A few days here....

We moved in last Friday so we've only been a few nights in our new home. We've been out to a few grocery stores. We made a trip to Home Depot already for chicken coop building supplies and a rabbit area we have planned. We stopped at a park for some play time and saw a neat dog park too. Its been sunny one moment and overcast the next. It started raining last night and has been off and on today. Some thunder and lighting too which our pups don't appreciate. We have a make shift animal area out back by the shed till their permanent homes get built this week or so. Everyone is exhausted but everyone is happy to be 'home' and here. We're looking forward to a big 4th of July parade Saturday and some fire works fun as well. Unpacking is slow moving but progress is being made daily. We are thankful, grateful and our hearts are filled with this new opportunity in our new town.

Blessed.

Just blessed.

Happy Sweet 16!!

A vacation birthday trip for this sweet 16 girl of mine. Visiting family, getting her first pair of pointe shoes, a trip to the zoo, hanging out with family, birthday party with pizza and cake and a trip to the fair for an Alice and Wonderland theme. Total fun. 

Happy 16th to our sweet, caring, loving, creative girl. My how time goes by so quickly. We are so very proud of the young woman she is growing up to be!

Happy birthday to our daughter!

It's Officially Official

Its definitely officially...official. We picked up the keys to our house yesterday and we are moving! Just about 3 1/2 hours away to the Prescott area. We've had our eye on that area since 2011 when we first traveled there for a 4H show and fell in love with the quaint small town farm community on the outskirts of the area and now we're settling down there.

We've been looking for a rental for the last few months. We've been praying continuously for the last year since returning from Idaho about where we are supposed to be. Its quite unsettling to know you are not supposed to be where you are at but you aren't sure where then. Faith and prayer are the only things we had, we laid down our hearts in front of God and asked him to guide us. God is continuously working in our life. We thought 'we' had a plan. We found land, we wanted to build our own home. At the first of the year that was the plan. And then we ran into a huge bump. I won't lie, it through me off...for a while. I think its easy to say you have faith and trust in God and in his plan when everything is easy and its going how 'you' envision it but you are really tested  in the difficulties of life. You realize you are so small and you must ask God for guidance- we are not meant to go this road, this life alone. He has an outstretched hand for us and we must decide to trust him and take it.

We decided to rent in the area. We saw a large 3 bedroom, top of our price range and applied for it and didn't get it. It was disappointing. We looked at several others, also big homes, big land with big prices. The last home we called on the owner said they had 10 applicants....and then asked if we'd consider a small 2 bedroom home, another rental he had that was less than half the cost of the other rentals we'd been looking at. We prayed. Yes we decided. Downsizing may seem crazy, a tiny old home where our children must share a bedroom doesn't sound like a great move. But it is.

I truly believe through prayer we were guided to this destination for a reason. Now I'm able to cut down on work and we're able to save so much to be able to purchase land and build a home much sooner than if we would have taken the top of our price range rental. Less work- more quality time and a future in sight. I always pray about quality time with my children. Its a hard thing to work so much and feel stretched so thin. When we went to pick up the keys yesterday I couldn't stop smiling. We were home. I wasn't smiling for the house- its old, its small. I was smiling for the future, smiling for all the time I will have with my children, all the possibilities this will give us for our permanent home. Its exciting. And along with smiling I was again praying- I'm so thankful.

God had a plan. It may have not been what we thought we 'wanted' but he KNEW what we 'needed'.

A few pics of our tiny home.....

Front

 Front yard, covered patio

Standing at the front door- looking into the living room space and Dining/Kitchen toward the laundry room hall way and the master bed/bath which the kids are going to share

 Living Room space looking towards a guest bath and a small bedroom where hubbie and I will only be able to fit our bed

 Kitchen - hubbies thinking of building a roll away island to have more counter and storage space

 Kitchen looking toward laundry hallway, door to the backyard and kids master bed/bath

  Laundry - a huge plus because at the moment we're going to the Laundromat each week

Kids Master Bedroom/walk in closet / bathroom

Guest bath- a bathroom is a bathroom!

 Mom and Dads room

Blessed with this tiny house to make into a home for us.