Our Home

A house is just a house. The people that live in the house and the memories that are created there make it a home.  This is home.

It's funny, because for as long as I can remember, we have been looking for another house.  We wanted a bigger yard and more space to spread out. (Below is our backyard.)

But as we got ready to move and really say goodbye, we realized just how much we loved our home.  We have so many memories tied to the house.  It's where we became a family. 

 

We found the house together as we were dreaming of our future together. We bought it hoping we would be ready to be married by the time it was done being built. 

We picked out all of the options, cabinets, floors, tile, etc. 

We even added a few upgrades that weren't on the list, like extra lighting, a pool door for the pool we never put in, cable in the garage so Jason could watch TV while he worked on whatever, and my favorite not in the book option, our raised fireplace mantle.   

We went over to the house almost daily to watch the progress.  It was such a fun time.

Each piece of furniture has a memory tied to it.  We often bought furniture with some event in mind or happened across a great deal while we were out shopping, etc.

As I look at these pictures, I see spaces where we sat with friends and other areas where my babies played.   

I remember when we first moved in and didn't have very much furniture, we put the trampoline in the living room.  The kids thought it was great!  It was fun until I realized there were hand prints up higher than I could clean!

I remember Jason tracking down the baby gate that is at the top of the stairs when Ashlyn started to crawl.  It was hard to find something that matched and that would be sturdy enough to keep our little one safe.

 So many memories are made in the kitchen!

Some of my favorite memories are making cookies with the kids.

Our living room was the heart of our home.  We spent most of our time here.  When the house was built, we decided not to have the TV area built in because we weren't sure how big our TV was going to be.  We love home projects and finally got around to "building in" our TV area last year.

I always loved that our living room was open to our kitchen.  It was great for big gatherings.

Our guest room was once known as Ronna's room.  We always loved to have her come visit. We decorated with her in mind and for months were on the look out for the perfect chair to put in there for her.  Lauren moved into into the room for about a year and then we decided we didn't like having one of the kids downstairs so we moved her back upstairs.

The Laundry Room that never ever looked like this except for the day we moved in and long enough for me to take this picture to list our house for sale. 

Ahhh. Paige's nursery.  I love this room and all the memories tied to it.  Here is the link to the post when we did it. http://rickardsfamily.blogspot.com/2011/02/nursery.html

This was Jessica and Ashlyn's room.  I wish I had a wider lens so you could see the room better.  More projects, more memories.  http://rickardsfamily.blogspot.com/2012/04/project-loft-bed.html

Lauren's room when we moved her upstairs.  We never quite got around to making it how she wanted.  She had cute blue and yellow Roxy bedding that didn't match the purple walls.  She agreed to go back to her old surfer girl theme until we could paint the room. It used to be Ashlyn's nursery.  Sadly, I lost most of my pictures a few years ago and the only pictures I have are of the finished product in Ashlyn's baby book. 

Austin's room

Our room

My Bathroom

The Loft

Our garage that we made into another play room for the kids.

So many memories that I will never forget.  So much love, so much history.  Goodbye house on Perry Avenue. 

Water Park

We bought season passes to Wild Water again this year.  We didn't go as often as Ashlyn and Paige would have liked, but we had a good time when we went!  We often went with our neighbors that we love!

 Here is Ian, Ashlyn and Katie

 Paige and Lauren

 Jessica and Kylie

                                                Ashlyn

Jason and Paige who was a little fish!  She LOVED the water park!

Look at her little tongue as she scoots herself down the slide!  Too cute!

Lauren loves to help with Paige

Kylie, Paige and Jessica

Paige

 Jason and Paige

 Paige and Ashlyn

Katie and Ashlyn

The Rest of July

July came and went pretty quickly.  After being invited in June to run the St. George Marathon, I decided I should probably start running!  I love running, but I don't love mornings.  In Clovis, that is a major conflict.  By 8AM, on most days, it is too hot to run more than I couple of miles.  So, with the help of my sister, I dragged myself out of bed a few times at some dark hour in the morning to get out and run.  I always love it once I get going.  Looking at my new shape these days, you wouldn't know that running is part of who I am, but it is.  It makes my heart happy.

I love watching the sunrise.

 I saw this hot air balloon one morning on a run.  That is something that I've never done, but is on my list of things to do before I die.  I'd have to go with Jason though because I also have a funny thing with heights.

 My mom had another birthday but I don't think I could tell you which one.  I'd have to figure out how old I am, then I'd know how old Jen is and my mom is 20 years older than that.  Age is just a number and birthday's are just a good excuse to get together with friends!  So, we did. Lunch with our friends (lots of them cross over these days) and then some of the group went out on Jen's boat for the afternoon.  I had to get back to the kiddos.

We decided one day we really needed to clean out our closet.  We figured the best way to do that is to take everything out and only put back in what we really thought we would wear.  I could not believe how much stuff we had in there!!!

Here is half of the empty closet.  I didn't think you would care enough to see both sides.  And of course I forgot to take an after picture, but it looked fabulous, I assure you.  We took three huge construction bags to Goodwill.

We had some good snuggle moments with Paige.  She is getting more snugly as she gets older.  Of course, I'm thrilled!

I went to dinner with my dear friend Talia from high school.  I haven't seen her in years and it was good to reconnect.

I found this ridiculous display of craziness in the kids bathroom.  Really?  Come on!  Really?  At least they were following the rule about not leaving dirty clothes on the floor.  I wonder how much longer they would have kept it up before they brought it all down to the laundry room.  I should have realized I wasn't really that on top of it when I finished all the laundry in the laundry room!

Our friends, the Lawrences, moved to Utah in June and came back for a visit in July.  Taia is in the center and is a good friend of Jessica's.  Austin and Jessica seem to always have something going on.  Fun to be teenagers with a social life.

I love regular life pictures.  Here are Paige and Ashlyn on a Costco trip with me and Jason.

Travis came for a visit and took the kids up to his dad's house.  They had cake to celebrate Jessica's birthday.  I can't remember right now what else they did, but I got this cute picture from Austin's Facebook page.  I love that the kids joke around with each other in between fighting and eye rolling.

Paige is a totally crib snob and really won't sleep anywhere but in her bed.  Jason had very little time off at his new job and between those two things, we decided not to make the trip to Whiskeytown this year.  The big kids went with my parents and the Bohn's and had a great time!  Next year, we will be there.  Here is a picture from Austin's Instagram on the way up there.  Yes, I stalk my children.  It's the only way to get pictures of them! 

The new thing, well getting old now, but still newish, is taking pictures of yourself in the mirror to post on Instagram.  Here is a cute picture of Austin, also from his Instagram, all ready for church.

And last picture from a  non "event" in July, is of Paige playing in the back yard with the neighborhood cat.  She loves that cat!  Good thing it is extremely patient!