The House

I have finally gotten around to posting pictures of our house!  It is definitely a work in progress - nothing has been decorated, and pictures haven't been hung, but it is organized for the most part! 

The outside

When you walk in the front door, there is a big entryway/hallway.  If you go straight, you run into the kitchen, living room, and dining area.

Living/family room

Different angle of the living room

View coming into the kitchen

One side of the kitchen

Other side of the kitchen

Dining area

Off of the dining area, you can go outside, or into the master bedroom.

We have a covered back porch that isn't shown, but this is our backyard!

View from the other direction in the backyard.  Calder likes the cows back there.

Master bedroom.  There is a lot of space to the right, we are thinking we'll put in a reading area.

Master bath

Master bath.  To the left is the toilet, and then our closet. To the right are the sinks, and then a big tub.

Back in the entry way, there is a separate hallway that leads to the kids room, office/whatever-we-need-it-for room, and bathroom.

Kids room. Calder's bed is in the bottom left corner

View of kids room from Calder's bed

Bathroom

Half of the office

Another view of the office

The office has multiple purposes.  It is a place where guests can stay when they come, a place where we store my craft and our camping stuff (in the closet), and a place where we will put extra toys that don't fit in the kids' room.

Other things I love about the house - all the closets are huge, walk-in closets.  We can fit so much stuff in them, it is fantastic.  As you come in from the garage, there is a laundry room as well.  

That's our house in a nutshell!  We sure are enjoying the extra space!

We are just waiting!

We are getting ready for our baby girl.  I am due in a week and a half!

I feel like I am ready for her to come.  Physically, emotionally, etc.  Our house is finally organized (minus pictures on the walls), her clothes and blankets have all been washed and are ready to go.  She has enough bows and flower headbands to wear a different one every day for at least two weeks.

Our ward threw a baby shower for me this week.  It was so nice of them - I felt so loved and welcomed, even though we have only been here for a month.

Up until recently, I worried about having two kids at once.  How am I going to handle it/them?!  And let's face it, some days, I still do worry about how that is all going to work out.  But right now, I am just so excited!  I am feeling ready for this little one to come and join our family.  I feel like our family isn't complete any more - we are just waiting for her sweet spirit to come into our home.

Calder is such a sweet boy.  I am excited to see him as an older brother.  He has started giving my belly little kisses, telling me that he's giving the baby kisses.  He tells me that he gets to hold her, and share his toys, and that she is going to sleep a lot (I am trying to prepare him that she won't be ready to go and run and play with him when she comes.) I don't know how much he really understands, but he seems to grasp a lot.  Some days he seems worried about my growing belly, that there is no more room on my lap, and he senses a big change is coming.  But we talk about how I am still going to be his mommy, too, and then he seems to be fine.

Okay little girl....we are ready for you!

Falling in Love

We are falling in love with Northwest Arkansas!

It has been a wonderful three weeks living here!  Actually, it feels like we have already lived here a lot longer than that.  We feel lucky to have loved every place we have lived so far - Logan, Bountiful, and now Arkansas.

Now that we have a yard, we needed a lawnmower to maintain it.  So, like most of the things we have bought for our home here, we looked on craigslist.  We saw one for sale, advertised that it was running, and he was willing to take only $40 for it.  So, we drove the hour through the Ozarks to get to his house.  Beautiful drive.  But then we pulled up to the double wide trailer, with a car and its parts strewn across the lawn in front, with lots of other stuff strewn across the lawn as well.  The guy was sitting under a tree smoking.  Yep. This was the Arkansas we had pictured, just hadn't seen any of it yet! Calder and I stayed in the truck while Craig chatted with him.  Turns out the lawnmower did work - only when you tightened the wire he had hooked onto the bottom to engage the mower blades...awesome. But we had come so far, and it actually does run well and does the job great!

Since we were an hour away from home already, we decided to stop by a town called Eureka Springs. It is an older town - and actually reminded me a lot of the older part/main street in Park City.  Skinny roads, small  two or three story buildings that line the streets that now have little boutiques in them,  It was fun to see, and had a lot of character.  Apparently, the springs are (or used to be) rumored to have healing powers/properties.  So during the civil war, (and other times throughout history) injured soldiers would go up to the springs to stay.  Calder was thrilled with the ice cream cones we bought.

Devouring his ice cream

Northwest Arkansas (where we live) is a little hidden gem.  From what we hear from the other residents, it is completely different from the rest of the state.  (as far as the landscape, culture, etc.)  It is beautiful here!  There are so many trees - I love being able to look in the distance, and see just trees on the horizon.  It is gorgeous!  We live in a more rolling-hills type landscape, which makes it so that you can't see the Ozarks, even though they are only 15 or 20 minutes away.  And while they don't compare to the Rocky Mountains, they are still big enough that I would consider them mountains.  The views while driving through them are breathtaking!

We live literally 3 minutes away from Craig's work.  It is awesome!  He is able to come home for lunch some days.  Calder gets so excited when he sees him at the door. :)

Our ward has been amazing!  They have been so welcoming.  We have been over to several people's houses for dinner, and the other stay at home moms are so good to invite Calder and I to play groups and trips to the park.  It has made the transition really easy, and lessens my stress level about where/who Calder is going to stay with when the time comes for this little girl to make her debut.

At a recent playdate - we went for a little hike/walk. Calder had a blast playing in the little creek.

We are loving the extra room we have here, and occasionally we see a little bunny in our backyard.  I think he lives under our shed.  Calder always wants to go outside and tell him goodnight. :)

Our little visitor

We have been loving the little adventures we get to take as a family: trips to the swimming pool, Crystal Bridges (a museum surrounded by gorgeous landscape), the ward 4th of July breakfast and bike parade, etc.  And we look forward to the many other family-friendly activities we have heard about.

Crystal Bridges museum

The 4th of July bike parade!