Crystal Bridges in August 2012

Crystal Bridges is a beautiful place here in Northwest Arkansas. There are pictures from when we visited it with my parents. We wanted to get out one early evening in August, so we decided to check out some more of the trails there. Someday we'll actually go in the museum they have there.

The girls blazed the trail before us.

Allie has a little bit of tree-hugger in her (her mom was a bio major).

 Rachel wanted to dance a little with Mommy.

Pretty Allie on a big rock!

 

Random Pics from August 2012

August was an exciting month since we were leading up to our house closing. But due to hot weather, we also had some down time in the apartment. Here are some pictures from the month.

We mentioned before how Allie was sleeping under Rachel's crib before leaving Oklahoma. Well, her excitement for a really big bed faded after a little bit and she found comfort in another tight space - between the bed and the wall. She probably slept down there for more than half of the time we were living in the apartment.

Rachel improved her climbing skills. The apartment had a high table with tall chairs, as well as tall chairs for the bar. She quickly mastered climbing the chairs, though at times she would attempt it from the back, which didn't turn out so well. So instead of risking her getting hurt, we mostly had all of the chairs lying on the ground.

She also enjoyed climbing into these drawers with toys. The drawers are pretty beat up now. We'll have to invest in another storage system for the toys.

This day, Allie decided to nap on the bed - with her balloon. It was pretty cute.

Rachel still enjoyed eating and getting dirty while doing so.

We were going to go to the pool one day, so Allie got a head start at putting sunscreen on.

Both girls LOVE books. When we got this tote of books out of storage, they were ecstatic!

I got some cute pictures of Rachel.

Allie enjoys pretend play. She will pretend to be different animals, most often a dog or horse. One day she was pretending to be a dog and would bring a little soccer ball to me to throw. She would then fetch it. Rachel wanted to play, too, so she brought me a plastic holiday bowl (like for giving cookies). I'd throw the ball on one side and the bowl on the other. They'd both run after their item and bring it back to me in their mouth. It was pretty cute.

Allie the doggie with her ball in her mouth.

We're buying a house!

A few weeks after arriving in NW Arkansas, we began our house hunt. It was a pretty enjoyable experience. We actually looked at the house we are going to buy when my parents were visiting. It was kind of neat to have them along with us. They have seen the house we are going to own. Out of those they saw, it was their favorite, too. We feel like we got a pretty good deal on it, too. Here are some pictures.

The front

Eventually, we'll take out some of the bushes to allow for different types of gardening, but it looks pretty good as is.

The entry with a little coat closet

If you were to walk in the house and take a left (right on the picture), you first have a door to the laundry room, which leads to the garage. We're very excited about the built in storage in the garage.

If you continue down the hall instead of going into the laundry room, you come to the kitchen.

Another view 

The kitchen pantry is a good size.

Tile in kitchen (the picture was taken more for us, but we're sharing it all the same)

Looking into kitchen from dining room. We are planning on taking out this half wall and putting tile down in the dining room. Who wants carpet in the dining room?! Not us!

Looking the other way into the dining room.

If you walk straight from the entry instead of taking a left to go the kitchen, you would walk into the living room.

Living room with dining room to left,a sliding door to outside, and a gas fireplace.

Another view in living room

Similar view.

We plan on eventually taking out the door that can be seen, which leads into the master bathroom.

Our hallway.

 

There are three doors on the right side: Bedroom 1, Guest Bathroom, and Bedroom 2

Bedroom 1 (Will be Allie's)

The closet

Guest Bathroom

Bedroom 2 (Rachel's)

 The closet for Bedroom 2

The hall closet at the end of the hall

The Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom (looking into master with linen closet behind door)

Another view from same direction. (Toilet is just out of view.)

 Our Master Closet!!

Shelves in the Master Closet

 We are going to replace all the carpet, except for where we will put tile in the dining room. We need to buy a refrigerator and washer and dryer, and put in a little bit of fencing. Thanks to the neighbors, it is mostly fenced. There are a lot of expenses, but we are SOOOOO incredibly excited about our house. It will be so wonderful to have space and a backyard. We close on the 30th of August. We can't wait!

Given the things we are going to be purchasing, we've been making several trips to Lowe's, Home Depot, and other stores. The girls mostly enjoy it. Here's a picture of them enjoying a lawn mower or "tractor."
 

Grandma and Grandpa Bobbie Alton visit mid-July 2012

Because Maria was originally going to get married a few weeks later, my mom had gotten vacation time for mid-July. I was so happy that her and my dad decided to come down South to visit Maria and my families. I always love spending time with my mom. She is a wonderful woman, a spiritual giant, and a great example of faith for me. It was really neat seeing how much Allie attached herself to her. Rachel, who likes men, was a little slow warming up to Grandma Bobbie (she did, it just took a little longer), but Allie wanted to snuggle with Grandma, be with Grandma, do everything with Grandma. She was really sad to see her go. It was fun seeing my dad so soon, too. The girls have a lot of fun with him, and we were all able to do some neat things.

We've told everyone how beautiful Arkansas is, so we wanted to let my mom and dad get to really experience it. We went of a few outdoor walks. One was at Lake Fayetteville, and the other was at Crystal Bridges, which is a museum with lots of trails in the surrounding area.

Here are some pictures at Lake Fayetteville. The girls enjoyed the playground.

Grandma Bobbi playing telephone with Allie

Look what I found! (grass, I  think)

This next group of pictures was from Crystal Bridges.

I don't know if you can notice, but Allie's skort was a little big on her. She had to keep pulling it up or even just hang on to it as she walked and ran. She ran a lot. She used up a lot of energy and got really sweaty. Her skort is probably what kept her within site because it slowed her down.

I tried rolling it up to make it tighter. It helped a little.

We stopped to let Allie have a potty break and for everyone to get some water. Rachel wanted some, but we didn't want to get her out of the stroller because we knew she would cry if we put her back in. So this is what we came up with. She loved it!

We all really enjoyed having my parents visit. It was a special time with fun outings, yummy food (I tried to spoil my mom since it was her vacation), and the best company. Maybe they'll decide they want to move to Arkansas instead of Utah when their house sells. Maybe.