Graduation & Mission

This little boy is growing up.  

First he got his mission call.  This new age for missionaries rocks, but it also means one less year with him than we all thought!  He's basically outta here!  

Here is a little video I did of him opening his call: 

James' Mission Call from Camille Garrison on Vimeo.

And then the next week--he graduated from Weber!  So proud of him and how well he's done.  Here we are at Rainbow Gardens celebrating: 

James,

You'll always be little "blue-eyed, big-bellied bubba boy" to me:)  Love ya, dude.

9 months

This boy is sweet and wonderful.  He and Claire are so different.  She was always independent and adventurous (and walking at 8.5 months).  Alex is more cautious, content, and doesn't like to be on his own.  He likes to be on me, touching me, held by me, or watched 24/7 or he'll fuss.  Total momma's boy.  When I try to practice standing on his own, he will just giggle and sit down. 

He is loving to pull himself up on everything.

And put everything in his mouth to eat.

I am so blessed to have him as my son. I love this boy!

He melts my heart daily. 

Both kids at 9 months old: 

I love my bubs!

New casa & stuff

So. Our house. This is going to be a huge post!!  So much I want to remember. 

A brief (and I mean brief) background on how it came to be (because a lot of this part I'd actually like to forget).  We started looking for houses back in November, we knew it'd probably end up being a long process.  We had an okay relator... but ended up all of the work ourselves (besides having the keys to actually let us in the houses).  Coming down to Lehi was a huge all-day event, sometimes with Claire, but always with Alex. It made for long, exhausting days.  At first it was really fun, but soon got a little frustrating.   We couldn't find "the one" and every time the perfect house came up, it would be gone in a couple of days before we could even come see it.  This happened 4 or 5 times.   Skipping lots of drama and frustration ahead, we started looking into building.  We were almost 100% going to go with a company, put money on the lot, and started picking stuff out.  Ben still kept his eye out for lots to look at, and I was still looking at houses (this is about January now).  Ben saw a lot kind of near where we were thinking of building and he called the realtor representing the lot, Cody Yeck (BEST EVER). She told us about the lot and then just casually mentioned a house down the street that she happened to know was going to be going up on the market soon, but hadn't yet.  She knew the family so she had the inside scoop.  Ben went through it and liked it and wanted me to see it.  I went and saw it... and didn't love it.  

Here are some of the pictures from when I saw it: 

Because we had started putting our minds on "new" and I had ideas of what I wanted... it was really hard for me to see past the things I could change the first time I saw it.  I saw cluttered, old, different colored paint for every room, dirty carpet, not a white kitchen, etc... I LOVED the area, loved the look of the house, but I kind of took it off my list after seeing it. 

The next week or so, I had my mom come down with us to pick some things out at the contractor's warehouse  (since she's built a few homes and knows what's going on).  After doing that, we drove her around to some of the houses and lots we had told her about.  As an afterthought, I drove her past this house, telling her about it and that I didn't like it.  She said, "Wow, the inside must be awful and have something really wrong with it to not like it based on what the outside looks like..." so I just said to Ben, "Call the realtor and see if the family would let us go through it one more time, really quick."   Low and behold, the realtor answered, the family answered, they said yes (as we were parked outside) and they let us through.  My mom was in love. We were downstairs in the family room and she started pointed everything out that I told her I wanted in a home, showing me that it had it. She helped me see past the things we could change and was basically telling me, "CAMILLE. THIS IS THE ONE."  And then I knew (thanks, mom, for always being the voice of reason and logic).  It was such a funny moment because then I was all giddy and said, "Wow! It IS the one!" and was so anxious to talk to the realtor and get an offer in.  

This house was definitely meant for us. We couldn't be happier and things worked out perfectly for us to get it.  We could be here for the rest of our lives if we wanted. 

Things I wanted in a dream house (that THIS house has!!):

Ivy

Backyard

Close park

Loft (bonus room) above the garage

Finished basement

Play area under the stairs

White kitchen

Big trees

Close to mountains

Awesome schools and neighborhood

Fireplaces

Brick/rock/wood on outside

Hardwood floors

And the list goes on!! 

Now on to the updating.  We had a few bids come in for painting the whole house the same color (including touching up doors, closets, and trim).  We also wanted the kitchen white and all the cabinets of the bathrooms and laundry white. And staining the fireplace mantle and railings.  The bids were outrageously expensive.. but after lots of stress, we found Jose! Love that guy!  He did the entire house, including all we wanted, epoxy garage floor, painting the entire garage, staining  white cabinets, everything for under $5k. Talk about a steal. And they did such an amazing job. WE LOVE IT.  It feels like a totally new house.  We also got new carpet and are obsessed with it.  

I am obsessed with this house.

Here's some pictures after the paint *but still with the old carpet. 

Before/after:

And then the move!  Things were done with the house in a week and we moved quickly and last minute--without much help (thank you Nick, Brad, Raquel, mom and Brooke and James!) and were in for Mother's Day.  Best Mother's Day present ever!! 

We have the best neighbors.  They are so welcoming and awesome!  They brought us a meal, came and said hi, took Claire to play a lot so we could unpack... love them.

I love to unpack FAST. But man, it has been slow with these two kids.  First week or two was pretty rough but we are finally getting really settled and actually getting some furniture (we had nothing) to sit on and put things away in. 

Claire's room (which is the same room as that yellow painted room from before--see above):

My office:

We bought a lawn mower!  Yay for mowing our own lawn! 

And here's some happenings the last few weeks:

Come to find out--one of my good friends from EFY back in the day, Ashley Terry, lives down the street! She has a girl Claire's age and a boy Alex's age! We are so excited! 

We were able to go to Brett Nielson's 30th bday party and see a lot of Ben's mission companions:

My cousin Kim came down yesterday to see the place and catch up.  It was so fun! 

Fever and ear aches last week. So glad they're feeling well now. 

Claire went through a week where she liked to sleep in our bed:) We'd put her to bed, go to unpack downstairs or outside and come back to find her there.

More friends! 

I've been cutting Claire's hair her whole life, waiting for it to all even out so I could do this cute bob. I love it and we get compliments wherever we go. 

Saturday naps.

We've loved driving around and have found some camels! 

The Creekside park in Alpine is amazing. Love that splash pad!

Anyway--we love it down here.  Life is good!  Excited for this house to become our home.