Just because....

...I think she is cute.

Home Sweet Home

It is funny moving into a new home.  It is by far the biggest purchase of our lives.  We spent so much time looking and praying for the right house.  Then we finally got it and moved in and realized we have no one to share it with!  99% of you may not care about any of this, but maybe someone wants to see my house!  I meant to post all these a while ago, but I have found out it is impossible to have the entire house clean at the same time.  It has taken me like 2 weeks to take the pictures.

 This is our house.  We love it!  One thing we love that we did not really expect or necessarily look for was the 3rd car garage.  It is awesome.  We were kind of worried about the size of the lot, and how close to the neighbors we are, but so far it has not been a problem at all.  We figure everyone else in the neighborhood lives this way, so we should be ok too. We also love that is is south facing so the snow melts quickly (and we get quite a bit).

This is the back yard, well the west half of it.  I was not willing to trudge through the snow to get a full picture.  You can see it is kind of small, but on the upside, it is 100% landscaped with sprinklers installed.  No time, work, or money required! (yet)

This is the view from the front door.  It is kind of a front/dining room.  I love the vaulted ceilings.  You can see the stairs going up off to the right and one of the bedroom doors upstairs too.  You can also see that it walks into the kitchen.  We like that the house was painted and trimmed nicely, again, less time/work/money.

This is another view of the front room, taken from the kitchen doorway.

This is the kitchen.  I love the wood floors.  One thing I kind of wanted was a bar with space for bar stools.  This kitchen was not built that way, so we got this little table and I love it!  I love how the kitchen is so open with lots of counters space and cupboards.

This is taken from the kitchen looking into the family room.  You can see the small hallway to the left where the basement stairs are.

Another picture of the family room.  There is a step down into the family room which I really like.  My mom's house is like this and so I think it just felt more like home.  We really like how open this area of the house is and how it all kind of connects.  The step down and the railing separate it a little bit which we like too.  We were lucky that most of the curtains throughout the house are not too bad.  I eventually want to pick out my own. In time.

Heading downstairs now.  The downstairs is really what sold us on the house.  We were kind of looking for a house with an unfinished basement so we could do it the way we wanted.  When we saw this house, we figured we would finish the basement exactly how it is.  So it is done, and we don't have to save up for it.  This is a small room and bathroom downstairs.  We are keeping this room open as a guest room so you can all come visit!

Family room downstairs.  Love the wet bar in the corner.  It has a mini fridge and microwave and everything.  We don't have a lot in this room yet, and we won't need to for a while.

Chad's office is also in the basement.  He does the majority of his work from home so that was one major thing we looked for.  Chad needed an office that was away from everything so he could focus.  This office being in the basement is perfect.

Now upstairs to the bedrooms..

This is the master.  We like the vaulted ceilings here, the double sinks in the bathroom, and the walk in closet.  My mother in law helped me make the headboard just before we moved and I finally got it painted and attached to the bed.   We still need a lot of furniture in the bedroom so that is something we are saving up for.

This is Jordyn's room.  I loved her yellow room in our Payson apartment, so with the help of Chad's parents, we painted these walls yellow too.  It took 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint to cover.  This is the only room we have painted.  It was bad to begin with.  It was a bright sky blue with a large pink stripe going along the center of the wall.  Lucky for us, the shelf was left in the room so I painted it black and hung the quilt I made for Jordyn that she won't sleep with.  Another thing we did in this room was to put up a light.  When we moved in, there was no wiring for a light fixture in the ceiling.  The light switches were connected to outlets for lamps.  My dad helped Chad when they came for Thanksgiving.

This is my favorite room.  My craft room.  I have wanted this room for so long.  I love that I have a place to leave my sewing machine and ironing board up.  I have a place to keep all my fabric and scraps.  I even have a place for my small children's library!  This room does not have a ceiling light either and Chad was not able to get to it in the attic, so it never will.  I know I probably won't be able to always have this room, but for now I love it!

There is another bedroom upstairs that I thought I had a picture of, but I guess not.  It is just empty for now.  Chad and my dad put a light in that room too.  There is also another bathroom upstairs.

