Our New House!

On January 6, 2011, Russell and I officially became HOMEOWNERS! We definitely learned know how to sign our name after closing; it seemed like we signed a whole stack of papers (probably because we did!) I really thought the whole closing process was going to be nerve racking and stressful because it would seem like we were signing our lives away but it wasn't that bad. I actually had a pretty calm, peaceful feeling during the whole thing. Now that I look back, it is really amazing how everything just seemed to fall into place for us to get this home. Everything seemed to work in our favor. We got the interest rate we wanted, the payments ended up being about $10 less than we thought, and the sellers paid $3,000 of our closing costs so we still had some money left over to do some repair work. I guess that means it was meant to be!

Here is our HOUSE!! (The front view and back yard). We both love the back yard because it has a lot of potential, it is big enough for Emily to play, and it is completely fenced so we don't have to worry about Emily going into the front yard and road. We even have a basketball hoop! Also, along the side of the house is a large gravel driveway as well as RV parking for our camp trailer and 4-wheeler trailer!

This picture below was take just before Russell RIPPED the for sale sign out of the ground! (I was trying to figure out the night mode on my new camera so that is why it looks like we are standing next to a bonfire.)

As homeowners, we can't call the landlord anymore if something needs repairing. Well we can but for some reason, Russell always answers the phone when I call and I always answer the phone when Russell calls. Before we moved in, Russell repainted the majority of the house. While I was at work, Emily "helped" him. Russell was painting our front room a pretty brown color and while he had his back turned to paint the opposite wall, Emily leaned up against the wet paint to look out the window at some cat and got paint all over her shirt and jacket! Russell almost got mad at her then he started laughing when he saw that her once white shirt was now painted brown! As you can see from the above picture, the paint would not come out even after washing it! I guess it is a good thing it was one of her play shirts. Another bummer thing about the paint was that Russell had painted all of the rooms one color then when back to Home Depot to get more the finish touching up some spots and they mixed the wrong color! They gave him a slightly darker shape of white and he didn't notice until he had touched up all of the spots and then we could totally tell it was the wrong color. Russell was soooo mad because now he has to repaint the walls again. He gave up painting after that so the walls are still two-toned in some parts because Russell can't bring himself to go get more paint. Oh well I guess. The house is still livable. The nice thing about owning your own house is you can do whatever you want to it. In the Utility/laundry room, we tore our two entire shelves and made room for my sewing table so now I have a sewing room! (that is shared with the washer and dryer...) Also Russell took one of the shelves we tore out and is going to hang it on the opposite wall above the dryer so I have more shelves to put cleaning supplies. We decided we needed this shelf because our smart little 2 year old has discovered that mommy keeps the cleaning supplies in a bucket under the laundry sink and she has been known to get them out and "clean" stuff. So time to get them out of her reach!

Time for the tour!!!

First our master bedroom, walk-in closet, and master bathroom. The first thing everyone says when the see our room is "Wow a red wall... Did you paint that?" No we didn't paint it but we didn't paint over it either like my mom said we should have. To tell you the truth, I kind of like the red wall! I like the closet because there is so much room you can actually find the clothes you are looking for. The bathroom is nice too except we are still trying to get use to having the light switch on the outside of the bathroom instead of inside. The bathroom also has a pretty good sized linen closet behind the door where we keep our sheets and towels.

As you go down the hall you will see Emily's bathroom (as she calls it) which, now that I look at the picture, definitely needs a shower curtain or something to give it some color. Next is the office/toy room. Actually between the bathroom and this room, is another large walk in closet we use for our food storage, my drum set, blankets and whatever else will fit. Definitely a selling feature for me. I decided to have one toy room so that hopefully this is the only room that will get messed up all the time. In each of the rooms are these built in shelves to store all of our great treasures (or junk)!

Next is Emily and Apple's room. I decided they could share for a few years. This room needs some pictures and curtains too. And this is their closet and my stash of diaper and wipes that I am hoping will last longer than a month! Also, as you can see, we need to find a dresser for Baby Apple because right now all of his clothes are either inside that red tote or on top of it... Aren't we great parents...

The front room. This is a nice little cozy room for when people come over to visit or when we want to watch movies. I always said I wanted a bay window in my house and now I have one! Someday when I get rich, I will put a baby grand in that window. Well on second thought, the baby grand might take up the whole room so I would need a bigger house. So my upright piano will work just fine. Some day Russell will hang up our pictures I hope...

Finally the kitchen. I love all of the storage space and the roll out shelves in the lower cupboards. I think it is the perfect sized kitchen and there is plenty of bar space to make cookies.

Not pictured is the dining room on the other side of the bar and my sewing/laundry room. I was too embarrassed to take a picture of them because they were a mess. Now that we are moved in, I am frantically trying to get everything ready for the new baby. I have less than a month to get all of the blankets, burp cloths, and other stuff sewn and put together for him. I think my sewing machine has been going non stop for two weeks and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. I'll post something soon of all the things I have made but probably not until I am done. I also need to make some curtains for every room in the house so it won't look so ghetto and bare. Any way the reason I didn't take a picture of the dining room and sewing room is because I have fabric and sewing stuff all over the place. Someday, when I am done, I will clean both of those places.

Our next house project is to put on a new roof. When we had the house inspected before we bought it, the inspector told us that some of the shingles were falling off and that there was a small dollar sized leak above the kitchen. Because of that, the sellers agreed to pay $3,000 of our closing costs so we would have money left over to fix the leak. After calling around, we decided we could save ourselves quite a bit of money if we just repaired the roof our self. We decided to put on a tin roof so that we wouldn't have to replace the roof ever again. In the next week or so, we will be installing the new roof with the help of our family.

The other nice thing about this new house is the ward! We have only been to church for one week so far but already I can tell it is going to be good. Emily even loves the Nursery again! Our last ward she refused to go but this ward she walked right in and didn't even cry. After sacrament meeting I asked her if she wanted to go find her class and she said "Yeah." Then when we were walking down the hall, she say the door to the Nursery open and the toys and she excitedly said, "There it is, I found it!" We said "Okay go in and play." and she went right in without a fuss and stayed and played the whole time. Afterward we asked her if she had fun in her class and she said, "Yeah I want to play again!" She told us all about playing, blowing bubbles, having treats, and even sang us some of the songs she learned. I am so glad she had a good time because going to church will not be such a big deal any more.

Needless to say we love our new house and there is just something about it that makes it feel like home; something we have never felt before in all of the rentals we lived it. It is a really nice feeling.

Life Flight comes to St. George

On 1/11/11 at 1:11 pm the Life Flight helicopter landed in St. George at the Dixie Regional Medical Center River Road Campus! This was a pretty big event for the hospital so as a hospital employee, we needed to be there. (Getting paid for just watching was pretty nice too!) Watching the helicopter land was pretty awesome (minus all of the dirt that was shot directly into our eyes as we watched!) Emily loved seeing the helicopter and now every time she sees one she tells us about the day we went to daddy's work to see the helicopter.

At the celebration, Gary Stone, on of the big wigs at the hospital, spoke and the DSC cheerleaders did a little dance. Afterward, we were able to go look inside the bird and get some pictures around it. I was amazed at how compact the inside of the Helicopter was. One of Russell's ultimate dreams would be to be a Life Flight Medic. He just needs 3 years of 911 ambulance experience and to lose 30 pounds because the medics/nurses can only weigh a certain amount due to the size of the helicopter.

As you can see from the picture, it was pretty cold that day so Russell stole a blanket from the hospital ambulance to keep Emily warm. After we looked at the helicopter, we were frozen so we went inside for free hot chocolate and donuts. Then on our way out, they were giving away free ice cream so we got some of that too even though it was really cold outside!

Another good thing the hospital just got is it's own ambulance. For a while, Russell was the only Paramedic on the crew that runs the ambulance so they had him help get all the necessary supplies and help write up the protocols. Now there are about 4 paramedics. Because Russell has his Paramedic license, he got a $3 raise! What a great blessing especially now that we are home owners and I am going to be out of work for a while when I have the new baby. It definitely pays to pay your tithing! Russell loves working on the ambulance. Even though he doesn't do 911 calls, he is still enjoying his job. Russell also works at for the Springdale rescue team and he also got a $1 raise out there! We are truly blessed to have our jobs and to be able to provide for ourselves.

