Guess who is coming to town?

No, not Santa. My little bro LEVI!! He arrives thursday night and will be staying with us until the 29th. I'm excited, the kids are excited and Brett is too. He will have a helper to do house stuff with!! Whoo hoo!!

first big snow

This morning Brett woke up for work and looked outside to dumping snow. I took him to the front runner station because that early in the morning no one has had a chance to shovel. I'm grateful we have four-wheel drive. I might just have to get Gage some snow boots so they can play in the snow. I love the snow but not the cold that comes with it. Because our house has no insulation and single paned windows our house is FREEZING! We can't keep the thermostate about 63 because then the furnace would just run all day and night. So we have been using space heaters to keep a little warmer. I think I'm going to cry when I see the gas and power bill for this month.

Happy Birthday to me!

November 21 was my birthday. At first I was not willing to celebrate my birthday because I wanted to be in WA celebrating with my friends. But we bought the house so that was out the window. Don't get me wrong I'm glad I have a house, and there are always other years I can go celebrate with my friends. But I had the biggest surprise this year. We had a triple birthday to do to and Brett's sister's house. Starr's birthday was on the 20th and Austin's was the 23rd so we all celebrated together. I wanted to go early so we could leave early but brett kept watching tv and wasn 't getting ready so finally he starts changing and while I was changing he told me someone was at the door for me. So I walk out into the front room and there is my little bro!! he drove all the way down from WA for my birthday. What a great surprise. We went out to dinner for my birthday and had great sushi at the Last Samuri. Brett made me an even better cheesecake. Then Brett's mom took my shopping on sunday. Even though I didn't want to have a birthday it was a great 30th! Thanks everyone!

Sorry there is no pictures, had the camera on me the whole time, just didn't cross my mind!

Finally able to relax

After the mightmare of remodeling our house we were finally able to move in on halloween. Just this last week we got around to actually getting stuff out of boxes. The kitchen is almost done as well as the bathroom. The front room is pretty much done also. It was a very educational experiance and if we had to do it again I would have to say we would hire someone for the bigger things like, framing and sheetrock. But overall it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It did go a little overbudget and way over the time frame but I have a house and I'm grateful for that. Now we can relax for a little bit until the hecticness (is that a word?) of the hoildays is here. But I'm grateful to be able to spend that with the family!!

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Family pumpkin patch. It was a great time the kids loved to look for the perfect pumpkin and loved spending time with the cousins. Thanks Val and Wil!!Only Jason was missing, he was being a great guy and helping mud the kitchen
Grandpa Wil and Jetty

Starr, Trae and Maren who looks extra cute in her glasses

Cambrie, Caylie and Chelbie

Khloe, Trae, Jett and Gage

Can't wait to carve our pumpkins

Goblin Valley 2009

We had our annual family camping trip to Goblin valley. We were able to stay at the campground and it was great. We had a huge pavillion and lots of room for everyone. There were bathrooms and showers (great for washing the kids off after being in the dirt all day) The went to the Valley of the Goblins (sandstone rocks that the wind and water have transformed into these weird shapes. Saturday we went on a hike up Little Wild Horse Canyon. We got really far until there was water that we didn't want to hike through. Brett, Scott, Ali, Tyler and Celeste went up farther. It was crazy to walk thru these super tight slot canyons. The kids did a great job we had to carry them most of the way down but it was a fun time. Saturday night there was a wind storm. I wa already in the tent and had to run out and start throwing stuff in totes so it wouldn't blow away. The tent held up thru the rain though, NO LEAKES!! YEAH! I was super happy about that. Sunday morning it looked like there was going to be another huge storm but it missed us. It was a great trip and can't wait for next year!! Sitting on a Goblin
Kids on the goblins

Hiking thu Little Wild Horse Canyon. There were some points that we had to have adults helping kids and each other to get over the bigger rocks. I'm glad we have such a great family!

