Our Desert Oasis

Here are a few pics from our new house. We moved in January - so I'm wayyy behind! We have an offer on our old house, just waiting to see if the bank will approve the short sale. At first I was hesitant about being a renter again. But after the flood last summer in our old house, and then the water heater flooding the garage shortly after, I realized at this point in our lives, renting sounded perfect! With me working, and Bryce taking such a heavy load of classes, being able to call someone else to repair things is exactly what we need!
We found this great house in the neighborhood just across the street from our old neighborhood. It puts us closer to the school so the kids can ride their bikes. We are in a different ward, but in the same church building. The kids stayed in the same school, and a lot more of their friends live in this neighborhood. We are paying about $600.00 a month less, and we all agree, this house is so much better than the last. From the layout inside the house, to the backyard, we love it!

BBQ/Fire pit


The Koi Pond

The kids love to feed the fish. There are about 30 fish. We have only added one Koi fish, and the kids named him Jimmer:)

Here is one of our four turtles. This is Crusher. He (although we actually just learned he is a SHE) is the biggest one. There are 3 smaller ones who the kids have named Squirt, Baby Crusher and Megamind (random, I know:) They hibernate all winter, and now that it is warm, they lay on the rocks and sunbathe. Crusher has discovered she loves to swim in the pool, but can't seem to figure out how to get out. We have found her doing laps in the pool just about everyday for the last week!

My favorite part of the yard is the way it lights up at night. It's so peaceful with the sounds of the waterfall (if you can hear it over the kids splashing in the pool:)

Check out what I wake up to each morning...

No, it's not my cute husband. He leaves by 5, and I can't drag myself to wake up that early. So instead, this is what I wake up to. I seriously love my yard. I can't decide if we spend more time outside or in. I would be willing to bet it's outside.
Now, for those who are not in Vegas, you're probably thinking what's the big deal! Well, it's not too common to have all of these blooms in the desert. We'll see how much longer they last. Not too much can survive the 110+ temps all summer.

After many,many requests...pics of the girls' room

Alright, the pictures don't really do the room justice, and the camera made the bedspreads look lavender. They are pink, I promise. So, after much anticipation (ok, maybe not) here is Haylee and Kendal's new room...



The plan for this wall is to get 2 white dressers, one to put under each name.
We have a ballet bar to go in front of these mirrors. It's in our garage, Bryce just hasn't had a chance to install it yet.

My friend Eloise made these adorable frames. She just put the vinyl lettering right onto the glass.

I have to give all of the credit to Carrie for making these pillows. She did such an awesome job, they are the cutest accents in the room.

Our new backyard

Alright, everyone keeps asking for pictures of the new house, so here is the first set. This is our backyard. We pulled out a ton of dead trees and bushes (the house was vacant for quite awhile, so a lot of the landscaping was dead). This is the (almost) finished product. We took out the dead grass, and put seed down. Hopefully I will have some new pictures in about a month with some grass. Other than that, the yard is pretty much done.

We FINALLY closed on our house!!

Yay! We never thought this day would come! Our mortgage lender turned out to be a total loser - and screwed up our entire loan process. Anyway, his boss took over, and got us approved and ready to go in no time. We closed today, so hopefully we can get the keys tomorrow.
I will get pictures up as soon as I can. Our camera charger has stopped working, and our camera doesn't take batteries, so hopefully we can get it fixed soon.