4th of July and House Pictures Finally!

Life has been so busy this last 2 months! We moved into our house June 8, my mom came to visit 2 weeks later, then it was 4th of July and throw in work, school for Ben, and unpacking and time flies! We are having a great summer so far and have so much fun stuff to come! I have a lame excuse that Ali is home sick from church so I am finally catching up blogging! Ben is done with school for the summer! Hooray! We love having him home more-which means more projects for him! Nate came up for the 4th and these are pictures of us waiting for fireworks.

Hyrum got to try the fire hose on the 4th in downtown Idaho Falls.

When mom was here we went swimming. Cute Ali in her swimsuit from Grandma.

More of cute Ali (in my old dolly bed)

House pictures(pre move in) Here is our kitchen! Love it even more now that we've been using it. There is a hole above the double ovens in this pictures but now we have a microwave there-it was on back-order.

Cute Ali in our neighbor's backyard.

Desk area. Through that hall is our mudroom/laundry/ and door to garage.

Great Room

Entryway

Master Bath-love the double sinks!

Master bath-tub & shower

Kids bathroom

Bench off of garage door entry-so nice for the storage!

After move in-laundry room.

Ali's room-still don't have any pictures hanging up yet!

Hyrum's room

Outside of house

Outside

While my mom was here she got us some flowers and trees for the front of our house. Looks so nice. I'm realizing as I post this I don't have any pics of our awesome firepit in the back yard. Something for another day!

I head out to Portland to visit my mom in 1 week...we get home and leave 1.5 weeks later for Disneyland with Ben's family! Yeah!!!! Then my mom come back the day we get home! Summer is going to fly! Hope you are having a great summer!

Ali turns 1 and house progress!

We're making progress! March was an exciting month as Ali turned 1 and our house is almost halfway done! Above is the front of our house! Windows are in....front door in....roof on. They will be sheet-rocking by the end of the week! Yeah! We've had a whirlwind of decisions to make lately but it has been so fun! Hyrum love going to the house everyday and checking things out wiht me. Poor Ben only gets to visit a few times a week between work and school! He's almost done with his first semester! Hooray! Below is a picture of the back of our house! Most of you probably don't care to see the inbetween stages of our house but this is the only way to keep our parents updated!

The house is all framed and here is a picture of the future kitchen/dining room which opens up to our great room.

This is a picture of our great room. The fireplace is in!

Same picture of the great room but a little farther back (i'm taking it from the entry)

This is a picture of our entryway and stairs down to the basement.

So, my pictures are backward but here is our sweet Alison Ruth that turned 1! I can't believe a year has gone by. I reflected alot on our journey to have Ali join our family and am so grateful for her. Everytime she is throwing a tantrum or getting into something...I remind myself it was all worth it and how grateful I need to be for her! She is a little spit fire and loves to keep us entertained! We love our crazy red head! Happy First Birthday Ali!

Ali digging into our cake...she wasn't as messy as Hyrum was but still got messy!

Her butterfly cake I made...saw the idea on pinterest....it turned out okay..not great...but okay.

We had to speak in our new ward on her birthday. Ali and Daddy all dressed for church! Ben's mom was here for Ali's birthday too and it was great! She spoiled me with Time Out for Women and a date night with Ben to see Hunger Games! She also helped during church while we spoke! Thanks Grandma!

The wonderful Caralee Case had her yearly Easter mini sessions and I took advantage and got Hyrum & Ali's pictures done. It was perfect timing since they were 2 weeks before Ali's 1st Birthday. Here are a few of my favorites! Can't wait to get to the new house to put some up!

Feels good to finally get the blog updated! My life revolves around house stuff right now so to have a few seconds to update the blog is great! In 2 months hopefully we'll be in our new house!

Foundation and Four!

Life is moving along and we've hit some big milestones the last few weeks! Way back in mid February we did celebrate Valentine's Day. It was Ali's first and she got spoiled with cards from Great Grandma Weatherford and Grandma Breese. She loved looking at them and eventually chewing on them. Hyrum loved his cards too and especially loved getting his first dollar bills! We had to go buy a wallet the next day for him to keep his money in! He's already planning what he wants to buy!
On February 20th our house finally started! They started digging the hole for the foundation and we went out to witness the occasion! Our awesome builder even let Hyrum climb into the tractor with him to help out! (sadly I was sleeping after work while this was happening so the pics are on Ben's phone). Hyrum got some new "fireman" boots for the mud at our new house since we'll be trecking through mud alot the next few months! He had to revive his Halloween costume also...

Hyrum in front of the big tractor!

