Happy Monday!

Winter is here. The snow is here. The cold is here. Yes, the real feel is -13!

Happy Halloween!

The olden days...

Haylee just asked "did people back in the olden days have bathrooms?.... the people from the 70s, 80s and 90s."

Go Broncos!

Game night!

Lasagna!

I've been craving lasagna for weeks now. Really months. Almost years. But we couldn't cook one in our trailer oven... nor could we make one fit in our trailer freezer... so I finally bought one over the weekend. It's a plain ol' stouffers lasagna. It is mighty delicious if I may say so. Well,  Haylee took one bite and said "mom did you make this?!"
"No haylee I just bought it."
"... oh.... well did you cook it and make it hot?"
"Yes."
"You did awesome! This food is AHHMAZZZING!"

That's right. I have, once again, gained top cooker status in this house.

Lemonade stand!

While I was in the trailer packing I looked out the window to see this going on...

A lemonade stand! 

This is the worst place to try and sell lemonade but she was so determined. I called Bret who immediately came over from the shop and brought a bunch of guys with him.

When the first guy asked how much a drink cost she thought about it for a second then said FREE! The guys talked her into selling it for $1.

Look at this little business owner! 

She sold out in a matter of minutes! 

She made over $20!

That whole days she kept saying "Mace we're so rich now we can buy a house! "

Blueprints

This might help to understand the other pictures.

This is the dirt road heading into town. Our driveway is right where pavement starts.

 

Our new home

We're here! I can't say we're all moved in because we're not... but we have been sleeping in our new home (and all in our own new beds) for 4 nights now! It has been amazing! 

The girls took 3 baths in the first 2 days. I find them laying on their bedroom floor coloring all the time. There is so much room for them to run and play! 

Here are some pictures before we moved stuff in. (Except hangers and laundry detergent. I don't know why those were the first things to come in)

Bret standing by the bar area. We want to get bar stools so we'll have somewhere other than the kitchen floor to eat. 

I love that the bedrooms are on opposite sides of the living room. It never really bothered me having the bedrooms right next to each other but now... I love that is separate! It's so easy to keep the girls stuff from spilling over into our room! 

Next is the girls room. As you can see construction is right out our window. The siding is almost done though so everything out there will be cleaned up and kid friendly this month! 

This is the girls walk in closet! 

The laundry room is between the girls room and the bathroom. It's been so nice having a washer and dryer again! I did laundry the first night we were here! 

This is the girls/guest bathroom.

This is our front entry. I love the colors in here by the way. It's not boring white! 

Yes, we actually have somewhere to put our shoes. And coats. Ands backpacks! All the things that didn't have a home in our trailer now fit in this nice little closet! Well pretty much everything we own fits in this closet...

This is a view of our living room from the front door. I love the windows! 

Next is the master bedroom. This is a weird view. It's from inside our room looking toward the bathroom and closet. The door that is half open is the door into our bedroom. 

That's the rest of our bedroom. 

Here is our bathroom. It's slightly smaller than the girls bathroom. There aren't any drawers which is weird... but we have way more space than before! Plus... We have HOT water! It never ends! 

This is our closet. Bret has taken over the two long sections. Mine is the one across the back. 

Oh this is the entry way closet! I'm in heaven! I'm pretty sure this entry way is the same size as our kitchen and dining room in the trailer! 

Here is our monstrous kitchen! I absolutely love it! We've moved all our kitchen things over and only have two cupboards filled! 

There is so much counter space! 

The rest of these pictures are from the evening of day 1. The necessities have been moved in! The only reason they've been moved in is because we had to buy everything you see. That was one stressful shopping day! Everything you could imagine for a home. Beds, mattresses, sheets, pillows, bathroom stuff... for two bathrooms! Couches, hangers, a vacuum!  Everything! 

Here is the girls bathroom.

I love it! 

Our love seat! Super comfy reclining love seat with a drawer on the bottom and a secret compartment in the middle. Plus cup holders. 

I'm on the couch. Lovely soft couch. (If you know Grandma B then you know her couch and these are pretty much the same.) We also have a recliner but for some reason I didn't take a picture of it. 

Here are the bunk beds for the girls. They got to pick their own bedding. Whatever they wanted. Which was actually quite a challenge for me. If you know me you know I hate anything with characters on it! But I was exhausted and they needed bedding so I said yes to whatever they decided on. Which was Doc Mcstuffins and Monster High. 