Pretty Flowers

About 6 months ago, Emily planted a flower in her Nursery class at church. This has been her pride and joy and every time we show it to her she tells us about how she planted flowers in her class. We have been watering it and watching it for the past few months wondering if it is really a flower or just a weed. Finally it BLOOMED and Emily was so excited.

It actually turned out to be a pretty flower. I am glad we decided to keep caring for it because about a week ago I thought about just throwing it away. Emily loves her flower and another one is going to bloom soon.

SNOW!!!

It snowed in St. George on January 3, 2011!! I had to get a picture of it for proof.

I took these pictures at 7 am before I went to work. I knew it would all be melted by the time I came home. Emily and Russell were both sick with Strep so we couldn't even go out and play in it but it was still cool to wake up to a white lawn. All of the snow melted by the end of the day except for a few patches in our backyard that is shaded the whole day; in fact, it has been cold enough over the last few days to keep a few patches of snow around.

Welcome 2011!

Happy New Year Everyone and Welcome 2011! 2010 was a good year for us. We started the year out by running and getting in shape. We started a new diet called the "Food Lovers Fat Loss Program." This diet worked great for us. It actually taught us how to use food to our benefit and speed up our metabolism. Russell lost about 20 pounds and I lost about 15. We looked really good. I also started running and participated in a few 5 and 10k's. Russell and I also decided we would like to have another baby. I became pregnant in February and then miscarried at the end of March. This trial was definitely devastating to us especially me but it was also a blessing in that we learned to rely on each other and especially the Lord more. A few months later I became pregnant again with a baby boy that will soon join our family at the end of February. I decided we could no longer afford diapers so we potty trained Emily and she did great. She has been potty trained for almost a year now and this will be a great help when the new baby comes. Emily also started going to Nursery in 2010 and she absolutely loves every minute of it especially singing time. Russell was also very busy in 2010. He was constantly studying or working on clinicals or ride-a-longs for his Paramedic class. He graduated from his Paramedic class in August and then passed his practical and National Registry written test and became a full fledged Paramedic which has been one of his dreams for a long time. We also enjoyed our new four-wheelers by going on many camping and four-wheeling trips including our trip to Hole-In-The-Rock near Escalante, UT. Later in the year we moved from our home in Bloomington to a little house in the middle of town. We recently decided it was less expensive to buy our own home instead of renting so we found a great little house that we will be closing on January 6, 2011. I think that pretty much sums up 2010 and we are looking forward to 2011. Our lives are going to change dramatically over the next few months because we will become homeowners and have a new baby too. Because of these two things, hopefully our tax refund will be really good next year too!

Any way, we had a great New Year's Eve party at Terral's house this year. We all got together, had dinner and played games right up until the New Year. It was way too cold to go outside to the Twilight to Midnight celebration in town so we stayed inside. We played a riling game of Family Feud at our party. The teams we the In-Laws vs the Family. Of course the Family won 2 out of the 3 games and of course there were fights and yelling and joking around. It was very fun!! Just so you know, I still think eat and lick are the same thing and shoe and foot are not the same! (I guess you had to be there...)

When it got closer to midnight, we turned on the TV and found a rerun of the New York countdown and watched the ball drop.

All of the kids had a great time blowing their horns at midnight and for the 20 minutes after midnight. Finally we had to tell them to stop blowing the horns because we were all getting headaches. Clay even started chasing Jessica around the house trying to get the horn away from her which only added to her enthusiasm for blowing the horn. It was great.

You would think that with all the racket, no one would be able to sleep but Tyler slept right though the New Year celebration as well as all of the horn blowing afterward! He was tired I guess.

We all had a great time at the party and got stuffed by all of the good food and treats. I haven't made any New Year's resolutions for this year. I just want to get everything ready for our new house and baby so I have been too busy to think of anything yet.

Good luck with everyone this year and I hope all you achieve all of your resolutions.