New Years Eve

We made a quick trip up to Idaho when we got back from California and went bowling, which the kids loved. Our trip was way too short but so much fun. We had an arm wrestling contest with everyone since it turned out to be a ton of fun when we did it in California. John beat all the brothers on both sides of the family, while I lost to all the sisters on both sides of the family! But I made up for it with my top bowling score;) (My dad did however beat John, but everyone was such a close match it was so funny to watch!) Im sad all of our family time is over, we need more soon.

More Christmas

On Christmas Eve we did a Nativity narrated by Cari for the first time this year, the kids were so cute as mini characters, I have so many memories growing up doing this with my cousins!

We did a pretty low key Christmas this year as far as gifts go, we just really kept it simple, nothing homemade, nothing extravagant, pretty minimal, and it was so nice, no stress:) it was especially fun to watch the kids open their gifts on Christmas morning this year, kids make it so magical.

Phoenix Field

On Christmas Eve we all met at the park, my Dad brought rockets, Josh brought a remote controlled airplane and some slingshot helicopters and Alec brought Bjorn and a frisbee. It was so much fun! We all just hung out and played in the warm winter sun. Vera practiced her walking, the kids chased down the parachutes as they fell from the sky, and the ladies hung out and talked, it was my favorite day.

We had such a fun Christmas!

The day after we arrive in California my parents put us to work on our annual service project. My Dad purchased a portion of an orange orchard's fruit and drove down to Fresno to get the fruit. He brought back 6000 lbs of oranges, tangerines, and lemons that were picked fresh that morning. He had a local company donate boxes and we packaged them all up and delivered them to two local stakes worth of families and people in need, it was super fun. I love citrus this time of year:) We got out my parents juicer and made fresh orange juice and orange rolls on Christmas morning.

Updates

I still feel like I am trying to catch up since finishing the house, we have been up to lots of things.


At our ward Halloween party they had bobbing for apples, all the teenagers were trying unsuccessfully to get an apple and were all soaking wet, we walked in and I was sure the kids wouldn't want to try. Wes said "Ill do it" and he got an apple on the first try, not a drop on him. Mae was a little hesitant but she got an apple on her second try with just a little water on her forehead. Everyone asked if we practiced at home!

Vera says: Mama, Dada, Uh-Oh, Doggy, Lamby, and I-do
She has also been standing on her own, but no steps yet


Wes' new word is above and he uses it in every sentence, except he says "bebove"
I told Wes that even though he is asking Santa for two presents he will probably only get one since there are a lot of kids around the world that need presents too. Now he tells Mae and all his friends that they should only ask for one present. When he sat on Santas lap at the Mall he told him only one present and Santa said "is that it?" The one present he is asking for is sold out around the country right now :(

Mae loves to say the prayer and the first thing she always asks for is to "bless the merica"
Mae also has a lot of mood swings, tantrums, and meal quirks lately....
She also talks to everyone while we are out: the man at the post office, the lady at Little Ceasars, the boy serving us at the restaurant, she tells everyone how she is three now and about her toys and anything else she can think of.
She also cut off all her bangs with a pair of scissors since they were in her face.

I am almost done with Christmas shopping, only two more gifts left...
And we are packing up our house... because we sold it... because a family moving here from texas saw it and made us a really good offer... and we signed it... and now we get to built again!... but this next house is going to be very very different... a little smaller, a totally different style, a very different layout... and ten times cooler even than this one;) We close this week, cant wait.

California in the fall

We took a quick trip to California a few weeks ago and had a super fun time.

House Details

These are a few details I wanted to record about building our house:

I really tried to save money as much as I could while we were building, and I spent a lot of time researching, haggling, and bargaining with local suppliers. Since we were across the country while our house was being built there were still some things that ended up being done that did not save us money but for the most part we were pretty smart.

Like I said before I spent over a year on our kitchen and in the kitchen I spent the most time worrying/planning/searching for countertops. I really wanted Calacatta Gold Marble, which of coarse is the most expensive material you could want. The initial quote for our kitchen was more than we paid for either of our cars. So I looked into just about every material but couldnt find anything that fit in our budget and also had the look I wanted. I ended up finding a slab of calacatta on sale at a fabricators shop that one of their clients decided against, and they wanted to get rid of it. One slab wasn't enough for our kitchen, we needed three. So they called the supplier and they had two more that they wanted to get rid of as well because they were the last two in the bundle. They were about half the price, cha ching! Let me tell you this marble is Gorgeous. So on top of the good deal on the stone, I talked the fabricator down a bit. Then when they came to install they messed up big time, with huge gaps, really visible seams, and crooked pieces, I was super bummed. So I made them come back and fix everything, make and install a backsplash for free and then give me a really big discount. Before the discount I was going to pay about the same as a mid grade granite, but I think I ended up paying about what you would pay for low grade granite, score!

Our stovetop I found on craigslist in California for 1/3 the price

Our other appliances I purchased for 12% off and then had a 10% rebate

I really wanted wool carpet but my goodness, its expensive. So I shopped around like crazy and found a really cute wood blend carpet that was in our budget, and it turned out perfect.

We did trade for a few of our subcontractors in exchange for work, saving us many thousands of dollars:)

I searched and searched for tile for our bathrooms, for months. Our tile budget was next to nothing and I came across this white polished porcelain tile that was super cheap, all the other sizes were discontinued except the 24x24. So our tile guy took the time to cut down and polish each tile, he even cut down really small pieces and laid a herringbone pattern on the bottom of our shower, he did such an awesome job!

I kind of agonized over faucets, which is kind of silly. But to make a long story short I found some great ones that were on the very cheap side that I still liked. I wanted single handle faucets for the bathrooms so that the kids didn't turn on the hot water and burn themselves. I had a very specific faucet in mind for our kitchen but could not find any look a likes that fit the budget or the look. On my way out of the showroom I spotted a faucet hidden in the back that really looked exactly right, and when I found out the price it was even under the budget, awesome.

Our cabinet guy gave me 10% off, and he did a really good job.

I chose the cheapest tub possible that fit in our spot, and it turned out to look pretty good.

I found cheap knock off lighting at overstock that was about 20% the price of the originals

We had just the base of a deck built and we were going to add the railing and bench later since it was expensive but the builder built the deck too high so to pass code he had to install the railing, which we got for free:)

I also spent hours and hours going over every invoice, and detail on bills from subs, which I was able to catch thousands that were overcharged or overlooked.

So There were a few things that we did spend some extra on:

We did a solid wood floor, with a waterbased finish.
We spent some extra and got solid cast bronze knobs on all the doors.
And I had the concrete guys do our front steps with overhangs using fiberglass reinforced concrete, which was not cheap.

Not sure that I would do the knobs and the steps again, but the floors were worth it.

It was a very long year, with a lot of stress, glad its over.