Our New House - Phase 1: Framing

We are so excited to be building our first house in Sandy, OR and wanted to post pictures for all of you to see the progress that is being made.  Below you can see that our lot has a bit of a slope.  We will have a flat driveway, but quite a few stairs going up to the first level of the home.  Hooray for exercise!

The beginning of framing!

The den:

The inside of the den:

The dining room:

The kitchen and pantry:

The nook and two-story great room:

View from the backyard of the house:

Lacey and Papa walking up from the garage to the mudroom:

More pictures to come:)

Afternoon at the Park

The weather has been usually beautiful this year for May.  The last 2-3 weeks we've had sunny 70-80 degree days and we're LOVING it!! The best part about the warm weather is that we get to enjoy time outside.  Last week, we discovered a new park in our neighborhood that has become our new favorite.  It has two nice playgrounds, lots of grassy space to run around, a basketball court, a duck pond and lots of walking trails.  When we go in the afternoon, we sometimes have it all to ourselves!

Lacey loves to go down the slide...

...and run...

...and swing.  If this isn't the look of PURE JOY, I don't know what is!

We had so much fun today and we'll be back soon!

Other news from today: Bryce is getting his braces off next week!  I have about 7 more weeks left on my braces.  Both of us are excited to see our final results and are so grateful to Dad for doing them for us!

Saturday morning Nutella face!!!

Friday Fun Day!!

Yesterday I took Lacey to an indoor play park and it was FANTASTIC!!! Toys galore! As soon as we arrived she was off and running from toy to toy. We will have to make another visit soon!

Lacey's Walking!!!

This one is for Auntie Heather and the rest of the family!  Lacey has been walking for about 3 weeks now and gets more and more confident every day!

TV and Tummy Time

I've been trying to give Lacey some tummy time every day to strengthen her arms and neck. Tonight we set her down on our automan while watching a show and she was so entertained watching the tv that she stayed on her tummy much longer than she usually does. We thought it was pretty cute!!!

Getting ready for Portland

It has been a very busy week in the Stevenson household. We are getting ready to move up to Portland next Friday and so our house is feeling less like a home and more like a storage unit with boxes piling up everywhere. The nice thing about this move (this will be the fourth time that Bryce and I have moved since being married) is that we have had a little bit more time to purge while packing. The youth in our ward are doing a yard sale fundraiser and a canned food drive, so everything that we don't want or use anymore can go to a good cause. Although we have our little one to take care of, I feel like this move hasn't been as hectic as the last three. Maybe it's because we've been anticipating it for the last six months.

I've been blessed to have the help of friends from our ward help me pack up the kitchen - is the kitchen the most daunting part of the house to pack up for anyone else?? With four of us working yesterday, it only took about 2 hours to pack up all of the dishes. Now if I can just finish the pantry today - we'll be doing well.

In between packing boxes, I've been enjoying spending time with our Lacey. She is growing so quickly and it seems like there are new things that she is doing every day. After her bath a few nights ago, she was smiling and talking to us in her own little way. Bryce grabbed his phone and captured the moment in the two videos below...

Blessing Lacey

With Bryce's family in town for Rochelle and Josh's wedding, and Grandmama Mary here for the week, we decided to bless Lacey on Sunday, February 19. We had almost 30 family members present for the blessing! Grandma Stevenson gave Lacey her blessing dress and Grandmama Mary found her headband.

Unfortunately, I forgot to pack a white onesie for Lacey to wear under her blessing gown and she was quite uncomfortable in her dress as a result. She was a little angel while Bryce pronounced her blessing and then asked to be changed into something a little more comfortable afterwards.

Because we did not take family pictures with Lacey in her blessing dress on the day of her blessing, Bryce and I dressed up today! We will just pretend that the pictures below were taken last Sunday...