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and more...

kitchen cabinet installation

kitchen backsplash

painting (front hall)

tile install (master bath)

a few more house pictures

Our builder let Chad use his backhoe to move some rocks around for landscaping.




Framing...




Putting up rock...





Sheetrocking and more sheetrocking...

Some house pictures

We moved this week. I HATE MOVING. But it is exciting to finally be back together and to be in our house. There is so much to say about this whole experience. I could write long, exhausting paragraphs about every single picture, but I wanted to just post a few representative shots of our home-building summer. (These are all taken from the pictures Chad faithfully emailed me every night - since I couldn't see what was happening! Some are from his cell phone so they are not the best quality. I plan to add some more from my camera ...someday.)

This is a view from the back of our lot which is about an acre. I am excited for the extra space but a little nervous about that much land to take care of. Are we CRAZY?



The kids and I while the house was being framed. I went up about every 1-2 weeks.

The back of the house and the bonus room.

Claire and I picking out tile. I'm glad I took a picture of this. We spent many hours in those aisles.

...more to come...

Update

Well, I know we have been M.I.A. from the blog "scene" since moving to Utah. Life has been really crazy - even more than usual. So this is my attempt at a BRIEF update:

The summer has been fun and hard. Some things have been better than I expected (i.e. staying with my parents - they really have been great) and some things have been harder than I expected (i.e. staying at my parent's HOUSE - without my own stuff or space). I have realized -again - how much I really like being with my husband and how much kids need a Dad.

Building a house has been harder than I expected. I didn't realize how much TIME it would take ME to think about, research, and decide on SO MANY things. And it has been hard to do it while living in a different state. (Our house is basically finished, but our builder - because of the timing - wanted to put it into the parade of homes; so, we won't be moving until around Aug. 18th.)

Bryson turned 10 last week. That will have to be a separate post. Claire is crawling, and waving, and saying "hi"! Oh, she is adorable. That will have to be a separate post too. Parker LOVES playing cars with Grandpa (almost) every night after dinner and picking raspberries in Grandma's garden. Abbey has a really good friend that lives next door here and has already met an 8 year old girl who lives next to us in Idaho! Lucky girl. (although she still really misses her friends in ABQ.) Chad is surviving - literally - on Little Caesars $5 pizza and hot dogs from Costco. It makes me think he really might need me after all. :)

Here are a few pictures of our house. I'll try to post some family pictures soon. I just realized I only have these two right now... the kid's bath and the double ovens. (Chad took a picture of the ovens because he knows how much I LOVE THEM :)

Some thoughts...

Well, we made it to Utah (barely) :) We are still kind of in transitition mode, but I think (HOPE!) things will get easier as we settle into routine here at Gpa and Gma's house.
So, I really wanted to write this post to send a huge THANKS and WE LOVE YOU and (not "goodbye", but) WE'LL SEE YOU LATER to all our dear friends in Albuquerque. Let me explain this picture a little bit...
I love, love, LOVE the blossoms on the trees in spring. I especially love the light purple/pink ones. They really are one of my "favorite things". So, a few weeks ago we were driving as a family and we were talking about the beauty of the spring blossoms and pointing them out whenever we passed them. (Background). Fast forward to last Wednesday morning. As I left our hotel room to rush to our house to meet the movers by 8 am, I noticed that there was a bunch of our stuff hanging out the door of our car. As I got closer I realized that our car had been broken into and that our camera (the fairly nice one that Chad gave me for our 10-year Anniversary, along with our camcorder with tapes from when Claire was born, etc.) had been stolen. I felt like up until then I had been handling our move pretty well. I didn't even cry at Church our last Sunday (!), but after that I could not stop crying. I think it was just the stress of it all and the sadness at having lost those things . It was a tough morning. Later, while I was driving the kids to school we saw some pink blossoms on a tree. Trying to help my kids with all that was going on, I pointed them out and reminded them that we could still find beauty and good, even during hard times. I didn't really feel that way though. (This DOES have a point...)

That afternoon we started cleaning. So many people offered to help. So many people DID things to help. Michelle, Sharon, and Chelsey cleaned my bathrooms and closets, (etc.) and I NEVER could have done it without them. People brought snacks for my kids, loaned us cleaning supplies, offered to babysit, etc., etc. That night as I prayed, I found myself saying (and feeling) "I am just so grateful" and it struck me at that moment that all of you had been my"spring blossoms" on a really tough day. My sadness and stress and sorrow really was overcome with a feeling of gratitude for the wonderful people that I am blessed to know and associate with. THANKS to all of you. Really. Thank you so much. We are going to miss you, but we will always be grateful for your love and friendship and the time we had together. :)

Family Pics

A few weeks ago we went down to Old Town where our friend Heidi (from the ward) took some family pictures. I think she did a great job (THANKS Heidi!!). Too bad Parker was in kind of a grumpy mood... Here are a few of my favorites...

P.S. We ARE still moving (next week), just in case you wondered. :) That is occupying most of our time and energy these days...