Our House!!!

Well we have finally done it!!! Yesterday we closed on our very first home!!! And what a great house it is!!!

This was the first house that we saw when we started our house search and we didn't think much of it. We loved the kitchen but the basement and the set up of these upstairs rooms, as well as the size of the tub, kind of put us off. Plus I think that we were expecting to get more for our money. After looking at most all of the houses in the area and even putting an offer on another house, without the result that we wanted, our realitor suggested that we come back to this one which we hadn't really thought to do. When we came back we realized that this would really fit our needs well and would be a fun house for us to be in. So we went for it and we think that we got a great bargin and a great house.

So this is it. Small but just the right size for us.

Moving van in the driveway and all!!! Here is a picture of Brian and Lizzie in front of the house!!!

They are welcoming you in for the grand tour of the mess that the house was in after the first day of moving in. We had a great sunny nice day to move in though!!! When you walk in the door it puts you right into the dinning room and the kitchen!!! I think that we only looked at two houses with nice kitchens that were open to the eating area, all the other houses I would have had to redue the kitchen and knock down the wall in the process. I am so excited to finally have a place where the kids can sit up to the counter to watch me cook, instead of on it!!!

Across the doorway and stairs is the living room. The furniture kind of big but hopefully we can arrange it so that it will work well.


Behind the living room is a bedroom, which the last owner used as a formal dining room, hence the chandler. I figure that we will use it best as a play room/guest bedroom.


Between the playroom and the kitchen is a nicely done bathroom with about the shortest tub that I have ever seen, which I didn't end up getting a picture of. There is also a downstairs with a big open room for half of it and the garage as the other half. No pictures of that either. then we head up the stairs. First stop the master bedroom. More great furniture, which is beautiful and I love it, but also need rearranging to fit better in the space. We even have a nice walk-in closet and another smaller closet in this room.


Next door is the bathroom with some really nice fixtures, also newly remodeled. And even a clothes hamper hidden in the cabnets on the side.



However it also has the most interesting tub that I have seen, thankfully both of the tubs have showers over them. This one will be much better for bathing kids then a normal shower base though.

Then finally across the hall is two kids rooms. The one below is Jamie's room, this one also has a large walk in closet.

I didn't take a picture of Lizzie's it would look much like the picture of the master bedroom as I only got half of that room in the picture but it is empty as here bed didn't make it into her room. The strange part about the rooms is the enterance to them.


It basically feels like someone just put a wall down the middle of a room to make it into two. They even have folding doors to close them off, but for our needs it works well. I think that the kids will like that their rooms will be easy to go between.



Tomorrow we will start living there, even though we won't get our boxes from England until Tuesday, we have all of our furniture (thanks to either craigs list or people storing our stuff and then giving us some of their extras) and enough other stuff to survive until then. It will be great to be in a house that we can decorate as we please and that will really be ours!!!

New Tricks and a New Recipe

Both of my kids learned a new trick yesterday. Lizzie learned to open doors. She still has a problem with them sometimes, but she can do it. No where is safe any more. As for Jamie he has finally figured out how to get on to the bed himself. Jamie gets so upset when he can't do what he want to do or can't go where he wants to go, The same thing happened before he started walking. So I am very happy that there is one less thing for him to get upset about.

Yesterday I also learned something new. Brown sugar and Dijon mustard actually taste good together. Last night i knew i wanted to cook up some fish as we had a very rich dinner the night before I wanted to do something very light. So I got on to allrecipes.com and on of the first recipes that I saw was this one. I needed something quick and easy because of having to go pick Brian up at the train, so this worked great. I was kind of sceptical of the combinations, but it had many good reviews, so I figured I would try it. It was good. (Some people who have known me in my younger years might be very surprised that I am not only cooking fish but also calling it good. What can I say I have been corrupted by my husband.) So I would highly recommend this recipe for anyone who needs to put a meal on the table fast. I would bet that you could even use the glaze with a different kind of fish if salmon isn't your thing, I will probably try it with a different kind of fish next time.


Salmon with Brown Sugar Glaze
SUBMITTED BY: Tamara

"This is my favorite recipe! I make this way too often. It's quick and easy! I serve this with rice and broccoli."


PREP TIME 5 Min
COOK TIME 10 Min
READY IN 15 Min

SERVINGS 4

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
4 (6 ounce) boneless salmon fillets
salt and ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven's broiler and set the oven rack at about 6 inches from the heat source; prepare the rack of a broiler pan with cooking spray.
Season the salmon with salt and pepper and arrange onto the prepared broiler pan. Whisk together the brown sugar and Dijon mustard in a small bowl; spoon mixture evenly onto top of salmon fillets.
Cook under the preheated broiler until the fish flakes easily with a fork, 10 to 15 minutes.

Fun and Giggles

It seems like all I have of my children lately are movies. Thay are just at a stage where they are so cute and I wish that I could video them all of the time so that I can remember all of the fun and cute things that they do each day. I have made up another little montage of some of their playing that I have caught on video since returning from Christmas. I hope that you all enjoy it.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jamie Really is Walking!!!

I know that I have been terrible at blogging lately. I have been spending to much of my time at the computer looking for things to buy and trying to figure out how we are going to close on a house in just over a week when the lawyers are still discussing the contract. What I really should have been doing is spending time getting this movie together of Jamie walking. Most of the parts of it were taken on the 19th of January. So I have been planning to do this for a while. It is amazing how quickly he is growing up. Today during Sunday School I took him into the hall to see if I could get him to sleep and instead he spent the time chasing around a little girl about his same age.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One thing that has been quite nice living here with Brian's parents is the hallway that they kids can walk around on cold days. I try to get out there for a bit of a walk everyday. Here is a cute little video of Jamie walking down the hall. They like to visit a stuffed ginger bread man and a metal snowman. However in this video you only get to see the back of the snowman.

Last week Jamie even got his first real chance to walk outside. It was a nice day and we went out to lunch at a restaurant about two blocks away, and he walked back most of a block (except when he tried to run into the road or across parking lot entrances which there were a lot). It was very fun to watch him walk along and he was even refusing to hold my hand much of the time.

Well I guess that is all I have to talk about on this post. I do have other great posts in mind which I hope to get up soon, but probably not tonight as I am very tired of being on the computer. I hope you will hear from me again soon!!!!!