There is so much to cover because I haven't written in a few months. My excuse is that I was too busy living life to record it (or I procrastinated, but I like the first reason better). There are four major things I want to cover: Susan's wedding, Nicholas coming home, buying and moving into our first house, and how adorable Paige is. Each of those topics deserve a post on their own, so forgive me for cutting out details.
Wedding: My sister got married! Susan is child number four in our family, but the only other married sibling I have. She married Joe Harris in June. It was a beautiful wedding. I had been helping for months before, so it kind of felt like showtime on their wedding day to make sure all of our plans came together. They were sealed in the morning in a beautiful ceremony at the St. George temple. I loved seeing how excited they were and how much they loved each other--it brought back memories from my wedding day and how eager I was to be married to Stephen (best decision ever).
We took pictures afterwards and went to the luncheon. That was put on by Joe's family and they did such a great job that we borrowed some of their decor for later that evening. After lunch, it was a race to make sure all the last minute details came together. I decided to print off slips of jobs that needed to be done during setup of the reception since I knew we only had an hour to decorate. I'm so glad I made the job assignments because then it was really easy to give the needed information to the many kind helpers who showed up early to set up. We finished with 10 minutes to spare, which is pretty great.
The reception was everything we had planned for it to be, and Susan and Joe were a lovely bride and groom. After the sendoff, cleanup happened pretty quickly, too. I'm so grateful for all the help that day. It was a wonderful day with family, and I'm grateful for weddings that bring people together. Joe and Susan are great together, and it was nice to celebrate their marriage that day.
Homecoming: Stephen's brother, Nicholas (also child number four in their family), came home this summer from his LDS mission in France. I went to the Salt Lake Airport to see him during his layover for a bit with some other family members. It was his first time meeting Paige too, since he left while I was pregnant two years ago. The next day, Stephen, Paige, and I drove up to Boise to spend a week with the Rollins family.
Nicholas gave a great homecoming talk on Sunday. It was fun to see how much he has grown and how much he is still the same. The main differences include his bilingual abilities and his hair. Since it was the first time in two years all of Stephen's siblings were together, we spent the next week having a stay-cation in Boise (though for us, it was an actual vacation) for our Rollins Reunion. We swam at a lake, went hiking to a waterfall, played in a park, watched Finding Dory, went golfing, and played a lot of games. We were really grateful to spend so much time with family.
House: We bought a house! Crazy, right? We are young for homeowners (I'm 24 and Stephen is 25), but we were ready to start building equity. The process was crazy to find a house as the market is really hot right now, but the moment I saw the listing for this house, I knew I wanted it. I was ready to put an offer in without walking it, though we did wait until the next morning after we walked through it to make a strong offer. After some back and forth, they accepted our offer. That whole process took from Friday night to Monday night.
The next month was a long process of paperwork and waiting. Stephen handled most of it, which I am so so grateful for. Our agent was great and our lender was very helpful. I would highly recommend both of them. We finally closed on the house a week and a half ago and moved in last weekend. Guys, this is such a great home for our family. Five bedrooms, four bathrooms, completely finished basement, granite counter tops in a large kitchen, huge master bathroom with a separate shower and soaking tub--the list goes on.
It's located in Daybreak, which is a community in South Jordan, UT. We are right by the elementary school, really close to a pool and the lake, as well as several parks within a few blocks of us. I can't imagine a better location. There is also shopping close by with any store I could want. We share a grassy area known as the courtyard with several other houses, so Paige will have a great play space as she grows to share with her neighbors (and we won't have to mow it). We also have great neighbors who have been helpful and friendly. I look forward to getting to know them more and making strong friendships since we plan on being here for a while.
Paige: I have a full-blown toddler. Paige is vivacious. She has been really resilient with all the action and changing going on around her. She is very vocal now, and while her language isn't quite English, I can understand her pretty well. She says "yeah" consistently, and most of the time, she even means it. She loves dogs ("dawdaw"), ducks ("dawdaw"), and daddy ("dawdaw"). She gets excited for dinner time ("ninneh") and knows we need to pray before we eat. Lately, when I haven't given her the food quickly enough, she will fold her arms, babble, and then say amen ("ma") and blow a kiss all on her own, thinking this will bring her food quicker (Stephen and I try to kiss after we pray, so she consequently thinks all prayers end with a kiss).
Paige has come to like water. She enjoyed swimming during our Boise trip, and has since settled down during bath time. She even enjoys it now, which was not the case a few months ago. She loves to read and brings me books--we've read through all the ones we own so much I can basically quote most of them without looking. Paige loves being a helper. She adores the praise we give her when she does things to help us. She learned how to throw away her own diapers, which is great, but now thinks it's "helping" to put anything into the trashcan, which has led to some digging adventures for us. She wants to help load and unload the dishwasher, mostly by hiding the silverware around the house. She will close doors for us and is all too excited to hand me toilet paper when I need it in the bathroom (yeah, I get an audience now--full blown toddler, remember?).
Paige is learning how to do stairs in our new house. She's only had two tumbles, and both of those were in the first two days of living here. Since then, she has learned to go down stairs backwards, and while I still want to spot her, she's fully capable of going up and down on her own. She thinks she is one of the big kids, too. Anytime she gets to play with children older than her, she loves it. She's been doing great in nursery and is excited to play at the new parks we're taking her to. I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of anything else to mention. She's just my little buddy.
As you can see, our Summer has had a lot of life-changing events. We are really excited for our new circumstances and for our setup. We are honestly in a good place. There have been difficulties, sure, but there have also been so many kind people helping us. I am so grateful for God and how He is watching over me and my family. We have truly been blessed.
