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.