bathrooms has even been started.

Here are a few pictures:

They were putting in the sprinkler system so lots of workers on site – couldn’t really ask them to move their trucks for a second could I? The only painting left on the exterior of the house is the garage door and staining the front door.

The patio in the backyard. We thought the curved patio would work well with our circular dining set.

Our kitchen island is huge (almost 9 feet long) – we should be able to fit four barstools along this side. While we were there the granite guy was taking measurements and I asked (begged) him to do everything possible to find a slab of granite large enough that we can just have one piece across the top, he made a phone call and yippie-i-o it’s a done deal. Do you have any idea how heavy that slab of granite is? 1200 pounds! Another shocker - countertops will be installed next week! I can’t wait to see them.

Family room and kitchen from the nook area. The interior of the house has already been painted a light beigey color that we selected – thankfully, I love it.

Family Night

A few weeks ago Jason and I ran into the Supermall to kill some time before Katie’s doctor appointment (oh, so Katie was with us too but her role is minimal to nonexistent in my story). When Jason saw the carousel he was awestruck and asked if he could take a ride. I've been asked this question many, many times over the nearly 10 years that we've been here and my answer has always been the same... no.

We walked by it again on our way out and I had a brilliant idea. We would surprise the kids with a ride on our beloved Supermall carousel before we moved. Last night was the night.

Abigail commented to Justin that she wished it went faster (maybe we should have taken her 5-7 years ago when carousels were a little more exciting) – even though the ride wasn’t fast and wild, the kids had a fun time.

After our little four minute adventure, we visited McDonalds with free coupons in hand. The plan was to get ice cream cones, but the kids were still hungry so we used the free hamburger coupons instead. We visited a second McDonalds on the way home to use the free ice cream coupons. Yes, we are that cheap.

Jason was the last one done – he couldn’t peel his eyes off the TV reflecting on the window in front of him.

All in all, a great night out with the family.