Remebering

Ok, my fabulous wonderful smarty pants brother was able to fix my computer that has been big time messed up for the last month and I am finally able to start posting again!! SO much to post about, so it will all be out of order but oh well! I have been thinking a lot about our old house and wanted to write down as many things as I could remember. Our old house was two stories, 3800 sq ft, 6 bedroom, 4 1/2 bath, 3 car garage, all on 1 1/4 acres. My husband built the house in 1999 (which was originally 2400 sq ft and we, I mean, HE, added on in 2005) and his two brothers built their houses on the property next to us. Until 6 months ago, it was still just the three of us living on our dirt road out in the middle of no where. My kids have had no fences....literally and figuratively. The have basically had 3 houses and almost 5 acres (plus all the surrounding desert) to roam, play, build forts, explore, ride bikes, have picnics and discover all sorts of fun with not only their siblings but their 8 cousins! We have brought home 6 babies to that house; had a set of staples to the head (Hunter), stitches in the ankle (Mason) finger (Emmy), one broken leg (Brigham), one broken nose (Hunter) , a broken foot and arm (sister and niece), WAY to much cuts, scrapes and blood to ever account for; gone through loosing a job, starting a business, 2 miscarriages, making enough money to go and play and go on dates and buy new clothes, and making so little money that not one pay check came into the house for 8 weeks in a row; we went on many camping trips, walks in the desert, trips to Cali, Arkansas, Utah, and even Fiji; we had many memorable Family Home Evenings (that I have recently found out were observed by a peeping family member and her thoughts were "why do they even try, none of the kids are even sitting still??") LOL!! We have watched our children learn to crawl, walk, talk, learn hard lessons of life, fall down, and pick themselves up again. We did many family projects like painting the porch, planting flowers, putting in a garden, building a swing set, a play house, and setting up a trampoline and afew swimming pools. We have had so many families parties at our house I don't even think they could all be remembered! We have had rockin 4th of July parties with fireworks and even a watermelon shooting cannon; Thanksgiving feasts, Christmas celebrations, baby blessings, Birthday parties, Mothers Day & Fathers Day Dinners. Devin has surprised me many times; a decorated family room for Valentines Day, a finished wrap around porch after the kids and I had been away for 3 weeks, a surprise Birthday party, bringing home a brand new 12 passenger van, bringing home dozens and dozens of flowers and so much more I could never finish writing about. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I can't stand having to go back to my old house to finish cleaning it out because I bawl like a baby every time. SO many memories and SO many amazing things that happened there. I have never in my life seen a man work as hard as Devin has to build such a beautiful home for his family. I love where we are and I'm excited to make new memories in a new place, but that house will always be our most special home!!