Having a Toddler

means that throughout the day,

 I am body slammed by a little 25 pounder who thinks he's a WWF wrestler,

 and pinned like he's Steve Irwin and I'm a dangerous crocodile on the loose. 

This little guy knows how to put the "interesting" into each and every one of my days. 

Pics Of Our New Pad

I've been asked for some photos of our new home, so here they are! This is what it looks like from the front. The yard needs some serious work that we will be getting to shortly. 

Directly to the left in the photo above is a park that we've been frequenting a lot lately! I foresee a lot of visits there in our future since Sawyer can see it from the the front room and then starts begging to go play on the toys.

This is Sawyer sitting on the bench at the park. That is our house there on the corner. 

This is the backyard that also needs some work. We are planning on ripping out all the weeds and getting some grass in there eventually. Last night I put Moxie out in the yard and when Matt asked where she was I said she was out playing in the 'field', on accident since that's what it looks like with all the weeds! 

The house from the back. 

Moxie is behind Sawyer here going through her new doggie door into the garage. 

Alright, let's head inside for some photos of the living areas. 

This is the front room when you walk in. To the right that door leads to...

A big closet with a hide-y hole in the back to the left that Sawyer thinks was made especially for him. 

Then after the closet are the stairs. 

That are perfect for relaxing on.

On the way up to the bedrooms upstairs, but I haven't taken photos of those quite yet so that will be a later post.  

These are the windows in the living room at the back of the house. Right now they look out to an open field, but new houses are already popping up in the neighborhood so it won't be long until there are houses behind us. 

This is the door coming in from the garage. To the left in the photo are the doors to the pantry and to the right is the half bath. 

This is the half bath. 

And then directly in from the garage is the kitchen and dining area. 

Yesterday our couches arrived from RC Willey. They are our second furniture purchase, our first one was Sawyer's crib that we bought before he was born. We had sat on these exact couches at the play place 'Just Kid'n Around' a few months ago and loved how comfy they were. Turns out they were on sale and the ottoman came free! Bonus! Only problem was it's an L shaped couch and there was no way it was going to fit into our living room. We had to get creative to make it work, so we just separated it and the chaise lounge now sits in the corner. It actually looks better than I thought it would and even the delivery men said it was a cool idea. That's good since we liked the couches so much we were going to make it work no matter what! 

This is the front room again that now serves as Sawyer's downstairs play area. One of my relatives generously offered us a couch, dressers and a dining room table that we are picking up this weekend.  Matt's mom had just moved recently too and she had offered us her really nice desk for Matt to work on, but unfortunately there was just no way we would be able to get it up here.  Our plan is that we are just going to save up little by little for whatever other things we need. So long as we have a couch to sit on, a table to eat at, and a bed to sleep in we are good for the time being.

And that about wraps up the downstairs. We've been loving putting things away with the knowledge that we won't have to move again for a long, long time! So far since we've been married this is the sixth place we've lived. First was our 500 sq. ft. apartment in Encino, then our 2 bedroom apartment in Simi Valley, then we downsized to a one bedroom in Moorpark, after we found out we were going to be having a baby we moved in with Matt's grandma, and after moving to Idaho we housesat for my parents for three months, and now we are here in Kuna and hope to stay put for quite a while. I used to love moving around, but I think I've gotten that out my system now that we have a child. It's way too hard to move with a wiggly toddler! The past three nights I've slept better than I have in years and Matt said the same thing, if that's not a sign that we love our new place I don't know what is! 

It's True What They Say

Foreword: I wrote this over a month ago, but now that it's official I am finally posting it. What's official, you ask? Well keep reading to find out. 

I'm not really sure who 'they' is except for that I've heard this saying from many, many people.

 "You'll know when it's the one." 

That particular sentence you've probably heard pertaining to a few different topics. I know I have. I got it with pertaining to knowing who you are meant to marry, which wedding dress is the one for you, and also just recently when it comes to finding the house you are meant to call a home. 

And I am here to attest that with all three scenarios that phrase rings true! First time that sentence proved true was when I knew about two weeks into dating Matt that he was 'the one' for me. I don't think you could even call us officially dating at that point. We had met at his cousin Christine's birthday dinner, where she strategically had us sit next to each other and then after he flew back to his home of California we continued talking on the phone every waking minute afterwards.  I remember sitting on my bed in the Provo townhouse I shared with 4 other girls, and as I was talking to Matt on the phone for the upteenth time I just knew without a doubt, that we were going to eventually be married. We hadn't even told each other we loved each other yet, but still I knew he was the ONE. 

Fast forward six months later. I was living in California, had a ring on my finger and was searching for the perfect wedding dress. I looked and I looked. Tried on dozens and though I liked some of them, none felt right when I had them on. Then on a whim I went with my mom to a Davids Bridal in California while she was in town visiting.  I wasn't extremely particular about the kind of dress I wanted. I was obviously thinking white in color, but was dead set against strapless or poofy. Don't ask me why, I don't even know. My mom pulled a champagne colored dress off the rack and insisted I try it on. It was not white, was strapless, and definitely was poofaliscious. I remember I slipped into it (with the help of the sales clerk since that much material was a whole lot heavier than I had anticipated) and walked out to stand in front of their three-way mirror.  As soon as I saw my reflection, I instantly knew this dress was the ONE.  Who would have thought that champagne colored and strapless and poofy would win me over?! No wonder I hadn't found my dress since I'd been refusing all along to try out a dress with that criteria! Once again, "You'll know when it's the one" was a winning statement. 

