Life in the New House

Everyone always asks us how we are liking living in the new house. It is definitely amazing! There are a few things however that we didn't expect:

• We put out our garbage can every week and the recycling bin every other week. At first, both cans were always overflowing with moving garbage, however now that we are settled, I feel a little crazy taking my garbage can to the curb with it's two little bags of garbage inside. I almost feel like I'm wasting the garbage man's time by making him stop to pick up such a measly load.
• We still have about a million things to do! I thought we were done! Little things like putting the toilet paper rods in the bathroom (yes, the toilet paper roll just sits on the counter), organizing all the crap in the garage, touching up paint, even putting away some boxes! I wrote a list for Matt to work on while I was at work and he has done like two things on my two page list. I guess being homeowners means that we always have something to do at home!
• We are still getting used to being in a real neighborhood, especially knowing that we aren't going to be moving anytime soon! We got to participate in a ward activity that was really fun. One Friday everyone showed up at a farmer's field to harvest an acre of corn that he had planted for the ward. We walked through the field picking corn, and then went back to the common area for dinner and a corn boil! They sent us home with a giant bag of corn (over three dozen ears). Most people freeze the corn, but I just gave most of it away. It was the best corn I've ever had!
• I absolutely love having people over. I almost don't ever want to go to other people's houses because I'd rather invite everyone over. I always make my bed before people come over because I have to give everyone a tour of the house! And last week we got a mattress for the bed in our spare room and I am so happy that I can invite people over to stay for the night!
• After a couple weeks in the house, we started seeing ants crawling around. I didn't think it was a problem until Matt left a box with a doughnut out on the side table overnight. When we woke up the next morning, they were everywhere! It was disgusting. The carpet looked like it was moving because there were so many ants crawling around. That's when we got serious about getting rid of them! Why a brand new house was being overrun with ants is still a mystery to me. We tried some Pinterest  remedies at first, and then bought a small spray, which graduated to some small traps, then finally a giant bottle of house spray. Luckily we haven't had any problems since, but I was furious!

Visiting

About a week ago, Matt and I went down to Layton on a Sunday to visit Lance and Kendra, but really we went down to visit Kailee and Clayton! We had a barbeque and we played with Kailee and Rudy! I can't believe how big Kailee is getting! It is fun to see her start talking and playing with us! I wish we could see them more often. Matt and I keep trying to get them to move up to Cache valley... too bad they bought a house only a couple months ago.

Of course, Matt likes playing with the dog almost as much as he likes playing with the kids!

Isn't she so freaking cute!?

The End of Summer

I'm always curious about what people consider to be the "end" of summer. For teachers, and probably parents, it happens on the first day of school. The month of August was basically the only month that we really spent time outside our house, and I didn't even take any pictures! Matt and I started spending time with some of my friends from work and their husbands. McKenzie and Devin and Molly and Andrew. Kenzy and Molly both teach fifth grade at Summit. None of us have kids, so we get to spend time doing pretty much whatever we want! Things like:
1. Playing mini golf
2. Going out to dinner
3. Playing Halo
4. Going to movies
5. Watching Ridiculousness
6. Playing Super Nintendo and Wii
7. Having fire pits
8. Playing cards and Settlers of Catan

It has been so much fun spending time with friends. I especially love it when Matt gets along well with my friends' husbands. Last night, the night before school started, we went out to dinner after back-to-school night. I can't wait for more fun nights to come!

From left: Devin, Kenzy, Andrew, Molly, me, Matt

5 Year Anniversary

On Friday, August 15, Matt and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! Matt said that he couldn't believe that I put up with him for five years. I can't believe that he has survived living with such an OCD woman for five years. On our anniversary, we had to go to Matt's physical therapy in the morning and then we went out to lunch at Costa Vida. Then we went to the Logan temple to do an endowment session. It was so special being in the temple on our anniversary, and even more fun seeing all the newly married couples taking pictures with all their friends and family outside the temple. I remember when that was us. Sometimes it feels like it was yesterday, but other days it feels like we've been together forever.

We definitely are older, and fatter, but happier than we've ever been before.

That night, we went to test drive a new car. Since Matt's Nissan has pretty much died, we've been looking for a new one. We played with the idea of getting a beater for Matt to drive to work, but then we decided to upgrade my Ford and let Matt drive the Ford to work. And a few days later, we bought the car as our anniversary presents to ourselves! Pictures to come!

