Sunday, December 26, 2010

Our First House - Come Take a Tour!

Our first home! We had a lot of fun being House Hunters, once we realized that a mortgage would be cheaper than renting a 3 bedroom apartment. With Tyson's job in SLC as our center point, we expanded out and looked all over thanks to the internet and a good Realtor. Salt Lake County was out. Every single house we walked through in our budget was scary. Major fixer uppers. We considered Eagle Mountain, but that really is far from Tyson's work - especially if you factor in Winter commutes. I loved growing up in Davis County so we looked all over here. Farmington and Bountiful were too expensive, but once we hit Layton, we began to have some luck.


I never thought I would end up back in Layton where I grew up, but that's just the way it worked out. Our home is right on the Kaysville border and not a bad commute for Tyson. We closed on November 10th (exactly 2 months after leaving Sioux Falls) and moved in on November 22nd after the repainting was complete.

We've been so excited to post photos, and here they are!

The living room and loft area.
Looking down into the living room (yeah, we know, the blinds have got to go). Love the front door though!
The deck and back yard. The neighbors on both sides are super nice. Talking with 3 sets of neighbors beforehand is one of the big reasons we chose this house.
The side garden. I want to do the whole thing in raspberries. We shall see...
Look! We have a cute mailbox.
Our kitchen is small, but we actually have more counter and cabinet space than we've ever had before.
Looking down from the loft into the kitchen/dining area. The house is a small tri-level.
The dining area. The wall color had to go. It doesn't look bad here, but this room gets very little natural light, so the green ends up being a really depressing dark olive green most of the time.
These are not the best pictures, but we lightened the paint to "Silent Ripple" which is a light violety/bluey paint. It really brightens the room up.
If you walk down the stairs to the lower level, you will open the door to the laundry room and think, "Wow." At first I thought, this also has got to go. But the more I looked at it, the more it grew on me. A lot. If I have to do the laundry, I want to do laundry in the happiest room in the house!
The previous owners remodeled almost the entire bottom floor into a Master Suite. It's so nice! His and Hers walk in closets with motion sensor lights, surround sound that we haven't figured out yet, a fireplace space heater, textured walls, a huge daylight window, lots of room...
...and wait until you see the bathroom.
Beautiful! Love the bathtub.
This is Tyler's room. It's the old Master Bedroom so it has enough room to be his bedroom and the playroom. It was a light gray, and not bad, but sloppily painted and we wanted to add some color to the room so we had it painted light blue and added crown molding. It turned out great!
Tyler has an adjoining bathroom. Hopefully it will motivate him to potty train...
Lydia's room. Oh my. Yes, there are huge palm trees on the wall. If it was Tyler's room and he liked the beach scene, we would have left it for awhile, but this is our baby girl's Nursery. I had in mind exactly what I wanted and though all the extra trim was a splurge, Tyson let me have my dream Nursery. For all this painting and trim, we need to give credit to Philippe from Top Notch Painting. I found him in the ksl.com classifieds and we were very happy with his work.
Before
After
Look at that wainscoting. Isn't it beautiful! And the crown molding. It truly turned out great and is my favorite room in the house. I love sitting up there rocking Lydia.

So that's a tour of our house for all of you who cannot come in person to tour and who have been asking to see it. We're almost all settled; we just need to hang a few more pictures on the wall. In the meantime, we're happy to be home.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Lydia's 1st BYU Football Game

We are back in Utah; we had to go to at least one BYU football game!
We managed to score tickets for BYU v. UNLV on November 6th and then packed everyone up for an all day Plastow Playdate in Provo.
Tyler was a good sport during the long game. He loves BYU so he was happy to be there. Carrie walked him all around the stadium for a good portion of the game to keep him entertained. But his favorite thing was spotting "Cos-o-mo" the cougar.

Lydia made it to the 4th quarter and then she was out.
What a sweetheart.
Both kids got to shop at the bookstore afterwards. Good times! Oh, and BYU won. That always makes it more fun. :-)

Mini Man Adventure

Because of Tyson's new work-all-day schedule (instead of the 10pm news have-all-morning-off schedule), he misses spending time with Tyler. So before the weather turned cold, he took him on a Mini Man Adventure (If you recall, the 3 day road trip move to Utah was termed the "Man Adventure" to make it fun for Tyler, Tyson, and Grandpa Jim). Tyson and Tyler rode Frontrunner train down to SLC and played at the Planetarium and the Gateway Mall one Saturday.
Tyler on the train.
Snack time on the way back. He had a blast. What a great idea.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Happy Halloween 2010

Halloween is so much fun when you are a kid and then again when you have kids. Look at our cute Puppy and Tiger!
Last year Tyler cried when we put his puppy costume on, this year he cried when we tried to convince him to dress up as anything else. Funny kid.
Aunt Lisa surprised Lydia with her cute tiger costume. I loved the big fluffy tummies on both costumes. :-)
After trunk or treating at the church parking lot with Mama and Opa and then trick or treating in Great Grandma West's Ogden neighborhood with Uncle Matthew and Daddy, Tyler had way more loot than I ever had as a kid. The candy in the above picture is not even half of what he got. After the novelty of the candy wore off days later, he was great at sharing.

