Our House

Six years ago while I was training for a marathon I would run around the Glendale reservoir. I took this route a lot because I thought it was the prettiest scenery in Preston. I noticed there was a new subdivision going in with a little for sale sign on it. I memorized the number because I ran past it so much but never told Cort about it. Finally we went for a drive one day and I took him past the lots for sale. He was sold on the land also. We called and purchased the land shortly after that. We have saved and saved and finished paying off the land this year so decided it was the perfect time to start building our house we have thought about and dreamed of for many years. Now that it is done, it ended up being everything we hoped it would be and more.

I have been putting this post off for a long time because I don't really know how to express all my appreciation to all the people who have helped us so much. This has been quite the experience. One I am so thankful we did, and one I never want to do again. Building our house has really been fun. They say if you can build a house and stay married you can make it through anything, and I guess Cort and I are pretty safe because we were on the same page for everything we did- well almost everything... He got a little nervous when he saw my paint choices but ended up really liking them. Cort put his heart and soul into building this house and I am amazed at his skills. He is so creative and is such a craftsman (something he has always wanted to be called). He worked his guts out almost every night for the past five months after working for 10 hours a day. We enjoyed the process and are thrilled with the outcome. I haven't posted about our house and the status for quite a while so here is a recap of what we have been doing.
First of all, I need to preface this that as the pictures will show we have received a TON of help. We are overwhelmed with the help we have received. It makes me get all emotional when I think of the hours and hours of help we had with our house. I don't know how we can ever repay our friends and family for all the work they did for us. From watching our boys, making us dinner when we have been running ourselves crazy, helping paint, driving long distances to help for the weekend, watching our boys again, painting, wood work, landscaping, fencing, flooring, all the electrical work, horse stalls, planting trees, moving, and many more tasks we are extremely grateful for EVERY single hand and minute people gave us.
Cort suited up to begin spraying- a not so fun adventure...
We had so much help with the painting it really didn't even seem too bad. We thought it would take us a week to finish but we had it completely done in about two days. Scotty came and helped paint- he can always humor anyone and make it fun.

My brother in law Kyle helped us a lot from building the fence to painting to watching our kids a billion.
We somehow even got Justin Bowles to come out and help paint. Even though I had to repaint everything he did we still appreciate his efforts. Just kidding Bowles you did great- that's why I put you in the laundry room where no one would notice... hehe
Cort painting the boys room. He is just talented at everything he does.
HMMMM who is the picture on the wall because I don't think it looks like Scotty or El Corte... too bad they painted over it.

My dad said he painted a big B O B in the ceiling above our bed. We have yet to spot it so I really hope he didn't.
And what would we do without Granny to take our kids almost every night while we worked. It made it so much easier for us to get things done. We are so lucky to have my parents close to help with our boys.
The twins Taya and Teague even got to come hang out a few times while Cort's brother helped with the electrical work.
After painting Cort, my dad, and Kyle put in the wood floor. It turned out so beautiful.
Then began the hard wood trim work. This is in my opinion where our house is really cool. Cort and his buddy Victor designed the trim and spent many hours milling, joining, staining, cutting, and piecing it together. This is the one thing Cort really wanted to do in our house is hard wood trim and interior doors. It was a lot of work but totally worth it. Cort's workshop- the garage.
Victor and Shane hard at work. Yes Katie- Shane really did work he wanted me to tell you that and document with a picture.
The staining spray on the wood was so potent. When I would help Cort stain I would wear the mask so I think Cort has lost a few more valuable brain cells.
Cort's mom Jami and her husband Bob helped a ton. Bob is a trooper and is so good to come down and help. Cort and Jami staining more wood.
Cort even made a wood paneled wall.
I haven't taken a picture of the finished outside of our house because it isn't all the way done yet. They still need to pour a little cement stair and I need to stain the front door, I have been putting it off. But the siding turned out awesome. We did cedar shakes in the front and some vertical siding but here is what the siding looks like until I post a finished picture.
Then for the finishing touches before move it. Jack and Cort installing the dishwasher.
And TONS of cleaning!!! My mom can bust out cleaning a house like no ones business. I feel like all I have been doing lately is clean my house because of all the dust still settling and dirt. I guess I better get used to it though.
We thought we would take a week or so to move our stuff into our house because we weren't in a big hurry and were pretty beat. I wanted to be really organized so it wouldn't be hard to put away. So I spent about six hours packing up our downstairs of our apartment all nice and in boxes and figured it would take them a good three hours to move it all while I packed the upstairs. I was so wrong. We borrowed the U&I moving van and Judd, Nick, and Cort had the downstairs moved in about 15 minutes. I started panicking and ran upstairs and just started shoving things into boxes and even plastic sacks as they were hauling them away as I did it. They were able to move our apartment of SEVEN years- and a LOT of accumulated STUFF in just a few hours. So they are the 3 amigo moving company, I strongly recommend them to anyone looking to move. And so far none of my stuff is missing or broken.
The 3 amigo moving men don't mess around. They get the job done.
And so we are all moved in... Well almost. It only took about a week to organize this mess and make it livable. But at least we got it all moved in one shebang right?
The finished product, minus decorations- ideas anyone? The master bedroom. Yes, Cort was a little leary with the dark/light purple and green combo in our bedroom until he found out the paint names were "black magic" and "enchanted forest" then he thought they were pretty cool.
Master bathroom

The main bathroom.
Living room

Laundry room-went a little crazy on the paint colors in here, but it is the laundry room I can have a little fun with it since I am the only one who uses it anyway. This board is a magnet/chalkboard-
The kitchen.
The office/Jack's room/guest room until our basement is done then just the office.

