our tooele townhouse.

i have to laugh.  i wrote this post the week after we moved and got all settled in to our place in utah.  funny thing is i kept deleting the photos and taking new ones or waiting for the rooms to be "done" before i posted...

well, now we're GONE and BACK in our house in idaho falls.  i'm gonna post this to journal the crazy 6 months we spent in utah and the place that we lived during that time!

I WILL GET BACK ON TRACK WITH THIS BLOG!  I WILL! I WILL!!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

moving day from idaho falls.  so thankful for the many hands that came and made light{er} work of moving our entire household out of state.  we fit everything into a 26 ft. truck with room to spare. luckily we have a rather large storage room in the back of the I.F. garage so we left boxes and things in there that weren't necessary to bring on this move.

here we are- still a family of 5! 

(i was 5 months pregnant with camden!)

brady loves to drive with chris in the big truck whenever we move...he's had the experience quite a few times!!!

zach and olivia rode with mommy.  the back end of the van was stuffed full of things i didn't want in the truck.  bikes on the back. we got into SLC at around midnight.  zach has spilled water all over himself and was completely soaking wet.  

we met up with chris' sister, nickie and her husband, nick and they took the kids for us for the first two days so we could get unpacked (and "celebrate" our 11 year anniversary, which was the next day!) there's nothing like unloading a u-haul to say "cheers!"

the u-haul out front of the new place-

and the tour of the new place...

let's start on the outside.  

when you enter the from the front door you are in the living room. we brought our "boogery" furniture with us after we sold the better formal living room couches.  

(sorry- no pic! this was one of the pictures i deleted. then when we got our new IKEA couch, a steal for $200 of KSL.com)

there is a cut-out in the wall from the kitchen to the living room. it really opened up and brightened the space and helped me keep an eye on the kiddos.

then there's the eat-in kitchen.  it's bright and airy, though small.  i had like a 2 foot counter space, but i made it work.  i actually really enjoyed the amount of sunlight in the kitchen and the fact that it overlooked the backyard so i could keep an eye on the kids.  they played out there for most of the whole month of may, but once it got into june a heat wave came through and it became too unbearable to be outside until around 7-8 in the evening!

my sis-in-law, nickie gave me the white buffet, which is still a work in progress.  it served as my office area/command central.

                          




i hung a map over the dining room table in august so we started to learn about states and capitals.  the kids asked tons of questions at every meal and it really sparked a lot of conversation.  i actually kind of miss having a map over our diningroom table!

                            

we had a small pantry in the kitchen which i was SO grateful for, but i still needed more space, so luckily this white cabinet that we had fit in this space by the garage door perfectly.  i could keep all of my baking goods in there and the kids have their chore charts inside one of the cabinet doors and the right side is all homeschool (we homeschooled for the first few months of this school year as we were actively working on moving back to idaho).

                        

off the kitchen we have this great deck where i transplanted some of my favorite perennials, columbine, for a little summer color. turns out that they don't like as much sun as they get here and the heat.  i don't think being in a pot helped much either.  one of the pots didn't make it since i seriously neglected it.

i transplanted some succulents {hens and chicks} from home in Idaho as well and they did well.

then i bought some late-season perennial black-eyed Susans for a deal and a little salvia so we have some pretty color out there.

it's so nice out here all afternoon and evening, we really lucked out having such a nice area to bbq and eat and a private nice backyard.

the view was beautiful too.  {almost} makes me feel like i am looking out at the ocean.  the mountains are the stansbury mountains in the great salt lake.



upstairs we have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  the bedrooms were all very small, as were the bathrooms.  but they worked and were fully functional. i was grateful to have at least two bathrooms! 

i had to get seriously organized in the kids' rooms but we pulled together a lot of little projects that have been on the "to do" list for a while.

it's was super hot upstairs all summer and finally started to cool down by the beginning of october.  the upstairs was almost unbearable during the heat of the summer, especially being pregnant!

master-

i was really glad that our dresser fit in our room.

