We have a front yard now

Yay! It looks so great. I think the fence goes up early next week. We originally agreed to river rock to go with the landscaping, but when I told my mom that, she said, "Call them back RIGHT NOW and tell them you want bark instead of river rock! River rock is such a pain to get rid of!" So how can you go against that adament advice? We changed it, cost us about $30 more, and I think it was well worth it. The bark gives it a warmer, softer feel. So, good call mom!

I had to post this picture because Isaac took it without me knowing. The #1 thing on his wish list with getting a house was not having a yard, or friends for neighbors, or not having to walk five minutes to get to our car in the complex, or being able to jump around without making the downstairs neighbors mad.....no, it was a fridge with the water and ice dispenser on the front of it. He is such a happy guy that he has one now to call his own.
Look, he even took a close up of it.


Now that's love :)

The Party Starts At Dusk

Just wanted to post some recent pictures of us doing some night hiking. As you can see, Amaya thinks it is simply hilarious her dad gets to lug her a mile and a half up the mountain. Could she be any cuter? No. I don't think so.

And just because those two are so cute together, here is a completely unrelated picture. I love her chubby hand clutching his face. She loves her da-da so much. When he walks in the door every night, she gets so excited and screams, "Da-Da!!" and then does The Worm as fast as she can until she reaches him. She doesn't use her legs to crawl. She carries them like dead weight and so when she crawls it's like she's doing the Worm dance move, or like she's doing the breast stroke out of water...you get the picture. It's funny.
Okay, back to the hike. Isaac was a champ on the hike too. Let's not talk about the fact that in less than a month he's going to be a first grader. Sniff...

The night hike was followed by some night swinging.

And here they are doing some night swimming. Yes, my kids should probably be in bed, but come on, it's summer and night swimming is the BEST!
You should see Amaya in the water. She is a crazy maniac. It is a workout just to hold her as her arms and legs go into double time. Water in the face? Bring it on. Just makes her squeal more.

Our First House

Let me first say that I really miss my blog. I haven't forgot about it and every time I get on facebook, I feel like I'm letting my little pet blog down. Our computer is on the way out and takes tooooo looong uploading pictures. Seriously, for this little post, I've been uploading pictures for three days. Upload a picture or two, get bored give up and move on, then come back to it later. You get the picture. Regular blogging, unfortunately, has to wait until I get a decent computer.

So let me introduce our first HOUSE! Yay! Yay, yay, YAY! You want to know the best part? It is in the EXACT location I was hoping for. The exact neighborhood, the right side of town, the right schools, the right ward-I love it! I thought we would be priced out of this neighborhood, but we were fortunate to come across this little beauty. It is a 3 bed, 2 1/2 bath, large bonus room, living room/kitchen open concept combo, plus an office and a laundry room. I think it's a perfect size for us-and when baby #3 comes along someday, he or she gets to share with bro or sis. Good bonding time, I think :)



This here is part of the 2-story entry way. i love the rod iron. Whoever built this home picked great materials. Oh, i guess I should explain that. They built this home as a spec home and then the builder/realtor lady picked all the materials as her practice run for their entry into the Parade of Homes. I think they did a good job. So then a couple was under contract on it and added all sorts of upgrades and tweaks, but couldn't end up buying it afterall. So then we swooped in and could have a really fast closing date (August 13th) and the builder was so thrilled, he was generous with a few other upgrades (fridge and built-in desk with cabinets). All in all, I think we got a good deal.

The master bath below: to the right is the big soaker tub that is the crowning glory! I don't know why I don'thave a picture of that. But look-double sinks! That was number one on Jon's wish list.

This is the living room that is off to the right and the kitchen is off to the left. Picture a coffered ceiling and wainscotting. Wouldn't that be so pretty?? Another favorite of mine are the wood-wrapped windows. I never thought I would care about little details like that, but I LOVE them. They make each window look so finished.

Kitchen:. I love the dark cabinets and the granite is so pretty against it. Also, that's real hardwood floor that is the perfect color. Plus full tile backsplash....(ah...I'm so happy :)


Cute little porch. Picture big potted flowers between all the beams.

So the downer is we don't have a backyard-we have a side yard. It really is bigger than it looks in this picture. It's actually a great sized yard. Lucky for us, Jon's brother is a Landscape Architect and so I'm sure he'll design something really pretty.

So yay, our first house! After 10 years of apartment living--real apartment living-no house rentals at any time--we're finally moving on up:) Now we get to toss all our ugly college furniture and slowly furnish this one. Now THAT, is going to be fun:)

We're Legal!

Holy cow, I am so far behind on my blogging, but I had to jump ahead in my chronological timeline and post about our special day (Today! I'm so impressed with myself that I'm actually posting this on the actual day). So this morning we headed down to the courthouse to be deemed a legal family. Happy, happy day!! It's hard to picture our lives without Amaya. She has enriched our family in so many ways.

Here we are with Judge Matheson and our attorney, Dave (he's Jon's partner-the "J" in J & S). I love Isaac's complete scowl. He is definitely not a morning person.

Afterwards we went to IHop for a celebratory breakfast and talked about her upcoming sealing (end of March). Now, THAT will be an amazing day.

This just in..

Today, at an undisclosed location, a sweet baby that goes by the name of Amaya, let one of those perfect baby giggles escape. A "giggle straight from the belly", Mom describes. And then apparently, she quickly took it back. This new, weird reaction to Mom's silly faces seemed to startle her. She allegedly went from wide open dimply grin .....to stone-straight, startled face. I'm sorry to report the belly laugh has been under lock and key the remainder of the day, regardless of how many knee bounces, feet tickles, or peek-a-boo games Mom plays. Stay tuned as Mom calls for reinforcement (Dad--as soon as he gets home from work). Is it possible he might know the secret combination to unleash this belly laugh? WILL this family will hear this wondrous sound again before night falls??

Stay tuned as this story develops.

Happy Halloween (belated) from my beautiful kiddos!! Isaac was fearsome Wolverine and Amaya was an adorable pink leopard. I've decided that it really doesn't matter what your baby's Halloween costume is. Just draw on a few whiskers and all of a sudden it's the cutest thing you've ever seen. Here is a closer look.

I have to say though, it was a debate this year on whether Isaac should go as Underwear Man...

And Amaya as an 80's workout baby...

But I think it turned out well:)

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And just for kicks, I have to share this insanely adorable picture. I love that she's smiling and cooing and talking to us all the time now. Her smiles are so, so sweet and how great is it that this is the face she gives me every morning when I peer into her cradle. I love it!!

Halloween pictures are coming from me! I'm sure you're dying to see them, right? Well...I'm sure my mom is, at least:) But I just wanted to draw your eye to my nice little Claire and Benson Auction button on the right side of my blog. Check it out! Auction is on now until Nov. 16th. There are some pretty good deals in there (and quite a few of them specifically for the Boise, Pocatello, Salt Lake area).

Anyway, just wanted to spread the word. Claire and Benson are my friend's niece and nephew and they are in need of kidney transplants. As a parent, I couldn't imagine...