And that is it.  Our home.  We feel so blessed to be able to live here.  We love the house so far.  There are things we love about it, and things we need to change.  I am so excited about that!  It sounds silly but I am glad to be in a house I can add to and do a little fixing.  I am excited to have small projects like curtains and decorations to occupy my time. It is fun to be able to save up for blinds and different furniture.  One thing I have already done is to stencil the wall above the fireplace.  I love to do this kind of stuff and I am so thrilled for the space to do it.  We love our home and are so blessed!

Game Night

Every night is game night in our house.  On any typical night, we get dinner cleaned up and Jordyn to bed and sit on the couch wondering which one of us will be the first to say, "So, whattaya wanna do tonight?"  We don't have any kind of cable or anything, so we don't have any TV shows we watch in the evenings.  Chad is not big on watching movies.  So we play games.  Some of our favorites are: Ticket to Ride, Guillotine, The Game of Life (we have it on the wii), Disney Scene-it, and puzzles.  We do play the wii a bit with games like Mario Brothers, Mario Kart, and Donkey Kong.   Lately, we have become desperate and played...

Truth is, I always thought I hated this game.  I was a little bit wrong.  We have had it since we were dating.  I think is was left behind by a roommate and found a permanent home with us.  So far, Chad has won by a landslide twice, and I have barely lucked out with one win.  Last night, in a game that lasted only about 30 minutes, I went to jail probably 10 times (not an exaggeration) and lost before the game had even begun.  Hummph.  We have a couple new games wrapped up and ready to open for Christmas.  So til then, we will just pass go and collect $200.

Do you know of any fun 2 player games?  We are always on the lookout.

Merry Christmas, or Scary Christmas?

We saw Santa at the ward Christmas breakfast today.  We waited in line for 30-40 minutes.  When we finally got onto the stage she was so excited to finally be put down and saw freedom in all the space to run around and explore.  When she realized what and who I was pushing her toward, she FREAKED out!  Before she even got on his lap she was hysterical.  Good thing we waited in line for that!

San Francisco

Chad has had some meetings planned in San Francisco for a couple months now.  Just a week or two ago, Jordyn and I decided we didn't want to be left out, so we tagged along.  These travel meetings are great cause basically the only thing we have to pay for is flights for Jordyn and I, and Jordyn still flies free.  So we figured, why not?!

Jordyn is an ok flyer.  There was a moment she had her little nose pressed up against the window, with her little hands propped up under her chin.  I tried to quickly grab my camera and capture the sweetness, but those moments are just too brief, and this is the picture we ended up with.

Still sweet, just not so picturesque!

We landed in San Fran just after noon on Wednesday and headed over to the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was sooo windy!

Up on the hill past the bridge are these old time forts we explored a bit. Pretty much, a restless Jordyn ran around and we chased her...

 and chased her....

 and chased her!

Just when she could tell she was pushing our patience to the limit, she would hold still for a precious moment and remind us what a sweetheart she is.

(I know her rat nest hair makes her look homeless.  It had been a long day for her!)

After we played around at the bridge, we found a little beach for Jordyn to stick her toes in the ocean for the first time.  Just as I was about to snap a picture of her tiny toes, we all got creamed by a wave.  Awesome.

Chad had meetings Thursday and Friday.  Our hotel was downtown by Union Square and Market Street and all that so while Chad was gone during the day, Jordyn and I shopped around and hung out with the crazies on the streets.   They had a big pretty tree at Union Square with and ice skating rink and everything.  It was pretty festive.  Jordyn loved the tree.  She "oohs" and "aahs" and tries to blow out the lights.

You can see Jordyn is much more interested in the tree than the camera.

We went to the Walt Disney Family Museum on Friday and walked along Fisherman's Warf.  Chad ate a giant crab.  We came home to all the snow Saturday afternoon.  It was a quick trip, but a fun one!

Getting Personal

Lately, all of my blog posts have been about my baby girl, or where we happen to be living this month, or whatever other superficial stuff is on my mind.  I read blog post today from a friend that made me think about what I blog about.  It is a fine line, the whole blogging thing.  Sharing myself with family and friends, but politely balancing between being superficial and throwing out too much personal information.  My personality is usually to stick to the superficial and be safe.  But today I am going to get personal and tell you what is really on my mind.

