Our Home- The Before Pictures

 Our air shipment arrived after one week.  It came on a Friday.  We started unpacking and organizing but decided to sleep back at the apartment one more night and then we moved into our house on Saturday.  We had everything we basically needed.... except we didn't have any chairs.  Oops.  So we lowered the folding table as low as it would go (which was perfect for Ellie!) and we sat on the floor for our first dinner in our new home.   This is us making the best out of our situations :)

 When we were setting up the air mattresses, the converter/adapter wouldn't blow up Owen's for some reason, so Brian blew it up himself!  And surprisingly it's lasted this whole time!  Not sure why Ellika doesn't have a shirt on, but that girl would be happy to run around naked all day if I let her, so it doesn't surprise me!

 When it was all blown up, Brian was pretty sure he was going to die!

 But he has slept well ever since. 

 This is what our house looked like for the first couple days.  And this was only the air shipment!!  I'm a little worried when all the other stuff comes! 

 After church on Sunday we asked the Bishop if we could borrow 4 chairs from the church.   We have been so grateful he said yes!  These are the only chairs in our house!  But they make eating much more enjoyable!!!

 After a couple days organizing we have things semi-put together.  I'm very excited for real beds and dressers to come!!! 

 Ellie is sleeping on her crib mattress. 

 This is the fourth bedroom.  It's not actually big enough for a bed (unless it's Ellie's crib mattress I guess) so we are using it as a playroom.  We put a three piece wardrobe closet in here for our coats and to store some toys in, but I think when our stuff comes this room will be very full!

 This is our bedroom.  I'm hoping these will make really good before and after pictures.  Which means I hope the after pictures are drastically different!!  Our first night on the air mattress was not a good one.  Every time we moved it would make this really loud noise.  So the next night we put a sheet under the mattress and it has made a huge difference.  Then the next night we were both freezing!!!  For some reason the heat had gone off in the house.  Thankfully Brian was able to fix it the next day and we put a blanket under our sheet and that has helped too.  Seriously, it has been a learning process!!  And it's mostly trial and error!

 Above is a picture of our closet in Michigan.  It was huge.  Along one whole side is Brian's stuff and then along the back wall and around the corner was all of my stuff.  Owen and Ellika each had nice sized closets in their rooms, we had an extra closet in the office for our coats and then we had a coat closet by the front door.  We were spoiled.  Below are pictures of our closet situation now...

 This is the closet in our bedroom..... only big enough for Brian's clothes and some of our shoes.

 And this the only other closet in the house.  It is in Owen's room.  So the top half is mine, the bottom is for Owen and Ellika.  We definitely down sized our closets!!!  I'm not sure where all our other coats are going to go when they get here.  Guess we'll figure it out!!

 Our bathrooms are nice.... but they have pedestal sinks and so no cupboards or drawers.  I don't like having stuff showing so I'm hoping to make some changes here too!

 The kids have really enjoyed having a backyard (garden).  They like to look for bugs and sticks.  I think it is a nice size.  Especially coming from a condo where we didn't have any yard work to do.  This is like a pre-yard to see how much we want when we get our next home.   Brian mowed the lawn the other day and it took him like 20 minutes.  Not bad!

 This is the back of our house.   You can get to the backyard through the doors in the kitchen or the living room. 

 I'm thinking we won't need to do any spraying for dandelions this year because Owen and Ellika are very good at picking them and giving them to me.  Aren't they sweet kids!

 They love having races!!!

 My first attempt at taking a list with me to the grocery store.  It was actually very funny to try to get something that I thought might work.  Above you are seeing the small bottle of syrup, some Indian things I thought might work for tortilla chips, a can of chili, a can of mixed beans (but I really wanted black beans), my only option for sour cream came in this Old El Paso combo pack with salsa and guacamole, and the smallest bag of chocolate chips ever.  I have sense asked around and been to a couple different stores and I think I could find most everything I need.  Costco helps a lot too.  Although I haven't been able to find 100 calorie popcorn... so if anyone wants to send us a package :)) Just kidding. 

But I do have to say, I really like one feature on my sink.   Do you see the turn dial in the front, middle?  Okay, you turn it to drain the water.  So if you have done dishes and the water has turned cold or yucky you don't have to put your hand back in you just turn the dial.  Brilliant.