Now let's skip a few chapters over to us living in Idaho with our 18 month old son and looking to buy a house to call home. We had been looking for about two months. During that time, we had found a house we liked and put in an offer. We were hopeful, but since it was a short sale it looked like it could take for-ev-er so we kept looking. We saw some good ones, we saw some really bad ones, and we some potentials. Here's a description of some of the houses we encountered along the way:

One house that we walked into reeked of smoke! I was practically gagging after stepping in the door. Ever since living next to heavy smokers when I was pregnant and having the smell seep through the outlets in our apartment and into my extremely sensitive pregnant sniffer making me beeline for the bathroom to upchuck, yea I've had zero tolerance for smell of cigarettes ever since. To make it even more awkward, the people were home. You'd think they would want to vacate the premises while people are walking through, inspecting their home. You can't really say anything like "I really hate this small kitchen" when the current homeowners are standing four feet behind you. Needless to say, the overpowering cigarette stench was a deal breaker anyway.

Another  house was really cute. We liked the lay out. It had 4 bedrooms, a park nearby, and some other perks like the low price. But while we liked the price, it still had some downfalls like the master bedroom was on the main floor. Not my idea of fun to be running upstairs a few times a night to care for a screaming baby and since more babies are in our future that could pose a problem. Also it was facing east/west which means lots and lots of sunlight in the morning and evening. Not that we are vampires and physically can't tolerate sunlight, but still I would rather not have it radiating through the window and into our eyeballs as we eat dinner at the kitchen table in the evening.

There were always pros and cons to every house we liked, that is until we found this one which was all pros. It was in the town we had been wanting to move to. In the exact neighborhood we'd had our eye on for quite some time and had driven through countless times before. The neighborhood had a community pool and an elementary school within walking distance from the house. It had 4 bedrooms meaning 1 for us, 1 for Sawyer, 1 for an office and 1 for a playroom/guestroom/future child's room and 2 and half baths. It had the laundry room upstairs which meant no walking up and down the stairs with a basket full of dirty socks and undies falling out along the way. It had a neighborhood park right across the street from it. It was on a corner lot with only one neighbor to the side and no neighbors behind it (yet). We loved it. We wanted it. We made an offer on it. We put in our best and highest offer since more than a few other people felt the same way about it. After a long month of waiting and waiting and waiting, we got the keys today!!

 It was the ONE
and
now
it's ours!!

We are all coming off of a week long horrible, horrible cold so this picture doesn't accurately portray how extremely excited we really are. After picking up the keys we went to Cold Stone to celebrate. Sawyer wasn't quite sure why the heck we were fooling around with taking a photo when there was a delicious bowl of chocolate ice-cream begging to be eaten only a few feet away from him, hence the look of disdain he has on his face. I'm sure deep down he is just as excited as we are. After all, now he has a whole new set of doors to slam, stairs to slide down, and three toilet bowls to flush and watch the water go down the hole.

Ouch

My brain is streeeeeeeetching and it hurts. Literally. I have a headache and I blame it on all the chemistry information that I am forcing my frontal lobe to memorize and hold on to long enough for my test this Saturday morning. I am currently at Starbucks studying while Matt takes care of Sawyer for the evening. Besides the headache, just being out of the house and by myself is blissful because not only did I need the time away for studying purposes, but also because I was going to lose my mind today with the Soy boy! He was soooooo whiny and clingy, I felt like I was a piece of velcro and I couldn't pry him off of me. Makes for an interesting time trying to do the dishes, make meals, clean, and do laundry when I am juggling a 25 pound kid between arms. Not to mention getting any homework done at home while holding a child on your lap who wants to 'help' by pressing all the keys on the keyboard is just out of the question. So here I am enjoying a black and white mocha and an ice water, and in between studying breaks (which I am obviously taking right now) my brain can rest and I am slowly getting my sanity back.

And it was a Sunny Day.

The photo below was supposed to include Sawyer in it, but my aim was obviously off as was my smile. I had to include it though, because check out all those freckles o'mine popping out! That can mean only one thing....that it's springtime!! The sun graced us with it's presence all day yesterday and it made for such a gorgeous day! 

Nothing beats lounging on a blanket, basking in the sun, sipping on a diet coke and playing trains with Sawyer all while listening to Taylor Swift on Matt's Ipad. 

In the afternoon it got downright hot! Or at least it felt like since we've become so accustomed to the colder weather. It was actually only in the upper 60's, maybe the low 70's, but too me that is the perrrrrrrfect temp. 

 I brought out some tupperware and filled them with water. Sawyer had a blast filling up cups and dumping the water back and forth from container to container. 

And then all over himself. 

He still had at least one ear out at all time for any airplanes. His hearing amazes me. He'll be pointing to the sky long before I even hear the rumble of the plane's engine. 

 Speaking of things that amaze me about this kid.....his feet. They are ENORMOUS! We'd been having to wrestle each morning to get each foot wedged into his size 5 shoes. We headed to the shoe department at Target yesterday to look for some new ones. I'm all about buying used clothing, toys, books, you name it....except for shoes. Mostly for the sole reason (haha, sole get it?)  that shoes mold themselves to the unique contour of a person's foot. I don't want Sawyer wearing the shoes of some kid whose feet were shaped differently since it will ultimately affect how his feet grow. Call me crazy, but that's what my 5th grade elementary school teacher told our class when there was a shoe swapping epidemic going around the whole school. All the girls were trading shoes, left and right, every day, at recess and in class. I'm not sure if she just said that to scare us into thinking our feet would become misshapen, but it made sense to me at the time and still does. Anyway,  back to Target. We had the hardest time figuring out what size shoe to buy him. We finally found this chart on the ground that measures each foot. We measured his feet three times and sure enough, he is a size 7!  I thought for sure he wouldn't be able to walk because they seriously looked like clown shoes on him, but he wanted to try them out right then and there and he mastered those clodhoppers just fine. Look like he's destined to be tall after all! At least one can hope because I can't help but laugh every time I see his little body walking around in those ridiculously large shoes.