Moving is hard.  All of a sudden, the only people I know are my husband and my baby.  I am so used to calling on my friends and family for anything at any time.  For months since we moved her, I have relied so much on Chad.  Now being in our home, we are feeling a lot more settled.  We love being in our home.  Jordyn has space to walk around and she can entertain herself just by going up and down the stairs all day.  But the best part about being in our home is our new ward.  I have never been in a ward like this before.  We had 15 people from our last ward volunteer to move us out, and 15 more people volunteer from our new ward to move us in.  We were overwhelmed by the service.  Only 1 person from our ward in Payson asked if we needed any help moving out. (True, we had a company moving us and did not need or ask for the help.  But still...)  Everyone in the ward introduces themselves and makes attempts to get to know us.  One family from the ward came to help us unload the truck and move our stuff in, then later that night they texted us to see if we needed anything at the store.  They were doing some grocery shopping and offered some service.  We are so taken back by the kindness and service.  It seems unreal.

Being a stay at home mom is...different.  Before, a year ago, I never really felt like being a new mommy was difficult or too stressful.  I did not really sacrifice much.  You hear a lot of mothers and non mothers talk about the sacrifices mothers make for their children.  I never really felt like I was sacrificing.  So what if I have to buy diapers instead of new shoes?  I feel so differently now.  I feel like I have sacrificed my career.  I loved teaching.  It really let it define me.  I don't have that defintion anymore.  For the first time in my adult life, I am not doing what I want to do.  I want to be teaching.  But now is not the time.  I need to take care of my family for a while.  I am not one to sit still for very long.  I want to be going and doing.  And not going to the store, or doing laundry.  In the past I have been all about working, but working for me.  Now I am working for my family, and it is just different.  Good, don't get me wrong, it is good.  But different.  To some veteran moms this may sound like common sense.  I guess I have just been nieve.

And the last deep thought is deveoted to money.  While shopping for a home we looked at about 25 houses.  Our realtor usually shows about 5 home before making the sale.  We saw 25!  One of the first homes we saw was a 3400 sq ft home on .23 of an acre, built in 2006.  Here, a home that size on a lot tha size is huge.  It was in our price range, so we put an offer on.  It was a short sale, so we were doing the whole waiting game and kept looking at other homes.  Nothing was as BIG for that price.  One day I started thinking, what makes me think I should get to have a nice big home?  What have I done to deserve this?  What makes me think I need this big home?  We can afford this, it is in our price range, but what make me think I should have it?  We ended up getting a different home, a smaller home, on a .10 of an acr, built in 1993.  But that thought has stuck in my mind.  Why do I think I need all this nice new stuff?  I was just fine with my old stuff before.  I have no answers to all these questions.  I am still just thinking about them.

There you have it.  A post about what really goes on in my mind.  It is not as exciting as a trip to Utah, or birthdays.  It is not as cute as a baby playing peek-a-boo.  But I feel a little less superficial now.

Trick or Treat

I decided I did not need a reason to put Jordyn in a costume on Halloween.  Halloween is reason enough!  We spent our spooky holiday emptying boxes, cleaning, and grocery shopping.  All the "ooh"s and "aah"s she got at the grocery store made it worth it!

Fall

I love fall.  I felt like I missed it last year, stuck inside with a newborn.  I have really tried to enjoy it this year, and it has been such a beautiful fall!  I feel like it has stretched on forever!  Alas, we are supposed to wake up to 4" of snow in the morning, so I think it is over. 
Although I have tried to embrace the season, I have been held back a little.  Because we got married in the fall, we got a ton of fall decorations, tablecloths, wreaths etc.  I have not put any of that up because of our living situation. Also, I have no reason to  put Jordyn in a Halloween costume.  We are not going to do any trick-or-treating.  The ward we are moving into is having a trunk-or-treat but we are not sure we can fit it into our schedule with moving and everything.  I don't have a single pumpkin.  I am a little disappointed in myself.  We did go to the pumpkin patch when I was in Utah last week.  Good times!

And to send the fall off with a bang, we close on our house on Friday!  I am so flippin' excited I can hardly sleep.  Honestly.  We are moving on Saturday and can hardly wait to get into the house!

3 Years!

And he still takes my breath away!  Love you Chaddycakes!  Thanks for always making me happy :)

Birthday Bonanza!

