Catch my breath...

So it is 1:32 on Thursday afternoon. This time tomorrow, I should be moving the first load of furniture. Right now Kel is sleeping and since I need a chance to catch my breath, I figured I would vent/catch you all up on what is going on. Last night Matt's cousin Casey came out to sand the ceiling that Matt has finished texturing. Because sanding the ceiling is very messy, we didn't start any painting downstairs so the dust wouldn't stick to the paint. Unfortunately, Casey wasn't able to finish last night. It's not like he works full time and goes to school full time and has another job and has a brand new house he is finishing up on and a pregnant wife. So lets just say I can understand why he couldn't finish. So we can't paint today because he needs to come back this afternoon and finish.
The good news: The bedrooms are finished. Including the master bedroom. Also, the master bathroom is finished. It just needs a mirror. So if you see me in the next few days and it looks like I haven't looked in a mirror for a day or two, it just might be true. I've moved over about half of Keldrie's clothes and about a third of mine. I've got another load set and ready to go. I've been emptying the kitchen out and need to move on to the bathroom tonight.
This move isn't going exactly how I imagined when we closed on the house 2 months ago. I blame the wallpaper. Stupid wallpaper. Stupid Ugly Wallpaper. Oh and did I mention, we found rolls of the wallpaper in a box with some Christmas wrapping paper. So if anyone needs some ugly, stupid, 70's era wallpaper, hit me up! But overall, I am thrilled with the house. It might be a townhouse, but I have yet to hear the neighbors on either side of me. It has 3 bedrooms which means our family can grow without outgrowing the house. The ward seems fantastic from the 3 weeks we have gone to church over there. The location is awesome! Less than 5 minutes to my favorite resturants: Olive Garden, Chick-fil-a, Maple Gardens, Texas Roadhouse, Applebee's, and Chili's! 7 minutes to Weber State University. 60 seconds to my Grandma and Grandpa Nicholas's house. 2 minutes from Ryan and Megan, my brother and sister in law. Plus, the house is over twice as big as the apartment and we both have a parking spot. Also, no more hauling groceries up the stairs to the apartment! Just a short walk through our covered patio and then into the kitchen! Yahoo!
Okay, it's 1:50. Break is over! I'll post pictures of the move and the finished project over the next few weeks.

Our Family Pictures

Well, Matt, Kel and I got all dressed up last week and went to have our first family pictures done since Matt and I were engaged. Needless to say, these pictures were way overdue. Like I said in my post last week, I think I look my mom in pictures and it is just a little weird to me. But Matt and Kel look great in the pictures so I will just have to get over the self-image self-conciousness and put up the pictures. So here they are!

And there we are! The Smith Family in our not matching purple shirts. Keldrie got some cute pictures.  Hopefully there won't be a 2 1/2 year delay between now and our next family pictures. 

In other news, we are down to less than 2 weeks to get moved out of the the apartment and into the new house. We've still got tons of paining to do, but luckily, that is all that is left, besides one more bathroom that needs tiled. But since that will get done in the next 14 days, I mostly worried about the paint. I would love for the house to be able to air out for a few days before we move in. But I doubt we will have that much time to spare. Wish us luck! 

What I am looking forward to....

As we get closer to moving, I'm starting to list all of the things that I am going to miss about the apartment and what I am looking forward to at the new house
What I am going to miss:

1. Calling the maintenance man whenever the sinks get clogged or the fridge makes a weird noise.
2. Being super close to the Layton Hills Mall. 
3. Being super close to a Sonic. Yeah, that's about all I'm going to miss.

Now, for what I am looking forward to:

