We are a happy family!: July 2014 Adventures Part Two

I can not believe how much we packed into July!

For years we had been watching the housing market knowing that we could not live in our 970 square foot home for very long, especially not with 3 little boys running around. But we never seemed to find a house that would suit our needs, until June of 2014. A home just five blocks north of our current home went on the market For Sale by Owner. I drove by that home millions of times in our eight years of living in Heber and never gave it much notice. When it went up and they were asking $365,000.00 we almost dismissed it - that was way over what we thought our budget could be. But out of curiosity we looked, and I am SO glad we did. This was our future home. Jared and I both knew it right away, but didn't dare hope because of the price tag, we looked at a handful of others, met with a financial adviser and within a week knew we had to put an offer on this house and hope for the best. Our offer (contingent on the sale of our home) was accepted. So all of a sudden we had just a few weeks to get our home on the market. Fortunately with the kitchen renovation finishing up, we had a nice place to show. I worked SO hard for two weeks, re-staining the cabinets, packing and decluttering, repainting, planting hundreds of flowers, weeding and redecorating. On July 3rd we put the house on the market, with lots of great photos!

Before and After staining the cabinets - if I had known it would be such an improvement I would have done it years ago.

The boys loved to "help" paint.

I must say, for an amateur I am very pleased with how the pictures of our home turned out. I can't believe how hard I worked to stage our home so it would sell fast.

kitchen - I love the new tile - wish I could have taken it with us. :)

back yard patio - many wonderful memories and lots of hard work went into this patio.

Living room - view one

bedroom 1 - I still love how Trent's nursery was decorated!

living room - view two - I love how this picture shows most of the layout of our house.

bedroom 2 - for the tiny space that it was, it sure managed to accomplish a lot of goals, sleeping for two, cozy reading space and lots of toy, book, and clothing storage.

bathroom 1 -

bathroom 2 -

house view 1 - our yard work was always a challenge for me - but this picture makes our home look like it was very well landscaped and maintained - I guess it was, even though it was a lot of work and the weeds would never go away.

House view 2 - I loved all the flowers - that was another thing I wish I had done yearly while we lived there and not just for the people buying our house.

Bedroom view 1 - its clean! Why can't it always look like this?

Bedroom view 2 - So inviting!
I am so happy we have these pictures to remember our old house by. The day after we listed the house on several different sites online, we left for a working/holiday trip to Idaho Falls. As luck would have it Wyn and Dee Ann decided to sell their Idaho Falls condo and live full time in their California condo. This meant that ALL of their furniture and belongings in IF needed to go. Our new home was going to be MUCH bigger (nearly 4X) than our old home, so we would need furniture to fill it with. We were SO grateful to be able to inherit Wyn and Dee Ann's furniture. We were able to furnish a guest bedroom (perfect for when they and others would come to visit) an office, and a formal living room. Our trip to Idaho involved packing much of their stuff into a Uhual for us to take to a storage unit in Heber (with my parents help - we were so grateful for their man power and expertise, and financial help to afford the Uhual) packing more stuff for Wyn and Dee Ann to take to their CA condo, and cleaning the condo to be sold. But we were also able to pack in some fun along the way!

Trent and Cooper were good sports to "play" with each other while I packed and cleaned the kitchen. Who knew a sink could be such a great place to babysit little babies :) (my mom actually - good tip!)

Saying goodbye to the IF condo - we will miss that condo - many good memories were made their. And it was always nice to have a place close to Jodi, Megan, AnnDee, Ryan and Violet and their four children, and Grandma Donna, so we could visit often. Our visits to IF will be much more complicated and expensive now.

The Uhual was a party for the kids - they were so sad when we had to actually fill it with furniture. :)

But then we had several empty rooms to play in - so I guess the loss of the Uhual was okay. :)

We were in IF over the Fourth of July - and Ryan and Violet were so good to host a big barbecue/party for us that night. The party was a hit - the kids LOVED playing on the inflatable bounce house with water slide - and they could play as much as they wanted! No tickets required! YAY!! We also had lots of fun visiting, eating and setting off fireworks that night.

Climbing trees was another good way to keep the kids busy and out of everyone's way while moving and packing was going on. :) Love these cute kids!!

While we were Idaho Falls moving Wyn and Dee Ann, We had our first interest in the house - my good friend was willing to show the house to them while we were gone, The next week we continued to have lots of interest. I showed the house to about 5 different parties, and we had three offers come in, but only one was worth being interested in. In just a little over one week of having our house on the market (For Sale By Owner) we had sold our house - this was SUCH a huge blessing!!! There were still many hurdles to overcome before all was said and done, but I am still amazed and SO grateful that we were able to sell our home so quickly!

Even with all the work that was continually needing to be done we found time to have fun. There was one weekend that was very wet. I convinced the boys to play outside in the rain and thunder - it was such an adventure. There is something magical about playing in the rain. :)

We even raced bathtub boats down the river in our gutters. :)

I am so grateful that our move to a new home did not mean leaving behind these dear friends of ours! I love my girl friends and I love their children and the friendships they share with my children. Sharece Rowser, Karen Edwards, Cami Boudwin and Lauren Cox gathered all our children (14 between the five of us) and went for a breakfast campout to Whiskey Springs. We made pancakes, eggs, and bacon with fruit, juice, milk and hot chocolate. It was a very tasty and crazy breakfast. :)

After breakfast the kids had lots of fun playing the the river nearby, climbing on rocks, going on little hikes, and playing with the fire. :)

We even roasted marshmallows, this is something we will definitely need to do again!

YAY for great friends!!! - and tough women who can camp and do fires as well as the dads ;) yes we were proud!!

One of my piano students made this little blanket for Trent all by herself - you could definitely tell that an 11 year old girl learning to sew made this, but it was still cute and so sweet of her - and Trent didn't care about the quality one bit. :)

Pete and Trent are good buddies, I am so impressed with how patient Pete is with Trent - he just seems to know that unlike Brandon or Grant, Trent is not one to be trifled with and he will let Trent pull on his fur and ears all the time.

One night I found the boys had both fallen asleep on Grant lower part of the bunk bed. :) I sure love that these boys are good buddies!!

The new home we moved to doesn't have any trees - not one - I know I have complained about how much work our hundreds of very tall and mature trees are, but I will greatly miss the shade and the beauty of the sun shining through the trees, casting light and shadows all over the yard. I will also miss the flowers that for several Mother's Days and birthdays I would receive and plant.

Rub a Dub Dub Three Darling Boys in a Tub!!

Funny Grant wanting to wear one of Trents diapers!

And the traditional - diaper on the head trick :) Trent was a good sport!

Trent started to do push ups - he is SO close to learning to crawl - the question is will he learn in our old house, intermediate house, or new house?