Our New House!

I finally took some pictures off of my camera today, so I thought I would post some pictures! This might end of being a boring and really long post. We closed on our house on Friday, Feb 3rd. We got home, took lots of before pictures and then the real work began. It's so weird/exciting to finally be in a house that we bought. I will get to the painting in a minute. The people that lived there before us had 2 dogs and a cat, and I am pretty sure they never really cleaned. Jeff cleaned the carpets the day after we closed, which helped but I still smell a little dog so carpet will be replaced eventually. The kitchen was left really nasty. Along with all the painting Jeff's sister did, she also cleaned the nasty kitchen and bathrooms for me. I am forever thankful for everything she did for us.

We honestly could not have accomplished what we did without the help from Jeanna! She was awesome. Her and Jeff painted 2 rooms and then her husband and I joined them on the 3rd bedroom. We got the 3 bedrooms upstairs painted before Monday when our moving truck came to deliver our stuff.

This is the baby's room -a dark brown room. We are painting everything upstairs a tan color. It made this room look so much better and bigger. It also helped getting rid of their nasty curtains. Here's the before...
And the after. The master and other room were white, but we painted them all this same color. I don't have any after pictures I guess, so there's 2 more rooms like this one :) This pictures was taken around midnight, so it's even brighter during the day.
This past weekend, Jeff and I painted the living room. It took us forever with the windows, fireplace and all the doors in the entry way. The kids "helped" which made it take even longer, but they were so happy to be helping.

Both kids thought it would be great to paint with boots on...
They were so happy to put on their painting shirt. So happy that they had to give each other a great big hug :)
Alyssa was great at putting her hand in what she had just painted...
Dallin's favorite part was getting to use the roller! He just thought that was the coolest thing. Dallin painted pretty much the whole time until we got to the last coat. Then we didn't let him help because he liked to make tornado designs...
Here is proof that Jeff and I helped. Dallin took the fuzzy picture of me...I only have 7 weeks left so yes, I am huge looking.
Here is the room all primed and ready to go.
The camera really does not do these rooms justice. The people had painted the living room/kitchen a dark grey color. It looked terrible with the trim in the house, and it made the house feel really dark and small. I love the color we painted it, and I think it looks sooooo much better. I am glad we got the living room done.

The before color that was everywhere. It doesn't look nearly as dark in this pictures as it does in person. We also changed out all their blinds since their dogs chewed them all up/were completely covered in animal hair.
The after:
There is still so much to paint. The kitchen, bathrooms, a big red wall in the basement, and the bedroom and bathroom in the basement as well. We will also be changing the layout in the kitchen with more cupboards and new countertops. As we do more, I am sure I will be posting more pictures. Hopefully we can get a lot of it done before the baby comes, but we will see :)

Bunk Beds!

I'm back! It's been awhile since I last posted. We have since closed on our house, and actually moved into it this past Friday. Jeff's sister was wonderful and let us stay at their house for the last 6 weeks. The kids loved being with their cousins, and they miss them a lot. We only live 2 streets away, so there has been lots of crying when we come home and not to play with cousins. I will get more to the house eventually. I have to take those pictures off my camera, but I will get to it soon.

This past Friday night was our first night in our new house that we actually own! With the baby coming in less than 2 months, we decided to buy the kids bunk beds and get them used to sharing a room. The kids were VERY excited about the bunk beds. It took them a little over 2 hours to fall asleep the first night. They were whispering and laughing the whole time. We caught Dallin in Alyssa's bed once, but they stayed in them for the most part. Saturday night it only took 1 1/2 hours to fall asleep. We caught Alyssa with all her blankets and stuffed animals in Dallin's top bunk this time. I'm glad she didn't fall since she has fallen already from the top of the ladder. Last night took about the same amount of time.

Alyssa did take a nap yesterday in her big girl bed too. She's been in there for about the last hour and has yet to fall asleep today. I hope she still will nap :) I can't believe she is big enough for a big girl bed. Dallin was so great about adjusting to the big bed. He didn't get out of it for the first 6 months even though he knew how. Alyssa does not have that same problem, so it might be a little harder with her. I just hope they adjust before the baby comes :)

Cold but having fun!

On the 4th of January, the movers came to pack up our house, and then on the 5th they loaded everything onto a truck to put into storage for a month. We didn't have any of this planned until we were in Kansas, so there were a few stressful days between the 1st when we got back from Kansas and when they came to pack. Everything went smoothly though and we got the house cleaned. On the 6th we drove to Iowa. Jeff's wonderful sister is letting us stay in their basement until we close on our house in a couple weeks. Jeff has officially started at John Deere. It's never fun to be the new guy and having to learn everything a different way, but I think he likes it and will like it more once he figures everything out.

Dallin has started preschool at his new school. We went to go visit it before we signed him up and he thought it looked so awesome. It is at a big, older church and has a big playground, so he was a fan. He has only gone once so far, but he LOVED it. His favorite was when they had free time, and he got to try on the fireman costume. He said everyone was his friend, but he couldn't remember any names. He was also very excited because he got a brand new backpack. He is growing up to quickly for me.

We went to an open gym type place one day. The kids had lots of fun.

