What a day!

Well, we're homeowners again. . . barely! Yesterday was quite a day! It started out all fine and dandy with Brad working from home. Then, at 10:30 we headed to the title company downtown to close on our new house. As soon as we got there, we got started on our paperwork which, of course, started with verifying our identities with our picture IDs. As Marylou was writing down my info, she stopped and said, "Did you know your license has been expired since February?!" Oh crap, are you kidding?!

We decided to go ahead and finish the paperwork and that we would go back to our apartment afterwords and bring my passport back to verify my ID. (All the while I'm praying that my passport isn't expired!!!) While we were signing the paperwork, Addy was happily playing on her blanket with her stacking cups. All of a sudden, I feel (and hear!) a loud thump on the floor! Addy had fallen face first onto her green stacking cup and landed on it with her cheek! There was a 2 second delay and then she let out a monster cry! She immediately got a bruise on her cheek! Needless to say, the rest of my signatures didn't look quite right because I had to hold her the rest of the time! Here's her war wound!


After that, we headed back to the apartment (30 minutes away) to get my passport. . . again, all the while praying it wasn't expired!). Thankfully, it is still valid for 2 years. We headed back to the title company (with Brad driving, of course!) and submitted my valid ID.

On our way back to the apartment, Addy was way overdue for her nap so we decided Brad would stay home with Addy while I headed to the DMV on my own with an expired license (provided we would come up with enough of the paperwork required to get a new license). We had to make several phone calls to get what we needed because you need 2 pieces of mail (statements, bills, or contracts) that state your Utah address. Well, since we had just closed on our house, we didn't have that! We were able to get our insurance company to provide evidence that we had a homeowners policy on the new house, and we had our closing documents on our new house so I decided to brave the DMV at 1:30pm. Who does that?!

Well, after waiting for over an hour and a half, I was called to the counter to show my proof of residency, expired license, passport, and social security card. She informed me that I'd have to take a written exam (crap!) and that she needed my marriage license also! What?! That was not on the document list as something I needed! I almost cried right there. The lady must have felt bad for me (I had already told her the story of our day so far!) and so she told me to go home, get my marriage license and make sure to be back within the hour (when DMV closed!) and she would let me hop to the front of her line.

Luckily, while I was on my way to the apartment, I got ahold of Brad and he was able to wake Addy up, chuck her in the carseat (thankfully I left that for him!), grab the marriage license and head to the DMV. He made it in time for me to submit my marriage license, take my test (and pass!) and get my new driver's license. Whew! I braved the traffic of all the suburbanites heading home after work only to find out that while I was gone, Addy had rolled herself right off the middle of the bed onto the floor when Brad ducked into the other room to get something! Luckily she didn't get hurt (that would have looked great to head to the ER. . . 'No we don't beat our kid even though she has a broken arm and a bruise on her face!') She's officially changed our definition of a 'safe' place to leave her. Rolling is a form of transportation for her now.

In fact, here's a video of her going after those darn stacking cups again. This topple forward is what she usually does now. I still can't believe she landed on her face doing this yesterday!

So, when all is said and done, we own a home and I have a legal drivers license. :) What a day!

More to come on our house soon. We get the keys today and we are having some work done on the house starting Tuesday. That will take a few weeks and so it will be nearly the end of June before we move in. Grr. I'll post some before/after pictures of our house when the work is done.

Enjoy your long weekend!

Big Day following a Big Week!

Last week was a big one for Addy. She turned 8 months old, showed us why she had so much snot (4 new teeth coming in on top!!), had Grandma & Grandpa Bursch for a visit, had her first guitar lesson, and said her first word! It was nice to have company although Brad missed most of it since he worked all week. His job is going well but he still has a lot of work ahead of him. Please pray for wisdom for him. Here's a slideshow of our week with my parents.

You can determine for yourself what Addy's first word is! :)

Last weekend, we went for our second hike with Addy. We went to Wasatch Mountain State Park and as it turned out, it was more of a set of mountain biking trails. We hiked them anyway and enjoyed the view and a bit of exercise.

Today was a big day for Addy Paddy. She's now finally decided she hates tummy time so much that she's just not going to spend more than a half a second on her tummy. She officially rolled over from her tummy to her back and then I was able to get her to roll from her back to her tummy (staying on her tummy just long enough to grab what she wanted!). All her previous roll over attempts (or ours) were really just accidents where she mostly just fell over or where she only made it 3/4 of the way. Today was for real!

