New House!

For a few years now we've been working on credit so we could have enough to get a home loan. We were finally approved in July of last year. It was really exciting so we started looking for houses immediately. I spent lots of time online browsing for homes for sale and making lists of the ones that met our criteria. It was an exciting time. 

Once when I was looking online I came to a house, that, upon seeing the first pictures, I was already daydreaming. Morgan was with me and together we oohed and ahhed at each picture of the home. I LOVED it. I wanted it. However, it was more money than we wanted to spend, and might not even get approved for that much. But...I really loved it. So we made an appointment to see it anyway. 

I found the pictures online that were used to sell it. See how lovely?

 It had a lovely shop, which is the thing David cared most about. 

 It had a nice spot for a garden. 

 It had nearly TWO ACRES!

 Usually if the outside was what we wanted and loved, especially with a shop, then the house itself was too small, or most often, a manufactured home. So imagine my delight when THIS was what was inside!

 That kitchen, though...

 Lovely dining room. 

 Laundry room.

 Downstairs bathroom.

Master bedroom. I love the built in cabinets. 

 This is what we use as the TV room. 

 This is the girls room. 

The pictures online didn't even have pictures of two of the rooms. This sun room, which is our school room, is one of my favorite rooms in the house. I took the remainder of the pictures when we were looking at it one time. 

 And this is the boys' bedroom. 

 Upon entering the home for the first time both David and I commented on how nice it was and felt; just from the entryway! We really liked it, but the price was still higher than we liked. So we looked at a few more houses and all of them lacked in many areas. Nothing was as nice as this house. We decided just to put an offer in, something well under the asking price. Our offer was rejected at first, and they said they wouldn't accept anything less than a certain amount. We countered saying it was the best we could offer, but it was a no go. We weren't even approved for what they wanted, so we said, "oh well, guess it wasn't meant to be." But before the day was over, they called back and accepted our counter offer that they originally rejected. YAY!!!
The month of August was spent getting papers in order, signing things, getting inspections, and appraisals and waiting for the minor repairs. Oh, and packing. I spent a lot of time packing.

Alli thought a lot of the packing was pretty fun.

Silly Selfies

Lydia put this hat on my head, backwards, and then asked for some pictures together. So we have some silly pictures of us girls.

August 2015

We've made it to August in both 2016 and in my blogging of 2015! So here are some random things from August.


This lovely sight is something we saw many a time for a long period of time. Allison LOVES filling the toilet with toilet paper.

 Sometimes when the child screams at nap time it's actually because she needs you. Poor Alli.

Our trampoline was much used by our kids and the neighbors. There was a small hole in it which suddenly became a huge rip. (Note: After this rip was in it we no longer let the kids jump on the trampoline for obvious reasons. We moved a couple of weeks later but left this in the backyard for another couple of weeks. When we went back to get it the rip went from one end to the other. We have no doubt that the neighbor kids who helped create the rip broke into our backyard and finished the job. Not gonna lie, I wasn't sad to leave the neighborhood kids behind.)

Here Owen is holding the kitten Teemo. (He disappeared before we moved, so we didn't take him with us.) This is picture worthy because we basically forced him to sit and hold the kitten. Normally he would run the other way when this or our other cat was around, because, you know, little kittens are terrifying. So look at him facing his fears! (You think I'm being sarcastic, but I'm not.)

Turley Family Reunion

My mom is the 2nd child of 13. Here they all are with Grandma. 

 Those 13 children grew up and most married and had children. Most had 5 or more kids. My grandparents have 66 grandchildren. It's probably around half of those grandchildren that have married and started families of their own, several with 6 or more kids already. This makes for pretty epic family reunions! We all live all over the United States, (though most centered in Utah) so it's hard to see everyone regularly, so the reunions are a great time to keep those family bonds strong. We've tried to do them every few years, but the last two were in Missouri. I wasn't able to attend the last one over there, so I was excited when they planned one in Utah last year. 

They're a big deal, so not just an afternoon. This one was several days. It started at a church building in the Murray area (I think). We had lunch, basketball, volleyball, and instructions. 

Then we all drove up in shifts to Park City to the lodge we'd rented for a few days. It had a bunch of rooms with bunk beds in the basement so we all managed to fit! There were lots of fun games, good food, and visiting at most hours of the day.

We also had a talent show. There is a lot of talent in the family, especially musical talent. I even got to show off my husband for the first time when he performed for everyone!

There was a sandbox and playground right outside the lodge where the children spent a lot of time.