Looking down on the slot

We came to some water that was too deep to cross (plus it was freezing) Brett wanted to see how far it went so he straddled the ways and got almost to the end of the water when he fell in. It was a great hike!!

Where's Waldo?

My friend Hailey asked me to do Where's Waldo? for the church. Of course I said YES!! We dressed goth and walked around gateway until the youth in the church found us. We got lots of looks, glares and people trying to be sneaky and take pictures with their camera phones. But we had TONS of fun! Thanks Hailey for inviting me! My friend Paula has better pictures....her blog is www.sheridansix.blogspot.com.

Khloe

Today was Khloe's picture day....here she is in all her glory!!

Gotta love the kids!

The kids were great today while we worked on the house. I was really worried about them outside when one of us wasnt out there. But they really are great kids, they will just play by themselves and be good. Its great. They were pretty funny today. This is what happens when I just want to get things done and I don't really care what they do. Khloe helping me remove wallpaper, she did a great job!
the castle they built with the scrap wood.

We have a leaky sprinkler faucet in the backyard. The boys were being really quiet so I went to check on them, this is what I found

After this they found a little tupperware bowl and started dumping water on themselves, also probably drank a little of it, not the best thing in the world. The county we will in has untreated water you can use for your yard, its called weber water and you're not supposed to play in it or drink it. But I'm sure they will be ok. I was just happy that they weren't screaming and crying at each other!

Khloe's first day of kindergarten

Khloe's first day of kindergarten. I can't believe how big she is getting. She has pm kindergarten. At first I didn't think it was going to be good, but now that I can sleep in and not get up early to take her. It works out perfectly! She lines up with the other kids and the teacher walks them in. All the parents were out there taking pictures. We live only 4 blocks away to we walked today. This morning....WAY before school started, she was a little nervous but I think she will do all right!

Our 6th wedding anniversary

We had one of the best anniversaries ever!! We closed on the house! It's been a quick process and a little stressful at times but in the end it's going to be great!! We got a sitter for the kids and since we got done quicker then I thought we were able to have a nice dinner by ourselves. (Thanks again Maddie!) Hopefully we will get in the house on thursday. I can take pictures then. I love you babe! Thanks for the house!!

From now on I will only be posting stuff on the house on my other blog www.mygreatestblessings2.blogspot.com

Looks good so far!

So far the process of buying this house has been quite easy. Let me tell you a little background on how I found this diamond in the rough.
I am constantly looking at houses online, just in case there is something we can afford in the area we want. I saw this house a couple of months ago for 160K, I kept my eye on it and looked at in again about 3 weeks ago and they dropped it to 145K. I told Brett and he said we should call our agent to see what it looks like. We knew that it was almost 100 years old, so before we even got approved for financing we wanted to see if it was worth it. We made an appt, our agent said there was alot of traffic but nobody wanted to do the work. This piqued our interest more because this is the house we have always wanted.
1. Old and in need of work, check
2. huge yard in need of work, check
3. enough room for everyone, check
so we did a walk through....we loved it!! We made another appt to do a more thorough walk thru. We were there for two hours looking at everything. Luckily our Brother in law is an electrian because it needs lots of work. The first time we looked around we couldn't really see anything because there was either no light bulbs for the switches didn't work. We also couldn't find the water heater and furnace, we looked forever because the sheet said there was no basement or crawlspace...but there is!! It's a super creepy cellar with some food storage from who knows when!! There are also chimmnys you can see from the attic but there are no fireplaces with them. I believe they were covered over when someone took out the plaster and sheetrocked everything. The electrical has been updated but not in awhile. The plumbing is also so old that the main shut off is so calcified that it looks like a geod ( I don't think thats the right spelling). We had the inspection last friday and the apprisal is going to be done sometime this week. What makes this so unusual is that its a short sell. Since it's owned by the bank, they ususally take FOREVER in making a decision on the offer the buyer gives. So we thought we would have months to get stuff organized and ready. YEAH RIGHT!! Four days after we submitted our offer they bank countered and wanted to close by the 23rd of this month. Both our agent and the sellers agent went on vacation without taking files because they thought it would be awhile before we heard back from the bank. Wonders never cease!! So that's where we are now. Just waiting for stuff to get done that we can't control. I want to pack or something be Brett says we should wait until we close. We can live here in the apartment until the end of september. After we close the people have 48 hours to vacate. We will take two weeks to clean and rip out and replace carpet. After that we will move, or actually I will move some boxes everyday and then Brett will get some friends to move all the big stuff. After that we go camping with Brett's family at goblin valley and then we come home and get the apt ready for new renters!! Fun times!!

