If You Build it They Will Come

At least I hope people will come when we have a house. That's right! After 4 kids and 6 years of marriage, we will receive the fabulous blessing of having a house of our own. It just kind of came to us. A guy from this housing development came over while I was making dinner. I normally wouldn't have even answered the door, let alone give the guy the time of day. I just did for some reason. He told us about this seminar that they were having on the Saturday morning. Mark actually had that day off, so I just said sure, for some reason. That morning I said a prayer that if anything about this was for us that I would know it and I would know if a house would be the right way to go. We went and were listening to the guys tell us that we could have a brand new house. The whole I was telling Mark, "Yeah, right!" Then by the end of it I started feeling really good about it. One guy came and talked to us about our situation and what we could possibly do. I just started to feel really good about the whole thing. Then we went to look at the model homes while they did a credit check to see if we could qualify. The smallest model was the one we went to first. I just felt so good about it, like that would be our house. They brought us in and told that we actually had a really good credit score. Not that I thought it would be really bad, but I was just surprised that it was good enough at all. I just kept praying that we would know this was a righteous decision for us or not. I didn't feel nervous, scared or anything. I actually felt really excited. I knew this was right. We picked out a lot and started the whole process.

We took pictures of the model home to keep the dream alive for us while we wait. The house should be finished in October. There a lots of pictures here, so bear with me.

Living Room(sadly we don't get any of the furniture).

The front door and closet.

The "powder room" just off the living room.

Living room window.

Family room.

Family room from another angle.

Dining room/kitchen.

Dining room/kitchen. We will have more cabinets than this one has and we will have a fridge. Haha.

The pantry, you can't tell how big this actually is, but it is quite large. Seeing as how we don't even have a pantry now this is a huge deal for me. Oh, and the door to the garage is right there by Mark. Another lovely addition we don't currently have at our town home.

Other side of the pantry, then under the stairs area, with crawl space door hidden in the carpet.

View of the backyard and a reflection of me taking a picture of it apparently.

Another view of the dining room and living room.

Up the stairs. There will be a wall here making this the 4th bedroom.

Walk-in closet that doesn't look as big in this picture as it actually is.

Loft area by that future 4th bedroom, master bedroom doorway right there. That desk is where our laundry closet will be. No more walking up and down the stair lugging laundry! Yay!!

Hall bathroom. The will finally have their own bathroom, which means no more sharing and no more messy, crowded bathroom!! Yay!!

Another bedroom.

Another large walk-in closet.

Another bedroom at the end of the hall.

Another walk-in closet for that room.

Master bedroom, this room seems huge to me when I am in it. Our current room is so small and has unusable space.

Another angle.

Linen closet on the right, large bathtub/shower.

Another angle of the same thing.

The large bathtub.

Toilet area, I like to call it a toilet cubby.

One side of the large walk-in closet.

Other side.

The middle.

This is the lot. We will still be in Spanish Fork. Behind us is a historical old sugar beet factory. I recently learned what those are. I think it is really cool and I welcome the ghosts that may come from it. It will be a good excuse to have the Ghost Hunters as company.

This is the exterior colors of the house. We got the free stucco upgrade. The khaky is the color around the windows. We will have dark blue shutters.

The cabinets and carpet we chose.

The combo the the counter, cabinets and carpet we chose. The pictures don't do the counter tops justice.

Now it's the last combination with the kitchen flooring added in and the paint color that looks nothing like that, haha.

Now the combo with the bathroom flooring.

Now it's a party!

They finally dug our lot. That is our powder room on the left. We are hoping it looks a little better when the house is finished.

The dug lot...again.

They started on the foundation earlier this week.

I will keep you all posted on the progress. This is so exciting for us. Here are some differences between what we have now to what we will have: 1100 sq. ft., 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms(one is combined with the laundry room), no pantry, no walk-in closets, the ones we have are really tiny, we share a bathroom with our children, there is no storage, no garage, tiny backyard type thing, sharing walls, rental, split level, teeny tiny kitchen(hardly two people can be in there at the same time). The upgrade: 2000 sq. ft., 4 spacious bedrooms with large walk-in closets, 2 full baths(1 for kids 1 for parents), 1 powder room (that does not double as a laundry room) large pantry, garage, loft area for kids, family room, living room, large kitchen, large master bedroom, etc... We are truly grateful for the place we have called home for the past 6 years. We have many wonderful memories from here and have had 4 kids here. But we are looking forward to the fantastic changes we are about to undergo. Sorry this was so unbelieveably long.

A Couple of Goofy Girls...

They start being weird(in a good way) very young, I think mostly because I am weird and goofy. It is only natural that I should take pictures and blog it. Rozzy started out all wrapped up in a sheet swinging this water shooter thing around. Being from a family of 6 brothers, many of whom love Star Wars, naturally, I thought she looked like a Jedi Knight.

She got all excited when she saw me with the camera and unwrapped herself.

But, she's cute nonetheless.

I bought goggles for the kids and Gwenie insisted on wearing them, she thinks they are the coolest!

I guarantee she won't think they are so cool when she is older and looks at these pictures.

Something Random and How to Bathe 4 Kids at Once...

This first picture I had to throw in here randomly because her hair looks so cute. This is just one of the many hairstyles I love to do in her hair. Ah yes, the perks of having girls!

Now without further ado, how to bathe 4 kids at once...

It all starts off with cute little girls splashing a lot.

Follow that with some cute faces by the youngest child.

Then all 4 kids need to get some splashing out.

Then we wash hair and bodies. The youngest needs to eat the wash cloth.

Follow that with some more splashing. As you can see, there is always at least one child who is not happy about the splashing. That child is usually named Liam.

As you continue to get the hair washed, let the kids help each other. It gets out some pent up aggression and also teaches them to be helpful.

There is usually one child left who does not participate in the group hair washing ritual. You will have to do him separately. His name is usually Liam.

Finish off by removing each child separately from the tub and dry and dress them. Start with the cutest and youngest child. If you don't, chaos may ensue.