Another birthday and another move!

Yep...Last week I had a birthday and I officially became closer in age to a 50 year old than a 20 year old...How did that happen? I'm sure it was just yesterday that I was 20 and now I am closer to 50...Yikes! Another year, another birthday, what can you say? Danny and the kids brought me breakfast in bed (yum) with a hand-crafted card of course. I went shopping a few days before the big day and bought some much needed new clothes and make up (Danny's not the best gift-giver, so I buy my own and I am okay with that!) Then on the weekend we went out for a yummy steak dinner without kids...yeah! It was a nice way to celebrate my 36 years.
Now on to the move. We were considering buying a house this year because we qualify for the $8000 tax credit in September. However, things are still a little on the shaky side at work, so we got cold feet and decided to continue renting for another year (can you believe that we have been here a year already? Time sure does fly when you have 4 crazy kids!) But, as a way to save some money and make a dent in our school debt, we have decided to downsize and move into a smaller, cheaper rental. I love downsizing! (that was not sarcastic!) I do not want a big house ever! We are going from almost 2300 sq ft (not so big to many of you, but way too much house for me!) to 1650 sq ft...more my size. I love it. I am not organized enough to have a big house, we accumulate too much junk that just keeps ending up all over the place...and it is just too much. Small, well laid out houses are the best.

Anyway, we will be moving at the end of July. While I am excited to move, I am not looking forward to the packing and moving part! Ugh...didn't we just do that? I am also sad to be leaving an awesome ward. We are only moving a few miles away, but it is a new ward and I won't have the convenience of members on my same street (BooHoo!) But, I will be getting a smaller house in an older neighborhood with trees! Yeah! I love trees. And we are just down the street from a cool park and within walking distance to the Rio Grande River and great walking trails (with more trees!) Oh and the owners are going to put in some grass in the backyard...can you imagine grass and trees! Here are s0me pics of our new place:Front of the house

Looking down the street (see those trees!)
The family room
The dining room that will serve as the office/music room
The kitchen

The backyard is really big and the owners are going to let me collaborate on the design of the landscaping (and I will call upon the experts-my family...for those of you that don't know, my family owns a landscaping company in CA...I was just the bookkeeper, so I don't have the design gene!)

I love older houses, they have so much more character. We are moving out of a new, generic, brown box. This house isn't the most beautiful, but I like it a whole lot more. I'm looking forward to it!

In other news...we are off to visit friends and family in Utah for a week and will post about our adventures when we return next week.

Happy 4th to all!