Summer 2015

 

Summer continues to fly by. We started the summer not having any real plans other than moving. However it seems almost every day has been jam packed with something.

The kids great aunt  Leisha runs fun little camps during the summer and I signed the kids up for a few. Seth has been traveling a lot and with the pregnancy and moving I have needed a bit of break.

The first one they attended was Ocean camp. They loved it!!

Emily has recently decided she loves her shirts tucked in even her Jammies. This was her successful attempt by herself. Too dang cute.

 

The family we bought the house from left us their unused movie passes since they were leaving the city. We have been able to enjoy some movies and treats thanks to them!

I really thought it would be harder than it was. The kids have been great. Solo  pregnant movie going with three kids...Check!

What's summer without someone almost always falling asleep in the car? After long days of fun either Briggs or Nems  falls asleep.

 

 

Enjoying some Italian Ice while waiting for some friends to come visit.

We have spent 1 day a week playing with cousins. It has been good bonding time for the kids. One day we got brave and took them to the real pool. Albeit exhausting. They went at it hard for hours.

 

Sunday afternoon snuggles with dad.

 

Of course with summer comes the next years round of school supplies, this is just Abigail's and its still not everything.

 

More camps meant more fun. The kids had dinosaur camp where they made fossils, tracks and dinosaur eggs.

 

 

 

Emily is such a little ham. She is always being some sort of funny.

 

 

After a round of playing outside with the cousins it was time for some down time.

 

Afternoon board games

 

After a long ride to Ikea and watching leap frog, Emily was really getting into it!
 

4th of July!!!

The morning of the 4th of July was spent unpacking and trying to arrange our house. We also went to a birthday party and had fun there as well.

 

The night of the 4Th the was spent at Grandma Cheri's house with lots of food and fireworks!

There were lots of kids fireworks which we started before the sun went down. For the most part all the kids loved them! They were pretty fun. They had firework cars that the kids raced until they shot under the real cars. oops.

 

 

 

Glow sticks are a must

 

 The kids enjoyed the sparklers as well. They were a bit hesitant but they all had fun once they figured it out.

The men preparing to light up the night

Getting ready to see the show

 

Honestly, this is better than an actual show. All the neighbors seem to really enjoy setting off fireworks too and thus if timed right the night is lit up for quite some time. The brothers did a great job and put on a fun show. It was loud and crazy and so close. It was great.

The New House!

We officially closed on our old house June 19th, and our new house July 1, 2015. It seemed like it all happened so fast!

 

The rough story...

 

We had been contemplating getting a bigger house since we have had ours since before popping out babies.  With baby number 4 on the way it again reignited those conversations

 

We toyed with the idea for a little while and just decided to reach out to our relator to see how the market was and to get her opinion on what we could sell for. When we realized the market was better than expected we decided to just go for it. The next week we had a sign in our yard stating our house would be coming to the market soon. That night there were lots of drive by's and we received a full price offer before it was even on the market. The offer was solid with several perks like being able to stay in the house for over a month if needed after closing for free so we could find a house. We discussed keeping it on the market and creating a bidding war, but a house still has to appraiser for the sale price and we were definitely on high side for the local comps.  We decided because it was what we wanted and we had time to find a house, not to mention we didn't have to mess with any showings, to accept!

 

Our Kitchen

The following weekend we went house hunting with our realtor.  We had been searching online for awhile, we looked at about 100 and had it narrowed down to about 10. But houses were selling so fast we lost some before we could even see them.

 

It all worked out though. Despite seeing 6 or 7 in person there was nothing that really stood out to me. Or shall I say that I was willing to make an offer on. Seth liked some but still not enough. We were not expecting to necessarily find a house the first day, but it was kind of discouraging.

 

Part of the living room looking into the kitchen

One of the last homes we looked at was this home. Seth really didn't like it from the pictures online, but we decided to see it in person since it met a lot of the criteria we had.

As we walked through the house both Seth and I really really liked it. I felt the spirit while there, and had an inkling that the homeowners were LDS but there were not any obvious signs. I remember standing in the kitchen knowing that this was THE house. I could envision our family living there unlike any of the other houses. It turns out Seth was feeling the same things. We didn't say much while in the house but once we got in the car Seth said he thought we should make an offer, and I didn't hesitate to agree.

The entry way

 

That night we put in our offer. We were told the sellers names and I knew instantly who they were. We had known each other long ago and my friend is her best friend. I reached out to my friend, told her we loved it and maybe put in a good word and hoped for the best.

 

We were told there were multiple offers and our agent suggested that maybe our offer wasn't strong enough for a multiple offer house.  But Seth and I felt really strong that a full price offer plus a few other things that were in the offer was as high as we wanted to go.

 

We waited.

The master Bedroom

A few days of anxious waiting passed and our Agent called. She said she was really shocked and that our offer had been accepted. She reiterated several times she couldn't believe we got it and there must have been some sort of divine intervention. Of course we think so too. We were beyond elated. We couldn't believe it. And I was on pins an needles every step of the way between inspections, appraisals, repairs and loan papers it all felt surreal until it actually became ours.

The master bath

We moved on July 2nd, and cleaned the old house on the 3rd. That in and of itself was a bitter sweet thing. I loved our old house. Lots of time, effort and money were put into that house and we owned it for 11 years. It was our first and it was sad to say goodbye. I may have had a little tear in my eye the last day. Maybe.

I love my closet. Its huge

We have lots of projects ahead. But the kids run around like wild banshees set free in the wilderness. Its very nice to have the space inside and out. We feel very blessed to be in this house and are thankful it all worked out. I still cannot believe we live here. We are all unpacked and its starting to come together....

Upstairs game room

The first thing on the kids agenda was to visit all the community pools. We have hit 2 of the 6 so far. Its slowly but surly starting to feel like our home instead of our house. Which I love. I still have to pinch myself that we live in a place like this, despite all the fixes it needs...

 Briggs has had a hard time adjusting especially at night. He refuses to sleep alone and is super scared of "whatever he can think of"

We have birds nests in the trees, random bunny sightings, squirrels all around. I am pretty sure the kids think we own a zoo and love it.

Now to start making our mark on it...TO ALL THE FUTURE PROJECTS

The back patio

More back yard which I love

The back of the house

Some of the front of the house

More Summer Fun!

 

This summer is just whizzing by!!!

Below are some of our adventures...

 

 

Brigham and Emily went to a friends Birthday party and they had so much fun. Of course it was well planned with slides, games, piñatas and yummy food. Good times.

Briggs always being crazy

Emily Chilling with her Fishies

The whole house was decorated with awesome Octonauts decorations. The kids loved it.

 

We have spent time creating a new way of monitoring behavior which so far has been mostly successful. There has been lots of coloring and book reading along with our daily school time routine of 30-40 minutes of learning.

 

 

 

 

We have had lots of time on the trampoline with swimsuits and playing in the sprinklers with friends.
Below is nems and Zoey (the little girl I watched all last school year) a mini little reunion after a month of not seeing each other.

Of course babies have been born so we have been visiting. Nems loves babies! They just love little Brinlee.

Then there is this mess! Moving day was approaching as you can tell and the packing and jostling and moving of things tuned into a huge mess in my living room! But at least that's over!!!

There were more birthdays and more waterslides and water play. We have definitely stayed busy!  The kids cant get enough of doing tons of stuff, I on the other hand am getting worn out!