                               


the baby was in a bassinet-sized pack-n-play next to the bed and the closet is super tight so that we had to pack away half of our clothes!

ready for baby...

scored the rocking chair ($8) and the baby blanket ($3) at D.I.- one of the only things i liked about tooele!

the view from our bedroom was beautiful too.  green mountains and beautiful sky.  this was taken the beginning of may. i wouldn't mind if i could have this view in idaho falls...




olivia's room-

super small.  big enough just for her, but that's all we needed, i guess.  i finally put together a few little things that her room had been waiting for a while.  i love the picture above her bed, which my mom gave me and i re-framed. it's hard to see in this picture but it's the girl in the hollyhocks.

we hung a bunch of her pictures on the wall with some clothespins and tuelle.  i am making her a little book for christmas full of some of her favorite drawings so she can look at them when she wants.

and i FINALLY finished olivia's hexi quilt just in time for her birthday!  i worked on it for a full year and am so happy with the finished look! 

after i finished her hexi quilt i had to make a mini quilt and pillow for her dolly bed!  her great-granpa morgan (papa) made all of his great-grand-daughters these adorable doll beds and dressers! what a special keepsake!  she loves them!!!

i finally took the 20 minutes to paint her lamp which i got for $1 at a yardsale and the lampshade from D.I. for $1.

her quilt is from my aunt donna {for FREE} thank you! the other side of it actually has a pattern which is really pretty, but not the colors or style i am going for.  i actually really love the simple pink with dark pink checked look.  it looks really good with her hexi quilt!!!

i framed some scrapbook paper i had gotten for her room and spray-painted a few D.I. and yardsale frames i had.  i was going for a fancy chunky look with them...

we're didn't use the bunk bed because it was too big for the boys' room, so i used the ladder as a blanket rack in olivia's room.  she has a few cute quilts and pretty afghans that were made for her when she was a baby.  i have also found a few thrifting.

still need to print photos for some frames and planning on making a chalkboard to go inside of the big window frame.

boy's room-

finally pulled it all together... to make it work well for the two boys, ....and then we moved!  i never got pictures. this is what it looked like for the first few months-

brady's space artwork that he drew when he was in 1st grade.

the sign is a find from grammie morgan, its' a saying she always says to brady especially.

brady's corkboard and a little place for them to hang their baseball caps and lighter coats

poor zach, when we first moved in he had either been sleeping with brady in brady's bed, on the floor in this make-shift bed by himself, or with brady on the floor!  at the end of may we went back to idaho falls and got his toddler bed since the bunk bed was too big for their room.

i re-painted it and poly-urethaned it for protection because the last time i painted it i didn't do the protective coat and it got pretty banged up in the garage.

kid's bath-

also more decorated than theirs was ever in I.F. because it was a long project...

i finally made this barn board towel hanger, which only cost me $4! and took me 10 mins.

downstairs-

we had a storage room/laundry room and a half bath.  

in the daylight basement was our family room/play room and a patio door that led to the backyard.  

there was a sandy area that we used as a sandbox-

the kids loved having a trampoline! we got it for them last Christmas

so that's it!  our place in tooele.  the town was ok.  we had everything that we NEEDED but it never felt like HOME.  I was very homesick the whole time we were there.

the kiddos didn't have many friend there and they missed the easy pleasures of coming and going and bike riding all over the place like they did in our neighborhood in IF, but they have did really well playing with each other over the summer and we tried to get to different parks several times a week to stay sane.

this momma was pooped out though! i had a nap with zach in the afternoon almost every day!  our days here were simple but we tried to fill them with as much fun, exploration and love as we could. we read lots of books, built lots of legos and played lots of games.

it's was very hard being in a new place but we tried to stay positive and focused on our personal and family goals.  chris worked extremely hard for our family and we both prayed fervently that our efforts would pay off and that we could get where our family needed to be.  we are so thankful to be back in idaho falls! 

a little bit of lately. {dinosaur park}.

every once in a while this summer chris has gotten home from work early enough for us to take off and do something fun with the kids.  this particular evening wasn't dreadfully hot.  chris got home around 7:45, leaving us enough time to play at a local park for about an hour.  the evening is my favorite time of day.

zach has become quite the climber this past year.  he is very coordinated and loves to climb up, down and across anything.  there isn't very much that holds him back, and since he has become quite skilled he has never fallen.

we like this park the best because it's in a pretty setting, has fun exploratory playground equipment with a dinosaur theme, has walking paths and a fun laser light game the kids (and daddy) enjoy playing.  this park gets the wiggles out big time!!!

playing the laser game-

i can't get enough of this little guy lately it seems.  most of my pictures are of him- trying to capture this fun age of excitement and exploration.  he has the cutest mannerisms and little voice and i am reminded daily that {although i wish i could freeze him right here in this phase and age} that he is growing rapidly and learning how to stay up to speed with his big brother and sister.

pretty soon he won't be our baby anymore.  i think he is starting to grasp the idea that a new little person will be coming to live at our house.  he often says "i am big." "i am going to be a big brudder." (brother)

i love that he was potty-trained in 2 weeks.  he doesn't wear diapers or pull-ups at all anymore, not even at naptime or bedtime.  no accident in bed yet.  a {HUGE} blessing to a momma who DID NOT want two kids in diapers at the same time!!!