This is why the girls think we moved into a hotel. We're only second from the end which is nice. 

There are doors at the end of the building with a main entrance in the center. We have two garages straight out of this door but I keep forgetting to park in mine. 

More of our entry way. 

The whole building is locked 24/7. We have electronic keys and if guests come they call us and we buzz them in. Pretty fancy right!

Because we bought so much furniture from the store they threw in these $60 pillows. I didn't even know pillows came in nifty carrying bags!! If you ever have $60 that you don't know what to do with, get one of these! It's basically heaven in a pillow case.

Here is our bed. I did yellow and grey for our bedroom and bathroom. I've added some more pillows to the bed. For some reason I don't have pictures of our decorated bathroom. I'll get those up sometime. 

Here is Haylee unpacking and organizing. The closet looks worse now then it does in the picture. It's going to need some extra help! 

So what do you think? Does it make you finally want to plan a trip to North Dakota?? 

Let the moving begin!

We found a place!!! It really came down to the wire on this move. We found our apartment yesterday and get to move in Monday! 2 days away from being homeless! Our apartment is perfect for us. It's a brand spanking new, 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment. On the first floor with a walk out patio facing the courtyard and soon to be installed playground! It seems so huge! I can't believe how excited I was about a full size stove, a huge kitchen, the ice maker! Everything! Bret and I were trying to play it cool but the smiles on our faces were totally giving it away. We were like kids in Christmas morning! The girls were running wild. Cartwheels in every room! They even climbed in the bathtub and asked if we would turn the water on for them. I'll post pictures of everything next week but for now I just wanted to let it be known that we're not going to be homeless! Ahhhhhhhhh!

Big changes are coming our way!

As many of you know, since our move to North Dakota our living situation has been somewhat of a rocky road. The first month we moved here the city came in and said we had to move. It's been a back and forth battle since. We have been blessed to have been able to stay here for so long but it looks as though our fairy tale is finally coming to an end. We have been given our notice and have 2 weeks to move. I have more emotions than I know what to do with. I wouldn't even call it bitter sweet because I don't want to go. I feel like this has truly been a once in a lifetime experience. This has by far been the best time of our lives. I'm not sure where our road will lead us. One thing I know for sure is I'm not ready. I'm not ready to move. I'm not ready to go back into the big old world. I'm not ready to leave our bubble we call home. Our time here has been so amazing. Our "trailer-hood" has brought us some amazing friends and given us the opportunity to spend much needed quality time as a family. I really feel that we have been living in a fairy tale. Everything has been smooth sailing for us. Yes, we have had our daily challenges and struggles, I'm not saying that 4 people living in a 26' trailer is easy, especially in -60° weather. But this portion of our lives has been my favorite so far. Things have just worked out for us. We've been so blessed to have our problems iron themselves out. Having had these experiences I'm not ready to move into the world. It seems like such a different, busy, scary place out there.

So, wish us luck! We need all we can get if we're going to continue calling Williston our home. We are off to find housing in the most expensive market in the nation. It's happening for real this time!

Let the move (and the tears) begin....

Well it happened...

Winter showed up again this year... Ice on our windows this morning!

It's 30° right now! 

Sneak peak...

We went to the circus! More pictures are coming! 

Crazy hair!-June

As a sort of celebration that school was out we bought the color chalk for hair. The girls LOVED their wild colored hair!

 

Baby kittens!

Its no secret that I do not like cats. I despise cats. They make my heart stop and I want to scream when they touch me. I.do.not.like.them. So...when our neighbors cat had kittens I was not thrilled at all. Haylee, being the animal lover she is, was more than excited. Maycie was nervous but after some convincing from her sister she agreed to hold one. Everyday for months Haylee would escape to the neighbors house to check on the kittens. Thankfully the kittens have all been sent away to a new home...on a farm ;)

 

 

I am excited for the german shepherd puppies that will be born this month though! Its like we live in a zoo! 

Spring Lake Park in June

This park was one of our favorites last year but sometime over the last year they replaced all the old-school-scary-steep-metal slides with lame-overly-safe-plastic slides. Its not the best park to play at anymore but there is still a lake that's perfect for picnics  and a trail going all the way around that's perfect for riding bikes. This was one of those picnic days!

 

 

 

Haylee is quite a little frog catcher!