Braden's Primary talk

Braden is now in Sunbeams and he was aked to give a talk next Sunday.  It is supposed to be on families.  I sat him down at the computer with me and asked him to tell me what he would like to say in his talk.  I typed it word for word:

I love my brother Austin. I like my mommy and daddy. And I love them too. I love Brooke and Grandma and Grandpa Smith and Grandma and Grandpa Critchfield. I love to shower myself. I love to sit down in Primary. I love to play Playhouse Disney. I love to take pictures and I like to see videos. And I like to do funny faces and I like to go to the digging park and Austin was naughty. I love to write on Mickey Mouse and I love to watch Mickey Mouse. I love to see my pictures and I can watch my shows on that other tv. I love to vacuum. Austin screams for daddy and he goes for a nap. I can go to pictures all by myself then mom and dad get on and I am all done mom.

I thought that was a very fine talk written by a 3 year old.  Now if I can just convince him to actually stick to the topic and stand in front of the primary.  He is so fun and we love him!

Pictures of our new home

Here are some pictures of our new home.  We got word from the bank today that they have the paper work ready for us to sign and we had the final inspection today.  So as soon as we can get things cleaned up there we can move!  

This is the front of the houseThe garage is on the side of the house
After spending 5 hours cleaning the kitchen it looked descent enough for a picture.

This is a picture of Braden's room

This one is Austin's

Here is the entry way.  Didn't Aaron do such a good job?

This is the living room/office. It looks way better in person. Aaron did the venetian plastering on the entry way and office. He is amazing!
Here is the shower and tub in the master bathroom - all done by Aaron!

The long awaited post . . . .

Honestly I don't even know where to start.  I think I will just keep it as brief as I can for now so that it won't be hanging over my head to get this post done.  Okay . . . . .  (deep breath) As most of you know Aaron is a contractor.  He has had his business for 15 years and has mainly done sub-contracting for exteriors.  Stucco, stone, etc.  If you have seen his work you know he is very good at what he does.  He has always wanted to build homes.  He is very good at seeing something in his head and putting those ideas to work for an outcome of a beautiful home.  Some of you saw the home we lived in and can testify to that.  He had someone approach him in the summer of 2007 and asked him if he would be interested in buying some lots and building homes since the market is (was) "hot".  He asked me and being the supportive wife that I am I said that he could do what he wished to do and that I would stand behind him.  Okay that was a lie, but it was hard for me to put the reins on him knowing that he has always wanted to build homes.  I didn't want to hold him back from pursuing what he had a passion for.  Next thing you know we have 2 lots in Herriman.  Keeping in mind that the market was great at the time.  If my dang crystal ball wasn't broken . . . . .well anyway.  He has spent the last year and a half building these beautiful homes.  (I will be sure and take some pictures and post them so you can see the finished homes)  Life is going along and the first house is nearing completion and the market is starting to slow down and we start to get a little nervous.  So meanwhile the 2nd home is underway and we start talking about different possibilities that could happen.  We had talked about worst case but didn't think that really was ever going to happen.  So we decide to put the house we were living in on the market and see what would sell and have faith that the Lord would direct us to where we should be.  Keep in mind that we DID NOT want to move from our current home, the area and the ward.  We loved where we were.  We had 1 offer on our home, but their financing fell thru and after 7 months we decided that we would take it off the market.  Meanwhile the first home is finished and the 2nd is about half way done.  So after praying about what to do - and let me tell you how hard it is to pray about this knowing full well what I WANT to do and knowing that what I want is probably not going to happen. But the time came and we decided to rent out the first home.  Then a little while later after fasting and praying again we decided that we would move to the 2nd home in Herriman and rent our home out.  I was a little nervous because it is a good sized home (4100 sq. ft.) and I worried if people would be willing to rent it for what we needed them to.  We put it up for rent and within a week or 2 we found some people that would be a good fit (at least we hope they will be).  They moved in the last week of February and the 2nd home was about a month from being finished so we are living in the basement of Aaron's parents until we can move out there.  It makes me so sad to drive by that house.  It was way harder than I thought to see other people living in that house.  It just must be the emotional attachment I have or something because I didn't have any problem with seeing renters in the 1st house or the duplexes.  It will probably take me awhile to get over that but I still get a pit in my stomach just typing it.  I know I am crazy.  

I know that it all seems so simple but let me tell you that it has been ANYTHING but that.  I didn't go into any "personal" details but it has not been an easy 18 months for us.  The home we are going to be living in is 2 times the size(and payment) we need but beans and rice are good for you, right?!  I sure hope so.  I will not lie to you, the home is GORGEOUS.  Aaron did a superior job.  He has such a skill for it.  Next time I go to the house I will take pictures and post them.  

That is my update in a large nutshell.  Trust me - if I would have gone into all the details it would have been a 14 page post.  My journal would prove that!