In the past five years:

• I finished my bachelor's degree in Elementary Education
• I have had three different teaching jobs with five classes of kids
• Matt has been a student at SLCC 
• Matt has had two jobs
• Matt and I have lived in five (yes, five) different places (Millcreek, Cottonwood Heights, Logan, Randy's basement, and our house in Richmond)
•  Matt and I BUILT A HOUSE
• I had brain surgery and Matt had ankle surgery
• We have had five nieces and nephews born (7 now total)

I can't wait to see what happens to us in the next five years!

Sisters

I was looking through some old pictures and found this picture of Reagan from Brad's baptism in 2012. She was almost five months old. I couldn't believe how similar she and Blakelee look! Blakelee is actually almost the EXACT same age in this picture as Reagan was in her picture. Almost five months old. Crazy!

Cell Phone Pics

I don't take a lot of pictures with my cell phone, because the quality is nowhere near as good as my camera, but sometimes there are those moments that you just have to capture and all you have is your phone.

Like Blakelee. She is so cute and fat. I love babysitting her and Reagan. Blakelee is such a happy baby. Being an Aunt is the best!

Or like bedtime with Harrison. Matt apparently needed to test the weight limit on Harrison's crib. Yes, it holds a 200 pound man.

I LOVE hanging out with Harrison and Reagan separately, but they are so much fun together! I was watching them play in Harrison's room and they decided they both needed to sit in the rocking chair and read. 

Matt and I have seen the snowie place Pink's in the Lee's parking lot all summer and had to stop by and give it a try. I have never seen snowies so elaborate before! I had to prove that Matt and I actually did get out of our house a couple times this summer. They were delicious!

After we moved out, Matt and I had the basement carpets cleaned at Randy and Jenny's house. Moving the furniture really sucked, but it was worth it to see all the crap that was hiding in Brad's bedroom.

Behind his dresser...

Under the bed wasn't quite as bad...

Again, babysitting. We are awesome babysitters! I was wrangling Reagan so Matt had to hold Blakelee but he was very involved in his NBA Jam on the Super Nintendo with Lance. Haha! This day was also the day that Tim walked into our house to get the girls and Reagan was sitting on the armchair in just her diaper and one shoe, chugging a Diet Dr. Pepper! Best babysitting moment ever. I promise I was watching her!

This is about a third of what I accomplished on the day I sent Matt fishing with his parents. I spent 11 hours at school running copies for school this year. I am getting everything copied and bound into books in advance so I am prepared! No last minute copying for me! Okay, that's a lie. Not as much last minute copying for me. My note is for the other teachers on my team who I ran the copies for...

Going Out With a Bang!

I can't believe that summer is already almost over! This has been the fastest summer I have ever had as a teacher. We spent all of June getting the house ready and all of July with Matt's ankle surgery/recovery and now that things have calmed down, summer is over! Ah! I even had to send Matt down to Salt Lake with his mom and dad for a few days so I could actually get some work done! They were great babysitters- they took him fishing at Strawberry for a couple days and he didn't miss me one bit.

Before I get back to work, we wanted to spend some time with friends and family. One night, Jenny and Kamie called me for a girl's night! We went to see "Maleficent" and got yummy dessert at Kneaders.

Matt and I went down to Salt Lake for Erika's wedding (no pictures unfortunately) and got to spend time visiting! On Saturday, we met up with my dad and Laurie and went to lunch and then saw Ninja Turtles 3D! Matt (my adult child) LOVED it! I didn't watch the cartoons as a child, so I don't know a lot about the turtles, but Matt was an avid TMNT watcher and just loved the movie. The funniest part was that they gave us "3D glasses accessories" that were turtle masks! Dad is Donatello, Laurie is Leonardo, I am Michelangeno and Matt is Raphael.

On Saturday night, we met up with some friends from our ward in Cottonwood Heights for dinner. Dustin and Emily Wallis are our friends who are Utah football fans so we have a bit of a friendly rivalry going on!

On Sunday, Cassie, my mom and I all went to see WICKED! My mom and I went a couple years ago and it was so much fun! I love seeing plays, and this one is amazing! Cassie had never seen it and thought it was great. After the show, we picked up Matt and went to grab some food at Red Robin!

I wish we had time to visit all our friends and family when we are in Salt Lake! We are lucky to have so many people that we still keep in touch with. I wish I could convince everyone to move up to Cache valley with us! What a great way to spend my last weekend before starting to go back to work.