Insane

Life has been insane these last few months, to say the least. We knew it was going to be crazy building a house (as if summers aren't already crazy) but it is so much busier than we even anticipated. We have still managed to have fun, though! We went to Yellowstone and Bear Lake with Lance's family which were two separate trips and we also celebrated both kid's birthdays! This post is a little random, but still an update on our lives :)

Crew turned 3 on the summer solstice. We had a little treasure party with a few of his friends in our neighborhood and he was in heaven.

The cupcakes were his favorite :)

Quick update on Crew: he is as big and independent as ever. He is 76th percentile in height and 30th percentile in weight- starting to get tall and skinny like his daddy. He is starting to ask "why" about everything and is very headstrong and energetic. Sometimes it's exhausting. On the flip side, though, he is so sweet and loving. He will regularly tell me I'm beautiful or just give me a big hug and kiss and tell me he loves me. He is starting to be really great with entertaining Cambridge which is so helpful! He has an incredible thirst for knowledge and does extremely well when we are doing activities one-on-one. He starts preschool this coming Tuesday and I just know he will do so well!

We also celebrated Cambridge's 1st birthday!

I'm all about sweet and simple- we celebrated with our families on the patio, ate dinner and had dessert.

"Where's my baby?" I said to try and get her to look and instead she decided to hide.

It was fun to see how different Cambridge was with her cake than Crew. Crew was a complete ham and went after his cake full force. He would shove a huge fistful in his mouth, then smile a huge toothy grin. He had cake spread from his head to his toes when he was done. Cambridge was much more shy about it. She loved the cake, but was much more tentative and kept trying to share with everyone. She loved the attention too, but couldn't figure out why she was the only one with cake. It was really cute.

An update on Cambridge: she took her first steps this week but is still determined not to walk. She gets pretty upset when we try and get her to. All in good time! She isn't quite as advanced as Crew was in her language but still communicates pretty well. She can sign "more", "all done" and "milk" which is so helpful. She just started saying Mama and she jabbers a lot. 

I noticed a few weeks ago that she was not responding to my voice the way she normally did so I took her in for a hearing screening which she failed in both ears. Doc found out she had double ear infections! I felt horrible and think she's had them for awhile- maybe even a couple months. She is just such a happy and easy going baby in general that when she was slightly fussy, I chalked it up to teething. Now that she's on antibiotics she is a complete angel! We lucked out with her for sure.

Cambridge is an incredible eater and sleeper. I have yet to find a single thing she won't eat! She has been regularly sleeping through the night and taking two naps during the day since she was 6 months old. She is a little thing, 33rd percentile for both height and weight. She is just the sweetest little thing ever!

I sure love my bugs! 

Mother's Day photos.

The house is coming along very well! We are still ahead of schedule and will be finished in November sometime. Right now they are insulating, then tomorrow the drywallers are coming. After that my Dad and Austin will be working on hardiboard siding, outside concrete, then inside finish work! Lance and I are going to attempt to do all the tile work ourselves which should be interesting :) 

We have been spending a ton of time over at the house working. Lance ran all of our low-voltage wires- speakers, internet, TV's, etc. It's definitely been a learning experience for us both! I have learned so much about our home, the different choices along the way, etc. Really, if you ever have questions about home improvement (insulation, electrical, framing, roofing, etc) feel free to ask me! I LOVE the process and would do it again in a heartbeat. I especially love working alongside Lance on our future home.

Well, that's all for now folks. I know I skipped over months with just one post but it's about all I can manage at the moment. I'm hoping to get back to regular blogging after we are all moved in!

Growing, growing

Our little ones are growing too fast to keep up with! Cambridge is getting into everything now and learned her first sign (more), and Crew is starting to get that little boy look to him. Sometimes when I look at him it freaks me out to think I have a child that old! It is so fun to see them both progress and learn. They bring an incredible amount of joy into mine and Lance's life.

For Mother's day we had Alice Griffith take pictures of all my mom's grandkids together. My mom died for these pictures and I'd say the gift was a complete success! They are pretty darn cute.

This little one is about the happiest little girl you'll ever meet! Her smile melts me.

Almost 3 years old!

All 5 of my mom's cute grandbabies :) 

I love these sweet kiddos. 

Great finds!

