Home Sweet Home: Part II

What to do on yet ANOTHER rainy day? Update the blog! A few more pics of the house:

And our new favortie thing to do: be porch monkeys. LOVE the porch (excuse all the clutter). I think my antique church pew from New York is perfect for it. Now I need to invest in some nice porch furniture. We've just been using camping chairs. :)

Home Sweet Home: Part I

I decided to just post a few pictures at a time, because I only seem to get a chance to do blogging late at night when the kids are in bed. I have to make sure I leave time to make that chocolate milkshake I've been craving all day and get in a little "r&r" in front of the boob tube before it gets past my bedtime! :) Not to mention my house is rarely all clean all at once, and you know I refuse to post pictures of a messy house, because I want you all to believe it always looks this way - yeah, right!

Here's the girls' room:
I'm really loving how much natural light this house has, but I was worried that it might feel kind of small - it's only 2,000 sq. ft., about 800 square feet less than our old house, but with the 10 ft. ceilings downstairs and the cathedral ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms, it feels really roomy and so far hasn't felt small to me. There's currently no garage built, which is good and bad. Bad, because of all people to NOT have a garage, we should not be without. Keith has a lot of tools from when he was in business for himself, and well, we (HE) just has a lot of stuff. The good part though is we can design and build the garage we want, and we'll also add a mud room and bonus room. That will give us some extra square footage down the road.


But with 1-1/2 acres, the kids definitely have room to run around outside.

(The backyard). Our property ends just past the tree line. We're moving our two horses Buddy and Lacy down next weekend, but we still have to install a section of electric fence and build a little shelter for them first.


This is looking over to the neighbor's yard. Eventually we want to build a pole barn just like this. Isn't it cool? I guess you can't really see it that great from the picture, but it has a cupola at the top and a cute little chicken coop off the back. I really enjoying watching the hens and rooster in the field while I do my dishes in the morning.

This is looking out the front door. The neighbors have a pond across the street that is run-off from their artesian well (natural spring). Ruger has gone swimming in there once, and the kids too (with life jackets and mom's supervision of course). We've stressed to the kids that they are never, ever to go over there without mom and dad, but thank goodness it's sectioned off by electric fence and so far no issues.

Orting

Quite honestly, this post is the last thing I have time for today, but it's more fun than everything else that "needs" to be done. Here are a few snapshots I took of Mt. Rainier the other day. This is the view of the mountain as you come into town:

Also, here are some "sneak peaks" at a couple of my favorite things about the house:

The unique wood floors:

The fireplace. Keith and I keep saying we can't wait for winter so we can use the wood stove and sip hot cocoa. It's gonna be COZY!

More pics coming when I have my act together, but for now I've got a crying baby so gotta run!

Happy Girl @ 6 Months

Tori was 6 months old on May 1. She started sitting up on her own just a couple of days before that. She's a pretty happy girl and is only fussy for a reason - hungry, poopy, tired, etc. Here's what she's looking like now:

We are getting settled into our new house, although poor Keith has pretty much been still living at our Lake Stevens house trying to get the rest of the garage crap out of there (although depending who you ask it's not crap it's "very important tools and things" ;) He's also been working hard getting the house whipped back into shape - replacing the boys' bedroom door, patching a couple of holes in the walls, painting, repairing damaged tile, etc., so we can get our $1,500 security deposit back. All of this is trying to be done working the night shift, taking evening classes at school 2 nights a week, and trying to catch a few hours of shut-eye during the day. The kids' behavior here at home this last week has been horrendous. I'm guessing it's all the changes going on, dad not being here; however, today they have been really great, and wouldn't you know it the sun is shining and it's the first beautiful day we've had in a long time, so I think everybody has a little "sunshine in the soul today!"

I am feeling a lot less like I've moved to Hickville now that I have a phone that works and INTERNET. The kids have two new little friends that live next door that they've been getting a long great with, school has gone pretty good, and Mt. Rainier made an appearance just for me last night. I hadn't seen it since moving here, because it's been covered in clouds. I couldn't even remember exactly where it was located, and it is a gorgeous sight to behold! I promise pictures are coming soon. I'm just a little too prideful to post pictures of a messy house, and that is exactly what it is right now. :)

House Update

The appraisal came in on the house, and it looks like we are good to go. Our closing date keeps getting pushed up - now it's April 9. There's no way I'll be ready to move in next weekend, so we'll probably do a big move on Saturday, the 17th. We are excited but nervous, since it's a new area with new schools, a new ward and all the adjustments that will come with that.

Also, you probably won't see too much blogging from me in the next month, not just because I'll be busy packing and unpacking, but because they won't be bringing broadband to the boonies anytime soon. I'm a little stressed about our internet connection up at the new house (DSL is not an option), but we do know that the 3G internet on Keith's phone works up there, so I'll at least be able to keep up with facebook, etc. We will probably end up getting a laptop since we need a new computer anyway, and I guess you can use your 3G phone as a "modem." Other than that, it would have to be satellite internet, which I've heard is worse than dial-up. :)

Next post will probably be pictures of the new place!

