Ansley's a big girl

Ansley turned three on Sunday, but as we had a holiday with Memorial day, I decided to have her party on Monday instead. Coached by Uncle Cameron, Ansley woke me up this morning by handing me her pacifiers and telling me she's a big girl now. We had negotiated that on her third birthday she would be done with pacifiers. So we had a birthday party that was moved inside because of weather. Thanks to help from Aunts and Uncles, we were able to get decorations up in the church where the party was moved to. Insert collage:

The getting ready

Almost there

Party in full swing with presents!

The theme for the party was decided weeks ago when I gave Ansley some options. She was adamant about Dora the Explorer. Yesterday she told me she wanted Cinderella. Ultimately it was too late baby girl. I spent all evening figuring out Ansley's cake. I'm pretty proud of the end result.

Amish Bread

I made some and this is what it looked like.

I shaved my beard the following morning and distributed the fruits of my efforts (and Cameron's) to the co-workers who considered themselves friends. I addressed the office in an e-mail as friends and invited my friends to come have some Amish Friendship bread. Turns out I'm not as popular as I thought 'cause it took all day for the bread to disappear.

Reality checks can hurt.

Pictures with "My Dolly's"

Ansley asked me to take a picture of her with her dolly's. She then gave me a very cheesy smile followed by another cheesy smile.

Cheesy Smile 1

Cheesy Smile 2

Uncle Cameron was feeling left out and insisted on taking a similar picture. (For those with a weak stomach towards poor plays on words, avert your eyes now)

Too late..

Home Ownership: Because renting is a drag.

So I have had several negative experiences with the management of my apartment. March marked the final straw in negative experiences. I made the decision that I was no longer going to live in Country Springs. As this was processing, I decided to also considered the possibility of home ownership. Before I knew it, I had been pre-approved for a loan and I was in contact with an extremely proactive Realtor. The next week we had an appointment to go look at homes. The sixth and final home we saw was the one I liked above all. Prepare for a

LOT of pictures :)

The house from the Street

A VERY yellow kitchen upstairs.

The family room upstairs.

The on-suite bath to the master bedroom upstairs.

The Master Bedroom upstairs.

The yellow room to become both pink and Ansley's.

So now we've seen the upstairs of the house. I show you the upstairs first and insert this intermission because of the fun happenings that occurred downstairs.

I put an offer on the house and found out a week later that the offer was accepted. AWESOME! What next Kristi? (My Realtor)

"Well Levin, we need to send in your earnest money. The next step will be to have that home inspection done that we talked about. Once you feel good about the house (the inspection comes back clean) we'll finalize the loan details and set a date for closing."

We contact the home inspection company in order to set up a time and a date. We had it scheduled for Wednesday May 4th. He advises us to have the utilities cut on so that he can do a thorough inspection of the property. We call the utilities companies and request the utilities be cut on on May 3rd so that they would for sure be on when the inspector came on the 4th. After calling both the gas and the water/electric companies, we received word that we weren't allowed to turn the water on. I knew that the house was missing a hot water heater, and so I thought nothing of it as they could have likely been concerned that without a water heater in place, the results of turning the water on could be bad. So we called up the water/electric company and asked them to cancel the request to turn on the water... Can ya guess where this is going? Someone didn't notice the note on the original order, and the water was cut on Tuesday May 3rd. Wednesday May 4th rolls around and my inspector finds the basement flooding in grand form. Turns out the missing water heater wasn't the only concern with turning on the water. The house had been winterized significantly late, and the integrity of the pipes was compromised in two places such that they burst when the water was turned on.

Introducing, the basement of the house :)

(Utah Disaster Kleenup has removed the carpets and 2 feet of drywall around the whole basement in an attempt to deter mold from growing.)

A smaller bedroom downstairs. (a.k.a. the original scene of the crime with pipes bursting etc...)

What will be the master bedroom with on-suite bathroom.

The Downstairs Family room.

There will be a full kitchen in this space.

I sure am glad that I love a good project. This is going to take a bit of time to finish up on an after-work basis. The positive side of things is that there were changes in flooring and paint colors that I was going to be making anyway. This way, the utilities company is going to assume liability for these damages and as I'll be making most of the repairs myself, this is going to give me the extra money necessary to furnish the kitchen downstairs and make some upgrades along the way.

Ansley is excited about "our new house!" She keeps talking about wanting to paint her room to be pink and purple. I'm not sure exactly what shades we'll be going with, but there may be a hint of princess pink and purple in my little princess's room.

As progress happens with the house I'll be posting the "after shots" along the way.

The Amish

I wonder if the Amish know that when you Google "Amish" you get about 13,100,000 results.

Today is day 3 of a 10-day baking experiment entitled "Amish Friendship Bread." I'm not sure if this is a Utah phenom. or not, but a co-worker brought in a limited supply of this bread start for a bread that's supposedly the best thing since sliced bread (play on words intended... weakness of the play, unintended).

So to honor the Amish I've decided to forsake razors for a little bit.

Okay, so I actually gave up shaving about two weeks back for no particular reason. I've received both positive and negative feedback, so your comments are welcome and will be considered feedback. Meanwhile, I'll be raising a barn in the form of some friendship bread, and the instructions say I will need to share the starter on day 10 so by raise of hands indicate if you live near enough to take some off my hands in about 7 days.

I'm kind of excited to have a purpose for taking pictures in this blog. Be back when I have some p-hotos to share :)

Here goes! (Sorry, this title has already been used)

I've been contemplating updating our family blog for a while, but never felt right about it. I've had happenings worth documenting over the past while and will do my best to put them out here.

We'll start with the move out to Utah.

I started a job with Employer Solutions Group (ESG) in July of 2010. The company specializes in performing the administrative tasks of a human resource department for companies that don't have their own HR departments. I am a benefits specialist, specializing in dental, medical, and vision benefits. The anticipation is that this job will serve as a stepping stone into graduate school in 2012. Meanwhile I work for one of the best companies in Utah to work for says Alfred. I'm happy to say that at only 6 months I was deemed indispensable as proven by this photo-shopped image.

Ansley and I have loved getting closer to Lewis and crew. We were also surprised by the announcement that Cameron, who intended to transfer to Provo after another semester in Laie, had no place in Hawaii and his enrollment in Provo was rushed through in time for him to join us for Fall semester. He moved in with Ansley and myself and has been a welcome addition allowing me to leave the apartment after Ansley goes to bed.

We've been here almost a year at this point, and lots of little things have happened, but ultimately we're just moving forward with life. I hope to post more little things here and there now that this is up and running.

Look for a post to come in the near future about this first-time home buyer and a bunch of before photos with it.