Home Sweet Home

Justin Deserves Some Recognition So while we were building our house we were very aware of how many people around us were struggling. We have been so blessed in the past few years as we rode the real estate boom with a house in Chandler and some land in ShowLow and were able to save a reserve to allow us to buy some land in Chandler to build a house. It was a risky deal as we had to buy a larger piece and bank on the plan to split it and sell it before we ran out of money making the payments for the whole thing. Lucky for us, we got a buyer within three months, and originally we split the lot into two 1.25ac pieces, but the buyer wanted slightly more land, so we re-surveyed and had the .25 shaved off of ours to give him 1.5acres. He paid us enough more for the extra .25ac that we were able to add an unfinished basement to our plans! It was really a miracle for us because less than a week after we closed the deal his wife changed her mind and decided she didn't want to live there. T...

As sweet as Adaira is asleep she is even more beautiful while she is awake. Her blue eyes pop and her smile is so precious. We love her so much. These were taken as we waited for Brighton on her first day of school.

Tender Moments Every morning we have to check on Adaira. It's a routine now because half of the time she isn't in her room. The first few times we were alarmed because you think of some crazy man stealing her through the window or something, but we are used to it now. This is usually where we find her: in Brighton's room. Sometimes we find her next to him, sometimes opposite him with her head on the other end, or occasionally on his top bunk. This was where we found her last night. They fight as much as they love on each other, but this is precious with her little arm on him.

Brighton Goes to School Brighton had his first day of Kindergarten today! I sniffed a little bit after dropping him off at his classroom but today was a work day for me so after I went to work it didn't seem any different because either way Brighton wouldn't have been with me. Tomorrow all day with just Adaira and I will be different. Here is Brighton just before we left to school. He had his backpack straps on both shoulders but then took one strap off and said "some kids wear it this way." Gettin' a hug from his little sister Not such a great picture, but the bus got him home okay! Justin came home a little early to be with us to meet Brighton. Afterward we went and got ICEE's to celebrate

Oh So Helpful! Brighton took it upon himself to charge the battery to my camera since it was low. Now he can't remember where he put it and I can't find it anywhere, so no new pics for a while. Kids....gotta love 'em.

We love the Monsoons! We had a downpour for almost two full hours with 45-50mph wind gusts. The kids loved playing on the patio but once the wind started they got freaked out. It knocked out our power for about 4 hours and partially flooded our basement (good thing it's unfinished!) A few hours into it I called my parents, who only live three miles West & four miles North, to see if they still had power and they hadn't even gotten any rain! The fun ended once I told Justin he aught to check the basement to see if the rain was filling up the window well. The rain ran down the outside stairs to the basement, flooding the stairwell all the way up to the bottom of the door and into the basement. We (mainly Justin) had mostly cleaned it up by the time we took the pictures. We hadn't even removed the duct tape from the cover of the drain in the stairwell and we couldn't turn on the sump pump because we didn't have power! He was filling up two buckets and running them ...

Is this thing on? The house was complete enough to move into in March. We are not done, but we probably never will be completely finished with the house. Our construction blog is at: http://www.ownerbuilderbook.com/blogs/users/OwensNewHome.aspx There is nothing like driving home from a long day of work and seeing the house we built. It is very satisfying. Just this morning Audra said "I love our house". The particular comment was in reference to the sumptuous kitchen cabinet space that we have yet to fill up. It is much easier to find things when the cabinets are 50% full vs 100% full. We are about to embark upon a journey of having our third child (a boy) and quite possibly a 6 month relocation. More details to come . . .