Summertime!!

Just wanted to drop a few lines today, since we have enjoyed our summer so much! There are only a few weeks left before "Summer" is done, at least by the local School Districts' standards. That's not to say that the temperatures will decrease any come school time! Amazing, but Ben starts Kindergarten in only three weeks!!

We have been able to do a bit of traveling this summer, which has been fun. In June we went to the Oregon coast with most of Emily's brothers and sisters and their families (we really missed you, Lynn and Nathan!!). It was SO FUN! We enjoyed the beach, an awesome dune buggy ride, whale watching, the aquarium, tide pools, and Josh loved the seafood! It was great to see everybody, and for Ben and Claire to spend time with their cousins! We played some games, chatted a LOT, and just had a blast! By the end of the week, Josh and I were ready to come back home to the heat- 107 when we left Phoenix airport, and when we arrived in Portland it was only 57 degrees and rainy, and stayed around that same temperature all week. I suppose we've grown accustomed to having the "cold" water tap run lukewarm water over the past year!

A couple of weeks after that, we went to Utah for a week. We enjoyed Riverton's parade, carnival, fireworks, etc. with Josh's family! Had a barbeque with Emily's family, a baby shower for Josh's sister Amanda St. Clair, went to Lagoon, and just had another good relaxing week!

Back in Phoenix now, not to leave for a while, we're enjoying the use of the pool a LOT. It feels so good on the days when we've worked so hard and are hot and tired to go jump in and cool off! Ben and Claire are getting better at swimming all the time, thanks to Lacey being willing to help them with their swimming skills. :) Lacey rode home with us from Utah, and we've loved having her here to visit!

I've definitely enjoyed watching Ben and Claire grow this summer. They are so funny! Claire is my little music lover. She's always humming, or dancing, or singing a song! Her favorite thing is to turn on music and put on a "princess" dress and dance away! We've put her in a dance class starting this fall, and she could not be more excited about it! She talks about it every day. Ben is my little smarty pants! ("Mom, I'm SO smart, my teacher's going to say, "Why are you in Kindergarten? You're so smart!") He's SO excited to start school that he can hardly wait for the next three weeks to pass! He loves to do math, he likes to spell things and sound out words. He's also asked to start Karate, since Soccer is not his passion, and we're pretty excited about that!

The kids can't wait for their new baby brother to arrive. They ask every week how much longer till he comes! Ben and Claire both love to feel him kicking around in Mom's tummy (Claire loves to "hear" him kick and put her cheek on my belly). We're all excited!! Only 10 more weeks. . .

Josh and Emily have been fighting a battle in the yard with the weeds, and hopefully will win soon! It brings to mind a quote from the movie Megamind, if you've seen it-- "He would win some, I would almost win others. . . " That's how I feel our weeds are! Every week new ones spring up. We've pulled, raked, sprayed, repeated, and done all we could think of. So far the only good news is that they're growing slower each week. Josh is so good to take care of our yard, keep the garage clean so we can park in there, and help with the housework! Emily does the best she can, but can definitely feel her energy draining faster than before.

To finish off, we have had such a great summer! We're reluctant for it to end, and yet with the end of summer brings some new beginnings for our family, and the only thing to do is look to the future and get excited!!

New Home Pics!

Hello everyone! I finally made some time to take pictures of our new house! I'm doing my best to arrange them as though you were walking through. No guarantees, and please excuse the presence of the last few boxes, and lack of furniture/decorating-- it's all part of getting settled. We love our new home, and wanted you to see it! :)

Welcome to our humble abode!

We have two of these (the other one looks the other way)- they are our door guardians.

This is our front porch. You can't really see it from the front, it's behind that big bush that is soon to be trimmed.

This is our front entry, after you walk in the door. On the left is a living room that is yet unfurnished (and so is not pictured).

If you continue on the tile through the entry, you'll come to our kitchen, which I really love! The island in the middle has the sink and dishwasher, and to the right of that is our kitchen table, right next to two windows that look out on the back porch. Also not pictured, sorry!

Here is part 1 of our back yard-- the swimming pool! We've got it cleaned out, and we're ready for the water to warm up so it's comfortable to swim! The shed was already here, which is nice. The back porch (I'm standing on it, so you can't really see it) is completely covered from one end of the house to the other, and the arbor (is that what it's called?) was built just a foot or so away from the roof of the porch.

Here is back yard part 2-- as you can see, there is no grass. That we hope to change soon! Zero-scaping is great, but the kids need somewhere to play too!

Here is our living room- on the left is the sliding glass door to go to the back yard. On the right, there's a built-in desk (love it!!) with the same counter tops as the kitchen has. You can see, just past the desk there's a little hallway- that goes to the downstairs bathroom (below), the laundry, and the garage door. There's also a little close that we like to call the "Harry Potter room" because it's a cupboard under the stairs.

This is the bathroom that's down the hallway by the living room-- I LOVE the old-fashioned sink!

Moving back toward the front of the house, this little nook by the staircase is yet to be used-- we're debating between a reading nook and a music nook- a place for my piano, music books, etc. It would be pretty neat acoustically I think.

Foot of the stairs-- going up!

There's a little landing at the top of these stairs. Straight ahead is the kids' bathroom (below), first door on the right is Claire's bedroom, and second door on the right is Ben's bedroom.

The sinks are separate, and in their own part of the bathroom. If I were to turn around, you'd see a door behind which is the tub/shower and toilet room. Yay for being able to multi-task, even in the bathroom!

Claire's room!

Ben's room!

If you turn left on the landing (see the rail at the left, that looks down on our to-be-determined nook), you'll run into our master bedroom. I didn't think I would, but I like the double-doors!

If you turn left before my dresser, you'll go into our master bathroom.

Our bathroom has a lovely, deep tub, and the toilet is in it's own room to the right after you enter. On the left is the walk-in closet.

If you exit the master bedroom, there is a hallway on the right- that rail at the end of the hall overlooks our front entry. :) Love it!!

At the end of that hall, to the right-- a linen closet, and the guest bedroom/office.

Aforementioned guest bedroom/office.

This is the guest bathroom-- its just to the left of that railing that overlooks the front entry.

Sorry for the skewed picture, but this is the last bedroom, to the right of the guest bathroom. It's the biggest, other than the master. The windows look out over the front of the house. It's open!!

So, now that you've all seen it, come have a visit! As you can see, we've got space for you! And now you also know what a terrible photographer I am, hee hee! Guess it's time to take a class- I'm confident that the house wasn't given it's due by my pictures. :)