Pictures of our New House

If you are willing to overlook the inevitable boxes and clutter, we are happy to take you on a photo tour of our new house in Cedar Hills. We are slowly getting more settled as the days go by, but still have a long ways to go. Enjoy-- and feel free to stop by and come on a real tour!

Family Room

Extra basement bedroom: our catchall for hobbies, crafts, and storage.

Matthew's bedroom (kind of a mess at the moment).

Basement Bathroom

Basement Family Room: play area

Basement Family room




Elizabeth and Emma's bedroom

Elizabeth and Emma's bedroom

Master bathroom

Master bathroom

Master bedroom

Master bedroom

Main bathroom

Master closet

Future baby nursery

Pantry-- I can fit much more than my old one. Less trips to the basement food storage--hooray!

Hall linen closet

Rachel's room

Rachel's room

Living room

Living room

Looking from kitchen toward front entry (pantry is on left)

Looking down basement stairs from kitchen

Laundry room and half bath off of kitchen. I am SO excited to have an actual laundry "room" and not a laundry "dungeon" squeezed in a dark corner of the basement behind the water heater and furnace! It is so much easier to keep clean. Ah, the simple things that go a long way toward making me happy...

The kitchen, aka the heart of our home.

Off the kitchen/dining room, looking toward the garage and laundry room doors.

Dining area

We feel so blessed to have this house! It is so much bigger than our last one, and we are loving the new neighborhood. I am thrilled with the overall layout of the house; for example, I have visibility from the kitchen into the family room (our last house had a big wall separating the kitchen and living room)! There is also much more storage space, and plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms.

We have spent the last few weeks trying to unpack, organize, harvest tons of fruit on the trees in the backyard, make necessary repairs, and clean the house since it wasn't in perfect shape when we moved in. Our backs are both sore, but little by little, it's feeling like home.

Wilson Family Reunion 2009

August was one crazy month! Just weeks before we moved out of our house, Brent and I were in charge of my family reunion. We were lucky to find a great deal on a cabin in a gorgeous area at Brian Head, Utah. Before meeting the rest of the family at the cabin, Brent and I took the kids to Bryce Canyon National Park. We camped at Ruby's Inn, which is just outside the entrance of the park. Brent and I came here for an anniversary a few years ago, and were excited to show it to our kids. It is an amazing place!

Outside the historic Bryce Canyon Lodge: Rachel, Sarah, Matthew, Elizabeth

Emma, Brent, Rachel, Elizabeth, Matthew

We went on a (short-little legs-family friendly) hike right after breakfast to avoid the heat of the day.

You could see forever there!

At Ruby's Inn, there was an old western town to explore that was lots of fun. Poor Matthew was recovering from a bad case of car sickness still, but the girls were all anxious to expend the pent-up energy they'd stored from being in the car.

Emma adores anything to do with horses. She often tells me she dreams about them.

At the cabin: Rachel "feeding" a wooden bear some rocks. This kept her pretty happy in the absence of toys. In fact, rocks, dirt, sticks, and a few water balloons and dollar toys provided much of the unstructured entertainment for the kids at the cabin.

One afternoon, we took all the kids to see Cedar Breaks National Monument. It is quite an incredible sight! Then the kids got really into earning their Junior Ranger badges at the visitor's center.

We went to a nearby mountain lake Thursday morning. The plan was to raft, wade, hike, and eat a picnic lunch there, but it ended up being pretty windy and cool. So we made the best of it by bravely setting up camp chairs near the water and cheering on the kids as they each got a turn to go out in the raft with Brent W. and Rob doing the rowing. Also, Bill took several of the boys on a trail that went all the way around the lake. Then we wimped out and ate lunch back in the comfort of the cabin (it had an amazing kitchen!).

The kids didn't seem to mind the weather in the least!

Emma performing an impromptu dance routine at the family talent show. The cute part was Rachel, who kept trying to imitate all of Emma's moves. Emma kept tripping over her, but Rachel never seemed to mind and kept going as long as the song lasted.

To understand why this is so funny, you have to see the Bin Laden version of Numa, Numa on youtube. Brent did his worthiest imitation. It was hilarious! Now my children beg me to play this song so they can dance wild and crazy around the house.

Rachel Officially Enters Toddlerhood

Rachel turned two years old August 18, about a week before we moved. Things were a bit crazy then, so we kept things pretty simple. Still, there was plenty of family who came to share in the celebration, since we held it at Jenny's house right before showing our new house to all the family who had gathered. Rachel was so thrilled with her own special birthday balloon and seemed in awe as we all gathered around to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. But her favorite present was the Cozy Coupe car.

When Life Gets Crazy, Take Lots of Pictures

Amid all the stress of showing a house, selling said house, hunting for a new house, putting an offer on one house, that offer not working out, being in charge of the Wilson family reunion, hunting again for a house, deciding which house to buy, going under contract for a house, then facing giant roadblocks to starting my kids in the new school next week since we haven't actually moved in yet...Life is still good and meant to be enjoyed! Thank goodness I have four adorable children to remind me of this, and a camera for my pregnancy-deprived brain to help me remember these moments!




Rachel, Emma, and Elizabeth running through the sprinklers. Free entertainment!

My girls thought they were so hilarious piling random clothes on their arms, legs, and heads. Even Rachel got into the act.

Emma and her cousin Emily Jo playing dress up after their cousin Samuel's baby blessing.

Rachel loves Daddy's fuzzy head.

Emma and Elizabeth enjoying a quick visit with Grandma Aaron, playing Candy Land.

Rachel with her Grandpa Aaron.

I loved watching Rachel inhale a powdered sugar donut at the Primary parade.