Thanksgiving Point Fun

The kids had a great time feeding the animals and exploring at Thanksgiving Point. We went there to go to the Dinosaur Museum, however there were about 1000 people in line so we settled for the farm. Kaylie is the only child who has been to Thanksgiving Point before and she was about 1 1/2 years old then...so this was fun to take all four kids!


This crazy goat came over the fence to get food from Kate!

Dallyn thought the cow was neat...

The kids test their muscles with the animal feed bucket test!

Before/After Master Bedroom

Well we finally got the master bedroom done to the point that I can take some before/after photos! Here is the room on move in day...I was so excited to get my blue room with the crown molding!!!!

Here it is!! =) I just love the room, it is so similar to CA now that I feel right at home. =)

The other wall in the master...

And this wall we need to figure out what to do do picture wise?? It's pretty big and empty??? But for now, at least its not full of boxes. At the left you can see the study area where Scott's desk. That area is still a mess and we've got a bunch of boxes there, but at least its just one area in our room instead of the whole room! We are making progress! And today marks week 3 in the house!! I love this room!

Before/After The Living Room

Here is the living room on the day we moved in. I like the two tone paint, the chair rail and the molding and the carpet is really nice too.

Here is the living room today! Scott put our bookcases up and after comparing the photos I took in CA before taking the bookcases down I was finally able to reconfigure the bookcases to be similar in layout to our CA home. My grandfather tuned our piano and brought it over this week too! It's so nice to have the room put together.

Today we hung the pictures on the wall..there is a bit of an issue with the height of the items on the piano because we have 8 foot ceilings instead of the 9 foot ceilings that we had in CA. But I think we made it work...The picture is just pretty high but all the coloring coordinates..I love the room now!

Here are my boys playing in their band, their PVC pipes band. What creative boys I have!

Make your Pizza Night

Tuesday I finally broke down and went grocery shopping. I really haven't done that, other than Costco, since we've lived here. My health was so bad when we first got here that Scott did all the shopping and we ate food from our pantry (boxes) in the garage. Now that we are in our own house and I'm feeling better I'm finally thinking about cooking! We tried our hand at Super-Walmart grocery shopping and came home with the fixings for make your own pizzas! The kids loved that!

They were super yummy too!

The kids want to make this a tradition...it sure was a fun dinner, complete with fresh fruit, potato salad and coleslaw..yummy stuff!

Yard Work Take 2!

Well tonight was take 2 on the yardwork. Time to tackle the backyard! The thing in Utah is they don't' have green waste carts like in CA and we have bags of grass and clippings from our yard work on Monday! Today was garbage day but we could only get rid of 2 of our 7 bags!! So, Scott decided to just mulch the backyard grass (I think it looks awful) but its just so long and we have nowhere to put it so I guess this is what we are going with!

Here is Dallyn following in Dad's footsteps..

Kyler is having more fun than Dad....I guarantee that!

Like father, like son....

Yard Work Galore!

So what were we thinking buying a house with such a HUGE yard?? Scott mowed for 1 1/2 hours last night and still didn't get to the backyard!! We have two large front lawns, then we have the grass strip all along the sidewalk/street, then we have the upper grass on the retaining wall, then we have the back side lawn next to the driveway, and that is what Scott did last night. We stopped at 9 pm when it got dark.

The kids helped us, it was our activity for FHE...yardwork! Kaylie helped me trim bushes and Cameron learned to use a blower. Dallyn and Kyler picked up alot of the branches we cut off and helped us stuff them in lawn bags and the wheelbarrow. We have SO MUCH to do in this yard, its crazy. The rosebushes out back need trimming and the trees and shrubs back there, plus our tall trees need work too, but there isn't time for everything right now.

Here's how it looked this morning. Grass trimmed, shrubs cut back from the walkway, trees cut back, etc.

Scott is asking for a self-propelled mower for Christmas he said! Pushing the mower up the hills is a lot of work and he's just not used to mowing much more than a patch of grass in front and back. Last night we fell in bed exhausted from all the yard work and we looked at each other and Scott said "I'm putting in bark!!" =) Too much grass for him....anyhow...we love the curb appeal, we just need to learn how to take care of such a big yard!!

Adjusting to a different home

Well, I thought I should post some of the things we are adjusting to at our new home here in Utah. It's been an adventure and now after being here for 2 weeks we are learning a few things. Here is our top 5 list of things we are learning during this adventure:

1. Having an upstairs laundry is awesome..however, I can't do laundry after the kids go to bed because the washing machine shakes Kaylie's room and she can't sleep!! Her whole dresser and closet shakes...so crazy huh??

2. You can't flush the toilet before getting in the shower in the master bathroom or the shower turns totally hot. And make sure the kids don't flush the toilet down the hall either or you are in for a hot surprise in the shower...this has taken some adjusting to!! I'm not used to having to worry about my water changing temperatures!!

3. I get to help my little boys wash their hands all the time now since this house has the older pull-up style faucets. It sounds like someone has left the shower when they wash since there are only two choices...On and Off. =) Don't worry, new faucets is on our 'to purchase' list, but we haven't gotten there yet. I miss our cute brushed nickel faucets that are easy to turn on!

4. We have a great yard with lots of space, however we can't really enjoy it because there are no fences!! Since I never let Kyler outside without me, except in our backyard in CA, then there isn't much outdoor play for Kyler here. We have been pricing fencing and looking at our options for getting a fence in. I hope we can do it while the weather is still nice and our kids can enjoy it.

5. We LOVE having a basement..it is so very fun! I can't say enough good things about that!! The kids are having a great time and soon I'll post photos when we finish the basement...or at least when its partially finished. We are really loving having the extra space for the kids to play, its really a blessing of living in Utah is getting to have a basement!

So that's all for now..just had to post some of the funny adjustments we are dealing with. Overall we just love being here and we are enjoying the positives but we sure miss everyone in CA!
Hugs, Scott and Heidi