A year later

As you may recall, the first few months in my house here in Arizona were not exactly fun. The previous owners had moved out and left the home unoccupied, then rented to several different groups of people before we moved in. I knew there was so much potential in this house when we walked through. I just never imagined how much time and money it would be to get it livable. I mean really, how can you crack every outlet faceplate, use drawers without handles, crack all the grout out of tile floors, or ruin every fart fan in the bathrooms?- Unfathomable!

Now that we have been here over a year, we had started to see our house come together. In April we had the entire house inside and outside painted. With exception of the rooms I had already done on my own. We have 22 ft ceilings in the font room so there was no way I was painting those. Anyway, my mom hasnt seen the house since we finished a few projects so here is the reveal. Sorry its not that climactic.

Z& Ts Bathroom Before:

                                                                     Z&Ts Bathroom After.

We painted it Navy blue with white beadboard. Replaced the strip vanity lights and

cleaned!

Asher and Crews Bath Before:  Dark brown- a cave

                                                      Brown, Brown and more chocolate brown.

Asher &Crews Bathroom After:

painted light blue with beadboard. Surf themed. Replaced the strip lighting in here too!

installed hooks for little kids towels.

House Before: Sort of pinky-tan

                                       House After: Yellow and Brown. And a trimmed tree.

                                        Still waiting to replace outside lights. We decided to start with the

                                    inside lights first.

                                             Backyard painted. Still picking weeds as you can see from garbage
                                                   cans out there.

                                           Front room Before: it was a dark brown with greenish undertone.

                                              Now its tan. The color is Harvest Brown and Linen trim

End of Summer party

We live in a very unique area here in Peoria. My neighborhood is its own little adventure. I dont love having an HOA for many reasons but I will say that some of the perks are great. Within a 3 minute walk of my house is our clubhouse area. Its a really nice amenity. There is a huge gym with bleachers, basketball court, private rooms for parties, scouts (our ward kids meet here), meetings ,etc. They have a borrowing library, a covered playground, amphitheater, tennis courts and our pool areas.
I wasnt sure how much I would use the neighborhood pools since we have our own private pool, but its nice to have a change on occasion. Plus the community pool has water slides and a splash pad and two enormous pools that are heated in the winter. And thats only one pool area of the three in our community. Anyway- it makes living here alot more bearable. While I dont HATE Arizona, I have just resigned to the fact that we are here and need to make the best of it. Find the silver lining if you will. Plus, not being preggo in the summer makes things alot more tolerable. :)

They throw big parties here. This is the one we just had to celebrate School begining. Or "The End of the Summer". Really summer here goes until the first part of November but they need to psych us out or we would all leave. Next thing you know they will start pumping pumpkin spice scent into our homes to make sure we dont get depressed in September and October. This was a Caribbean themed party. There was a free buffet and fruit ice cream. There was also carnival dancers in costumes but I didnt get them on camera.

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy seeing the fun.

Utah Misc.

These are just some random pictures we took in Utah. Fun Memories for our end of year book!

Guess who loved Grandpa Bingham? Crew and my Grandpa share the same birthday.

Peek a Boo

Family dinner al fresco

First Day of Second Grade

Zach and Tanner started second grade! WOOHOO!

Three words: LOVE BEAR LAKE

We waited all summer for our Utah trip. It was a long wait but we weren't disappointed. We spent the first few days visiting family, celebrating my nephews first birthday, going to the Days of '47 parade in downtown Salt Lake City, and having a sleepover at uncle Neal's house.
I received a special treat from my in laws by being taken to the conference center to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir preform their pioneer day concert. It featured Katherine Jenkins the mezzo soprano from Wales. She was also on Dancing With the Stars this past season. It was a beautiful concert and I even spotted a couple Dancing with the Stars pro's (Mark Ballas and Derek Hough).I loved it. My in laws know the way to my heart is by a good musical of some kind. Boy do they know me!!



