home sweet home

About six months before we moved to Logan, I started doing a little online house hunting in Florida. I would scour the listings and compile lists of houses I liked. We had set up a week in April to fly out and find a house. About a month before that, i made a list of a few of my favorite houses and sent my mom, my sister and my brother-in-law(who was our realtor) to go check a few out and rule any off the list. After seeing several dives and possible haunted houses, they called me while they were going through one and said, "This house is so perfect! It's 108 years old and just like a little dollhouse!"
Turns out, the house had only been on the market for 6 days and had about a dozen showings booked for the upcoming weekend. We decided it wouldn't stay on the marked long and took a leap of faith and made an offer without ever seeing the house in person. So, our April house hunting trip turned into a 'let's find out what we bought' and house projects trip! Sounds a little crazy, but it was absolutely the right decision. We love our home and our neighborhood. The house was in really great condition, we just got to do the fun stuff like painting, wallpapering, etc. We have a basement apartment that we rent out, a great tiny little yard, neighbors so close we could high five through our windows and wish we could stay here forever.

Here are a few pictures I took when we had all our Christmas decorations up.



entryway


you can see how close our neighbors are through the window






Cosette's room


It took me about 16 hours online to find just the right wallpaper

Pretty much the extent of our kitchen storage



Our bathtub/shower is tucked away in a tiny little alcove

Hope you enjoyed pictures of our home. I left out pictures of our spare room because it is currently a work in progress. I should have it finished in a few weeks and I'll post some more pictures!

The last few months..

Wow, it has been six months since my last post! Well, we love being back in Logan. Life is a little busier here, but it's great being so close to family. Cosette has turned into a full blown kid! How does that happen so quickly?

Back in October we went to Colorado springs so Mitcheal could get eye surgery at the Air Force Academy. He had PRK (kind of like lasik) and we spent nearly two weeks of fun! (except for the whole scraping off the outer layer of your cornea part....but no more contacts! yay)


We went to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and spent quite a bit of time with the giraffes.
We took a cog train to the top of Pikes Peak (the mountain that inspired the song, America the Beautiful)
Cosette wasn't so sure about the Giraffes.

We had a great Christmas with family and just got back from a week in Georgia.
Cosette dressed up as an angel

I have a lot of catching up to do in the next few weeks, but soon to come...pictures of our 108 year old house! Finally.

Cosette is one!

Well, Cosette is one! I can't believe it has been a year. Wow, life changes when you have a baby, but it is so worth it. She is such a character, with a big personality. We had our family over for a great party, great food and most importantly, lots of toys! Cosette had a great time, although she wasn't quite sure what to do with her cake. We love being back in Logan, but I'll post more about that later!

Goodbye, Florida. We'll miss you.

Well, last week we said goodbye to the beautiful Gulf Coast and made our 36 hour trek across the country. Now we're back in Utah! We are so happy to be closer to family and friends and the wonderful mountains. However, this joyous move is tinged with a bit of sadness. We will miss our first home, we will miss the Waste Management system (it is the best thing that has ever happened to garbage!!), we will miss Publix (the world's most friendly grocery store), we will miss the most beautiful beaches in the world (especially knowing they will never be the same, with the ever increasing amount of crude oil encroaching daily on our Emerald Coast), but most of all, we will miss the people. We made so many great friends and will miss the southern hospitality and openness. Even strangers at the grocery store seem like old friends. The Gulf Coast of Florida will always be such a special place to me. It's where Mitcheal and I started our lives together, where we got our first 'real jobs', and where our beautiful baby was born. I feel like I really learned to be a grown up, a very independent person and most importantly, a Mother. We are so excited for the new adventures ahead. Logan, here we come...Again.

We took some family photos on the beach before we left. I'm so glad we had the chance to take these priceless pictures. The beaches on the Gulf Coast are amazing. We are praying every day that the crisis in the Gulf will, at some point, get under control and that when Cosette is older she will be able to enjoy these beautiful beaches.

Smiles

It's starting to feel a little like springtime here in Florida, and we're loving it. Cosette is now seven months old! How did that happen so fast? We'll be in Utah next week and can't wait to see everyone. In the meantime, we will be enjoying having this smiley little girl all to ourselves.

Snowpocalypse!

Snowpaocalypse, Snowmageddon! The crazy snow storms that have been sweeping the country have come to Florida! They said it was coming, but I didn't believe it... snow in Florida? No way. We had an actual snow storm here on the Gulf Coast. It only lasted about an hour and nothing stuck to the ground, but it sure caused a lot of commotion. School was canceled, a few stores closed, everyone was terrified of the dangerous snowy roads. But, after about an hour of flurry, the sun came out and we were back in Florida.