Mother's Day

I've been looking back at some pictures of Addy when she was smaller (in honor of my first Mother's Day) and I can't believe how much she has changed. I made a slide show of some pictures my cousin Danny took of her at Thanksgiving in Gunnison when she was 2 1/2 months old. The change is so gradual that you don't realize it when you're with her each day. For one, check out how little hair she had!

Last weekend we went to the rec pool near our new house and got an annual membership for all of us. Addy really loved the pool and actually splashed and kicked around. We think we have a fish on our hands. :)

We also discovered last night that Addy is afraid of dogs. . . go figure. She was just 3 months old when Brody died and she hasn't really been around dogs since. We had dinner with my aunt and uncle last night and Addy cried and freaked out because of their dog, Duncan. (For anyone who has spent time with Addy, you know she doesn't cry and isn't really scared of anything!) So, if anyone has a dog they want to lend us. . . let us know. We don't really see a dog fitting into our new budget so we're going to be on the lookout for other people's dogs Addy can get used to!

Anyway, off to bed. We hope all the moms out there enjoyed their Mother's Day. . . I did with my first.

Sugar House Park

Well, so far so good on our house inspection. It was actually really encouraging because all the inspectors said over and over, "How old is this house? It is in such good shape!" That made us feel really good and we're excited to close in late May.

Since we're all done with the house hunting/paperwork stuff, we spent Saturday wandering around the University of Utah campus and around Sugar House Park. At the university we spent quite a bit of time in the library where we got to see different art exhibits and the largest collection of usable type and printing presses in the country. We enjoyed learning a few new things and seeing all that is going on on campus.

After spending time on campus, we went down to Sugar House Park which is the park 3/4 of a mile from our new house. Brad made a slide show of the pictures he took to give an idea of what a neat park it was. It was really busy with lots of dogs, kids and BBQ's. We're excited to live so close to such a neat park!

Brad's job is going well. He's really excited that all he learned in Denver is so helpful in what he needs to do here. He's still in the beginning stages of getting to know his staff and making sure the people are being used in the most effective ways, but he's already had a lot of opportunities for training and coaching. He loves that. He has quite a long commute (especially compared to his 3 minute commute in Denver!) but he's enjoying listening to sermons and podcasts while he's in his car.

Addy Paddy tried bananas for the first time this week. Besides avocado, it was her first fruit. I had to laugh because we've been holding off on fruit so as not to develop a 'sweet tooth' in her. She made the worst gag faces yet with the bananas! She actually even emptied the contents of her mouth (repeatedly!) into her bib! She's never done that before! Go figure! Well, we eat a lot of bananas around here, so she'll just have to get used to them! :)

We're off to try to find a church home. . . not an easy task in Salt Lake. We'd appreciate your prayers for a church.

We hope you are enjoying spring! Take care!

Antelope Island

On Saturday we packed our backpacks and headed off to Antelope Island. Antelope Island is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake. You can drive over a causeway to get to hit and there are hiking trails, picnic spots and even an old ranch from the 19th century. We went for a two hour hike up a little hill that overlooked the ranch and the lake. We could see Salt Lake City from just a little ways up the hill. We ran across buffalo, antelope and lots of lizards. Addy wasn't so sure about the backpack at first, but after about 25 minutes she stopped fussing about it. She ended up really liking it and getting really giggly. Thanks Logsteds for the backpack! What a great gift! Here's a little video of pictures of our first adventure in Salt Lake City.

Addy's already starting to do her share of the chores around here. Here she was 'helping' me with the laundry. She's so much fun!

We've had quite a few days 'off' her schedule and even though she's been a trooper, she's slept really hard lately. I was trying to wake her up in this picture and she just refused! :)

Brad's been busy with work but when he's with us, he's fully engaged! This is Addy's outfit compliments of Brad. :) He says it really did match. . . hmm. Either way, Addy adores her Daddy and stops whatever she's doing to focus on him.

We have our home inspections this week and Brad continues to have meetings with his new supervisor team. Thanks for your prayers and enjoy your week!

Under contract & Addy's 7 mo birthday!

