Houses #7, 8, 9, and 10

House #7 was a townhouse in Centerville with 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms. It had a very large backyard (for a townhouse, that is) and it backed up to a large common area with a playground. While we were there, we thought it was really nice and were very excited. But after we saw the next one, it didn't look like anything special...


House #8 was another townhouse with 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms in Centerville, this time in a development called Pheasantbrook. It was so beautiful! The townhouse itself was very nice, with a sunken living room with a fireplace and built in bookshelves. The kitchen had hunter green cabinets, which sounds so strange but was very nice. The patio, while smaller than the backyard at the first townhouse, was beautiful, with creeping ivy, rosebushes, and a grapevine. But the best part of this home was the development! It had ponds and streams with wooden bridges, trees everywhere, and ducks wandering around. I think it would be a great place to live with little children because it would be like living at the park. We are definitely keeping this one on our list!


House #9 was a 5 bedroom, 1 3/4 bath rambler in Woods Cross. It was pretty nice, and it had a great backyard with a firepit, playground, and several trees, but there were a few downsides: it's directly across the street from the train tracks, and it had an obvious slope in the front rooms. You could feel it as you walked across the room, and see it if you looked at the ceiling closely. We didn't see any cracks, but it is still concerning to me. The train was very, very loud when we were outside, but inside the house, you could barely hear it. I think we would get used to having the trains right there, but I would be afraid it would turn off a lot of buyers when we are ready to sell.

The last house we saw was another house in Woods Cross, with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. This one had a basement, which we really liked and would like to have. Jason thought it looked a little like a hotel when we first went in, but I didn't get that. The house didn't have much personality--no paint except in the basement--but that is easily fixed. I really liked the front porch and all the trees. The strange thing about this house is that there's no backyard. Instead, there is a 2 car garage in the back with a common driveway, and the side yard is fenced in. It's still a pretty big private yard, and since this house is on the corner, the yard isn't sandwiched between 2 houses. This house is also directly across the street from a very nice neighborhood park, which would be nice. The downside? The train tracks are right behind the park, so this house is again right across from the train. I think we will still keep this one on our list as well.

So we have now seen 10 houses, and found a few that we want to consider. There are still a few more that we want to see as well. I am confident that we will be able to find something that works for us--I just have to be patient until we do!

Fall in Mueller Park

Now that it's officially Autumn, we can see beautiful reds and yellows up on the mountainside, but down in the valley, the leaves are still mostly green. Yesterday Jason had the great idea of going to Mueller Park in Bountiful to see the leaves and go for a walk. It was such a beautiful afternoon! It was pretty warm where we live (in the 80s) but once we got up into the canyon, the temperature dropped to 75. We had fun walking along the trails and collecting leaves, watching bugs crawl around, and running on the bridges. We even found a great photo location for Margaret to use!

Tempe, Helena, and I climbed this "tree trunk".

Tempe liked throwing rocks in the water.

Me and Jason :)

Tempe and Helena's favorite part of the whole day was running across the wooden bridges.

Finally, we found some red leaves!

Houses #4, 5, and 6

House #4 was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home on 9th North in Bountiful, just a few streets away from Jason's parent's house. I really liked this one, but I think Jason is right when he says that it is just too small. It's only about 1050 square feet. It had a great front yard, with two nice, big shady trees, but the backyard was really narrow. There was also a nice big side yard. The inside of the house was beautiful! It wouldn't need anything. I liked everything about it, except for the fact that the third bedroom was really narrow and there was only one bathroom.

House #5 has great curb appeal, don't you think? It has 3 bedrooms and one bathroom, and it's in a beautiful neighborhood with nice houses and nice yards. This house's backyard was fabulous. It had a covered patio in back with thick, lush grass, landscaping, and a huge garage and a storage shed. We really liked the yard! The inside of the house was ok, but had some things that needed to be updated. It looked like a little old couple had been living in this house for 40+ years. Overall, the house was in good condition, but here are the things that would need to be changed:

• Strange patterned carpet in the two back bedrooms: stripes in one room, floral in the other. The carpet was nice and thick and in good condition, so we could live with it for a few years until we could afford to replace it.
• Two of the closets (a bedroom closet and the utility closet) had those folding accordion doors that are used in LDS chapels to divide the gym. Weird. But probably easily replaced.
• The bathroom and kitchen were sadly outdated. The kitchen needed new tile on the countertops and backsplash (and maybe new cabinets) and the island was just old. The bathroom looked like it had all the original fixtures.
• There was some wood paneling that needed to be painted.

