Finishing Up

My dad had to come back 2 or 3 times after we moved in to help finish up the electrical. He put on all the light fixtures in the basement, hooked up our doorbell, and also finished up the plug outlets. As I mentioned before, Brayden absolutely loves working with my dad. And although it usually took twice as long to finish each project, my dad was happy to spend that time with Brayden. Here they are working on one of the outlets.
We have been so fortunate that my dad has been able to help us out so much. It's been fun to watch him teach Josh and his friends how to build a basement from scratch. We feel blessed that my dad knew how to do this and was willing to take the time to teach us. I have to admit that I got a little emmotional when my dad gave us back the key to our house. We've had such a wonderful experience the past few months with my parents. I loved all the extra time I got to spend with my mom while the guys were working. Thanks mom and dad for all your help! We couldn't have done it without you!

Boots and Wheelbarrows

Brayden has got to be the cutest kid! He continues to melt my heart everyday with how adorable he is. While we were unpacking he found his winter boots and he hasn't stopped wearing them. I think it's because he can get them on by himself that he insists on wearing them. Well we were out in the front yard and Brayden was needing a project to focus on. So I showed him a big hole that was in our yard and asked him if he would fill it up with dirt. He became the cutest little worker as he dug, filled his wheelbarrow, and dumped the dirt in the hole until it was full. He did this for about 45 minutes before he was done, and of course, he had to wear his boots!
Here he is filling up the wheelbarrow:
Each time he tried to roll the wheelbarrow onto the grass it started to tip over:
Problem Solved! Just carry it!

Filling the hole using his shovel:

Shovel taking too long. Answer - dump it out!

Couldn't be complete without a break to chase the birds!

Our Yard

I absolutely love how big our yard is. However, it is not grass...it's weeds. Since we've been focusing so much on the inside of the house, we haven't paid attention to the outside. Sandy City finally sent us a notice that if we didn't have our weeks cut to lower than 6 inches, they would do it for us and charge us. So we were back on KSL looking for a lawn mower. I found an awesome one quite close to here, so we quickly ran and bought it. The day before our deadline I started mowing away. I wish these pictures did our yard justice, because the weeds were literally 3-5 feet tall. It took me all day to slowly mow them down, but I did it. I didn't start taking pictures until I was half way done, so hopefully you can get an idea of what it looked like when I started.

The night before I mowed the yard Josh and Steve spent a few hours using sickles to cut down about 1/4 of the yard. I still ended up mowing over it anyway, but here are the piles they made.

I got this far by the end of the afternoon. The kids were not having fun back there with me so I finally had to stop. When Josh got home I sent him inside with the kids so I could finish. A neighbor came over early the next morning with a trimmer and went around the edges. Let's just say we'll never let it get that bad again.

Water Leak

We finally found a fridge on KSL and got it home. My dad came over to help us hook up the water and ice machine. Of course we didn't have the right parts and it started leaking. After getting the right parts my dad came over and finished hooking it up for us. Brayden LOVES working with Grandpa every chance he can get. My dad is so good at letting him help with real tools and making him feel like he's really helping. Thanks dad for being such a great grandpa!

First Night

As soon as we were done moving everything in, Josh went back to the condo to get another load and to clean a little bit. That left the kids and me to enjoy the evening in our new place. We got in some warm clothes and went on our first walk. Brayden really wanted to ride his bike, so off we went. We made it half way down the street and he was done, so he walked back and I carried his bike. As soon as we were done with dinner, I realized that I had forgotten to clean the bathtub. I improvised and the kids loved taking a bath in the sink. I'm loving this place already!!!

Moving Day!!!

I can't believe this day finally arrived! It feels like we've been waiting forever to move into a place of our own with much more space. We started early at our condo with a U-haul that we rented. I had packed and labeled most of our stuff so it was pretty easy to load up. We had quite a few guys from the ward show up to help so it went pretty quick. Most of them even offered to load up their cars, drive to our new house, and help unload. We got to our new house just as the rain started pouring, of course. Some guys from the new ward came over and helped unload the truck. Half of the guys stayed outside unloading the truck while the other half took their shoes off and stayed inside. I stayed at the door directing all the traffic. As the boxes were handed off to the inside crew I was able to tell them which direction to go and which room to put it in. We were a little nervous about our couches fitting down the stairs, but they made it. Once everything was unloaded we ordered pizza from Nevoles and fed everyone that was still there. We are SO grateful for all the help from the two wards, our friends, and our families. We could not have done it without them. In fact, I still can't believe how smoothly and quickly it all got done. They even put together our bed, the computer desk, and Brooklyn's crib! Here's Adam with Brooklyn's Easter ears on:

Our bedroom:
Brooklyn's room:

The living room upstairs:Family room downstairs:
Toy room. Yep...you read correctly. We now have a toy room!!!
Computer/scrapbook room:

Clean-up Time

Friday night we stayed quite late at the house. Josh finished grouting the tile downstairs with Ryan Tucker's help while I spent the night cleaning the upstairs with Trianna. I can't wait to be able to stay at the house. Our poor kids have been such troopers with all the driving to and from. Brooklyn has been pretty good about sleeping at the house in her carseat, but there was no way to put Brayden to bed there. That meant that this little boy has been going to bed around midnight for the past few weeks. Here are some pictures of the house ready to move in!
Brooklyn's bedroom:

Our bedroom:

Upstairs living room with one tired boy: