Here's the house! Finally!

Here it is--the new house!  

Here's the boys' room.

And here's the girls'--as you'd probably guess.

And here's the master bedroom. 

This is the living room, looking from the hallway, at the top of the entrance stairs.

Here's another one of the living room/fine dining (which we don't use--as dining that is).

This is Matt's office, or the "Library" but this picture doesn't really do it justice.  This is a really cool room with 2 skylights and a big bay window to the east (the picture to the east didn't really turn out).  Never before have we had so many bookshelves!!  And yet, we filled them!!

Here's the kitchen.  Gotta love the old school style. It goes right with our table!

Here's another pic of the outside.  The house faces west.  Love that we included Matt's car in this one.  This will probably be the last time you see it, so enjoy.

This is the South side of the house. That's an apricot tree that the kids love to climb.

This is the south-east side of the house and a little peach tree.

Here's the east side--right outside of the fine dining --or living room area.  You can see the window to the right is Matt's office and there's our little shed too.

Another few pictures of the living room from different angles.

Here's the downstairs family room.

And here's a beloved laundry room.  I've never had one before!!

This is what sold the kids  on the house--a great tree with a swing!!  They love it!

And one last picture of the house from the south-west corner.  We sure are loving it.  

We're Moving!!

Well, obviously I haven't been the best blogger, at least not a consistent blogger.  Oh well.  You can't have it all.  But, we have been consistent at looking at houses and it has finally paid off!! Due to the list of "To Do's", I'll make this brief.

We found a great house in the East Millcreek area that we'll hopefully be moving into next Friday, Sept 9th (why not Saturday you may ask?--because we just realized that Matt has a gig in Gunnison that morning).  Very exciting and overwhelming at the same time.  The kids are already attending the school there and loving it.  The house needs some updating, but aside from a little painting, we'll tackle the remaining projects later, one step at a time.

We're just so grateful and happy to have found a place that already feels like home.  I'll hopefully post again when we get all settled and maybe even include a picture or two!!

Lorraine

Post #2 Wahhooooo!! July 3rd, 2011

One of the things we wanted to do this summer was start a chess club. Yes, as you can probably guess, it was influenced mostly by Matt, but we do it together, every Monday morning for an hour in our back yard. We invited mostly kids from our ward, some cousins, and a few kids from our school.

9:30 am. Anywhere from 9-18 kids arrive. Our kids have already helped set up about 8 or 9 boards . Everyone begins passing off requirements. They have to demonstrate knowledge of certain concepts, some basic and others more advanced. Then they pass them off to someone who already understands that concept and earn a sticker on their chart. At times, Matt will teach certain things and invite anyone at that level to gather around a board and learn. For the last half hour or so everyone plays at least one game. The goal is for each boy to attain the level of a king and every girl that of a queen.

We've had some great feedback from parents that the kids are learning new things about the game and improving, and most importantly, having fun at the same time!!

Other summer fun has been going to see our girls in their community theater musical, "European Invasion", going to Tyler's cabin (a BIG thanks Ty!!) where we had loads of fun, and basically just enjoying these     l-o-n-g (sometimes too long) summer days. Good times.

Owen and his favorite baby cousin Henry

Ice cream cones (Nanna's treat!) in Kamas

Nils, Clara, and Ella

Moments before the swamping!

Matt and Owen: Like father like son

First post--ever!!

Whoa! Well, here goes my attempt to start a blog for our family. I figure, I like to keep a journal and record the on-goings of our lives, so why not do it here where our dear friends and family can check it out as well--especially those far away that we aren't able to see much. And now is the perfect time to do it. Matt and I are on a little "vacation" (not to be confused with a "trip" where you are with your whole family--lots of fun and lots of work). He is playing with the ballet company here in Jackson Hole, WY. Who knew they had a ballet company? Not us. Anyway, since he is actually working a lot on this vacation (it's really only a "vacation" for me!! Because I'm not working at all!!), I have some luxurious free time. It's really been wonderful. No laundry, dishes (well, a few, but a lot less for only 2 people than 6), no picking up after people--(except Matt's socks), and no preparing lots of food (just a little for the two of us).

So, perfect time to start a blog. In the past I've been a little intimidated at the thought of doing this, but this morning I decided to just go for it. It may not be fancy and artsy. It may take me a year to figure out how to actually get pictures on it. But, it will be a start and hopefully those other things will come, well maybe not the fancy, artsy part.

So, welcome to our blog. I think the greatest part about a vacation like this (it's been 3 years since Matt and I have been away together) is the fact that it gives you some quiet time to take a step back and take inventory of your life. Sometimes I don't realize how wonderful my life is until I am away from it (away from the normal day to day stuff that make your life what it is). It's quite refreshing and will hopefully help me to be a better wife, mom, and person.

Ok, so believe it or not I figured out how to post pictures! Wahoo!!. I posted some of our latest trips. Funny how they all revolve around Matt's gigs. The first are from our vacation to Jackson and the following are from Ephraim, where Matt played for the Scandinavian Days Celebration. Good times.