What a Weekend!

What was supposed to be a relaxing weekend spent camping and hiking turned out much differently.  We made it just past the little town (how is it possilby a town...store is more like it) of Banks, when Jeff decided the check engine light was not messing around, that the truck battery was quickly losing power, and that we needed to turn around ASAP.  Prayers were said quickly in hopes of making it to some form of civilazation before we completely lost power.  We made it through Horseshoe Bend and slowly made it up the big hill between Horseshoe Bend and Boise, the engine died at the top of the hill and we coasted to the Chevron station in Eagle.  Civilization!  After way more drama than I choose to go into, we spent the day at Jeff's dad's replacing the alternator in the truck.  Fun times. 

So, instead of lazing about camp and hiking through beatiful and cool forestland, we spent the weekend doing a bunch of stuff that actually ended up being fun, like...

Climbing trees with cousins...

Riding tricycles with cousins...

Losing our 5th tooth...

Searching for four-leaf clovers in our grass with a whole different set of cousins, and actually finding about 20!  Seriously.  Regan said, "Why do people think it's lucky to find a four-leaf clover?  Our lawn is covered with them."  Well Regan, when your lawn has as much clover in it as ours does, the odds are definately in your favor...

Regan even found a five-leaf clover.  What does that mean?

In hindsight, we should have hunted for the four-leaf clovers before we attempted the camping trip.  We could have used a little luck this weekend...

Home Sweet Home

WARNING: THIS IS A LONG POST...Get comfy, maybe get an icy beverage, and a bowl of chips.  Everyone wants pictures, so I'll give up my plan of waiting until everything was unpacked, put together, and organized.  Here is our new home in Middleton.  Ignore the boxes, etc...

A few of my favorite things about the house are my bathroom...

...and the kitchen...

...that has an attached workspace for me.

I also love the pantry that even has counter space and outlets so all the messy stuff can stay off my kitchen counters...the toaster, mixer, etc.

The girls' room is amazing, with built in bed, bookshelves and a walk-in closet.  The door on the other side of the bed goes to their own playroom complete with bookshelves, a dutch door, and a balcony!  Hadyn's bed is currently on the floor because originally the second bed was hung from the ceiling with chains.  The previous owners took the hanging bed, so Jeff is going to reinstall Hadyn's the same way.

The room that probably sold the house (for me at least...Jeff was probably less interested) was the laundry room.  Anyone who ever saw the size of my previous laundry room would understand why I love this room so much.  I actually like doing laundry!  Who knew!!!

Add to this an additional food storage room, mud room and guest room, all of our stuff actually has a place, which means my life is so much less chaotic. 

Our lot looks out over a farm, and has lots of flower beds and what used to be a large garden plot.  By this time next year we hope to have grapes, tomatoes, cukes, etc. filling in where, hopefully, the weeds once were.  The uprights are still in place from a HUGE swingset that we also hope to have back in working order soon.

The flower beds have a lot of work needed.  It has been rainy, and before we closed on the house a gazillion weeds made themselves at home.  Now that I am more situated inside the house, I plan to tackle the weed situation.  We had a little push in that direction last night.  We spent yesterday evening with a couple families that Jeff went to school with.  We got back late, it was dark, but next to the flower bed closest to our front door was this:

and one of our very large flower beds was weeded.  This was no small act of service.  Here is what all of my flowerbeds (and until last night this one as well) currently look like (yikes, I know):

And here is what the "service project" area now looks like:

So on top of a home we love, we are surrounded by new neighbors we love!

I am already calmer, more organized and more productive.  Now we just need people willing to traverse all the way to Middleton to visit (we'll only make you weed for an hour or so). 

C'mon!  We have a room waiting for you!

Gettin' Countrified

And so ends our first week in our new house in the country, and we are loving it. Not even living out of boxes has dampened our enthusiasm for our new home. Today we spent the day taking care of the basics: laundry and more unpacking for me, and lawnwork for Jeff and the girls.

All the lawn mower pictures were taken from the back yard. Check out the view from our back patio. I love the barns that are behind our home.

This morning our neighbors asked if they could cut through our pastureland with their horses. We, of course said yes, and then they asked the girls if they would like to go for a ride. Only Regan was willing to jump head first into our new country life. She is with Johnny. Now she wants a horse...

Lastly, but perhaps most important, is that we had Jeff's sister Debbie and her family over for dinner last night. It was fun to have all the kids running around, and to have room for them to run around. Here are all the kids, minus brand new Margaret who was napping, having dinner on the back patio. Look at all those red heads! No one can convince me that red heads are going extinct (although strangers at random stores always try to...)

Anyway, we love our new home. Anyone who would like to visit is more than welcome. We just can't promise that you won't be put to work unpacking boxes, filling holes in walls, or, if Regan gets her way, feeding the livestock.