I liked the house a lot, but now that I have everything listed, I think it might be too much to take on.

House #6. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Didn't like it. It's weird with that carport addition, and the house looked like it hadn't been taken care of very well. Every room had chipped paint or peeling wallpaper--all easily fixed, I know. One of the bedrooms had white splatters all over the hardwood floor. The kitchen cabinets were outdated. The master bathroom had a tub, but no shower. And the backyard... yikes. Horrible grass (they had dogs), no landscaping, no shade, and the cement slab that was supposed to be the patio was crumbling and cracked. Even though this house needed less intense work, I didn't like it. The neighborhood wasn't as nice--it looked like all of the houses were poorly cared for.

So, probably nothing yet. But we have several more to see on Monday night.

Tempe Joann Anderson

I couldn't get the slideshow to work--you'll just have to look at still pictures instead.

Toddler laws

This is in honor of Tempe, my very own little two-year-old, who really does think this way.

If I like it, it's mine.
If it's in my hand, it's mine.
If I can take it from you, it's mine.
If I had it a little while ago, it's still mine.
If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
If I think it's mine, it's mine.
If it's broken.. it's yours.

To celebrate her second birthday (which was really a few weeks ago on September 10th), Margaret did a photo shoot for us today, and I thought I'd post about Tempe to go along with the pictures. So here's everything you ever wanted to know about our firstborn:

• She never stops talking. Ever. She talks from the moment she wakes up in the morning until she falls asleep at night. Those of us who are around her a lot can understand most of what she says, but to the rest of you, well... good luck. Her favorite topics of conversation (this week, at least) are race cars, monster trucks, yucky houses and clean houses, baby apples, and Grandma Lisa.
• She picks things up so quickly! I only have to tell her something once, and she remembers it for weeks. She connects a lot of things on her own now, too. For example: when we were visiting my parents in July, she became obsessed with "A Pocket for Corduroy", in which the main character is named Lisa. I mentioned to her that Lisa is Grandma's name, too, and she just stared at me blankly. But the next morning when my mom was feeding her breakfast, Tempe suddenly burst out with "Lisa! Grandma Lisa!" My mom has been Grandma Lisa ever since.
• She has a very vivid imagination. She imagines all kinds of things--that the swings in the backyard are ladybugs that fly her to Grandma Lisa's house, that she's riding an elephant when she sits on the arm of the couch, that we are at the zoo watching lions and giraffes and elephants when we sit on the front steps...
• She is just as independent as she has ever been. I hear a lot of "No, Tempe do it!" nowadays. Like all two-year-olds, she throws tantrums now and again, and they are most often because I won't let her do something by herself.
• She still naps for 2-3 hours almost every day (not today, though--I can hear her reading books to Giraffe in her bed).
• Speaking of Giraffe, she loves him so much! He is her best friend and her baby and we can't go anywhere without "Grashie".
• Her favorite pastime is still reading. She likes to be read to, but she also likes to read books by herself. She has most of her books memorized and will fill in words if we skip them.
• She is an almost equal mix of a girly-girl and a tomboy: she loves to wear necklaces, bracelets, bows in her hair, and makeup, but she also loves racecars and monster trucks and isn't afraid to get dirty and play outside.
• Most of all, she is a spunky, smart, loving little girl and we are so blessed to have her!

I'll post the slideshow of pictures separately, but I just wanted to say again how grateful we are to Margaret for doing such great pictures of our family! She is so talented and we're so lucky that she loves taking pictures. Really, check her out: www.inksprouts.com, or Margaretephotography.blogspot.com!

Big girl food

"Daddy, stop bothering me, I'm looking at Mommy!"

"Oh, something is touching my mouth, I'll open it and try to shove it in with my arm."

"Hmm, this is different..."

