House Pictures!!

We are getting all settled into our new home in Las Cruces, NM. We are enjoying the sunny weather and all the friendly people- the ward is awesome and so are our neighbors. We had a picnic with our neighbors last week. We have lots of retirees that live around us and Levi got so much play time with the super-nice "Grandmas" there...they fixed his food for him, chatted at him, and played with him on the playground- it was so nice!

We are renting this place. We were under contract to buy another house here- which is why it took us so long to get here and settled. (In fact, we had no home when Matt started working- he stayed in a hotel for a while until we signed our lease). The other house deal fell through because of the appraisal (it appraised lower than we were under contract to pay and the sellers didn't want to lower the price, so we walked), and now I think I'm glad we didn't buy it. This house is actually bigger and a little nicer, and we are paying less every month than we would have been paying for our mortgage. The only downside is we'll be moving again in a year. Anyhow...here's the new place:














We love our bedroom/bathroom, it's really roomy! The boys' room is also a master suite with bathroom. Their bedroom is smaller, but has also has a walk-in closet with plenty of storage for books/toys/blankets, etc. We decorated the bathroom with monkeys, and Levi LOVES his "special monkey bathroom". The front sitting area is nice, because it's always clean- no toys allowed in there. Now I'm just waiting for my piano to complete the room. It got pretty dinged-up in the move, so Matt is refinishing it for me...I can't wait to see it when he's done! Of course, we have one room for our home gym. I had to include the picture of the train jars, because I think they are super-cute, don't you?! The big downside to the house is the yard. It's all xeriscaped, and the back wall is short. Roscoe manages to get out no matter what we try to do. I've found him waiting by the front door several times this week, after he ventures out of the back yard, wanders the neighborhood a while and then decides to come back home...hmmm.