Creepy basement, we found the water heater and what we thought was the furnace. Because the lights didn't work down here we were taking pictures with the camera and then looking at them later. Taking a closer look at this picture I realized this wasn't hooked up to anything. And it's not a furnace it's a boiler. The water heater is fine. Two years ago they replaced the funace and it's now in the attic.
Going down the stairs into the creepy basement

Food storage...couldn't tell you how old

Pond in the back with 3 waterfalls, it looks in pretty good shape, the funny thing is the pump is going but the people can't afford light bulbs

back yard....needs lots of work, but when it gets done it will be awesome. Also found out the owner gifted the back neighbor some of the back yard to build a fence, the only problem? they didn't record it at the county building. So we could be jerks and say you built a fence on our land so remove it now (which we probably won't) or ask for the money that its worth (who knows)

So that's about it. There is a ton of storage and places that can be turned into rooms for when people visit. I will post pictures when the people move out. the before and afters will be astonding!!

Gage is 3!!

I can't believe my little baby boy is 3! Seems like only yesterday I was rushing to the hospital with Hailey after my water broke. We had a great time at Chucke Cheeses' for Gage's birthday. Then Jason and Kristy and their boys came over for dinner and cupcakes. He had a great day!!

On to more exciting news...we put an offer on a short sell house thinking we had some time before the bank would counter. What a surprise when our agent called today that the bank had countered and want to close by the 23rd of THIS month....so it's a little scary but more exciting.

More updated coming!!

Videos from Bear Lake

Brett and Ryan Redneck surfing. The water would get too choppy so this is what they did.

Ok these are the last Bear Lake pictures

Redneck surfing, 4 wheeler, knee board, sand bar Aren't we cute?!


Ryan makes the best burgers ever! the only problem is you can't fit them in your mouth

Brett flexing.....again

He really loved wakeboarding once he got the hang out it

Even more pictures from Bear Lake

Jetty and I going for a ride the boys going 4 wheelin!

Gage and I on the tube. I thought he would freak but he really liked it

Brett and the Bubs on the tube

Brett really likes to flex any chance he gets

Bear Lake Vacation

Brett's dad's friend has a cabin at Bear Lake (the most beautiful blue lake I have ever seen, the picture doesn't do it justice!) We left Monday with our friends Ryan and Hailey, the rest of the family got there thursday and friday. It was such a great time. We kinda wore ourselves out by the time everyone else got there. I tried wakeboarding on tuesday. I got up, but not standing up I just couldn't straighten my legs out so I was doing this weird squatting thing. The nest day we did tubing and that really wore my arms out. Brett tried wakeboarding too and LOVES IT!! The kids loved being on the boat (the boys would fall asleep) Khloe loved being in the tube with her friend Mazzy. On the last day they got throwen off the water weine and didn't even cry. Gage normally freaks out when he has sand on his feet so I thought he would sit in a chair all day but we got him some water shoes and he loved playing in the water and sand. We ended up going home a day early because we were so tired. And it's a good thing we did because by the time we got home the freezer was getting warm and the fridge was on its way. But it was a great vacation and we are hoping to make another trip sometime soon to help the guy fix his cabin. I love it there!!
My hot husband


Mazzy, Gage, Jett, Bronson and Khloe digging holes so we could trip in them

Khloe playing

Gage and his girlfriend Hailey, he fell asleep most times on the boat