pictures of home

Think of all the places you have lived. Isn't it great that you can make anywhere feel like home?

No, I am not going to post pictures of every home I have lived in -- that would be a lot! (It was kind of fun this week that I had the opportunity to drive past where my family lived when I was age 7 to 17, but I didn't take a picture.) Growing up I lived in six homes; we were in my fourth when I started kindergarten.

Then, while attending an out-of-state university, I lived with roommates in two different apartments. I came back to my mom's (and I transferred to a local university) until my wedding day.

My husband and I are in our sixth home:

1. Tiny 1-bedroom apartment for 11 months
2. My dad and step-mom's house for 15 months (me, while my husband was in Iraq)
3. 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo for 2 years and 7 months
4. His dad and step-mom's house for 9 months (me and Shboogoo, and then L as well, while my husband was in Afghanistan)
5. Our first house -- 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms -- for 17 months and 10 days (the last 12 months of that my husband was living with us)
6. 2-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom apartment, 200 square feet bigger than the condo

That is a total of fourteen homes in ten cities. Below are my favorite photos of our two most recent homes but mainly the house. We don't have many photos of the apartment yet. We felt a lot of emotions about leaving the house, but not buying it was the right thing to do so that my husband will be able to get a full-time job in any location.

:: WINTER :: We loved looking at the backyard during every season, but we lived in the house for two winters. Being on the east side, we got a lot of gorgeous snow. We often got more inches of snow during a storm than our friends and family did who live in other cities.

I loved those two windows, and the garage.

Deer footprints.

Two neighbors serving me while my hubby was deployed.

Stairs looking down from the door to the
kitchen, and up to the door to the garage.

Looking out from the family room in the finished basement

:: MAIN LEVEL :: I don't think about it a whole lot, but one thing I miss now is that every room in the whole house (except for the storage room) had at least one window.

I love this moment with our girls, but also the quality
of the tile and its diagonal placement.

My husband getting into the attic to work
on the swamp cooler.

I loved the bead board, paint, and honeycomb shades.

The 3 bedrooms upstairs each had a mirror on the
back of the door.

This bathroom was nicely updated, and the 3 mirror
cabinets held a lot. My husband installed this new
faucet with the help of a DIY book.

:: OTHER PICTURES ::

Baby blessing day in January 2010.

Late autumn.

We used the thermostat-controlled gas fireplace very frequently.

Part of my craft room. As a surprise for me, my
husband cleaned up the room, bought the lamp,
the chair and a shelf, and upholstered the tables!

Our next-door neighbor mowing the lawn without
telling us he was going to (we always borrowed a
lawnmower from one of the neighbors).

Daffodils! before deer ate them.

Ward members doing our yard work two days before
my husband was home from his deployment.

A tree in our backyard during the spring.

One of the roses in front of the house.

Pretty tulips and a For Sale sign.

:: NEW APARTMENT :: Here are the two pictures we took of it before we moved in. It was built in about 1980 but they recently remodeled.

This looks like tile, but it's nice linoleum.

We are comfortable here in our new place. Among other reasons, I love that it has the perfect spot for my piano, that the bedrooms are big, and that we have a patio (where the kids love to play) and storage room outside. We like the diversity in the apartment complex -- and in the ward, where we serve as nursery workers together. We're uncertain of what our situation will be a year from now, but this is where we should be for now, and it is home.