A few house pictures

I guess it isn't as easy as I thought it would be. Moving is HARD! We even moved close by, but packing and loading was only the beginning. Once we unloaded everything into our garage, I thought that we were almost done. Yeah right! We painted a LOT, and moved in the big stuff. Then unpacked endless boxes (still not quite done) and tried to organize. It is hard to organize when everything does not have a "home" as my mom would say. There has to be a place for everything, and our budget and resources are running low. BUT, we have managed to get quite a few things marked off our to do list and are well on our way to making our new house a home.

Here are a few before and afters....there is still clutter around ..uuhhmm the kitchen....that just haven't found their place yet, but we are working on it!


This is the kids bathroom. The lighting is off in the picture, but all the walls are a dark grey/purplish color

before

 

Here Bailey is helping to get rid of the dark cave

After

The kitchen and antlers of the previous owners

 

 

the after...mostly just new paint, I haven't quite decided how to decorate this space

 

 

Entry and kitchen from the family room

 

 

 

 

The dining room before ( love the deer head above the master doorway)

 

 

 

The dark green living room wall. I have nothing against dark green, but when the whole house was so dark, it had to go!

 

 

and the very plain after

(still deciding what to do with the huge wall, I may need some design advice from Trent's sister Kristy)

 

 

Entry nook before

 

and after

 

 

 

 

 

Nicks room is almost done and just needs a few more additions to make it perfect . We left the walls the same since only one wall was painted grey...but, I am thinking of painting a baseball on the wall (that I saw on Pinterest.)

 

And Baileys is bare...hers will be fun but a little more expensive, so we will wait until after Disneyland before we tackle that one...

 

 

 

The master, office and bonus rooms are the last of my priorities and may never get done.

 

It will be awhile before I finish all my to do list, but I feel like we have done quite a bit in just a month and love my new home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad neighbors

 

ok maybe the title is a little exaggerated, but Alexander from the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day...will completely understand what I'm feeling!

We have been so excited and living on cloud 9 since moving into our new home...until last night! I ran a few errands and come home to a note in our door to call the Star police. I called Trent first to make sure he wasn't in an accident or anything and he was fine.

So I call the police who said that we had a complaint from our neighbors that our dog was barking non stop. They said that he barks all night and day and that they have repeatedly talked to us about it and we did nothing about it....

OK, lets see. We have had Bentley for 18 months and not one complaint. We moved in the same subdivision where we lived before and know all our neighbors around us and no one has EVER said anything to us before. We did have a new couple move in the same time we did and they are next to us...but there is a lot between us. WE do not have any direct neighbors as we have two fields on both sides.

So as I hear the complaint from the officer I say...My dog sleeps in my room at night...and he DOES NOT BARK all night long .  I am home all day and he is in with us... BUT he does bark when people walk by....I know that he barks at other people and dogs.

They said that they have repeatedly told us to do something about it (flat out lie) I have never even met them and did not even know who they were.

So YES, I'm sure Bentley barks when we are doing errands and I'm sure it is annoying, but 2 out of their 3 complaints were just not true at all, and now the cops are called on us....REALLY!

So I'm really upset that the officer said that it is a misdemeanor for disturbing the peace and that the man said he would make a formal complaint against us if we didn't fix the problem...so luckily Trent walks in and we decided that we should just go talk to the new neighbors and apologize and see what's going on...

We walk over and they answer the door and are not polite. Trent apologizes for our dog and says that we will make sure he doesn't bark...and they continue to rail us as how our dog is making their life miserable and they cant get anything done because of his barking. I said that he is with me most the time and he sleeps inside.

She then said that she was upset because I was outside with a friend earlier in the day, and her 2 kids were playing with my 2 and the dog was barking and I didn't do anything about it....And this really made me ticked! I was outside with my kids and friends and Bentley was running around barking and playing and she was mad that I let him do that...that I didn't tell him to behave. I said that I let him bark when he plays because he is a DOG! Her and her husband said that they will do what they have to do and had nothing to do with us.

