Our New Home {set 1}

Well, we are now largely settled into our new home and we love it. We find new things every day that remind us how perfect it is for us. And now you can see some of what that is-- and maybe give me design suggestions/solutions?!

In the past month we've gone from this:

to this:

(check the carport)

to this:

Here's one of those things we love- do you SEE all this storage space here? A whole hallway full of cupboards and drawers... Heaven knows we need the storage space! No- really.

From this:

(Any help for this wall? It has great potential, but I'm struggling to see it realized. Help me!)

to this:

(I like the map, most of the books on the left and the idea of all the pictures. I haven't organized the pictures yet and I don't know what to do with the shelves up above and the glass shelves below the map. And we're not trinket/knickknack people.)

From this:

to this:

From this:

to this:

Meanwhile....

Avril's 6th Birthday

Happy Birthday sweetheart! You are such a sweet kid these days, so smart and good, helpful and obedient (sometimes), feisty and independent and downright naughty others, but I love you so much through it all. And you kind of remind me of myself...

Avril turned 6 this year and as it happened her birthday fell right on the third day of school and moving day. So it was a little tricky to celebrate it and I think she was a little disappointed we didn't really do much on her birthday. We kept it pretty simple and straight-forward- she got to pick her meals on Saturday (her birthday was Wednesday), had a castle cake which we ate before I took a picture, and she got presents that she opened before Daddy got home on Thursday since he was working late. I think he was pretty bummed to have missed it, but it was a tricky one to celebrate. Thanks to Charlie and girls for coming over and making the day a little more exciting and special for Avril- bringing fun and bearing gifts. That's enough to make any girl's day a good one!

She got a few cards in the mail as well, one from Grandma Zan (thanks Grandma!), a package from Grandpa Jackson (thanks Grandpa!) and a card with some cash from Auntie Camas. She paid her tithing with it... Although the tithing thing started out on the wrong foot... when I started to tell her what tithing is and that we give 10% to the bishop, she started to cry and said she didn't want to give her money away. So I talked her through it and told her what it was for- people who didn't have money or food or clothing; missionaries; temples, etc. At that point she started being ok with it and was ready to take that step. So we did the math and practiced figuring out 10% and she wrote out her little tithing slip and was pretty excited to give her money to the bishop on Sunday. Probably not as excited as she was the next day when we went shopping. She deliberated for a long time over getting something big and spending all her money or getting a few small things.... and spending all her money. After great deliberations, she finally settled on the Rapunzel doll above.

So thanks to all who helped make her birthday extra special!