The American Dream

The other day Larry, Jeff's step-dad and our realtor, called me and asked me how I was feeling. I thought he was talking about my pregnancy and told him I was tired. He responded, "You guys are two college graduates, with two kids and another one coming, you're living in a brand new house in a nice neighborhood...how does it feel to be living the American Dream?" It never struck me until then that we really are living the American Dream. Everyday I count my blessing and give thanks for all I've been given! And now I'll share with you a little of what we've been up to while living "the dream".

Carson LOVES to ride his bike everyday. We are outside a ton and play with the neighbor kids a lot. The boys are both enjoying the yard and garage. It makes me wonder how we survived the summer in an apartment...oh yeah, there was a pool. Jonas playing with our "digger" collection.

Meet Kitty. We adopted her from an animal shelter. We're hoping that she takes care of the mice outside. We built in what was a farmer's field a year ago and we've had some mice get down into our window wells and chew on our screens. We decided a cat would be a better way to control them than poison. I DO NOT like having a cat in my house, but since she was a stray, we are keeping her inside for the first little bit so she doesn't run off. She spends most of her time in my basement or garage as I can't handle the "cat smell" that some houses get. YUCK!! Occasionaly, I'll let her come upstairs for a little bit. We're going to slowly start giving her more outside time...hopefully she'll be catching mice for us soon and staying out of my house. The boys adore her, but they keep asking when we are going to get our dog.

Jeff has already torn into the front yard (of course!)...he can't stand the landscape and is very eager to change it. He hated the grass line on our front planting bed and decided it had to go.

BEFORE: (well, before we added more mulch, but you can still see the original grass line and how wavy it was)

My three landscapers.
We even used Carson's gator to haul in some mulch.

AFTER: Now I need to go get some more plants!

I found my fall decorations the other day.

I made these cute lil pumpkins the other night out of some fat quarters, batting, ribbon and buttons.

I know there's been a serious lack of photos of the inside of the house. I am having decorating blahs right now and just can't get things to look how I want them to. Here is my "plant shelf" . It needs something but I'm not sure what. I'm not a fan of fake greenery as I think it looks old fashioned...unless done appropriately. I might do more red berries as I think the red and aqua look awesome together. Any suggestions? Don't look too close at the paint job! Its a long story but I made Jeff suddenly stop painting as I hated the color. Now its growing on me and when the boys and I are in Idaho next week, he's going to finish it up.

Giveaway

My friend, Tiffany, over at Babes and Kids needs your help to win a new washer and dryer! So all you have to do is head on over there, comment on her "Heart of the Home" post and you could be entered in to win a $50 Amazon gift card. Her current washer in dryer are in serious need of replacing so lets show her some love and help her win!

You know what's really annoying? When you are unpacking and decide to take all the board games down stairs and then the rack you are carrying them in breaks and all the games go spilling down the stairs. At 10:00 at night. Yeah, pretty annoying.

Grass

Have you ever noticed how awesome grass is? After living without a yard for 2 1/2 weeks I have a new found appreciation for grass! Yesterday our yard was finally installed and I am so excited that my front yard will no longer be a big mud hole for my boys to play in. While I was thrilled that they finally got the landscaping done, Jeff was thoroughly disappointed in the quality of work. Of course he would be, he didn't design it. I think we will consider this our "before" picture as Jeff has big plans to transform our yard.

Both Carson and Jonas were captivated by the landscapers. I was telling Carson that this is what Daddy went to school for-- so he could make yards look beautiful. Carson said, "It looks like fun. Guess I'll just have to be a landscaper."

Back to School

Today Carson started school again. He is now in the four year old "Pre-K" class at Apple Blossom Academy. He sure was excited to go to school! We ended up arriving at the school 10 minutes early because he kept insisting that we needed to get going so he wasn't late. I sure love my little man, but am kinda sad that he's getting so big so fast. Jonas knew something was different about today. He kept going up to Carson and giving him hugs every few minutes. I definitely think it will be good for Jonas to have a little brother to play with when Carson is gone to school.

Ready for Takeoff!

This is our housewarming present from Grandma and Grandpa Larsen.Jeff stayed up way too late last night putting it together. When Carson woke up and saw it in the backyard he exclaimed, "My teeter totter is all done! Oh Daddy is the best!"

I think its just perfect for a houseful of boys.

And when Carson and Jonas have finished helping Jeff rake all of the rocks out of the backyard, they are going to get two of these installed....Carson can't wait!

Home Sweet Home

Its ours! All 2280 square feel of it! This is our first house, and the perfect little starter home for our family. I can't express to you how blessed I have felt this past week. To have a house, and a new one at that, has made me feel overwhelmed with gratitude. I feel very humbled to have been given such a great blessing. Sometimes I sit in my kitchen and think its too good to be true...all new appliances, beautiful cabinets...

...and our awesome fridge, that I am in love with.

And while there are still boxes everywhere, white walls (I'm hoping to paint on Monday), and a serious lack of decorating. this house feel so much like home. The second night we were here I sat down on the couch and it just felt like it had been our home for years. I know that we are where we need to be...where our Heavenly Father wants us to be! I can't express to you how thankful we are to be out of our apartment. The boys have adjusted to the move wonderfully! They love being able to go out the back door and run in the yard. I love that we have so much natural light and I don't feel like I'm stuck in a cave all day anymore.

