2014

2014 was quite the year!  On New Years Day, Brandon and I sat and talked about how much had changed in just this one year.  We decided that our biggest change of the year was leaving our beloved Middleton and moving to Pocatello. 

Last year at this time, Brandon had just accepted his job at Simplot, was just finishing his last few days at Amalgamated Sugar, and we had no idea how things were going to work out.  We had just met with our realtor and got the process started with selling our home.  Brandon would be living with my parents in Pocatello during the week and then he would be driving home each weekend to see me and the boys in Middleton. 

It would be a long three months of Brandon only being home on weekends and me being a single mom trying to sell our house the rest of the week.  During this time, I found out that I had kidney stones and would be needing surgery for them.  It was a little stressful :)  Thank goodness for our wonderful friends and neighbors who were willing to babysit during doctor appointments, and for my parents who came to take care of me and the boys when I had the surgery.   

 Luckily, we only had our house up for about a month before we got a great offer on it and we were set to close by the end of March.  That meant that we had to find a home in Pocatello very quickly so we wouldn't have to deal with renting.  So instead of Brandon coming home for the weekend, the boys and  I would be visiting Pocatello to find a house.  

We had been looking online at houses for sale since Brandon took the job, and Brandon had look at a couple of them by himself, so we felt like we had a pretty good idea what was available.  We put an offer on a house the first day I was there, but it fell through.  I then had a panic attack that we would never find a home in Pocatello.  The next day, we went with our realtor and looked at the few houses we thought might be okay.  

I was quite disappointed with Pocatello's home selection, and just didn't really love anything like I loved our Middleton home.  Brandon, however, saw our Pocatello house for the first time and was ready to buy it then and there.  We put an offer on it and through out the next couple of weeks we worked out a contract to close on it when we closed on our Middleton house.

Then the packing started.  I have since told Brandon that I never ever want to move again.  Packing up everything you own really is not very fun!

On March 21st, we closed on both houses and started our new life here in Pocatello.  It was so nice to be together as a family again and to be done with the stress of selling a house and buying a house.  Although, when Brandon and I got the keys to our new home, I may have wanted to cry.  We left our beautiful, new, clean house in Middleton and came to a much older, very worn, and very dirty house.  I just couldn't picture us actually living there before it was completely redone.  Thank goodness for my parents and siblings who came and helped us unload everything and did some major cleaning and sanitizing so that I felt like we could actually bring the boys into the house.  

Brandon was thrilled with the house, however, and couldn't be happier to call the Thunder Beast Ranch home.   

I am happy to say that I have since changed my mind about The Ranch.  Since we have fixed and redone some of the house, I can now say that I do love this house {or I guess I love where I can see the house being when we are done redoing it}.   

I love that we now get to see all these people all the time now, and Brandon's side of the family far more frequently than ever before.  I love the relationships that my kids have with all their aunts and uncles and grandparents and great grandpa.

And I love that we will be bringing this sweet baby girl home to The Ranch {and the adorable room we fixed up for her}.  I love that she will grow up so close to family and her BFF Ellisyn.

2014 was quite a year!  It started out very stressful and we had no idea where we would be by the end of it.  Well, we ended it in a pretty good place.  Brandon is loving his new job and all the opportunities that come with it.  The boys are growing too fast, love seeing family all the time, and are happy and healthy.  I am feeling settled and like things have finally come together.  And we are all so excited for little Miss Lexington to join our family sometime this month.  It has been a good year, and I know that the best is yet to come.