"What are my parents thinking?"

"Not bad after all!"

Davis County, here we come!

Jason and I have pretty much (like 95%) decided that instead of looking for a house closer to the office in Murray, we will look for something here in Davis County-- the Bountiful/Centerville area. We came to this decision after seeing how bad the neighborhoods in our price range are in the city and how much better traffic is now that Legacy Highway is open. It used to take Jason about 35 minutes to get home from work (sometimes up to an hour on bad days) but now that Legacy is open, it only takes about 20-25 minutes! We still have a ridiculously low budget because we also need to buy a second car, but up here we don't have to worry as much about buying a house in a bad neighborhood.
I feel so much better now that we have decided to stay up here! I already know the area and am comfortable in it, and it seems like such a great place to raise a family. There a few (and I mean a few: like four) houses that we want to look at, and several townhomes/condos. Hopefully we will be able to find something we can make work for us!

The hunt continues...

Today we went to see two more houses. They were both better (much, much better) than the house we saw on Tuesday, but I'm not sure if either of them is the house for us. We'll see.

The first one is this one:

I'm not a huge fan of split foyers, but I thought this one looked pretty nice. It's in Taylorsville, a little far from Jason's office, but priced low enough that we could get a second car relatively soon. The neighborhood looks like a nice family neighborhood, and the house backs up to an LDS church parking lot instead of another house.

Well. It was hard to get a feel for the house because the people who live there were sitting in the living room while we were trying to look at it. It was so awkward! I felt like I couldn't ask our realtor questions, open drawers or closets, or comment about anything until after we had left. Overall, it was a nice house. It has three bedroom and one and a half bathrooms, a large kitchen, two family rooms, and a huge, shady backyard with a nice little patio. But it did need a little bit of work: it looked like the ceiling tiles in the downstairs bathroom are water damaged, one of the kitchen cabinets doesn't have a door (?), and the little deck outside the kitchen is missing a board that would have to be replaced before it would be safe for Tempe. Of course, I also don't know if any of the drawers open and close easily because I was afraid to open them in front of the homeowners. Same goes for the bedroom closets. But I guess that is all stuff we can live with until we can fix. I think we will still consider this house, but we would have to go back and see it again (preferably by ourselves!) before we could make a decision.

The second house we went to was this:

It's a three bedroom, one bath house in Midvale, which is much closer to Jason's work. The house was pretty nice. It had hardwood floors and a nice kitchen. But the location was much, much worse! It was about half a block from I-15, and it was really loud outside. In the backyard, there was graffiti on the fence and an apartment complex looking down into the yard. And as we were leaving, a guy handed something to the driver of a car, then the car sped off and the guy gave them the finger. Good neighbors... we crossed that one off our list right away.

So we are still looking. Even though we have only seen three houses, there just aren't a lot of other options, so it's kind of frustrating. We're just hoping something great will come up soon!

Let the hunt begin!

As of last night, the Anderson family is officially house-hunting. And what a hunt it is so far!

Look at this one. It looks ok, right? A little small, maybe, but a cute house. Well, now picture it with bare patches all over the house where the paint has peeled off, broken panes in every window, crumbling columns on the patio, and instead of that nice, lush grass in the front and side yards, a bare patch of dirt littered with cigarette butts, a clump of human hair, and one shoe. Because that's what it really looks like.

Oh, but that's only the outside of the house! The inside is just as nice. The realtor warned me that it might "need new carpet". I thought ok, maybe it's just a little bit worn. But she meant the carpet was covered with ground in candy, dirt, and who knows what else--in every single room. Add that to the dead-body/urine smell that hits you when you first walk through the door, and we were sure fairly early on that it wasn't the house for us. But, being our first showing, we weren't sure of protocol, so we pretended we might consider it and looked at the rest of the house just to be polite.

The ground floor consisted of a good-sized living room, a dining room, a teeny kitchen, a utility room, a bathroom, and the two smallest bedrooms I have ever seen (I think we could fit one twin bed in each, and that's it). The kitchen and dining room actually looked ok, mostly because they had tile floors and you can't grind filth into tile, but the rest of the rooms were horrible. Then we went upstairs, to the "third bedroom", which was really just the entire upstairs with a clothes bar hung along one wall. And a fireplace. The urine smell got worse upstairs, so we hurried back down as soon as we could, but not before Tempe could pick up a jelly bean and try to eat it.

Then we went into the yard. It was a pretty big yard, lined with grape vines and a cute picket fence, but it needed completely new sod. At the other end of the yard was the gravel driveway and crumbling cinder block garage. I thought a hobo might live in it, but if one does, he was out for the evening.

As we went back into the house, through the utility room, we noticed two things: mold all over the wall, and a large trapdoor. "Does that go down to a basement or cellar or something?" I asked the realtor. She said it was probably just a dirt crawl space, but when she opened it, we found a full flight of stairs going down into a lit, cement room (the strangest part is that the electricity was turned off in the rest of the house....). On the stairs there were several pairs of little girl panties. We didn't go down (and last night I had horrible thoughts: what if there was a little girl down there being held prisoner, and when she heard us she hoped that we would find her, but we didn't go down...?)

Well, if we had an extra $20,000, maybe we would consider it. It had beautiful architectural details, an amazing view of the mountains, and a great location--a block east of a Trax station and in a nice neighborhood. But, like Jason pointed out, if we had an extra $20,000, we would probably just buy a nicer house.

Rise and Shout

Today Jason and I were able to go to a BYU football game--my first game in four years!! We had a great time. I owe a very big thank you to a great old friend, Robin, who offered to babysit our two little girls so that I could go to the game.

We started our BYU football experience with lunch in the Legacy ticketholders tent. Ribs, ham, lamb kabobs, pita bread and hummus, and three chocolate fountains... yum! I ate until I thought I would throw up. Then we went up to our seats and watched BYU pummel UCLA. We couldn't stay for the whole game (I had to leave after just one quarter to go feed Helena, then Jason left at halftime so we could go to his cousin's wedding) but the score ended up being 59-0, in favor of the Cougars.

I love BYU. It is such a great school, and here are some reasons why:

• Ranked best value for your money by The Princeton Review.
• Library consistently ranked in the top 10 in the nation.
• Marriott School of Management and the accounting program consistently ranked in the top 10 in the nation.
• #1 stone cold sober!!!
• Ranked #1 for study abroad opportunities.

See, all you U fans have it wrong!

To cap off our fun BYU experience, when we got home there was a nice, fat letter from the Utah Bar informing Jason that he passed the bar--and on his first try, too! We're feeling pretty good now.

How could you not love these cuties?

I took these pictures of Tempe and Helena yesterday while we were playing outside in Grandma's backyard. It was my favorite kind of day--sunny and breezy with just the beginnings of a fall nip in the air. Days like that always remind me of the first fall that we lived in Pennsylvania. I was happy then, but it's nothing compared to how happy I am now. I have the best husband around--funny, involved with the kids, patient, loving, and so selfless!--and the two sweetest, cutest, best little girls I have ever seen! Every day I thank Heavenly Father for those three blessings in my life.

Apple Party

Tonight the Anderson family celebrated Tempe's 2nd birthday and Corinne's 11th birthday--it was quite a party! For Tempe's party, I decided to do an apple theme. It all started when I found this cute dress at Target: it has green, fuchsia, and purple apples all over it. Isn't it cute?


After I found the apple dress, I had to think of other apple party ideas. I decided to make apple spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (yum, yum!):


And then I found an adorable idea in Family Fun magazine--miniature caramel apples! I made them by scooping little apple balls out of a big apple with a melon baller. Then I skewered them on lollipop sticks and dipped them in melted butterscotch (caramel doesn't work--it doesn't stick to the flesh of the apple!). I also rolled mine in sprinkles, and voila!

Tempe couldn't wait to eat her "baby apple"!

After I decided what kind of apple treats I was going to make, I decided to do a game: Pin the Apple on the Apple Tree! I made this by painting an old cookie sheet (non-aluminum) that I got at DI for $1. It was harder to do then I thought it would be! I think I should have sanded the cookie sheet lightly so that the paint would stick better. The apples are wooden cutouts that I got from a craft store, painted, and stuck a magnet to. They also doubled as the invitations--all of the information was printed on a piece of paper glued under the magnet.


Tempe had a great time at her party. All day long she went around the house saying "Happy birthday party! Happy birthday Tempe!" Unlike last year, she liked all the attention on her while she opened her presents, although she lost all interest once she got to this present:


Now Tempe can really be Grash's (giraffe's) mommy! She was so happy when she opened this present. She gave it a huge hug and climbed off her chair, carrying it around the room. We ended up opening up the rest of her presents for her because she was so enthralled with her giraffe costume. She also got two toy food sets, a doctor's set, a few books, a puzzle, some clothes, two purses, a doll, a treasure chest filled with jewelry (I made the treasure chest!), and an aquadoodle. It was quite the haul!

Finally, the time came for birthday cake. Tempe had helped me make the apple cupcakes in the morning, and all day long she was asking me for birthday cake. She blew out the candles, took two bites, and--was done. She climbed down and went to play on the sport court.
I can't believe that my little baby is two! Well, she will be on Wednesday, the 10th. It has gone by so fast. She brings such joy to our family! Every day is a new adventure with her and I am so grateful that I get to be her mother.

Rolly Polly

In the last week or so, Helena has really taken off--taken off rolling, that is. She is all over the place! She started out just going from her stomach to her back, and then she learned to go from her back to her stomach... and now she can do both so fast that she can really roll across the floor quickly if she wants to! Last night I came downstairs and found Jason sitting on the floor next to Helena's blanket... but I didn't see Helena.

"Where's the baby??" I asked, and Jason just pointed. She had rolled off her blanket and all the way under this side table in the family room. She was pressed up against the leg of the table, but still trying to roll. Jason finally had to go drag her out when she started to cry because she was frustrated!

We also noticed her pushing up really high on her arms, and trying to get her knees under her when she was on her stomach. Yikes!! My baby can't be getting close to crawling! I know she probably still has a few more months before she can really crawl, but still. She is supposed to be my little baby!

Labor Day at the Cabin

Happy September!! I love September (well, all of autumn) for a few reasons:

1. My little Tempe was born in September--the 10th!


2. I loved going back to school as a kid, and so September still excites me.


3. I love the crisp air, the changing leaves, apple cider, and wearing sweaters.

We spent a wonderful weekend at the Anderson cabin: the Da Vinci of log homes (that's what it was called on the brochure). The weather wasn't fabulous (rainy and in the 50s), but that just gave us the opportunity to cuddle under blankets, play games, and watch movies.

We did brave the weather a few times to go out on the ATVs: during one of our rides, it started to rain and then hail, and we barely made it back before we were soaked. My poor brother-in-law Jonny and his wife Rachel got caught in it, and they were completely soaked, from head to toe. Poor Rachel was cold the rest of the day! Going for rides is Tempe's favorite part of going to the cabin. When we told her we were going to Grandpa's cabin, she said "Big ride! Big bumpy ride!" She had fun going on her "big bumpy rides".

Tempe and Maddy had a fun weekend playing together. They ran up and down the big hallway upstairs, screaming like banshees, bounced on the beds and said they were riding elephants, read books, and fought (but only a little).

Even thought Libby is one of the "big girls" now, she loved spending time with Helena. She gave her so many kisses and gentle pats! She really loves babies and Helena loves the attention.

There are several moose that have chosen our swing set as their favorite spot to rest, and this is one of them! He is the biggest one we've ever seen up there, and he was completely unafraid of us. At first when we went outside, we stayed back pretty far, but then we started getting closer, and closer, and closer. He just watched us and laid there. Austin got about 12 feet away from him. He finally stood up when it started to rain, and we all ran screaming to the house. Even then, he didn't pay any attention to us.

I love going to the cabin. When I was a little girl, we always went to my grandfather's retirement place: "The Property" before the house was built, "Blue Run Farm" after. I have so many great memories of exploring the woods and creek, riding on the tractor, having bonfires and roasting marshmallows, and playing games with my cousins. I love that my little girls will grow up with the same experiences at Grandpa's cabin. It is such a special place for our family to gather!