1. When I flush the toilet at 2 am, Keldrie won't be sharing a wall with our one bathroom, and therefore, shouldn't wake up.
2. When the person below, next to us, or below and next to us flush their toilets, take a shower, or turn on their TV it won't wake Keldrie up. 
3. No more stairs on our way to the car. Right now it is about 5 minutes from the apartment door to the car door because Kel wants to be a big girl and do it all by herself. Plus, if there are any neighbors walking their dogs or anything interesting on the sidewalk, we have to deal with that as well. 
4. Having a place big enough to throw a decent party. I'm going to have girl afternoons in.  More details to come, but just picture a place for the kids to play, lots of coke and yummy snacks, and actual adult conversation.
5. Just having a HOME instead of a place to live. I am glad that we will be there for a while. I am sick of moving.
6. Being able to personalize the house. We are already doing this of course. That is why we aren't living there yet. I've already got new flooring going in, and we are painting it. I am really looking forward to that. 
7. Having 2 1/2 bathrooms. When we first started looking, we knew we would be really lucky if we got a master suite or even a guest bathroom. We really lucked out because we got both. 
8. Actually getting to know the neighbors. Here at the apartments, about all the interaction you might get is a wave or a hello. I've met the neighbor to the east of me. She is an elderly lady who has a middle aged son living with her because of her health. And I've met the kids of the family next to her. There are three sisters. They are about 11, 9, and 6. The eleven year old was really cute with Kel. 
9. No more noisy trucks pulling in at 3 am or out at 4 am. Some of the people here have the nosiest trucks I have ever heard. 
10. Being a little farther away from the base.  I was amazed at the difference between the noise from the jets at my mom's house and here. There seems to be about double the noise here. But maybe it is just because I have a very good hearing toddler that I don't want waking up from her nap. 
11. Having room for an actual dining room table. Right now our table is pushed up against the wall, which works because we are currently a family of three, but it looks stupid and I want to have a table in the middle of the space with real chairs! 

Well, there are about a million things I am going to love about the new house, but those are the main ones.  Now if we can just get everything finished up and moved in. Holy smokes! In other news, we got our family pictures done yesterday. Most of them turned out good. Everyone tells me how much I look like my mom, but I don't see it except in pictures. Not that I don't love my mom, but it is a little unnerving to see my mom sitting with Kel and Matt. I'll get pictures up in the next week or so.  I will also get lots of pictures of the house after we get all finished up and then moved in. Hope everyone has a good UEA weekend!

Under Construction!

Our house is coming along. It is a little nerve racking because we are running out of time before our lease is up at the apartment. Here is where we are at now!

This is where I am hoping to one day put my dining room table. 

Remember that great light from my earlier post. Doesn't it look even better covered in dust? 

More construction mess, and yes, that is my fridge. 

Here is my kitchen. The dishwasher and fridge have been pulled out and we've got some can lights going in. We also pulled out some overhead cabinates that were above the counter where my dad is standing.

Remember the awful flooring in the bathroom? It has been pulled out and my dad has started to cut and place the tile. This is the master bathroom. Doesn't it look awesome? 

This doesn't show up as good on the picture as it does in person, but my Grandpa put molding around the window. It makes them look so much better! Right now we are trying to get all the walls washed and sanded so we can paint. Hopefully this weekend we can be started! We are starting to feel the crunch to hurry up and get finished. 

Keldrie is getting bigger all the time. She goes down the stairs at the apartment with more speed every day. She says all sorts of words now and finds something new to make a mess with everyday. It might be frustrating sometimes, but I know she is just discovering the world in her own little way. We love her so much! It's a good thing she keeps me busy since I'd be lying if I didn't say I've got a tiny bit of baby hunger. But since that is not an option until next summer, I guess it's good to be busy. 

Girls night in!

So, while the men go off to Priesthood session of Conference, my sisters-in-law and I got together at my Mother-in-laws house and had a girls (and kids) night in. We ordered dinner from the Training Table and had popsicles for dessert. After dinner, we went outside and played before the sun set.

There were bubbles and boy were they a hit! 

Lance was really good at blowing those bubbles! 

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Kel was not very good at sharing the bubbles. In fact, she ended up wearing most of them, so I took off her dress.

Handsome Andrew gets bigger every time I see him!

Fun Julia was an angel all night. She is a great big sister and I'm glad Keldrie gets to grow up with her.

Katelynn is also getting big. She has a smile that could melt the polar ice caps! Not that I managed to get a good picture of it, but Jenny has some on her blog. 

One last time wearing this sun dress. 

This is a blow up water slide that came with a small pool. The kids had fun jumping on it and tipping it over. Lance was really good at playing with Keldrie and not being too rough with her. 

When it got too dark and cold outside, we headed in. We watched and (sometimes actually got to listen) to Letters to Juliet. It was hard with so many kids, but I think I liked the movie. 

We had tons of fun on our Girl's night in. We finally called it a night at 10 when the boys were all done with their dinner. Thanks ladies for a great night! Oh and I did actually have some pictures of the grown ups, but it seems like someone in each picture had an issue with their mouth or their eyes. Decided not to post any of those! Luv you all!