Update

We've really been slacking on the blog lately. For those interested, we are well into framing our home which is really exciting to see things moving along so quickly now. Kyle went by the site yesterday morning and again after work and was impressed to see how much got done in one day. We will be posting pictures soon. Although we don't know the exact day, our home will be done in July.

In other news, we sold our house last week! We really were blessed with it too. A neighbor down the street sold their home to a national company buying up homes to turn into rentals. They paid them a generous offer, so we looked into it and they offered us more than what we felt we would get selling it publicly. Although we would have preferred selling to a family, there were definitely some benefits to this deal that we couldn't ignore and not having to be stressed about showing our house was a huge plus. Two of the homes adjacent to ours are already rentals, so I don't feel as bad about it. I only wish I could take my peach and apricot trees, and my raspberry bushes with me. (I'm also still grieving the fact that I won't have a garden this year.)

We will be moving out May 18th (which is the day after Ethan finishes Kindergarten). We are renting a storage unit for our stuff and will be staying at Kyle's parents' house until our home is complete. Kyle works M-Th, so he'll be able to stay with us for 4 nights a week and stay with friends and family in the Salt Lake area for the other 3 nights a week (or become a hobo). The kids are beyond excited to spend summer in Logan and we are excited to plan a fun summer with them hiking, camping, swimming, fishing, playing with cousins, etc.

As stressful exciting as building and selling our houses have been we feel beyond excited and blessed to be the recipients of a tender mercy from our Heavenly Father. After over two-years of disappointment and heartache, fasting and prayer, countless tests and Dr. appointments we are expecting a baby in October. Although we were told that it was possible, the odds of us conceiving without IVF with ICSI were not likely. We knew we didn't want to undergo the procedure while building, (and we knew the time was right for us to build) we hadn't received a definite answer about IVF yet so we decided to put the deciding on hold until after we were in our new home. We found out we were expecting a few days after our building permit was approved (February). I've had two appointments so far, seen the baby in an ultrasound and heard its miraculous, wonderful heartbeat. We've never felt more excited or blessed. The kids love the baby so much and pray for it multiple times a day and are constantly kissing my belly. Although we already have a boy and a girl we will still find out what we are having. After facing the possibility of not being able to give birth again and not knowing if we'll have the opportunity again I want to make the most of it this time and do all the things I never got to do before, but wanted to do: make a baby quilt myself, decorate a nursery, make baby clothing, crochet for my own baby, etc. My ultrasound appointment is scheduled for May 29.

We will try to keep the updates coming . . .

Birthday the sixth

Ethan's sixth birthday, it was.  Happy to open presents at 7:00 a.m., the kids were.  As you will see, his birthday gifts were very Star Wars oriented.

He was thrilled to get a Darth Vader Lego mini-figure. . .

a Darth Vader helmet . . .

a bunch of Star Wars Legos. . .

and the Jedi costume that Brooklyn is wearing. It's not depicted in this picture very well, but Brooklyn is Obi-Wan, and Ethan is Anakin just before he gets all of his limbs cut off in the third movie - which we have not let either kid watch.

After opening presents and having Ethan's breakfast choice of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, Ethan was off to school.  He requested that Jen volunteer in his class.  

After school, Ethan wanted to go to a play place for lunch. Off we went to Carl's Jr. (much to Jen's dismay - she's not a fan of the food).

We made a deal with the kids that when we got to a certain point in the Book of Mormon, we would have an ice cream party at Cold Stone.  Ethan encouraged us to read extra chapters so we could meet our goal for his birthday.  After Carl's Jr., that is where we went. Ethan likes to order the Cookies and Cream ice cream with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cups mix-in, because he feels like he's getting two treats for the price of one.

We spent the afternoon watching Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi as a family.  He followed along with his new Lego mini-figures, acting it out as the plot progressed.

For dinner, we had a pizza party (with Root Beer - a special treat in our house). We were going to order out, but he wanted Jen to make homemade pizza instead.

Most of Jen's cake decorating supplies were packed up, so she didn't make a Death Star or Millennium Falcon cake that Ethan wanted, but he was just as happy to have a cake that looked like the sands of Tatooine  (thank you, peanut butter frosting) that he could put his Legos on top.