Well, we've received some mixed reactions about the house we've purchased, but here it is. I don't have interior pictures yet because I forgot to take any pictures when we were there and it's no longer on the MLS. It is just south of I-80 and the great park called Sugar House Park. I walked there today with Addy and she enjoyed watching the geese and seagulls. Anyway, the house is 3 bed, 1.75 bath with a HUGE 3 car garage. It's probably bigger than the house. :) It is owned by Mr. & Mrs. Crabtree and they apparently have great pride in their home because it's in amazing condition for a 1937 bungalow. The yard is bigger than our last yard by about 4 times (so not too much weeding to do but room for a garden and a compost pile. . . Brad's excited!). It doesn't have a white picket fence but the porch has that white banister thing so I think the Blog will survive as being 'behind the white picket fence.' Whew! I have no idea how to change a blog to a new name. It's a cute little house with some strange 'old' house features like you feel like you're in Alice in Wonderland's shrinking room when you go into the laundry room in the basement, but Brad thinks that will disqualify him from doing laundry so he's fine with it. And for any guests who come to visit, the guest bedroom will be on the main level with plenty of ceiling height so no one will worry about bonking heads on low duct work. :) Oh, old homes. How did people live in 850 sq. ft. with 4 kids back in 1937?! We're glad we have a basement!



We hardly have to do any work to the house because it was completely remodeled in the mid 90's. So with a little paint (and possible refinishing/replacing the original hardwoods that are under the carpet on the main level) we'll be ready to move in in early June. Hopefully the inspection process goes smoothly. We'd appreciate your prayers for that because Mrs. Crabtree is a bit hesitant to have us remove the basement toilet to have the sewer line scoped. Hmm. . .
Addy is doing very well in our little furnished apartment. She's so 'go with the flow' she puts me to shame! :) She's sleeping great (13 hours at night and 4 hours in the day!) and is really showing signs of wanting to crawl. She's mastered the nose-dive from her sitting position to being on her tummy when she loses the ability to hold herself up anymore reaching for something. She still pretty much lands on her face but she doesn't cry about it anymore. She's so darn cute!

This is her new 'avocado face' for any of you who saw her reaction to avocados before. They are her favorite green food now followed by peas. She'd skip green beans altogether if she could but I think once I figure out how to make them a little more smooth she'll be fine with them. She's still doing well learning her table manners (keeping her hands in her lap when I feed her and not spitting out her food in my face) and she likes it when I sing to her during her meals. She hasn't quite learned 'all done' sign language but she politely turns her head to the side and clamps her mouth shut pretty good (most of the time)! She's almost totally given up the whining to let me know she's done! Thank goodness she understands 'Mama said no whine!' That was driving me crazy!

Addy enjoys books and now she's starting to like the ones she can play with by herself. This is a castle book she got from her Great Aunt Zana. She thinks it's a great chew toy and luckily it has such bright colors that the sweet potato spit up blends right in!

This is a video of Addy 'chewing.' She started doing it the other day after watching me eat my lunch. Hmm.

We'd appreciate your prayers for Brad's job and our search for a church. 'It's on' now at work and Brad's starting to feel the weight of the task ahead of him. He didn't sleep too well last night and he literally jumped out of bed at 3:45am this morning to start his day. Also, there aren't very many options for a church near where we live. Please pray we'll find a community of believers we can grow with. Thanks!

We hope you all are doing well and enjoying spring. We'd love to hear from you!

The Big Move!

Well, We're in Salt Lake City. We had a great drive from Denver to Gunnison Wednesday night and then a really long but pretty drive from Gunnison to Salt Lake on Friday. We enjoyed a day in between the drives to relax and nap. It was really nice to have the help of my parents (and to have Dad drive the whole way from Gunnison to SLC!).

The apartment we're renting is furnished nicely and they have a weekly cleaning service! Yay! I still have a bit of organizing to do to figure out how to make it home but it's going to be a nice place to spend a few months while we look for a house.

This morning was Addy's first Easter and we visited a local Christian church. Addy had her first experience in the nursery and she did great (after only about a 30 min morning nap!). She played with the toys and watched the other toddlers run around.

After church we had lunch with my Aunt Deb and Uncle Scott at the Garden Cafe at the Grand America Hotel in downtown. Wow! There were even chandeliers in the bathroom stalls! The food was amazing and Addy joined us with some avocado and squash. She didn't make it all the way through lunch though, she sacked out on my shoulder. I know I'm partial but she is darn cute!

Mom and Dad just left so we're working on getting settled. Brad is gearing up for starting his new job tomorrow and I'm gearing up for a good lonely cry. :) We're having a hard time believing that we live here . . . It's going to be quite an adventure and we have a lot to learn about the local culture and way of life.

Thanks for your prayers. Please pray that we'd find a church home and a house soon. Also, please pray for wisdom for Brad in his new role and for a surge of extroversion for me! :)

Enjoy our video of our move.