Right after the Parade we headed to our favorite must-go food place when in Utah PACES dairyann in Bountiful. Yummy! Countryboy with cheese and a grape rainbow, is there anything better in this life? Well, maybe Cafe Rio but Im just sayin'.
Then up to Maddox in Brigham City for Grandma and Grandpa's chicken fix. Mike loves Maddox too and chose to forgo the DairyAnn's treats for cornbread...darn good cornbread.The drive to Bear Lake is packed with delcious food stops. It must be a diabolical plan to make us not fit our swimsuits, sink our waverunners, and drag behind the skiboat. Thankfully, we all managed to preform well in all those categories. Believe it or not even I got to ski this year. Seriously, is that a light at the end of the nursing baby tunnel?...I think it is. Wow, feels good to be an active, somewhat involved person again? :) Notice that every picture is of Mike holding Crew. Yup, when your kid is daddy's boy, you get some freedoms. Thanks babe!
This year we traded SunValley for Bear Lake. From a practical standpoint, its far less of a drive for the little kids. The beach is better for little ones, and the water is alot warmer than the glacier fed Redfish lake in Idaho. It was a different kind of beauty than the forest of Idaho but I must admit; for this season of life with little kids Bear Lake was a much better choice in every way. The cabin was heavenly and the company superb.I loved everything about my trip except for the 3 lbs I gained when I got home. I guess I shouldnt have had a raspberry shake every night?!? Here are a few pics. I may be adding to these in the next couple days. Blogger was giving me probs with my pic sizes. Stay tuned.

Fourth of July

We went down to Tucson for the Fourth of July. Peoria doesnt allow fireworks, so we didnt think we would be missing anything fun up here. As it turns out, we got a Monsoon down in Tucson. That made up for the lack of fireworks. It was crazy. That made things pretty interesting. We missed seeing family on the east side of town because all the roads were full of water.Plus, Im just a chicken when it comes to cars and water anyway (growing up hydroplaning in Florida will do that to ya). Sorry guys!

The good news is we got to hang out with Great Gram Banzhaf and Grandma and Grandpa Banzhaf all day. We love swimming and BBQ's once the outdoor grill dried off. And we got to see the twins...Bella and Katie (the King Charles Spaniels) which always makes the kids feel giddy.

                                 Here is a taste of the storm. And believe me, this wasnt as high as the water got. It was amazing how fast the rain came. The rain was so loud I couldnt hear what the kids were saying. Clearly, Zachary didnt appreciate me asking him to repeat himself.

May

The Twins had a great time in Soccer.

 Cousins came to play for Memorial Day. Crew found a new best friend, Koa.

These cousins are 6 months apart and both are squirrely as can be.

Blog up date. YEA!!!
Well, its been some time since I have posted. Summer will do that to you. To be honest, I get so sick of the junk on facebook, that I rarely get online anymore to check on personal updates. Even my own!!
(Can I just throw it in here that I really dont like facebook. I know, I know, I must be the only person in the world that has facebook anaphylaxis. I just cant wrap my brain around spending that much time on the computer or phone. I mean there are people that post something 4-6 times a day. Even 1 a day seems to much but I can forgive that. But please...every thought that passes through your brain, every action you take during the day, every bowel movement...sheesh. But ok, enough of that soapbox).

ANYWAY-
The summer has been pretty uneventful. We have spent the summer looking forward to our "summer vacation" which was at the END of the long break. So the first few months we were just stewing in the heat and swimming. ALOT.  Most of my personal time was spent getting all the laurels (16-18 year olds) in our ward ready for girls camp, which has also finally come and gone; and I spend a good bit of my evenings prepping for Zumba. Its my only distraction from the monotony of my life to be honest. Plus, I love to dance so its fun to make up choreography and have middle aged women show me how "sexy" they can give it back to me. No seriously, thats what I love about Zumba.

Anyway, I will post some events in order. Even though the pictures have been sitting here doing nada for months. Please forgive me. I will be better about the blog now that school is starting again. Promise.