I have been spending a lot of time researching different finishes and fixtures for the home.  I usually choose a specific something, then read articles, forums and reviews to try and get the best product for the smallest price. Usually that just means cruising KSL till I find the deal I'm after, or comparing prices online. And can I just tell you? It is so very satisfying to get an incredible product for an incredible price! I'm kind of addicted.

My recent finds have been:

• A 9 foot vanity with white Corian countertops, 2 under-mount sinks and faucets for only $100. The white Corain countertop alone would have been $900 new. This will go in our master bathroom.
• 50 sq ft of new white Carrara marble for $1.75 a sq ft- normally at least $10 a sq ft.
• A vintage claw foot tub that looks almost brand new for $150 - worth $600-$1200.  Again, for our master bathroom.
• Full overlay kitchen cabinets for the basement apartment for $600- we will refinish them which will be a ton of work but will save us over $3,000. 
• FREE black quartz countertops that were from a rich family in Alpine. They were going to throw them away, then thought someone might want them. These are worth at least $2000! I haven't decided for sure where I'll use them but they will be fabulous :)

And my latest find is this:

It's the Grohe Bridgeford kitchen faucet. Retail is $550 and I snagged two of them,

brand new, for $95 and $120. This is a very nice faucet, even more high-end than Moen and I can't

tell you how excited I am about doing dishes with this bad boy! 

See how beautiful bridgeford faucets are in the kitchen?

Ha! I am a complete dork, you guys. But at least I'll be a dork with a beautiful kitchen faucet :)

Shut the front door!

As I mentioned earlier, the more I delve into house-building stuff, the more I realize how difficult it's going to be to stay on budget. Don't get me wrong, our budget is plenty big to get everything we have ever dreamed of in our house, but when you start shopping around, you realize that you could easily blow your entire door budget, for example, on a single door! Front doors, specifically, can easily run you $4,000+. Who knew doors could be that expensive?! Or anything for that matter; tile, light fixtures, ranges... the list goes on. Our budget for doors on the entire house is $2,800, so you can see how it would create problems if we decided to get an expensive front door.

If you know anything about me, you know I love to get a good deal. I shop our local KSL classifieds religiously and 90% of the furnishings in our home are bought there. I have been doing the same shopping for our new house! There are certain items that, when used,  lose almost none of their original integrity, but go down considerably in cost- doors are one of those :)

Say hello to our new front door! Don't let the picture fool you, this beauty is 42" wide and a full 8' tall. It's huge! This door was likely over $1,000 new and after a finish coat, it will look brand new again. Can you believe we purchased it for only $50?

I'm still trying to decide if I want to keep the wood grain or paint it. Our home is going to be gray or white hardiboard- similar to one of these two pics:

And I think it would be so fun to do a pop of color on the door. I'm thinking either mint 

green, kelly green or a dusty blue. 

I need your help! What do you think?

breaking ground

We broke ground on the new house yesterday! It's been a few months coming and we couldn't be

more thrilled. You hear over and over again that building a house always takes longer than expected

and always costs more than expected. We have already experienced both of these things and we

haven't even dug the hole yet :)

It is definitely going to be tricky to stay on budget. The thing about buying a house is there is one price

and you know it beforehand. With building, and especially when you are going the more DIY route,

there are a MILLION ways to go over-budget. You have to be much more disciplined and decide what

things are really important to spend a little more money on and what things are ok to save on.

About to start digging the first hole! Who needs a shovel when you have a track hoe?! 

So fun to think of the memories we will make here and how our little family will grow :)

Our lot! For those of you who don't know, it's in the Sleepy Ridge golf course, right by the lake in Orem/Vineyard. Our back yard is Vineyard and our lot's in Orem.

 Crew LOVED running the track hoe with grandpa and was so sad when it was time to go.

Cambridge loved all of the excitement too! 

While we were digging, one of the neighbors came out with her 5 children! Four boys ages 6 

and down, then a little girl that's the same age as Cambridge! One of her little boys was Crew's age, 

too and Crew and the boys got right to boy business; throwing dirt clods. I'm so excited to 

know there will be playmates for my little ones.

Since my Dad and my brother Austin are doing 90% of the work, it will likely take 6 months

to complete the home- but we're in no rush :) For now I've been spending a lot of time 

scouring our local KSL classifieds and Lance and I have some projects to start working on-

more on that in a later post!