i also love that he gets himself dressed and more often than not his shoes are on the wrong feet and his underwear and pants are backwards.  he is fiercely independent; however.  as are ALL of my children.  so, wherever we go, he goes that way.  no worries.  he'll eventually figure out that the zipper goes in the front and not in the back and that it's actually much more comfortable to wear your clothes the right way.

he has his own sense of style too.  if he's not wearing his baseball cap then he usually requests to have his hair done (spikey, like you see it the most).  he also wears his shades all over the place, but mostly in the car so the sun doesn't bother his eyes.

he loves to brush his teeth every morning and night and WILL NOT let anyone help him, other than to put the toothpaste on his brush.  he will scream at you otherwise.  he will scream at you if he doesn't like anything you're doing to him.  this can be a good and a bad thing.  no stranger is ever going to get their hands on this child!

watch out for T-rex!

look who came to visit!

mom and dad graf came down the last weekend in july so we could all celebrate dad's birthday.  chelsae & spencer, shawnae & baby brielle came too!  it was fun having some company.  mom and dad stayed at a hotel so we enjoyed several hours in the evening and the next morning swimming at the pool.

we had a pool-side pizza and birthday party with cake and ice cream for dad.  don't ask me why i didn't take pictures....?  shawnae if you have any....

i got to hold this chubby cuteness while everyone swam!

chelsae and spencer entertained the kids for hours in the pool and grammie got in on a game of marco polo too!

the next day, on sunday we took a walk around temple square and visited the exhibits there. unfortunately later on in the evening both zach and grammie got really sick.  i think we had a combination of a stomach bug and some dehydration going on.  we had a long, hot weekend combined with not drinking enough water and swimming in the steamy pool room.

thanks for coming to visit!

a little bit of lately. {settlement canyon}.

chris worked saturday and got home at around 5.  wanting to take advantage of what time we had with him i packed the cooler and had everything ready to go for a dinner picnic up in the canyon. we drove up into Settlement Canyon where there is a reservoir.  the water was down quite a bit and the shoreline was rocky.  not much to be desired, but the view from that elevation was pretty.

driving in there are campsites all along the sides and a creek that runs the course of the canyon.  in many places the creek is down a steep ravine and all of the better spots were already taken. eventually we found an open field with a play ground along the creek.  it was a nice evening, not too hot, with a nice breeze.  thanks heavens for the breeze because apparently they don't mow the grass in the field and instead opt to free-range cattle there.  a few too many cow pies lay about (some fresh!)  you really had to watch your step!

the {beware of rattlesnakes} and {watch for cougars} signs also were a bit unsettling, however; there were plenty of other people all around so i felt confident we would be ok!

luckily there was one last fire pit available next to a picnic table so we set up our spot and chris and the kids ran off to collect firewood.  chris made an excellent "log cabin" style fire and showed brady how to build the fire and add wood in as the fire got going.  he explained how a fire needs air to "breathe" and grow.

next up....hot dogs!  who doesn't love roasting a hot dog over the fire?

the kids and their cheesy grins-

i took quite a few pictures of zach as he ate.  he was pretty funny about it.  i had packed everything we needed and was quite proud that i hadn't missed anything...until we realized we didn't have any paper towels!

zach is showing me his very messy fingers

no paper towels?  got to lick them off!

usually zach eats his hot dog like a piece of corn.  i was encouraging him to eat it from the end to try and not get so messy

apparently eating a hot dog like "normal people" is funny

what's a summer "BBQ" without rootbeer floats?!

and now the face is REALLY messy!  watching a 2 year old eat a rootbeer float can be very entertaining!

and a toothless girl too!

we cleaned up from dinner and packed stuff to the car, then sat in our camp chairs and watched the kids play.  they made some quick friends and had a game of tag.

olivia climbed all the way across the monkey bars for the first time

and we were there too!

on the way home we stopped at a house that had a full apricot tree. the owner was in the front yard painting and since it didn't look like they were using the apricots i got out and asked if they would mind if we picked some (offering to pay for some of course). she was more than happy to let us pick what we wanted off the tree.

in about 15 minutes the five of us picked enough apricots to fill half of my sink.  we would have stayed longer and picked more, but this little guy who is newly potty-trained "had to go!"

we'll see how much jam we can get out of this and maybe go back for more.

turned out to be a pretty good night!