Inside Pictures / Can't Wait to Move In!!!

Laundry Room - upstairs


Dining Room

KitchenKitchen Pantry -It's Huge!!!

Downstairs Family Room Front entry, looking up staircase

Upstairs Family Room

Mud Room

Left half of Master Closet (who owns that many clothes?!?)

New House

We just found out a few hours ago that the negotiations on our new house are over.... we are getting it!!!!  I'm so excited I could cry!!!!!   It is a beautiful, brand new home.  It is the only one I REALLY  liked after touring at least 30 different homes.  Now I have to get all the mortgage work done, and hopefully we'll be closing and moving in before the end of August.  One of my favorite things about it, is that we can see the temple and the Teton mountains from the family room.  The boys haven't been inside, but Emily has.  She has picked out her room because it has a window seat, and she can see the temple from her window.  I will have almost 1-1/2 acres of land to landscape..... any ideas?!!!? 

Fast and Furious

Things are finally moving along!  Yay!!  After waiting for 6 months for our house to sell, we finally got an offer.  The time between the offer and the closing date was less than 2 weeks!  I am going to Montana on Monday to sign the closing papers and do some painting (as part of the agreement). (I'll be in Hamilton from the 6th till at least the 9th, and would love to see friends... hint.. hint...  :)   I'm so excited!  I spent the afternoon yesterday looking at houses here, and still haven't found the right one for us... but, I'm sure it will work out!!

This summer is flying by with the kids involved in all sorts of activities.  We've been meeting our cousins every week for a fun activity.  We've gone to the zoo, the temple visitors center, and several museums.  We made ice cream, painted wood models, make alka-seltzer rockets, and had picnics.... lots of fun! 

Tony's parents were here last weekend and we went out and spent 5 hours stuck in a mud hole.  The sheriff had to track us by our cell phone signal, then come pull us out.  It was scary and not so fun, but we made the best of it and are glad to be home safely! 

 We had a ward activity where they had a climbing wall... Em was the only one of our family brave enough to reach the very top!

We got to spend a Saturday morning at the air show, watching the cool planes!  It was so exciting to see them dive and spin... made me want to be flying with them!!



So... that's we've done with our summer so far!  I'll keep posting about all our fun adventures!!!

Stuff in our lives

I've been a terrible blogger lately!! I spend all my time in "survival mode" these days, and blogging is not a priority!

Emily got to be the star of her class play. Here she is as "Captain Comma". It was a great play! Em liked her part and was a great pirate captain!

School has been out for a week now, and we are having fun with summer classes. Jacob is taking an art class, Erik is in golf, Em is doing tennis, and I am stiff and sore from pilates! It's a good thing we have a reading program at the library and a movie program at the theater too, to keep us busy. We are having a hard time with no yard to mow and water and no garden to weed. I planted a couple tomatoes in pots, and the wind immediately whipped them to pieces!

We are enjoying all the activities available on campus. One of the kids favorite places is the "rock and mineral" display in the geology department. This shows the kids enjoying the crystals, and wishing they were rich enough to buy them!

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We are getting very anxious to sell our house in Montana so we can buy a house here. We recently got a notice that all pets MUST be on a leash outside. Our cat is not happy. He yowls all night to be let out, and none of us enjoy listening to him. When we do put a leash on him, he fights it and we also look really silly! It's hard to keep 3 kids and a cat quiet and busy in this small apartment, and I won't be very sad to leave it!

Em's Field Day

 

Today I had the fun experience of helping with the Lincoln Elementary Field Day.  The theme was "boot camp".  After a last-minute trip to DI for some camouflage pants, we were ready for the day.  The kids had 10 stations to go to.  My job was basically the "pack horse".  I carried around various jackets, backpacks, water bottles, lunches, hats, scarves, etc.... and tried to keep up with the kids.  Occasionally I applied sunscreen or escorted kids to the "latrines".  It was nice to spend the day outside and get to know some of Emily's new friends.  

Working in Montana

I made a very quick, spur of the moment trip back to Hamilton to do some work on our house. We've been praying and praying that it will sell soon. Tony and I decided that in order for us to try and hurry things along, a few jobs needed to be done. Thanks to the help of my parents, I got a lot done in a short time. My parents scraped the old paint off the inside front porch, and the outside back steps before I got there. Then, we scraped a bit more, primed, caulked, and started painting on Tuesday night. On Wednesday we got up early and did the rest of the painting. After a quick lunch at Perkins, we ran to Missoula for some vinyl tile. Then hurried back and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening laying it down. I think it looks 100% better than it used to. I just hope the time and money will be worth it, and that someone will buy my house soon!!!!!! It was a fun couple days...... THANKS MOM & DAD!!!!!

Current Events

We've been fighting with Emily for the past months about the scraggly state of her hair. It was a battle every morning to get it combed, and she would never wear a pony tail or anything to help keep it neat. She finally made the decision to get it cut, so I immediately called the beauty college and made an appointment. We had about 8-10 inches cut off, and she looks cute with her new bob. The girl that cut her hair was really excited when Emily said that she could keep her hair and use it for a "coloring" experiment.










Last weekend we worked on the boys' hiking merit badge. They have to do 5 ten-mile hikes, and one 20-mile hike! This was their 3rd 10-miler. We started at our apartment, and did a "exploring Rexburg" tour. Emily got tired after about 4 miles, so she and I walked about another mile back to our home while the guys kept hiking. The weather was beautiful and we all had a good time. Erik got a giant blister on the bottom of one foot, but other than a few other small blisters, that was the only mishap on the trip.











My sister invited us over for Easter dinner. We had a delicious meal, then a big egg hunt for the kids. To make it fair, the kids all divided up the eggs so that they each got the same amount... they are such good kids!!! Then we played a fun word game we made up using Scrabble tiles. I especially enjoyed it because I won!!!