Hank's room

Dining room
Our first night in our house was November 14th. The boys reading a story our first night.
Hank's first night sleeping in our new house.
Jack was so excited to finally sleep in his "Glendale" house he could hardly contain himself.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who helped us so much. I can not thank them all enough. My dad has put in almost as many hours as Cort and started clear back in July with fencing every weekend. He is also a Jack of all trades and him and Cort work so well together. My dad is such a trooper and was always willing to come out and help every night. He pulled many long hours and we truly could not have done this without him and my mom for working for him so he could come out or watching our boys. I think they are both regretting all the hard work they did for us now because we are not their neighbors anymore or in their ward. They are the best parents in the world and are willing to do anything for us and support us in all we do. I don't know how we will ever repay them for letting us live next to them for so long and all they have done for us but we love you guys and are thankful you are our parents and Granny and Pa.
There are so many other people I could thank also. Cort and I often talk about how lucky we are to have such great people in our lives and for everything they do for us. We are so lucky and are forever in debt to you all.

Utah State Hey Aggies GO AWAY...

Utah State hey Aggies go away- Hey Aggies, Hey Aggies HEY HEY HEY!!! This is how Jack sings the Utah State song. We love to go to Utah State games especially when they win which doesn't happen very often in football.

Jack loves these jumping houses and could jump in one all day!

Happy First Birthday HANK!!

My baby turned one! My how time flies. Hank has changed so much the past few months and with being so busy with building our house I haven't been able to enjoy these changes as much as I wish. Soon it will all slow down and we can spend more time with our boys. Hank is so different than Jack. They have totally different personalities and definitely keep us busy. Hank was so cute for his first birthday and loved the attention. I haven't been very good at documenting Hank's life the past few months but when the house it done I hope to redeem myself.
Hank Highlights:
**Walked at 10 months- no he skipped walking and just runs
**Has 8 teeth- 4 on top and 4 on bottom
** Jabbers ALL the time- says "Jack" the most though
**Loves his big brother and loves to torment him, tackle him, and make him laugh
**Gives lots of open mouth kisses
**Likes to be held on his terms
**A very big wiggle worm- doesn't sit still for long.
**Climbs on EVERYTHING!! He is such a monkey.
** Is addicted to his bottle- but not for long, it is going to be a harsh reality to go to bed without 10 ounces of warm milk every night...

And his stats are...
If you can't read that Hank is in the 94th percentile in height! He is in the 45th percentile in weight. He's a big boy!
Hank had a great first birthday party with all our friends and family. He got a lot of really nice gifts which we haven't sent thank you cards for but might just incorporate a thank you into our Christmas cards, or just blog thank you this year because we are so lame. BUT really thank you to all our friends and family who came to his party for the awesome gifts and making Hanks birthday so special we really appreciate it.

We couldn't think of a great birthday theme so we went with a pig birthday cake because Hank loves his pot bellied pig Glenda.
And as you can tell Hank LOVED the cake!
We love this little guy and his big smiles he gives everyday. He can surely melt your heart and make it all worth it. Happy Birthday Hankers!!!

Halloween 2009

We had a plethora of activities this Halloween the whole month was full of fun with these two little boys. By the time Halloween actually came both boys had a few different costumes to wear. Jack has worn a different costume about every day. He loves to dress up.
Me and the boys at Grandma Cowman's pumpkin patch.
Hank LOVED the candy he got trick or treating- we only went to a few houses but got SO MUCH CANDY!!! In our ward some of the families make special treat sacks for kids in the ward chucked full of soda, popcorn, and candy.

Granny and Pa had a Halloween party for all the Grandboys. They had so much fun with a pinata, treasure hunt, and lots of candy and treats.
The picture treasure hunt.
Granny helping them figure out the next picture clue.
Jack dressed as an elephant for the Halloween party.
Hank dressed as a lion for the party.
Hank LOVES apples- he was eating this one right off the branch.
Cort's outfit fit him really well- a turkey apron.
We painted pumpkins out of logs for our porches.

Granny made the boys pumpkin pancakes with chocolate chips and gummy stems.


And the boys' last Halloween outfits for the season were the Wizard of Oz theme with Granny and Pa. They looked so dang cute!


We blew this picture up and put it in my mom's Wizard of Oz room (she is a bit obsessed with Wizard of Oz) if she ever gets more grandkids she will be able to have all the characters for Halloween!

A little lift...

****Taken from Julie Johnson's blog**** Thanks Julie!
We are told in the scripturest that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass....well here is a small and simple thing you can do to help achieve a Great thing! There is a family in our ward whose 4 year old daughter, Taylie, was diagnosed with Leukemia in August. She is facing at least 6 months in the hospital. A lady had a great idea and found a generous donor to not only spread the word about Taylie but help raise money for their family. For each person who posts a link to Taylie's sight on their blog, they will donate $2 to the family. So check out http://www.tayliebug.com or for more info about the fundraiser check out http://www.adashofseason.blogspot.com and post a link as well!!! It has been so neat to witness the goodness of people in helping out this sweet family.

Photo shoot

I took some pictures for Trudy's birthday of her grandkids. It was really hard to get all 5 kids looking and smiling at the same time but Judd and Nick put on quite a show trying to make them smile.