5 Months Old (Already?!!)

I know it's kind of cliche to say how fast time goes and how quickly your baby grows up, but I really cannot believe Tori is 5 months old today! Along with the many moments of joy she gives me, I get this little pain in my heart to see these days slipping away, knowing she'll never be this little again. So, I tell myself it is O.K. when the housework gets put on hold and instead I just sit and hold her. Here are a few things I don't want to forget about what she is doing right now (and what we do to her):

She is fascinated with her feet. Whenever I change her diaper, the feet go in the mouth. If I wiggle my fingers in front of her face, she is also fascinated by this and tries to put them in her mouth.

She LOVES her little toys. Whenever I hold one out for her, she lunges for it.

She doesn't mind it when Ruger steals a lick of burp off her face. :)

She is a big time thumb sucker. None of the other kids have done this, so it's been kind of fun, and it's really CUTE.

She can often be found sitting in her Bumbo on the island counter in the kitchen. I like to say Queen Victoria is sitting in her throne looking down upon her wild animal kingdom! We also like to say in a sing-song voice to her: "Baby in the Bumbooooo!"

She loves to watch her older siblings (scary, I know). But once in awhile, she'll be watching them, and she'll just start laughing. She thinks they're pretty entertaining and funny. Although, when she's had enough of a certain child in her face, she will scream as if she's saying, "Get away from me!"

Current nicknames: Tori Girl, Muffin

I've been great at taking a lot of pictures of her, just not great at posting them. Partially, because my computer is on the fritz, and I don't have the patience to deal with the whole downloading/uploading process! Here are some pictures I took this last month while she was 4 months old:

This Proves My Point

Time really does fly by! Look at how much the kids have changed in just 3 years. I thought it would be fun to post these two pictures and compare them: top picture was taken last Saturday and the bottom picture is Easter 2007.

Prayers Please

or at least a few good thoughts sent our way. Keith and I put an offer on this house last week, and it was accepted! We are officially in escrow now, but the one thing I am a bit nervous about is the appraisal. The county has this house assessed about $47,000 less than what we are trying to buy it for. I know county appraisals tend to be on the low side, but this seems really low to me, and obviously the bank won't lend you money for more than a house is worth, nor would we want to buy it for more than it is worth. We are really hoping it works out. We have spent the last 6 months searching for houses, looking at a lot, and only liking very few (we put an offer on a house in Lake Stevens and were out-bid). Keith absolutely does not want to live in a neighborhood anymore, which I am O.K. with too, however it really narrows down our options around here. I really would like a little land to call my own as well. This house has 1.23 acres. The down side is that it's in Orting, which is currently about 2 hours south of where we live now and a lot farther away from most of our family here in Washington. Although, the commute for Keith would be about the same, and it's actually closer to where he goes to school. The good thing is, we really love the town. It's one of the oldest cities in Washington and has all the cool, old buildings along Main Street. It's also located right in the shadow of Mt. Rainier and the views are gorgeous! I think I will be pretty disappointed if this doesn't work out, but we feel pretty good about it and have tried to be prayerful about the whole process. So, if everything goes as planned, we are set to close April 21 and will move Saturday, April 24 (our 12 year anniversary)! We really love the house - it reminds us of the "northwest" version of the house we owned in New York!

Trip To The San Juans With Ouma & Dado

This was a fun day making some great memories! We had a couple little "oopsies" with the ferry though. The first being that we (or should I say Keith...) read the ferry schedule wrong, so instead of going to Orcas Island like planned, we had to make a quick change of plans and go to San Juan Island so Kären and Bruce could be back in Seattle to spend some time with Sara and her family. However, on our return, we went to catch the 3:30 p.m. ferry back to the main land and were informed the 3:30 p.m. boat had been full basically since we set foot on the island, and the next one was not until 7:30 p.m! Keith was an hour late to work that night, and I had to go buy Tori more diapers and a new outfit, since I had not planned to be gone that long. Kären and Bruce ended up walking on the 3:30 p.m. ferry so they could get back, and Kyle and Lindsey were kind enough to come pick them up on the other side in Anacortes.

Valentine's Day

Being that Valentine's Day was on a Sunday this year, it was a holiday weekend, and Keith's mom and her husband Bruce were in town from New York, we blessed Tori. (Anne Elyse was blessed on the 4th of July, so I think it's kind of neat my girls were both blessed on holidays).

Now, I consider myself a pretty practical person, so I opted to not spend a ton of money on a beautiful, long, white "blessing dress." Well, at least the ones I loved were $100 or more. I found a few online that were a bit cheesy looking for less. I didn't have one from Anne Elyse, since she wore the pretty white dress my sister was blessed in, and since Tori was already 3 months old, that dress would not have fit her. So, I found this cute little dress at Macy's. I think she looks pretty cute, and I felt good afterwards about not spending a ton of money on a dress she would only wear once. She'll get some good use out of this one.

Keith gave her a beautiful blessing, although I think he cut it a bit short, because she started to fuss! Present at her blessing were: my parents, my brother Ryan and his family, my Grandma, Keith's brother Kyle and his family, Keith's mom and her husband Bruce, Keith's sister Sara and her family. After sacrament meeting, we had a yummy luncheon at our house.

(Austin LOVES having his picture taken - just like his Dad).