I said that if it bothered her so much, why didn't she just come over and say something to me instead of calling the cops... And I know that the 4 kids were way louder than the dog that was chasing them.

Needless to say, they were not kind or friendly in any way. I walked away in tears after our neighbors just laid into us and said that they don't care about being good neighbors or friends, they just don't want any noise coming from our house. I now am paranoid that everything we do will be watched and that I cant even let Bentley out in my backyard anymore, let alone my kids who run around and scream.

I have never had any neighbor so cold and rude...especially when they just moved in 2 weeks ago. Trent went out this morning and bought a shock collar and hopefully  that will remedy the situation.
They did say that they have had this problem at their last place and had to take care of the situation also...so they just seem like the type who complains anyways....but why do they have to be my neighbors?

Any stories or suggestions????

18 months later...

and they are BACK!

My parents arrived last night at about 7pm from Latvia. They had been up 21 hours straight, taken 3 flights and eventually made it in to Boise.


Nick Aaron and Bailey waiting patiently for Grandpa and Grandma to arrive

 

Here come the missionaries

 (doesn't my mom look like she's from Europe?)

 

Hugs for everyone...My dad and Matt

 

Grandma and the 2 Sunny's ( her friend and new grandbaby she never met)

 

 

Bailey giving Grandpa a big hug

 

My dad's friend Roger came with a big sign

 

A little overwhelmed

 

and happy!~

 

Matt's cute family

 

 

After the airport, we took them straight to the Stake Center to be released

by the Stake President and it was a special experience to be apart of.

 

 

 

Welcome Home!

 

Grandma playing with the kids

 

Matt's new hat!

 

 

We are so glad to have them back and be able to see them more often! We love you mom and dad!

 

 

(With all the hustle and bustle I did not get one picture with myself or Trent in it,

but hopefully Matt got some on his camera. )

A field trip to the fire station

In between moving and unpacking boxes, we went to the fire station with Bailey's preschool group. It was nice to take a break from everything.  The fireman made sure that each kid was not afraid of him in his uniform and that they knew he was a good guy!

they climbed the fire truck

And Nick loved spraying the fire hose

 

A fun little trip to learn about fire safety

 

 

 

And a sneak preview of what we have been up to

 

We have pained almost every room in the house, and I am nearly finished with a few rooms to do some before and afters....

 

 

New homeowners!

We are officially new homeowners. Here is a picture of the house we just got the keys to....

We are VERY excited to be getting into our own home finally! more pictures to come as soon as we move everything and get settled

Aebleskivers and conference

We love aebleskivers in our family. They have always been a "special" breakfast when we visited Grandma Parsons house. They are like a round fluffy pancake ball. She would get out the aebleskiver pan and make as many as our hearts desired and with 4 brothers my family could go through quite a few.

Then my mom started making them for breakfast before general conference twice a year. We always knew that we would get them conference morning.

With my parents not around, it was finally my turn to make them for my family and keep the tradition going. And they did not turn out too bad!


Here is the dough in the pan

 

 

 

And here is the pile that is done...a little syrup and they are delish!

 

 

 

 President Uchtdorf  and all the speakers gave excellent talks. There was a lot about strengthening the family and marriage

 

We had a really relaxing weekend and enjoyed all the uplifting messages we heard.

Tumble tots

Today was the first day of Tumble tots. It is a class that Star parks and rec has available to sign up for. Both Nick and Bailey wanted to join and were excited to do some tumbling. When we got to the class we knew all of the kids except one...that is what is nice about being in a small town!

Today was just the first day of a 6 week course. It is only once a week for 45 minutes, and it seemed plenty of time for these toddlers.


They start by running around the mat
- Nick did good by keeping up with the rest of the bigger kids

 

learning forward rolls

 

Crab walk

Cousin Aaron joined the class too! Nicks behind him going the wrong way!

 

Jumping high in the air

 

Stretching

The kids both had a blast and are so excited to go again next week! We love all the fun programs that the Parks and Rec does for the community!