Monster Jam

Kade asked Santa for Monster Jam tickets and Santa delivered. He had the best time! Aunt Betsy was working at the event so they got to see her too which was an awesome bonus!

Mud

Building a new house has lots of great things but it also has some cons. At the top of the list cons is not having a finished yard. This wasn’t as big of deal with our first house but it’s a little more tricky this time. The ground is very muddy and we have a dog. I’ve washed off Chewie a lot  the last few days. 

We also have a child who hasn’t quite realized what happens when you walk through the yard. 

Butterfly Biosphere

My parents gave us a membership to Thanksgiving Point for Christmas. We are excited to go a lot this year!

Butterfly Biosphere was our first venue.

The small black butterfly landed on my shoe. Everyone took turns holding it. Then Kade saw the bigger butterfly and everyone got to hold it.

Living Cinema

We are trying out something new. It’s called Living Cinema. Basically what it is, is a special movie showing and a guest appearance of someone from the movie.

We went to our first movie and saw Otherside of Heaven 2. It was hosted by Jason Wade, main character in Seventeen Miracles. He’s also in Love Kennedy, Saints and Soldiers, Cokeville Miracle, and Out of Liberty. He was so nice and down to earth.

Elder Groberg was there and spoke at the beginning and then answered questions at the end. He was so kind and humble. It was a really neat experience meeting him and a few of his daughters.

Racquetball Court

The driving force behind building our new house was the racquetball court. So I thought I’d do a post about that.

The court is part of our unfinished basement. Hopefully we will be finishing the court soon! 

The court is on the side of the house and you enter in the basement and you can look in the court from windows in the family room. The windows are tempered glass.

(The lights are off in the court so the windows are dark) I love knowing what’s going on in the court and being able to talk to who is in there.

This is what the court looks like for now. It is great for dodge ball, pickle ball, spike ball, wall ball and riding around on a scooter. It will only get better when it’s finished. Soccer, basketball and of course racquetball will be so fun!!

This is a view of the windows looking down to the court.

First Gathering

Moving weekend was busy and crazy but through it all I knew I wanted Kasey’s family to see my house before they went back to Baltimore. Marshall was ok with inviting my family over for a gathering and January birthday party for Ivy. I finished unpacking the kitchen, Marshall and the kids helped tidy up Saturday night. 

Then that night Lily tested positive for Covid so Kasey’s family had to cancel coming. They will have to come check out my house next time tbey are in town.

We still had a family gathering with my parents, Betsy, and Ali’s family. I love family time and get togethers. Maybe it’s because I’m the youngest and feel like I didn’t have enough time with my siblings. I watched everyone move out and Sundays were so lonely. Now we can host family gatherings more comfortably so I can’t wait to host regular family dinners.

My parents came early to hang out and it was fun watching everyone relax and enjoy themselves.

New Years

Celebrating New Years this year was a lot different. Moving was the priority but we needed breaks at the end of each day!

New Year’s Eve we went to Ali’s for dinner and fancy drinks 😄

New Year’s Day we worked hard all day and then      went to the movies with some friends. 

Moving Day

We closed Thursday morning on our new house. We planned on getting the keys later that day but thankfully we got them at closing. We immediately started moving in right after. The weather was great Thursday. The forecast was stormy Thursday night and Friday. We wanted to get as much done as we could before the storm. We were amazed how many people came from our ward to help us move. Even with changing the moving time at the last minute we still had lots of help. We had most of the house moved over in 2 hours! By the time the storm rolled in we were unpacking and done with being outside. Huge thanks to Ali and Dan for installing our blinds and frosting my bathroom window. Huge thanks to Beckie’s family for putting beds together and making them. It was so nice sleeping in our beds after a long day.

I unpacked most the kitchen Thursday night. I was so tired and when I thought about moving everything from the garage and shed I wanted to throw up. Thankfully I felt refreshed after a good nights sleep was was ready for more moving Friday morning.

We are almost done with moving the garage and shed stuff. Then cleaning will happen and we’ll hand off the keys later this week.