April Showers

Spring had definitely sprung here. But, unlike most springs. . . the rain keeps coming. I'm not complaining. . . it makes our allergies so much better, cleans out the air, and we really need the rain (the farmers aren't the biggest fan. . . because of the crops, but we DO need it!). We are at the end of one system and it's supposed to rain more next week. Ethan may be going stir crazy, but Jon was able to take him out in the back to play tonight while I was at MOPS. I am sure he was overjoyed because he keeps bringing me his shoes and trying to open the sliding door!

I thought I would post some pictures from the storm that hit us early last week. It was AMAZING!!!! We had thunder, lightning, and about 5 minutes of hail (it doesn't happen often, so we get excited!)

This is the aftermath. . . the sun is shining and raining! It was beautiful!!!!

Another aftermath picture. My garden was flooded with hail pieces still lingering behind.

Look at this rain!!!! I love this picture!

It's raining. . . It's pouring. . . oooh, is that hail?

The closest we will get to snow. It was so awesome! Ethan even held some in his hand as we watched it rain. We can't wait until the next storm!

A quick tour. . .

We are finally in our home. We are getting settled. . . well as much as we can. There are still boxes in the garage that need to be dealt with, boxes of books that are being left alone until after painting has been done, and pictures to be hung. . . again after our gigantic painting party (to be announced upon the arrival of warmer temperatures). We did get in just before Christmas and I actually just took down my partially decorated Christmas tree last week (gosh darn it. . . I was going to enjoy it as much as I could!). So, in response to so many emails. . . chats. . . and anyone else who had requested. . . here it is. Keep in mind that we ARE going to be painting. . . eventually.

Okay, So, I completely messed up the order of the pictures and well, I am too lazy to go back and fix it. So, enjoy. . . or come visit and see for yourself. :)

GUEST BATHROOM
We love 2 sink bathrooms! That was one thing we really were not willing to sacrifice on. . . but it had to be in the Master Bath. Fortunately, we were able to get a house with both bathrooms having double sinks. Yeah! I don't even mind the blue tile. . . it matches my beachy themed stuff.

BACKYARD

Welcome to tranquility. Okay, maybe not. But, I love our backyard. It is January and we have beautiful green grass (that needs to be mowed!).

Jon's Weber looks like it belongs back here! I am so excited because I am going to plant a garden back there and we already have a baby mandarin tree, naval orange tree, granny smith tree and a mature lemon tree.

The view from the family room. I love the HUGE sliding glass door that looks out here. Our backyard is just begging for Ethan to come and play. He loves it!

FAMILY ROOM

This room has unexpectedly become our favorite place in the whole house. We love the fireplace and are growing to like the built in shelving on each side. It works out great for games, cds, wii stuff, and my scrapbook albums. Once we get rid of the blue carpet (yes, it is blue!) and some furniture . . . it is going to be so nice!

THE KITCHEN

This view is of our kitchen nook area. Jon bought me my dream table from IKEA to go in this cozy space. To the Right, you can see a sneak peak of our front living room and to the Left you can see part of the open wall area leading to the family room.

Facing the other direction. The kitchen (it looks so messy. . . I should have probably cleaned it up prior to snapping this picture. . . oh well!). White tile counter tops and white appliances.

FRONT ROOM/LIVING ROOM

This is our front room/living room. We put our couch here and are planning on putting our white bookcases in here, too. For now, this room seems so bare. . . eventually we will have more furniture. . . baby steps, i keep telling myself.

Formal dining room and Entry Way. I love my formal dining room space! I can't wait to start having dinner parties!

This room is really awkward shaped and so, we are not really sure what we are going to do with it. But, we absolutely love the windows. The sun shines in and they are all new dual pane windows. . . so awesome!

Okay, so I left out the bedrooms and our bathroom. Can't wait to show you once we paint, though.

House Update

Many of you have been praying for us as we have dove into the prospects of purchasing a home last June. It is hard to believe that almost 6 months later, we have finally purchased a home. We don't get to move in yet, as we agreed to let the now, former homeowners stay up to 30 days so their escrow can close. Hopefully, we will get to move in with plenty of time to decorate the house for Christmas and do some painting. Thanks so much for your prayers and support. . . it has truly been encouraging!