Our New House!

We moved in May to Ft. Lewis Washington. We were very excited for the move since we are now so much closer to family (3-6 hours away). I also like it here because I grew up in the northwest and am used to the evergreen trees. Before we moved I spent several months looking for a home to buy. I finally found our current home and we were able to close on it in May before we even got here. We wanted trees and a larger yard (at least 1/2 and acre) but couldn't find one that also had the open kitchen layout that I also really wanted. My husband wanted a newer home (so as not to worry about expensive repairs that an older home might have). I finally checked out every new home development in the area and finally found a small one that is surrounded by trees (most of the time all the trees are cut down). We lucked out that it had a house at the back of the development in a culdesac that was just being finished. So we got a new house with trees behind it and we can see trees out all of our windows. It aslo has a great open layout with an amazing kitchen with breakfast bar. Here are a couple of pictures of the neighborhood.

Here are pictures of the side of the house and back yard.

My husband planted huckleberry and blueberry bushes along the fence.

Here are the four tomato plants I planted. They are doing really well.

I built a little fort at the back out of tarp We had to compromise on yard size, but now that I will only have a little yard to take care of while Gil is deployed, I don't mind so much. We have the woods that we like to go for hikes in and the culdesac for the kids to play, plus a playground is going to be built across the street. Here are pictures of the views from our windows:

Here is our entry way:

Here is our living room, kitchen, and dining room:

Here is our half bath downstairs. It is off limits to the kids.

Here is Jem's and Shirley's bedroom. We decided to buy them a double bed since both like sleeping next to someone and would climb into our bed almost every night. Now they almost never climb in bed with us. It is also nice having the double bed for when family come to visit.

Here is our bonus room upstairs. It acts as a playroom, office and gameroom. I am homeschooling Walter this year and we use this room for that. I still need to do some organizing in this room.

Here is Walter's and James' room.

Here is Rilla's room. I told her she could pick out her own curtains. Luckily, she picked ones out that I liked.

Here is our bedroom and master bathroom:

It has a nice tiled double shower, but no master bathtub. I would have preferred a tub. We also have a den that we will be making into library. We aslo have a three car garage which is nice so we can still have stuff in there and park both cars in it. We are hopinng to be here a long time.

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July. My Grandma came and visited us that week. It is so nice being closer to family. We had really nice weather all week. On the 4th of July we went to Northwest Trek. A few weeks before we went to Point Defiance zoo and bought a yearly pass for both places. We sure love the outdoors here. I love all of the pine trees. The tram was a lot of fun. A lot of the animals were out.

After Northwest Trek, we picked up fireworks, came home, and had a BBQ. Then we waited for it to get dark to light off the fireworks. The kids really enjoyed it. I enjoyed not having to set the fireworks off. I like to sit back and enjoy the show. There were plenty of other fireworks to see in the neigborhood after ours were gone. When I went to bed about midnight I could still here fireworks going off.

Jem's 8th Birthday and Baptism!

Jem turned 8 the end of January. He was very excited to get baptised. We had a great baptismal program. Gil conducted and performed the ordinances. Shirley said the opening prayer, I said the talk on baptism, Rilla and our friends 6 year old sang "I am a Child of God", and Walter gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. It was nice having the whole family involved. I unfortunately forgot our camera so the only picture taken at the baptism is on Gil's phone. This picture is taken two Sundays after his baptism. We are so proud of him.

He is such a great young man. He is such a great big brother and so much fun. I am very grateful to be his mother. We had a family birthday party for him. I didn't make a fancy cake this time.

Grandma blankets!

My Grandma on my Father's side makes quilts and afghans for each of her grand kids and great grand kids. James was the 49th great grandchild. I have loved all of the blankets she has made for my kids. They have loved them as well. Rilla and Shirley were especially attached to theirs. They had to have them to sleep when they were younger. I love them also because they were made with love. Thanks Grandma Smith for them.

Family Pictures!

We had family pictures taken yesterday. We waited until James was a few months old. The kids did really well. James didn't like it at all. but we luckily got a couple good shots of him. Here are some of the pictures of our whole family:





Pictures of the kids:


Pictures of Gil and me:



Pictures of Walter:




Pictures of Jem:




Pictures of Rilla:




Pictures of Shirley:




Pictures of James: