Celebrating

Yesterday was the official closing on our new home.  It has been a VERY long year for our family.  It was filled with headaches and hurdles just with building this house, but that journey has come to an end.  There are a few things that our builder needs to come back to "fix" and complete, but he's got 2 months to get the punch list we create finished.  3 of our 4 master bathroom sink light fixtures don't work so that's a BIG issue for us.  The painting was finished yesterday and the dishwasher was fixed as well.  The pool guy and the landscaper are both coming back this weekend to finish up some things.

Closing was a headache which shouldn't surprise us with the track record we've had with this house.  Our HUD statement changed FOUR times yesterday morning!  It was the bank's fault but at least it's complete and over with now.  After the 3 hrs it took to sign the papers, get the correct HUD, go to the bank to get a check in the correct amount, we decided we needed to celebrate with some Bloody Mary's.  It was nice to sit down and enjoy the moment.

After we finished our drinks, we headed back to our apt, we packed up some of our stuff - dry food, clothes, Andy's Saranac beer, etc to take over to the house.  They are coming today to pack up our apt.  It's currently 8:45 and they are supposed to arrive between 8-10 am.  I can't get use to "Southern time."  I'm so used to getting things started early and finish early.  At least we have what we need at the house to keep us functioning this week.

Pray all goes well with our move this week.  It's going to be chaotic and overwhelming for sure.

Cocktail Tree

Our citrus cocktail tree is blooming and it smells incredible!  This tree is grafted with different types of citrus fruit.  There is only one Meyer lemon on it at this point, but the tangerines, grapefruits, limes, oranges and tangelos are all blooming!  Can't wait to harvest them!  Our blueberries are starting to grow as well.  We have 15 blueberry bushes and my kids can't wait to just jump out of the pool, pick a few berries when they are hungry and then jump back in!  Next weekend our landscaper comes back to finish putting in our raised beds and I'll get to finally plant our veggie garden.  Gotta plant some strawberries too. 

First Plunge

This weekend we've been busy cleaning our new house - I can't believe how dirty it was left.  I guess that's what happens when you push the builder to get done ASAP.  We've cleaned all 5 bathrooms, wiped down every flat surface, vacuumed and mopped every floor, washed down 3 of 4 porches, cleaned the summer kitchen, washed down the garage, hung towel bars, TP holders, etc.  Our kiddos have been pretty well behaved for the most part so we decided to reward them with an early swim in our new pool.  

Here's their first plunge:

They are sooooo happy we put in a pool! That means I'll be happy come summer so they can wear themselves out everyday swimming!

My Funny Girl

Latest Kendallism:  

Mom, I want to ride a bull!

Oh my, can you picture it...21, in a bar, riding the mechanical bull?  I don't know which scares me more, the mechanical bull or a real bull!  She's brave enough to do both. 

You've Got Mail!

Sound like an old AOL add?  It should!  We haven't even moved in yet, but we've got mail!  It was actually addressed to us, not just junk mail...We did get some junk, but it was a great surprise to go to the house today to find mail waiting for us!  Starting to feel real...

K's New Friend

K made a new friend today while we were at the house.  We were hanging up the mailbox when she rounds the corner with a very satisfied look on her face, ready to introduce us to her latest find. She loves animals of all kinds, even the reptile variety.  Hopefully lizards is where she draws the line.  I've already had nightmares of her picking up snakes and getting bit!  I love that even though she dresses up in skirts & dresses with fancy shoes, she has no problems getting dirty and catching lizards!

Our Own Fancy Nancy

Today was the Storybook Character parade in kindergarten.  K decided to dress as Fancy Nancy.  She loves reading Fancy Nancy books.  I was happy she chose an easy character to dress up as but that we also stayed away from the princess stories and Barbie stories.  

Here she is before we left for school.  We took special time to do her hair in a Fancy Nancy style.  This is a dress that my mom made for her.  She loved it and got lots of complements on her dress at school.

K and her BFF at the parade

Trying to get 22 kids to all look at the same place at the same time...

Her hair do before it gets destroyed at recess and PE!

She was rather upset that mom made her change into her uniform after the parade.  There was no way I was letting that dress on the playground or wearing it for PE!  She had fun though.  

Is it April 14th Yet?

From yesterday's visit to the house...

Landscaping is DONE!  I love the way it turned out.  Blair Bennett from Bennett's Landscaping was fantastic to work with if you are in need of a landscaper.  I believe they do landscape maintenance too.  Email me if you want his number!

This is our pool!!!!  We also loved our pool company.  RD Gray is the owner of Island Pools of Jacksonville.  He's great!  He built the pool and did all our paver work too - driveway and around the pool.  He's going to come back and take out the grass and replace it with the same Travertine that's around the pool.  If you are interested in building a pool, I highly recommend RD.  Check his business out HERE

This is going to be my new kitchen...This is the kitchen I've been dreaming of for the past year.  After our cramped kitchen with little to no counter tops, this is going to feel like a mansion.  For those of you who saw my kitchen in Utah, you know how much counter top space we had there so this will be a very welcome change after the past year.  I can't wait to start baking, canning, freezing, cooking!

Steph

Kendall For President

As I was walking through the halls at school today I came across this hanging on the wall outside of K's room.  I can't tell you how much this little girl just warms her Momma's heart.  I will vote for her if she decides to run for POTUS one day.  We need a person in charge who will praise God.

Ra's Got A New Look!

Today we picked up Ra's glasses.  He's been dreading this day for weeks.  Thankfully he's amazed at how much better he can see and he loves the instant sunglasses from the Transitions lenses.  I let him pick out whatever he wanted.  He ended up with a X Games pair that is gun metal gray with a red stripe on the side.  Sadly they didn't have orange or he'd have picked that for sure. He's nervous about the reaction from the kids at school tomorrow.  Praying that it goes well for him! 

Field Trip

Friday was the KDG field trip to the Jax Zoo.  It was supposed to rain but thankfully the rain held off and the sun was out instead!  We got lucky.

Sis and 5 of her girlfriends got to hang out the entire morning.  It was so nice for them to spend some time together and for me to hang out with their moms who are also friends of mine.  The girls had a great time.  They got to ride the train, touch the sting rays and visit the other animals.  

The new tiger exhibit was a big hit.  K insisted: "Take a picture and send it to Daddy.  He loves tigers!"

After we were finished at the zoo, the 3 moms took our girls home and went for lunch together before we had to pick up the big kids.  Ironically all three girls have 4th grade siblings.

It was a fun day for all of us.  I'm so grateful I can go with Sis on her field trips and spend time with her and her little friends at school.

Wall Decor For Ra

Here are some of the pics I'm planning to frame for Ra's dirt bike themed room.  8x10s of Ra with Bam Bam Barcia in Vegas, sitting on Ryan Villipoto's bike in SLC and meet & greet with K Dub.  The stunt pic is an 11x24 pic I took in Vegas. 

I also have a bunch of 5x7s of Ryan Dungey and a few of Ken Roczen - both KTM riders.  Dungey is Ra's favorite rider.  I also found a KTM trailer decal for his bedroom.  It's going to look incredible on his orange accent wall!

I can't wait to see his face when we get his room completely decorated!

House Update

So many things are going on right now...We are delayed with moving, but closing may still potentially happen the week of the 14th - before Easter.  Our movers are scheduled for the 24th so we don't have to keep changing dates with them.  We saw our builder last night - all of us were at the house by chance.  We had a nice chat and got more background on the situation.  I feel better about it, but I still don't like how it happened.  There's a problem between our builder and his investor and because they haven't worked things out between the two of them, they are holding us hostage.  It's hard for him because he's never had anyone to answer to before - this is the first time he's used an investor.  At least that has explained some things about why the process seemed so odd compared to other situations we've done before.  I just wish he'd have told us this from the beginning.  It would have saved us all a lot of headaches and frustration.

It's so exciting to see it all come together.  They paint started going on the walls this week.  It looks FABULOUS!  I always get nervous with paint choices - is it too dark, too light, right shade?  So far, I'm feeling great about what I see.

Our awesome landscaper (who could potentially become a good friend of ours down the road because he and his family ride dirt bikes too!) planted our first two trees.  It's a little hard to see but there are 2 Queen palms just in front of our fence.  They are still tied up at the branches but we are hoping that they give us some privacy at our pool from our neighbors.  There will be another house going up this summer between us and the blue one - the yellow one you can see with the orange roof is going to be knocked down.

The grout has been put on the kitchen tile backsplash.  I LOVE how this all turned out.  You can see a bit of the leathered black Brazilian granite countertop and my new range!

Here's the view into the kitchen from the family room.  Everything is covered up because they are still painting in the house.

Our family room.  I love how the floors, tile on the fireplace and wall color turned out. 

This color is in the family room, office and dining room as well as up the stairs to the hallway/landing.  It's called Anew Gray.   
 

Ra's room will have an orange (the bold KTM orange below) as an accent wall.

The other walls will be this light shade of gray that matches his new bedding.  This gray will also be in the guest bedroom/craft room as well as the guest bathroom.  

 K's room is going to be this pretty shade of pink for her surfer girl room.  

The downstairs bath will be this shade of beige.  It will look fabulous with the browns in this room.

Our master is called Comfort Gray and looks like this.  The first coat was on the walls last night.  It looked great and can't wait to see the gray carpet and our furniture with it!

The master bath is called Sea Salt.  Both the bedroom and bathroom colors are in the same color family.  The Sea Salt will look awesome with our board & batten on the walls and dark cabinets.  

This is the color for the kids' bathrooms.  Both kids have the same counter tops, but different cabinets (although they are both white but with different hues) and different tile on the floors & showers.

The tile on the back porch is almost finished.  It's rectangular pieces of slate.  The front porch will have the same tile.  We sort of forgot about our side porch...Oh well.  It's not that big and guests won't typically enter that way!

The front and side doors are installed too.  They are going to be stained similar to our floors.  The are obviously upside down in this picture.  The taller one to the left is the front door and the shorter one to the right is the side door.  You can see where the side door will be - it's that solid white door in the background.  The doors are leaning up against the stairs.  Behind the stairs is our mini mudroom area.  I had the finished carpenter build a bench with cubbies where the kids can keep their shoes.  I'm also going to buy some hooks for backpacks and coats.  

See why we were so frustrated with the delayed closing date!?!  Our builder says it will still be finished by the 11th.  Can't wait!!!

So Proud of My Kids

My kids continue to impress me.  They have both worked so hard this year at school and their grades have reflected that.  They both LOVE their school and are the happiest they've been even considering the year+ of living in limbo/transition.

Both kids' report cards were great for the 3rd quarter.  As a special reward, we take the kids out to breakfast for good grades at their one of their favorite beach restaurants.  They look forward to the breakfasts as a family so much.  

I'm so proud of all these two have to do and have overcome in the past year.  April marks our one year anniversary of life in Jax (and life in our apartment).  I'm glad our kids have shown how resilient they are and I'm proud of the character they've developed over the past year.  I feel like one lucky mom!  I am grateful for all of God's blessings on our family.

A New Kendallism

It's been awhile since I last reported a Kendallism.  It's not because she's not saying funny, quick-witted comments.  It's because I've been slacking in recording them.

Tonight she was getting into the tv console where we store the dvd player, cable box, Wii, etc.  Here is our conversation:

Me:  Kendall, what are you doing?
K:  Nothing that you need to know!

Little does she know, I'm on to her game!  I know I'm going to have to watch this little one VERY closely as she grows up.  She's already mastered the art of manipulation and thinks nothing of telling a little white lie to get out of doing the stuff she doesn't like to do (like brushing her teeth).  Ugh...