We're In

The past couple of weeks have been filled with packing, moving, unpacking, birthday parties, and lots of work.

We officially moved into our new house on February 16th. It actually went pretty quickly - Nate picked up the truck and our couches the night before, and we had lots of family and one of Nate's friends there to help us load everything and haul it down to the new house. There was a moment of panic when Nate called saying he didn't have the key to the padlock on the truck, while I was pulled over on the side of the freeway after having been flagged down by someone saying I had a flat tire (with a car and cartop full of stuff). Fortunately, my tire was full enough to drive it to a gas station and fill it up, and Nate & accomplices borrowed a hammer to break off the padlock (which I'm pretty sure they actually enjoyed). Other than that, everything went smoothly and it was exciting to see how our furniture looked in the house. We unpacked the essentials that day, then went down to a mini birthday party for Stacey. Jake and Stacey opened some baby shower gifts too, complete with Jake's commentary ("why don't any of these onesies come with pants?") and him trying on the baby Bjorn.

We felt pretty welcome our first Sunday at church - they welcomed us as new members in Sacrament Meeting (our old ward was either really efficient in transferring our records, or was trying to get rid of us) and we already knew 4-5 couples because one or the other (or both) works with Nate. We made oreos to take to a neighbor / co-worker who let us borrow the hammer, and decided to take them to a couple of other people too. When we stopped by one house, they said they had in their car a plate of treats for us but hadn't made it to our house yet, so we exchanged treats :) It's fun to have people we know so close.

This past Saturday, Nate used his last ski pass at Park City, and I worked part of the day, and went to lunch with my former roommates Laura and Elise - it was fun to be able to catch up and hang out for a while, and to see Elise's place in Salt Lake. On Sunday, we went to the Packers' to celebrate Connor's 2nd birthday - Happy Birthday Connor! We were in charge of bringing cupcakes, which was the perfect excuse to use one of my fancy pewter platters :)

Here are some pictures of our house. I need to take one of the front, and the upstairs, etc. but it was raining on Sunday when we went to take pictures, so I didn't think the outside would turn out well, and the rest of the house isn't really organized / unpacked / partially cute yet. Unfortunately, the only pictures Nate took of the kitchen include me cleaning up in there, so sorry to obstruct your view. And it's hard to get the lighting right inside. Oh well - enough excuses :) More to come.

He's Here!!

Some of you have already heard the news, but we are excited to welcome Jess & Shane's new baby boy to the family! Our little [not relative to other newborns, but relative to grown-ups] nephew was born at 12:24 a.m. today. I guess he really didn't want his birthday to be on Valentine's Day, and hung on just long enough to be born on the 15th. He weighed in at a substantial 11 pounds and is 21 inches long. Congratulations Jess and Shane and Landon!! I can't wait to meet him :)

It's Official!

We are the proud owners of 189 E. Backhand Lane!! We were able to close on Thursday and get our keys on Friday. Hooray! We started moving some little things down on Saturday - just our two cars full - and are hoping to take some more of the little stuff down during the week before the big move on Saturday.

That's obviously the most exciting news of the past few weeks, but here's an update on what else is going on, since I have been a delinquent blogger lately:

- reason for the delinquent blogger status: busy season (not because it's tax season, auditors just have the same busy season because audit deadlines are generally in February / March). Two audits down, one to go. Nate has been very good a keeping up with the laundry, cooking, cleaning, and getting-ready-to-move stuff while I've been working. He even bought us a washer & dryer from the KSL Classifieds (one of my favorite websites lately :) and took care of moving it. I haven't seen them yet, but I heard from a reliable source that it looks like a really nice set, so I think he did a good job.
- Babysitting Kate and Abby (Nate's brother's daughters). It's always fun to go over and play with them. We read books, built a fort in the living room, and let Kate play with my hair. It always turns out lovely ;) We'll be sad when we don't live just a few minutes away from them!
- A big group date with Nate's co-workers at the house one of them bought just down the street from ours. I had met most of the co-workers, but it was nice to get to know their wives a little bit. They made dinner, we took them on a tour of our house, and watched a movie. It had been a while since we'd been on a group date, so it was fun to hang out with them.
- Celebrating Spencer's 19th birthday with the Packers on Sunday. Happy birthday Spencer!
- waiting for little baby Malan (whose name is not yet officially decided). Unfortunately, our little nephew decided he didn't want to come on time, and Jess is still patiently awaiting for him to arrive. I'll hopefully be able to post an update and pictures when he comes (scheduled for Thursday if he doesn't come before then).