 We have one happy Jedi! He said that this was his best birthday ever (which is saying a lot since we were at Disneyland last year).

In other news, we broke ground on our house on Wednesday (Feb 27).  Yay.

The Dark Side

Lately, Ethan has been obsessed with all things Star Wars.  Here are a few of his drawings.

 Count Dooku

 General Grievious

 Darth Sidious

 Darth Vader

Darth Maul

Our New Project

This may come as a surprise to most of friends and neighbors, and even many family members:  We are building a new home. When we purchased our Stansbury home six years ago we had the vision of staying in it for around 5-10 years and with rates being so low right now we've felt like the time is right. For the last year or two we've kept our eyes on the housing market, but only more seriously during the last six months or so. Unable to find what we wanted (particularly a big yard), we've decided to build a custom home. BTW, it is really hard to find lots larger than .25 acre in the Salt Lake area. After several months of looking, we fell in love with a lot in Farmington and even got in a bidding war over it on my birthday of all days (not such a fun way to spend a b-day).

Why Farmington, you may ask? As much as we've enjoyed our neighborhood in Stansbury Park, we've always felt a bit isolated from family and shopping. We lived for a short time in the Bountiful area before purchasing our home and really loved Davis county. We are so excited to be moving back to the area and love the small town feel that Farmington provides. It seems like a special place to be so close to the city, but still having a country feel. The schools there are some of the best in the state, and it has also been rated as number 12 of the top 100 places to live in the US (link). We also love that it will cut our drive to Cache Valley down by almost half. 

We are excited about the amazing view from our future deck of the mountains and are also looking forward to not having backyard neighbors . . . well except for this cow and buffalo who live in the pasture behind our future house.  lol

We've been finalizing our building plans over the last few months and are now waiting for our permit. We should be breaking ground sometime in February and will most likely be in the new home in May. We are also hoping to have our Stansbury house on the market sometime next month.

We've had a very difficult time over the last two years dealing with infertility. We're excited to have a new project to focus on to help take our minds off of all the disappointment and heartache we've felt. I like to joke that "if we build it, they will come." We hope and pray it will be a home we can fill with many more little feet.

Favorite Books of 2012

Kyle and I love to read. I've never been more addicted to it as I have been in the past year. 2012 was a hard year for us. One way I found to cope with my stresses and disappointments was through reading. I was surprised to find that at the end of the year I had finished 35 books (especially since I didn't read anything until April). So many of them were hard to put down, others just fun and fluffy, and some really made me think. Although it was hard to choose, here are my top 5.

1.  Edenbrooke, by Julianne Donaldson


2. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak


3. Heaven is Here, by Stephanie Nielson


4. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte


5. The Winter Sea, by Susanna Kearsley


What was a favorite book you read recently?

Creativity

 Ethan has been drooling over a Lego board game for months.  Today, he decided to take measures into his own hands, and he built it with his own Lego game.  We think he did a pretty good job. (the real game is shown below...)
See if you can spot the following details:

• Stack of gold bars
• Improvised dice (you can see the yellow and gray faces)
• Crook in jail with escape plans
• Police car (instead of police helicopter)
• The multi-colored Legos are supposed to be the numbered dice in the real game

We love Legos!

Trimming the Tree

The tree is up at the Morrey house.  The kids are at such a fun age!  They were great helpers.  Brooklyn proclaimed it "the best day ever."  

While unpacking the decorations, Ethan saw our mistletoe and said, "Hey, is this mistletoe?" Jen replied, "Yeah, do you know what mistletoe is for?" Ethan didn't know. Jen told him that whoever stands under it gets a kiss.  Ethan replied, "Oh.  So it's kind of like a trap!"

 

Ethan was excited to climb the ladder to decorate the tree.  Unfortunately, there was only one branch that he could reach from the ladder.  Kyle noticed this early in the decorating, and snapped a picture, because he thought it was funny that there were four ornaments hanging from the same branch...

 

...By the end of the night, this is what the branch looked like.  We counted 13 ornaments.

It was fun to talk about the symbolism of the different ornaments.  The kids requested three tellings of the Christmas story so they could act it out with the nativity figurines.
It was also fun to talk about the significance of the different ornaments as we got them out.  We have a tradition to get a new ornament every year depicting a memorable event from that year.