Planting Grass and Early Birthday Party

Andy's parents came this weekend and Andy and his dad were able to till up the the back yard and plant some grass seed. So we are hoping next Spring we will have a backyard filled with green grass. It was so nice for Boyd to bring his tiller and help Andy all Saturday get the work done! We really appreciate it! And Jann probably played 30 games with Maddie, which she absolutly loved!
Andy working hard tilling up the yard-

Spreading grass seed-

And done! No, we didn't plant hay, it's just there to keep the seed down and help it grow-

Then to top it off Andy's parents took us to dinner at Applebese to celebrate Andy's birthday. Andy turns 29 next Sunday, but his family won't be here and he will be working all weekend, so we celebrated a little early.
After dinner I made a strawberry shortcake with pudding in the middle (one of Andy's favorites).


Then after the kids were in bed Andy's parents watched a movie with us. We got the movie 21, I'd never heard of it before, but it was pretty entertaining.

We have grass...

We've been waiting for the builders to replace our dead grass ever since we moved in. And finally today they came and laid new sod. So at least there is a little green in this very brown town. We will be putting grass seed in the backyard this Fall and hopefully will have a nice green backyard next Spring.

successful weekend

On Friday and Saturday Andy's parents and his sister's family came to good old Rock Springs. It was so nice to have company and they were so much help!!!
Andy and Zeb got the bedroom downstairs all framed while Boyd worked a little to hard on the backyard.
I didn't take a before picture, but the yard had a big dip in the middle, there were weeds everywhere, and the dirt was hard as rocks. And now everything is level and ready for grass (as soon as we can afford it).
Jann and Amber entertained my kids while I got Garen's room painted. So in the 24 hours they were here, we really got a lot done. Maybe next time they come we'll get to play a little instead of work the whole time.

Crazy boys with grandma Jann-

What's been going on here-

Yesterday, Andy finally got a day off. We used this day to get some much needed work out of the way. Andy got the garage all cleaned out and organized so we can park the cars in there now. Also we got some pantry shelves and started our pantry area in the basement.

I spent the day painting the family room, dinning room, kitchen and entrance way. And I am feeling the effects of it today in my sore arms and back, but I'm happy with the more cozy homey look instead of the awful plain white walls. I thought I would keep up the painting for the week, but I might just enjoy what I've done for awhile before starting another room.

We all took a little break outside and washed both cars and cleaned them out (also something that needed to be done very badly!)

Anyway it was very nice to have Andy home and to get things a little more in order around here.

Some other things we've done:

Garen ran into the corner of the wall leaving a huge goose egg. The picture doesn't do it justice. Now it's just a huge purple bruise so I make sure and put a hat on him when we go places or I get lots of look of pity-

We rode our bikes to the library here and the kids loved it! They have a huge play place and little tables full of coloring books and puzzles. They also have tons of neat programs for both the kids. They do toddler storytime and I signed Maddie up for their reading program. After reading so many books she wins prizes and then at the end they have big drawings for things like a new bike, a portable DVD player, a MP3 player, or a hamster and a cage (lets hope she wins one of the first 3). They also have school age activities and crafts every Tuesday-that's where I'm taking Maddie today.-




We also made it to one of their many splash parks. Maddie loved it, but Garen didn't care for big fountains of water that would disappear and then reappear all of a sudden-

This is Garen saying "get me out of here"



Playing at the park. The kids loved the train, so did Andy :)-




And as an end note I just have to say how incredibly nice people around here are! It's not very often he see an LDS person, but you always run into very kind people. Like on Saturday the kids and I went to Walmart. We needed so much stuff including bedding which more than filled up my cart. After 2 hours, $320, and some 30 min in the check out line we headed out with two carts. I was pushing one with a dead wheel and Maddie was doing her best to push the other behind me. A lady walks in the door, looks at her husband and says 'I'll catch up with you' to him and turns around and pushes Maddie's cart out all the while talking to my kids. Then she continues to help me load the back of the van. Now this is something that would never happen in Logan-not that people aren't nice, their just to busy.
Then yesterday at Home Depot I was just trying to grab some plastic of the top shelve, another lady walks by, turns around and gets it down for me, says have a wonderful day and goes on her way.
I know these are just little examples, but its sad that I find them so shocking because I'm not used to people being so generous and it makes me look at myself and wonder if I would do the same? I think I have a lot to learn her in Rock Springs, Wyoming!

We're Here!

Goodbye Smithfield home-

Well, after a few little glitches and a few broken things we made it here to Rock Springs. Monday morning was spend loading the last few things and cleaning the condo. As I was trying to get this done, Garen just cried. He hated seeing people take his crib apart and coming downstairs and not be able to sit anywhere. He didn't know what was going on and he did not like it. But we made it through the morning and left just after lunch.

We got to our new home at about 5pm and found out that the builder hadn't done the finishing touches yet. So we waited to unload to find out if they would be coming in to touch-up paint, clean up and so on. So it was about 11pm by the time we got the Uhaul emptied into the garage. Everyone was pretty tired by this point. Andy and I went to bed just after 1am and were up at 6am. Andy headed to his first day on the job and I unpacked, hooked up our Internet, went to Walmart, made lots of phone call to try and get us a mailbox key and an outside garbage can and things like that.

It was so nice to have Boyd and Jann here to help. Boyd helped me carry the things I could lift and put the swing set together. And Jann helped a ton with the kids!

So now the bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchen are pretty much unpacked and we got the cable hooked up and we are starting to settle a little bit. The garage is still full of boxes to unload, but we are making progress.

We've met a few neighbors and they seem very nice! The ones right next to us have a 2 year old girl and are very easy to get along with. They even invited us to play church softball. The funny thing is that they are not LDS, they just play for fun and they said they don't even know why its called church ball, but it's fun. :) Then he invited Andy to a beer and didn't mind at all that Andy declined.

We've been told some fun places to go and fun things to do, but so far we have only unpacked and just made one quick trip the the playground next to the house because the kids had had enough of the house and boxes.

This morning we put Garen's big boy bed together. He seems so excited about it, but we'll see how he does in it at nap time-

I haven't taken many pictures lately, but when I get the house a little more under control, we'll share some pictures.

Mov'en on Up

Well, things have really been working out well for us. We went to Rock Springs last week to look at more homes and we found one that had everything we wanted. Enough room, an unfinished basement we can add too, a fenced in back yard, brand new, last house on a dead end, and the elementary school is right behind our house.
We knew it was the right house for us so we put and offer on it. We knew that if we didn't get in offer on our house in Smithfield within the week we would not be able to meet the deadlines on the new house. But sure enough the day after we get home we got an offer. So we are now under contract on our current home and closing on June 17th. And we are under contract on the new home in Rock Springs and are hoping to close on that house about the same time!
I can't believe how quickly it is all happening! But it looks like we will be in Wyoming in about 2 weeks! Hopefully I can pack the house by then. It has only been just under a year since we moved last-why do we do this to ourselves :(.

Here's the new place (yes they are twin homes, the one downside but you take what you can get)-

Property Features
Condo/Townhome/Coop Property
Status: Active
Area: SWEETWATER COUNTY
Subdivision: SUMMITVIEWEASTPH2
Year Built: 2008
3 total bedroom(s)
2.5 total bath(s)
Approximately 2117 sq. ft.
Basement
Laundry room
Heating features: Gas
Central air conditioning
Interior features: Basement, Carpet, Clothes dryer, Clothes washer, Dishwasher, Disposal, Laundry rm/area, Microwave, Range and oven, Refrigerator
Exterior features: Deck, Fenced, Public sewer srvc, Public water supply
Located on a cul-de-sac