Yup, I'm one very blessed girl right now.

Bragging Rights

I'm one proud mamma tonight. That's because Carson, who just turned four, learned how to ride his bike without training wheels! He's been asking Jeff to take the training wheels off since he got his bike for his birthday and today we finally decided to. He learned very quickly, but it didn't come without some mishaps...

Don't worry it sounds worse than it was! He came away without even a scratch...but he broke off his front reflector.

My perfectionist son thinks he didn't do a good job because he crashed a few times, but his daddy and I sure are proud!

Family Update

So I was updating our side bar and decided to just go ahead and do a post on what our family has been doing. I'll apologize now because it'll probably be long!

Carson is going through this "I am four and can do what I want stage". I guess its time for us to loosen the apron strings a little and give him some more freedom. He likes to run off and do things his way...which is prompting us to deeply consider biting the bullet and paying the extra money to install a fence at our house because he literally would just run off if I said go play outside. He is still afraid of monsters, but from what I hear, its normal at this age. He has recently started liking Trasnsformers, however, I will not let him watch the movies. He's recently had a growth spurt and is outgrowing his 4T clothes and headed into 5T. I've been working with him on writing letters this summer and he's doing pretty good. He gets so excited when he learns a new one.

Jonas has turned into a toddler. He climbs on EVERYTHING! I can hardly leave the room for two seconds and he'll find something to get up on. His new thing is to climb up on the back of the couch and sit against the wall...and laugh at me when I tell him to get down. He also love, love, loves to wrestle! He attacks Carson anytime he can. Jonas will also wrestle with anything that comes in his path. He has fallen in love with Thomas. When he wants to talk about or play with trains he will come up to you and go "t,t,t" making the T sound. He's also talking a lot and the other day Jeff and I swear he said Carson. He likes to say "I go", "hot", and "dada". Which, by the way, he has done a 180 and become a complete daddy's boy! But that's okay because Carson has become a Mommy's boy so its all good.

Our third little boy is a busy body. He's always moving around in my tummy and kicking me...it reminds me a lot of when I was prego with Carson. At 23 weeks I think I've had stronger kicks from him than I ever had from Jonas. I'm kind of worried he'll be all tangled up in his umbilical cord like Carson was. As for now, they have tentatively scheduled my c-section for December 7th. Jeff and I have been struggling to find a name for him...I'm sure it will come to us...eventually.

Jeff is still working on the City Creek Project in downtown Salt Lake. I think he likes doing layout/survey a lot more than carpentry as it gives him more of a chance to use skills he learned in college. He has been working a lot lately, sometimes pulling 15 hour days. He is constantly dreaming about landscaping our yard, and I think that he will eventually get back into landscaping, as it is his true passion. He's had a lot of fun at the pool this summer with Carson teaching him how to dive for rings.

As for me, I am currently staying at home...which those of you who do stay at home know it isn't all that easy some days. I've been getting lots of migraines latley, which my doctor thinks are triggered by pregnancy hormones. I googled it and I think I get a rare type of migraine called "migraine with aura" because before my headaches start I get visual disturbances (an aura) and can hardly see what I am doing. Needless to say, I haven't wanted to drive too far from home as I never know when they are going to strike. My doctor has put me on some meds which seem to help. Anyways, I'm already getting started on my Christmas list since I will be incapacitated come December 7th. I'm way excited to get moved into our house and to start decorating!

So that's what our family has been doing...what about your family?

Shine in '09

This past week I attended Scentsy's 2009 Convention, which was conveniently (well, for me!) held in Salt Lake City at the Salt Palace. What an awesome company! Between the company and my director I received over $400 in giveaways...I felt like I was on the Oprah show for two days!

Some off the cool stuff I receieved are: 5 warmers-including a commemorative "Shine in '09" warmer, new full-size warmer, a mid-size warmer (new this fall), a DIY warmer (also a new product this fall), and a new plug-in. I also got a travel tin (a new product coming out this fall), new room spray, all my fall catalogs, all my fall testers in both party and basket tester size, one scentsy bar in a new scent, two t-shirts and two bags. My awesome director also gave me a super cute bag full of (I'm guessing) $100 in stuff including a watch, wallet, and tons of Scentsy goodies.

In addition we there were several fun announcements like Scentsy is going to be available in Canada and we are getting super cute, new intereactive websites starting September 1st.

The owners of the company are absolutley inspiring. The convention was centered around helping individuals become the best they can be. Here are some quotes that I loved:

"Don't wait for things to get better; be better"

"Don't let people who've given up on their dreams give you doubts about yours."

"Life is not a dress rehersal, you don't get a second chance."

"Don't wait until youget to a point in your life where you look back and say what if"

"It takes courage, not confidence to succeed in anything."

"When we are outwardly focused our world grows; when we are inwardly focused our world shrinks."

"Happiness comes when we rid our life of entitlement and live a life of gratitude."

{Maria and I hanging out in General Session}

{Main stage with Orville and Heidi...the company's owners}

{Cirque de Beserque... a circus Scentsy held for consultants and their families...Carson had fun golfing}