Fun in Transition

After a couple of weeks looking, Tyson and I realized that to rent a 3 bedroom apartment would cost the same or more as buying a home so we switched gears and started home hunting! We stayed with Grandma and Opa Hillier while looking. Tyler and Lydia were thrilled with all the attention from Grandma and Opa, not to mention all the Aunts and Uncles that were suddenly back in their lives every day. They had a lot of fun. And it was nice for me to have some help while I adjusted to Tyson's new gone-all-day schedule. Thanks parents for letting us crash at your place for the past 2 1/2 months!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Yes, He Found the Scissors

I couldn't find the scissors in the kitchen. He said, "I know where they are!" and led me to his room. Weird...I took a closer look at the top of his head. Oh my. And couldn't stifle a giggle. He got embarrassed...
...and a new buzz cut.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Sioux Falls Family Pictures 2010

Right before we left Sioux Falls, our friend Chiellcie (http://cdmfoto.wordpress.com/) surprised us with a family photo session at beautiful Sertoma Park. These are some of our favorites -

Friday, October 22, 2010

Crossing the Plains

Time to move on.
One last Sunday snuggle with Daddy.
Saying goodbye to Elders Patterson and Gardner . Tyson was Ward Mission Leader so he got to work closely with some good Elders.
Finally taking a picture by the old tow truck that looks just like Mater from Disney's Cars.
We loaded the moving truck on September 9th - exactly 2 years from the day that we arrived in Sioux Falls. It kind of feels like leaving a mission. We can't thank our amazing ward enough for these past 2 years! To cap off all their love, fun, and service with loading this huge thing - we met some amazing people out here!
On Friday, September 10, we headed out. 3 1/2 month old Lydia and I flew. This is a picture of her very first flight - from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis. Grandpa Jim flew up from Arizona to drive with Tyson and 3 year old Tyler on their "Man Adventure" back to Utah. He was excited to go see Mt. Rushmore because really, when do you ever get a chance to see that? We're grateful for his help! If we ever find the other camera's cord, I will post Man Adventure pictures.
I knew I was in for a long day with little Lydia. 3 flights with 2 long layovers just to get from Sioux Falls to Salt Lake City, juggling a newborn, our carry ons, plus all of her gear - stroller, car seat, diaper bag, etc. So I just decided to have a positive attitude and laugh no matter what. And you know what? It worked. I had so much help. From the little Asian lady holding and jabbering in some language to Lydia while I piled all of our stuff through Security to the young, scruffy college boys holding her and cooing while I gathered stuff up. And check out this sweet Mother's Nursing Lounge in the Minneapolis airport (see above picture)! You have to have an Info Desk Volunteer escort you up and unlock the door, but I can see why. Who needs a First Class seat, when you can sit here during your layover? :-) Tender mercies everywhere.
We were happy to arrive in one day and hoped the boys were faring well. Lydia got to meet her Great Grandma West for the first time.
And she was so happy to be joined by her brother three days later on Sunday. Look at that adoration on her face! So we're here. Safe and sound. And looking for a place to live.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Review

After two years, here is our review of Sioux Falls, South Dakota:

We Will NOT Miss
-When the weather guy says, "If you are outside with any exposed skin for more than 5 minutes today, you will get frostbite."
-Tornado Warnings
-The bugs
-The radio stations - or lack thereof

-The cell phone reception - or lack thereof
-Three words - Wind Chill Factor

We Will Miss
-Our friends
-The missionaries
-Our backyard forest
-All the deer, rabbits, squirrels, and birds (cardinals!) in our backyard forest
-The traffic - our lack thereof
-Tyson's commute (7 minutes)
-Lightning bugs
-The beauty
-The Hy-Vee (grocery store) curbside grocery pickup
-Our tiny little airport and the 5 minutes it takes to get through Security
-Bishop's Great Harvest Bread store (He brought free loaves to Church and got us hooked!)
-THE SIOUX FALLS 2ND WARD

Conclusion - If you ever have the chance to move there, we think you will really like it.
Good bye Sioux Falls!