More House

Here it is, some of the inside...
The view from our front door. Nathan is in the Kitchen/Dining Area but you will have to wait until the next post to hear about that part of the house. We love the floors and repainted everything, including the ceilings. My sisters are disappointed we went with white/cream. They wanted us to have color, but after paining every square inch of the house I want something I won't get tired of. I can add color in other, much less permanent ways. I really am more like my dad than I let on. (He loves white walls.)
One day we will be replacing that ugly light fixture you see in this picture. It is ugly and causes concussions because it hangs so low. I have no desire to have a formal dining room table there for it to go over. Instead we are going to have a big open living room area and piano nook. We plan on the TV eventually going in the Office/TV/Family room. I love the idea of not having a television in our main living area. I don't want it to be the center of our family time.

 One day the sectional will be replaced and the other couch and TV will be in the TV room, but until we find other furniture we love, we will get by with the set up like this. (Please note my Halloween decorations on the mantle.) The piano that you can see the corner of in the bottom right was a Craigslist find...$50. Not bad. We just haven't had someone over to help us move it where we want it, so it is currently stuck behind the couch. Someday it will probably be where the TV is.

 A view from the other direction. I love all the light. The door on the left is a coat closet picture below.
The hallway is to the right in this picture across from the sectional.

Here is the hallway. The first door on the left is the Office/TV room. The second is the garage. On the right is a linen/game closet (I wanted the game to be accessible to the main living area) and then the main bathroom. These light fixtures will also be going because they put off lots of heat and have a million tiny light bulbs in each.

Below is the linen closet, you can kind of see the edge of the couch, so you get an idea of where it is located.

Main Bathroom: Love that it has two sinks, don't live the linoleum, but I am willing to live with it so that we can get other projects done. It is low on the priority list. The tape is still on the floor because we still have some baseboard painting to complete

 I also like that it has a door to separate the shower/toilet from the sinks. It will come in handy when we have lots of kids that are trying to all get ready for church.

 That's all you get of the inside for now. Touring via pictures is tedious.
I will, however give you another look at our backyard, since that is where we have spent a lot of time working lately, trimming trees and bushed, mowing the grass, taking care of weeds...all that fun stuff. Look at my rosebushes! I love having fresh-cut flowers from my garden on my table.

 Here are the fun stairs I talked about last time but you couldn't really see.

 My lawn from the other side.

New House Part 1

So I told my Mother-in law that I was going to wait to post this until the inside was somewhat cute and I could put up pictures of everything, but let's face it, by the time that happens we will have lived in the house for years and it will no longer be a new house to us and we will be moving so hence the part 1. Part 2 will be ongoing and in the who-knows how distant future and you will get more pictures of the inside.

We closed on the house in July and spent most of that month painting and replacing carpet, making lots of changes to make it livable. We feel blessed to have found it and know that this is where we are supposed to be because normally we are not so good at decisions and house...that's a big one. Should have been hard for us, but really we only looked for a few weeks before making the offer and it being accepted. It was not a short-sale or foreclosure so things moved really quick, yet through the whole process we felt at peace. I am pretty sure Heavenly Father masked lots of the things that were wrong with it to help make the decision easier. For example, the smell. Lots of houses we had looked at smelled like smoke and they were immediately ruled out. This one also belonged to a smoker who also had a small inside dog. Yet, when we looked at it I remember saying that surprisingly it did not smell that bad and immediately gave it a 10. After we bought it. I do not know how I missed the smell except to say there was divine intervention. The paint and carpet helped greatly.


We miss out friends in the Paradise Stake but feel comforted to know that this is where Heavenly Father wants us to be right now. As my family moved out from my parents' home, it will be a blessing to be close to them so we can help out with Richard and we are able to see Grandma Davis more often.

The first thing we liked about the house is the neighborhood. We both dislike gated communities and we didn't want to be part of an HOA, which is hard to find in Vegas. This has an HOA, but no fee and the rules are pretty forward. If your house doesn't look like a pig sty, you will be fine. We are so close to the temple (I thing 1 mile, maybe less). The neighborhood is quiet and the homes and yards are well kept. After moving in we found out that our neighbors are in our ward. We really like them. Great neighbors make such a difference.

Front

Next we will skip to the back of the house. I grew up in a house with a terrific back yard. I think it was 1/4 acre, which is unheard of in Las Vegas. We had a tree house, garden, patio, trampoline and still room to ride our bikes. Although ours is not as spacious as my childhood backyard, we have a yard and a larger than Vegas standard size yard. We didn't want to be so close to our neighbors that we could lean out the window and borrow their shampoo. Our yard has great potential. It has a terrace, which stair that Jimmy and Kristi love. We plan to tear out the bushed that are there and plant fruit trees and a garden. It also has a sizable grass area and a patio. Great for future kids to play in and for outdoor dinners. We also hope to move one of the side gates toward the from of the house so we will have more room for fruit trees and a sand pile.We also have a few friendly geckos that keep our bug population down and the hummingbirds and bees love our flowering bushes. I love that there are nowhere near as many cockroaches as our old area of town.

Back Yard

More soon to come on the inside...

Today Provo, Tomorrow (or Nov.) Peru

This week, we dropped my little sister, Linda off at the MTC. I am super excited for her and a little jealous of the fun adventure she will have. I didn't do so great at documenting, most of the pictures are on Amy's camera and I assume she will post them on the family blog. We visited Grandpa Keeley in the Veteran's home on Tuesday and were able to see our friends the Polsons. Love them. Then it was off to Uncle Thor and Aunt Lisa's for traditional homemade waffles and freezer jam. Let's just say I ate a few too many. The next morning we went to Uncle Thor's farm and picked raspberries, peaches and apples AND Jimmy got to ride in the back of the truck. It was awesome. Then we had a delectable J-Dawg in Provo and were off to drop off Linda. She had a 12:55 drop off time. It was way different from when Robert left. They had the little devotional with the families, showed the movie and sang Called To Serve, you know so you really get the moms emotional. This was way better. Such a spirit of excitement and service. Sure Mom still cried, but that is what moms do. I am super duper excited for Linda. Dibs on picking her up!

Aren't sisters the best?

Linda's bag boys, I mean Elders. Amy is excited to be in a place with so many boys. Check out her face.

Does it look to anyone else like Dad has Jimmy by the hair?

I wouldn't be surprised if he did

Man I'm a good photographer. I managed to get her hand right in front of her face. Please reference one of the previous pictures to see what her face actually looks like.

That person in the shadows in the middle of the picture is Linda, trust me.

Some pics from Spring Mountain Ranch

A Pictureless Post

Alas, my camera cord has gone missing in the move. So the fun post I was going to do about our new house and Spring Mountain Ranch will just have to wait because who wants to read a post without pictures, right?!

Hanging Out in Hyrum

Happy Belated Fourth of July!  In celebration of our nations independence, Julie and I spent some time with her family in her mom's hometown of Hyrum, UT.  It was really fun, it turned into a mini-Keeley family reunion.  I think Megan said it best while she was talking to Julies mom-"I think I understand you a little better now that I know where you come from."  The Keeley family is so kind and welcoming, and they definitely have a sense of humor.  I had so much fun getting to meet aunts and uncles and cousins.  I also loved the fact that the temperature there was so mild.  This first picture was taken in the cool old cemetery that is just by Grandma Keeley's house, it's one of their favorite places to go and walk around.  There are some very old graves that have awesome grave markers and huge ornate mausoleum-esque tombs.  I found a few Andersons there, but I don't think I'm related to any of them.

 The other happening scene in Hyrum (besides the graveyard) is the 4th of July Parade!  When we got to Hyrum on Friday, people had been setting up chairs and marking off spaces for the parade on Monday.  They would seriously set up chairs and canopies and lay out blankets and just leave them there!  Hyrum is pretty serious about their parades.  The parade itself was pleasant enough, they had some really cool floats.  Julie revealed to me that all girls want to wear a pretty ball gown and ride on a float, so to that end we are working on our boss to create a "Ms. Vision Source" title for Julie.  I also discovered that if you are on a float, you can throw things at people all you want, and they are generally ok with it.  I watched a girl get pelted in the back of the head with a handful of candy, she was a little upset at first, but then she picked it up and was fine.  The candy was the definitive motivating drive for attendance.  Kids had sacks and pillow cases to pick up all the candy that the floats were throwing out, I think Jimmy was a little overwhelmed by all the kids scrambling for it at first, but he ended up with a decent sized sack.  All in all it was a great time.  Julie will be back to update you in our next post about our most recent adventure.  But here are some pictures of what we and some of our family members have been up to.  Thanks again for everyone that helped out!

Hyrum Graveyard with lots of mosquitoes-apparently Julie's blood is delicious, I think she got 4 on this walk alone.

Here are some happy parade goers-here you can see some of the prime real estate that was reserved days in advance.

Megan took this picture for us literally over her shoulder without looking.  Hence my somewhat confused expression.

I don't know why they bother setting up chairs, once the parade starts everyone ends up in the street anyway.

They did not throw candy, that is why no one is clapping or cheering for them.

Why yes, I do enjoy shelves.

Believe it or not, we are not keeping the stencil in the background.

Uncle Sam (and Linda) want you! to come help paint.

Thanks dad for all your help and Gatorade!

Making Kids Happy!

Today I did two things to make kids happy. The first for others kids and the second for my future children.

1. I donated my hair to Locks of Love. 16 inches of dark blonde thick hair that will make some little girl suffering with cancer feel pretty. I like my new short haircut, but let's be honest, I am a long hair person. Am I going to grow it back out? Much to my dad's relief, YES! Thanks you so much to my lovely sister-in-law who cut my hair for me. Thanks Kirsten.
Nathan wanted to experience this with me but alas his hair was not long enough so we just cut off the side-mullet he had been growing.

Before

It's kind of gross, right?

The after. A rockin A-line.

Side Mullet

The disappearing act

That is a lot of hair.

2. I bought a doll house! Every little girls dream. I saw it and had to have it. I hope we have girls, but if we only have boys they can use it for a fort for their army men because I had to have it. My future posterity (and the little girl inside me) NEEDED it. Be jealous.

Front

Back

Cool stuff for inside