Chad had a birthday on the 26th.  I wish I could say we partied hard core, but birthdays are just not as great as they used to be.  Jordyn and I let him sleep in, gave him some colts stuff for his office, and got an awesome DQ ice cream cake.  We are still enjoying it!  Happy Birthday Daddy Chad!  We love you so much and are so grateful to have such a great man taking care of us!

Now, let me just say that I love my husband.  But somehow, Jordyn's birthday totally trumped his!  We did not take a single picture of Chad's birthday, but took about 100 of Jordyn's.  She had a great day, as documented below!

She started the day with a morning snuggle with mommy and daddy.  Obviously, she still has morning face in this picture.

Then she had breakfast.  Yogurt is her favorite food.  She will eat one of these big tubs of yogurt in like 3 sittings.  And she cries for more every time.  Not sure that much yogurt is good for such a small girl.  She loves to 'pretend' to feed herself.  I love it too cause she stops crying for more yogurt.

Then we watched Sesame Street.  Love, love, love Sesame Street.  A big thanks to PBS and viewers like you.   Sippy, blanket, and the street is all you need. Chad's family will recognize the 'staring at the TV' look. Chad has the same face.

Then we played balloons.  We are still playing balloons.

We took pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures.



We opened presents

And of course, we ate cake.  She loved the cake!  A little questionable at first, but after she realized she could eat it, she dug right in!

Finally, after a day of partying hard core, this little birthday girl is tuckered out.

BIG GIRL!

I am probably going to be posting a lot of videos so Jordyn's grandmas can see what a big girl she is.

I cannot believe she is big enough to walk!  She seems to little to be this moble.  Her birthday is next week and you can bet there will be plenty of pictures to share!

Yet Another Move

We moved into a new apartment about 2 weeks ago.  So let me break down our addresses since July.  We started the summer living in Payson.  In July, we moved to my mom's house in Gunnison.  In August we moved into an apartment near the technology center in Denver.  In September we moved to another apartment in Centennial or Englewood.  We can't exactly figure out just what town we are living in at the moment.  We finally got our stuff out of storage, and for the first time since July, we are living with our stuff.  Sleeping in our bed.  Sitting on our couch.  Cooking with my pans.  It's great.  Sort of.

There is still another move in the works, mostly likely to happen in October or November.  We have put an offer on a house in Castle Rock.  It is a short sale, which is fortunately unfortunate.  We are getting the house way under value, but we have to deal with the short sale process and the wait.  As of now, the first bank has accepted our offer, but there is a second lender attached with the deal and we are waiting for them to accept the offer.  I suck at waiting.

So because there is another move in the works, we are still living in a temporary state of mind.  We don't really want to unpack all the boxes cause we will just have to box everything up in the weeks to come.  Plus, to stay in our rent budget, our appartment is not exactly five star living arangements.  There is not room to unpack the boxes.  There is 1 drawer and 3 cupboards in the kitchen.  Well, these pictures explain a lot.

This is Jordyn's room.  She sleeps in the closet.

This is the dining room.  There was no room for a table, not even the card table.

It looks like those hoarders that you see on TV.  We are anxious to get out of here!  But on the same note, we are so grateful to be here.  We are grateful we could find an apartment with a month contract.  We found an apartment in our budget and we are liking the neighborhood, area, and nearby shopping (we live behind a Hobby Lobby :))  I watched 'Pursuit of Happyness' the other night and was suddenly very grateful for this squishy little apartment.  And most of all we are grateful we know it is only temporary!

All Fun and Games

Playground Picnic

On Labor Day weekend, we tried to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful weather we were having. On Saturday, we went downtown in Denver to the Taste of Colorado. It was a little fair with all this great food from great places in Denver. There were games, rides, marketplace booths, and of course food. Walking around was free, so that is what we participated in. Also, we discovered that all the museums have specific free days. Saturday happened to be the Art Museum's free day so we checked that out too. It was a great afternoon to spend together. We stopped at Pizza Hut on the way home cause the cost of a whole pizza was equivalent to a gormet hot dog downtown. Great day. No pictures.

Monday, we drove around. We have been doing a lot of that. We checked out the temple, which is closed for contruction. We found a nearby park and let Jordyn play around. She still does not like slides or swings but I think that with enough force we will get her to enjoy it and not just shake with fear. It worked with water! We also walked around home depot for a couple hours just hoping that some day we will have enough money to make our house awesome!