Dallin had his first official "snow day" from school. On Friday we got 7 inches of snow so they cancelled school for everyone. It has been REALLY cold the last little bit. We had a couple days where it only got up to about 1 degree but felt like -10 or so. It was actually -8 when Jeff has gone into work several times. Jeff came home from work a little early on Friday and took the kids out. He was excited to use his sister's snow blower. Dallin had a blast playing. Alyssa went out for a little bit, but wouldn't do anything because I wasn't out helping her. Jeff also took them sledding yesterday. Dallin and Kendra had so much fun.

The kids are having a blast being with their cousins all the time. Alyssa and Ella are just so cute playing together. There has been lots of good food too since Jeff's sister is a fantastic cook :) It's also nice to have another adult to talk to during the day. Here's a picture of the kids being silly on the chair.

Christmas

It's been awhile since Christmas, and I just got around to taking the pictures off the camera. Things have been CRAZY the last little bit. Even though we knew we would be moving soon after the new year, we decided to drive out to Kansas to spend Christmas with Jeff's parents. It was wonderful. I got to relax A LOT! I didn't stress too much about all that I had to do, and I felt pretty good.

On Friday we opened presents from our family before we headed to Kansas. The kids were SO excited. The got a marble maze, games, books, erector set, my little ponies, zoobles, and a whole bunch of stuff I can't remember.

On Saturday we drove to Kansas. Jeff's brother Greg and his wife Ashley were there. His other sister Nicole and her family live there. Jeff's other sister Jeanna and her family came as well. It was great to see everyone. On Saturday night we read the Christmas story and sang songs. On Sunday after church we opened the presents from Santa! Dallin got walkie talkies, games, radio control car, and a telescope. Alyssa got a letter game, puzzles, magna doodle, and other little things.

The big present from Santa was a BOUNCE HOUSE! The kids were SO excited. Almost all the adults went down the slide as well. Dallin was very excited when Uncle Greg got in with him.

Dallin and daddy did lots of remote control driving. I got to do a little shopping. I went to see Breaking Dawn with all the girls (which was SO much fun). The kids enjoyed playing with their cousins. The adults enjoyed playing games/watching movies and basketball and football. We also went bowling. We only got 7 rounds in because the guy "forgot" he had reserved the lane for someone else. I was on with the 3 kids and I was in LAST place by a lot. My excuse...I'm pregnant... It was lots of fun.

Lots has been happening!

It has been a very busy month for us, and Christmas hasn't even happened yet :) The biggest news we have here is that Jeff accepted a job with John Deere. We will be moving to Iowa next month, and Jeff will be working as a manufacturing engineer on their new products coming out. Dallin is very excited to be living in the same town as his cousins, and we are very excited to be in the same town as Jeff's sister and her family. Our next step is buying a house and getting moved there. Here is Dallin wearing the new logo!

Alyssa also had her 2 year appointment. The doctor said she looked great, even though I don't think she looked his way once. Well, she did screaming and crying for a second when he checked her head stuff. She was scared to death of the doctor. She just does not like strangers. She isn't very big. She weighed 22.8 pounds (5%) and was 31 1/2 inches (3%). Her head was 18.25 (25%), so I guess her head is a lot bigger but I think she looks perfect. The kids enjoyed playing in the car under the table.

Dallin had his last day at his preschool, which was another concert. He did great! I was on the opposite side of him and the little girl next to him was standing in the way pretty much the whole time. So I didn't get any good videos. Only one of his teachers was there, so I only got his picture with Ms. Tammy. I also got a picture of him in his classroom.

Here is a cute videos of Alyssa. She loves to sing, and sometimes she sings more words than she did in the video. I just love how she says "I love you".

It kind of snowed for the first time this year. It was more of a light dusting, but the kids still wanted to play in it. Alyssa was scared at first (she is scared of everything right now), but once she touched it the first time she loved it. All day she talked about how she walked on snow. She thought that was awesome! Dallin had to shovel before we went inside. I hope he still wants to do it when he is older :)

Alyssa turned 2!

Our little baby turned 2 on Sunday!!! I can't believe it has already been 2 years. She likes to tell us she is still a baby and not a big girl yet, but she is getting to be a big girl. She talks to us all the time now. It is so much fun to listen to her interact with Dallin. She loves to sing, color, read books, cook in her kitchen, play trains and trucks, be outside at the park, and most of all play with her big brother. She is a much better sleeper and eater from a year ago. She eats pretty much what we eat now, which is really nice :) Her favorite color is purple! She is growing up too fast.

We had been telling her the week before that it was going to be her birthday on Sunday. She would get really mad at us and say no (her favorite word)! On the morning of her birthday she was almost in tears and said she was going to stay one! We did birthday cupcakes with her cousins in Iowa. She cried at the end and hated the attention. She did love her cupcake! She got the best cupcakes, thanks to her Aunt Jeanna!

When we got home it was time to open presents. Then she finally liked her birthday. I don't think she paused very long to look at each present, but LOVED opening all of them. She got pinkie (a large my little pony), a crib, books, coloring books, aquadoodle mat, zoobles, blocks, and a few more little things.

Dallin bought her a dog just for her since he doesn't like to share all of his :) She loves it and has to sleep with it.

Then she wanted to blow out candles on another cupcake. So we let her do it again, and she didn't cry :)

Dallin and Alyssa thought it was funny to wipe the frosting on each other. I didn't think it was very funny.

At the end of the day she said she loved her birthday and now says she is 2!