6474 Alexander Ct

Last March we tried to buy a house... as soon as we had our offer accepted and started to move forward with it, everything fell apart. We weren't able to continue with the deal/contract so we had to find a rental home here. Our plan was to get here, get a feel for the town and take our time finding the perfect house for us instead of trying to do it from Ohio. After a couple of weeks, we started seriously looking at the homes for sale this season and did a bunch of walk-throughs. From the very beginning of that process, the one house that impressed us the most was the one on Alexander Court. It is a beautiful home, perfect size (even bigger than we "need" but gives us room to grow), a big backyard, updates all throughout the house (which is hard to find in Paradise in our price range), and two levels. All of these things are on our MUST HAVE list for our home, and the last house we tried to buy only had some updates but none of the other things on that list. Knowing what our must-haves are has really helped us in narrowing down our choices here. After seeing lots of homes, we still kept coming back to the one on Alexander Ct. We were in love with it more and more! 

So after lots of prayer, fasting, and a Temple trip, asking Heavenly Father if this was the specific house we should buy, we felt confident about the decision to put an offer in. They accepted and we now have this beautiful home under contract!! 

I'm not posting this outside of this blog until we close (mid-september), because last time I jinxed it. ;) But for my family and friends, here is a peak into the house. Everything is falling into place and appears to be on schedule, so we are not worried one bit. We have total peace about this decision and this home! We can hardly wait!

This is a view up into the cul-de-sac. Very quiet. 

View out our front door as the sun is going down. So beautiful!!

Living room with dining behind me.

The kitchen

I love this view of the backyard from the kitchen sink window.

Downstairs living area, which has a kitchenette, two bedrooms in that hallway you can see through the doorway, a full bathroom, and the stairs to the upstairs. The backyard is out the sliding glass door to the left.

 Our kids are getting their very own forest! The owners put a lot of work into making little trails between the trees and such. We are going to cut some of it back to make more play space for the kids, and fit a play set. Ryan also really wants a horseshoe pit. ;)

 We are so excited to make this our new home and settle in for (hopefully) many years to come.

Brother & Sister = Frenemies

From the moment we got here to Paradise, Grace and Logan have seriously struggled with each other. They've spent more time fighting, yelling, crying, hitting each other or whatever is nearby, and purposely causing problems. I know they are going through their own roller coaster of emotions with the move, just like I am. I know they miss their old house and routines, and their old friends especially. They have had a lot less friend time and even on sundays it's not as comfortable when you don't know everyone around you. Everything here is different and even this house is a lot smaller, giving us less space to spread out and be alone. In our old place, they would have quite time separately and it helped their moods (and mine) when everyone had some alone time. Plus the old house had locks on the doors so I could lock a child in a room for timeouts when they were being completely out of line. This house, however, is small, echoey, loud, and doesn't offer a lot of places for someone to get away from others. So we have had a few really hard weeks. In fact I kept saying that we left my Grace and Logan in Ohio and brought a different set with us...

But I have to say that in the last week, something has changed  between these two. They are having a lot more fun with each other and they're almost speaking the same language when they play. There is still some fighting but a lot less than before. Grace has told me a couple of tricks she has learned to get Logan on board with her idea (such as telling him it's a race to do what mommy asks, or a race to clean up, etc). Such a smarty! Logan used to hate having Grace hug him, reach for his hand, or put her arm around him for a picture. Now I'll catch them doing those things both in front of me/the camera and quietly when they think no one is watching. It makes my heart sing to see that!! I hope so much their relationship continues to strengthen through these experiences while their young, and then stay strong as they get older and need to lean on each other.

I took out my camera one afternoon, during a totally unexciting moment in time of coloring and eating snacks. It just needed to be captured on film. I am trying to come to terms with the fact that this big girl is headed off to Kindergarten (FULL-day kindergarten, by the way) and won't be home with Logan and I during a big chunk of each day. What will we do without her, honestly?! I will miss her being home, and Logan is just going to be heart-broken. We love our Gracie girl!!

The three of us also went to explore Caper Acres, a playground in Bidwell Park (Chico, CA). It is a park with a fairytale theme for the kids to enjoy.

This is a weird optical illusion because of the trees. I'm standing straight up and down and everything else is off balance...

 The other day Logan was really struggling... screaming at us and hitting the doors and stomping on the floor. You name it! He was mad at life. I quietly went to Grace and asked if she could read him some books to help him calm down, and she immediately went and found one of his favorite books. I sure love them!!

Our 32 Year Old

After my parents spent a couple days with my Aunt and Uncle, they drove up here to see where we have landed. We did some swimming, got ice cream, did a driving tour of the town, and went on a small hike.

Bille park hike to the overlook. It was SO hot that week (102 degrees everyday) so we lost all desire to do much outside at all.

Yikes.

Ryan celebrated his 32nd birthday by going to work! Woohoo. ;) But we did all get to go to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Yum!

 The drive home from Chico was hilarious sitting in back with giggly-Grace. Everything was making her bust up which made me laugh! I love her.

 And this boy too.

He opened a couple presents after we got home.

 The next day we just mostly hung out at home... again, it was H.O.T. outside which was a big bummer. It was so cute seeing the kids join in on some reading time!

 We did pull out some paints and decorated some "fairy houses" for the backyard. 

Lemon cupcakes (from scratch, by the way) ;) for Ryan. His fav. 

I love this man so much. I'm so glad he is all mine and we have many more birthdays (and eternity) together. He loves us and works so hard for us. Even though he works extremely hard, he also plays hard and quite often he is the one CAUSING the craziness in the house. Sometimes I just have to leave the room because of the noise, screams and fights he creates with the kids. ;) His nurses loved him from the first day he started, and his patients have great things to say about him. He already has a full schedule and there is even a 2-week wait to get into him after just one month here! I'm so proud of him for taking on this whole new world of an attending Pediatrician... but even more happy to see the change that has happened as he has become a much-more hands-on dad. Ryan has been saying for months and years how much he wants to be around more and involved with the kids. He has things he wants to teach each one, and moments and memories he has looked forward to making with us. Now he finally using his time at home for those things and we are loving having him as a present part of the family! Happy Birthday, Ryan! We love you.

Mom and Dad, thank you for coming to hang out with us. We're glad you could come and hope you will come again soon! :)