A few days later they poured our foundation. We walked around and took a look! Seems tiny when its just a foundation but I've learned from walking through other houses that once walls go up it feels bigger.

This is from the south side of our house.

We celebrated Hyrum's 4th Birthday on the 27th! I feel so old to have a 4 year old! We love him so much and he is so much fun! He is so smart and loves preschool, playing with his cousins, and trying to keep his toys away from his sister!

I made a pirate cake for him...he loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney Junior!

Since our apartment is tiny we our awesome family let us celebrate at their house for his party. Hyrum chose to take his cousin Candace bowling with him before the party. It was Hyrum's first time bowling (except for the wii). He got 3 strikes (with bumpers) but beat all of us!

Hyrum blowing out his candles with his BFF Candace close by!

Just cause their so cute! I hardly ever bathe them together but since Ben's home tonight we did. They love to play together in the tub!

Week 2 progress on the house consisted of getting window wells and backfilling the dirt around the foundation. They poured the gravel in the basement floor and will be pouring the floor this week and starting to frame! Yeah! This is the back of our house.

Alison will be turning 1 in 3 weeks! Time flies! Can't believe how fast this past year went and how much has changed! Ben is about halfway through his semester and we can't wait for a few weeks off inbetween semesters. I miss my husband! I've been busy picking out house stuff. I've now picked out all the flooring, granite, cabinets, doors, and windows. I didn't realize how many choices there are! I have to stop watching HDTV and checking out pinterest because I get too many ideas that are adding up!

We are looking forward to Grandma Butcher arriving in less than 2 weeks! It's always nice to have family here as a distraction to pass the time! She hasn't seen Ali since she was a few months old so it will be fun to get them together. She's also spoiling me and my sister in law by taking us to the time out for women in IF. I've never been to one of these and am really looking forward to it!

Change Change Change

As promised...I vow to catch up on the last 3 months! Hope the next 3 go this fast! Way back in November of 2011 we had Thanksgiving. I worked the night before so we stayed low key. We got all dressed up to visit Ben's sister for dessert that night and then chickened out (more like tired out). But, we took a few family pictures before we ate. Hyrum & Alison on Ali's first Thanksgiving (above). Below is our entire family. Ali welcomed Thanksgiving in by getting her 1st tooth! She then proceeded to get 5 more in the next week. Fun!
I love Christmas and was so excited this year. Hyrum is at such a fun age to celebrate Christmas. Christopher Popinkins stopped by and made sure Hyrum was nice every day. We had a great Holiday celebrating with family. My mom and brother Nate came from Oregon too which was great! Oh yeah...and we sold our house and moved during Christmas too! We literally packed up the Christmas tree the day of Christmas (so sad for me). But, we were so blessed to have the time off work and family around to help us! Thank You to everyone who helped! We couldn't have done it without you!
Anyway...one tradition I normally miss out on due to work is the kids acting out the nativity scene before Christmas. We did this a few days before Christmas with Ben's sister's family. It was great! So cute to see the kids. Here they are all dressed up!

Hyrum had his 1st preschool Christmas program this year! So cute!

We had to visit Santa at our ward Christmas party and we actually got a smile out of Ali. More than I can say for Hyrum at that age!

Our Beauty!

Back tracking (someday I'll get it in order??) Hyrum helped Ben put up the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving and loved it!

Forward again....Ben holding the littlest ones at our nativity night.

Loving Grandma! So grateful to have her here for Christmas and moving!

Christmas morning! We were spoiled as usual! The highlights: a kitchen for the kids, Hyrum got a fire truck, Ali got a bitty baby from Grandma Breese (love these!), Ben got a laptop for school. It was a great Christmas-not only with the material things but being together too! Wish every day could be Christmas!

Ali's 1st Christmas!

Beautiful Christmas Morning!

We had church that afternoon. Here we are all dressed up!

Maybe I should title these before: (morning)

And after...

Lately I've been trying to be better about doing Ali's hair because it is always in her eyes so here was my first attempt at pigtails. Pretty cute!

More pigtails, Alison Boo and a Hyrum doodle bug!

Really we have been so blessed this year and already can see the blessings coming for 2012! I must admit that I'm trying to remember the blessings of this house building thing as we live in a interesting apartment and I freak out about all the decisions for the house. It will be so nice to have it done!

Ben is doing great in his first 2 weeks of school. Back in the grind! Let the next 2 years fly for that!

We have started going to our new ward and so far love it so much more! People have been so friendly and it reminds us of our beloved Virginia ward.

I think I'm all caught up! Whew!