Down the hill was a field, more playground equipment, and volleyball/basketball court.

There were fun group games like, Do You Love Your Neighbor. Even the kids could get in on that.

And we did jump rope. Who knew jump rope could be so entertaining! Lots of fun. I even did double dutch for the first time! I even successfully jumped in after the ropes had started. Still pretty proud of myself for doing that. Haha.

Here's my old mother and Uncle Matthew tearing it up.

Alli mostly had a blast.

But Alli also didn't want to take naps and sometimes fell asleep on accident but then would wake up if I tried to lay her down.

Jason brought his fiancee (at the time) Kendra. And he used a giant bowl for his taco salad when his measly normal person plate couldn't contain all he wanted.

My grandma got to meet David, William, Owen, and Alli for the first time. She lives in Missouri so it's rare that we get to see her. Lydia met her once before when she was under a year old, so she had no memory of meeting Grandma Turley before. David and his boys didn't stay for the whole thing because he had to get back to work and I failed to get a picture of William and Owen with Grandma before they had to leave.

Alli and Eden tore around the compound together. Relatives had a hard time telling them apart.

It was a grand time. I'm glad we got to go. I'm glad I have an awesome big family. I like them. 

I got a ride home with my parents. Alli was horrible for the drive. She really wanted Daddy and cried for him or whined for him for hours. 

Saratoga Springs 2015

In July of 2015 we took a trip to Utah for a family reunion. We wanted to do something really fun with just our family before hand though, so we went a day or two early and stayed with my Aunt and Uncle in Saratoga Springs, Utah. 

Lydia got to meet and hold my cousins hamster. 

The next day we packed up the kids and stopped first at an awesome playground in Eagle Mountain. Check out that jungle gym! Morgan was brave enough to climb all the way to the top.

 Alli and Lydia played on a double swing thingy.

 I think Allison might still be a little too small for this...

 Owen hung out at the safer parts of the playground. 

 Alli tried the interactive game. 

 William tested his balance.

 We eventually convinced all the kids to try climbing the jungle gym. 

 David posed with the kids who were brave enough to meet him half way up. 

 Alli loved it and was not happy about being held back. 

 After the playground we went to the Provo city rec center to swim. They had a mini water park both indoors and outdoors and admission was super cheap. Lots of fun there, but no pictures.

That night we joined Uncle Darrell and Aunt LeeAnn and their family for a Pioneer Day celebration. We started with yummy food and ended with fireworks in the front yard.

For the grand finale my cousin Aaron brought out the big firework he bought. It was the kind that shoots rockets into the air, one after the other, and they explode with a pop. So he goes out to the road and lights it.  The first couple rockets went as planned and flew into the sky. But then the launcher tipped over. The next rocket flew down the street to the right. The launcher rotated about 45 degrees after emitting that rocket, so the next one flew up at the house across the street. Yikes! Rotated 45 degrees again and now it shot down the left side of the street real close to neighbors who were also lighting fireworks. Oh my. Which means this last rocket was going to launch directly at US. And it did! Most specifically Owen! All of this happened rather quickly, of course, but I have a vivid recollection of seeing that firework fly straight at my children grouped together in the grass. I remember seeing it run right into Owen's chest and just kind of stop there as it was still being propelled, but it had hit an obstacle. All the thoughts of what could be the result ran through my brain. Would we have a maimed child? Could his clothes catch on fire? When it exploded would he lose a limb? All this happened while everyone screamed and scrambled for safety. I got up out of my chair and turned around and huddled around Allison, whom I was holding. David instructed the boys to "Run!" and they ran toward the house, William out distancing everyone. I noticed my cousin Heather use her body as a shield as she crouched in front of my cousin Laura who sat in a chair with both Lydia and Heather's young daughter Ava on her lap. I don't know if the firework that hit Owen was the last one or not, since everything became chaos, but if it wasn't, there weren't many afterward. Now it was time to assess the damage. David and I tracked Owen down. He was understandably pretty shaken up, but on first inspection seemed intact. We talked to him and asked him if he was hurt and where he was hit. There was a small red mark on one of his arms, but that was it! He was totally fine. Whew! We were able to cheer him up a bit with joking and talking about how he has an awesome story and bragging rights since he was hit with a firework. William, on the other hand, wouldn't be consoled. It was scary for him, too, but he wasn't hit, wasn't hurt, but he definitely had the hardest time with it. The rest of us went back to the road to watch a few more safe fireworks, like the flowers, but William remained at the house.That was a memorable night!