our "new" house

I thought it might be fun to post some before pictures of our "new" house. To be quite honest, we were mostly sold on the house when we saw the pictures of the backyard. These screen shots of the house from the MLS listing make me laugh because I would venture to guess the outside pictures were probably taken about 2 years before they sold the house. In the picture with the trash cans there is a tree that looks like a fern bush, that is now taller than our house. The quaint little veggie garden in the corner was completely overgrown with some type of vine bush. We have put a lot of work into the yard and are excited to enjoy it this season. 

I feel like we have already put a lot of work into this house. I LOVE the potential this house has and we have a lot of big plans. For now I think we are going to have to be a bit content letting the house dictate our timeline of projects. For instance we were planning on replacing the garage door opener eventually, but the actual garage door broke pretty much in half. That warranted a brand new door, opener and track. It is nice to have, but it would be funner to be able to do some more cosmetic things. Future exciting upgrades include new windows and better insulation for the walls....way exciting I know. 

Before we moved in we decided to have the house painted. I was debating whether or not to go with a light grey, but in the end decided to go with white. I love how much bigger it made most of the rooms and areas feel. A nice fresh start. No joke there were about 50 different paint cans in the storage room...all various shades of brown! We also had the basement carpet replaced. 

movie making

I have been so fascinated by the idea of home movies. It's incredible to me to see how fast this time of mine is passing. It seems like yesterday it was just Steve and I. I wished I had videos of when we would go on crazy random overnight camping adventures, or how we would always celebrate Christmas at 2:00 in the morning because Steve was still up and too excited to wait to give me my present in the morning. I am hoping that I can capture more moments of my family and some of the things we like to do. I have a long way to go in the film making department. You have to start somewhere though.



a day with cousins from Amy Beardshall on Vimeo.

all great changes….

are preceded by chaos!

This rings so true to me at the moment. I feel like I am getting control of this life of mine. Even though we moved in August, and I feel totally at home here....I'm still trying to figure out how I fit in this "new world" of ours. Keeping my kids healthy and happy, finding quality time for Steve and I to be together, ward responsibilities, getting to know all our neighbors, playgroups, yard work, taking care of THREE dang dogs that keep eating anything in site in the backyard (good buy patio chair), me time, and anything else I can't currently think of.

There is a bit of chaos that is involved in our lives, and I want to get back to simple living. Life is not hard or complicated, it's what we choose to make of it. How am I going to choose to live my day? How am I going to choose to react to things?

Something to strive for? Yes we always have a reason to do good, a reason to be better. This is mine.....not worrying about "catching up" on what we have done (although I hope to do so soon). It's about finding a way to journal more (blog) and get this dang thing printed into a book, for my posterity of course!