Basement

Ahh, the basement. This is the first full basement we have ever had, and can I tell you how much I am loving it! It has been an awesome addition to space for our family.

Laundry room "before"

"after"

As you can tell, we made this the catch all room. I moved the dryer over closer to the washer (having it across the room was a pain). Then I moved in my sewing table (which is our old computer desk, but nice to be able to keep my sewing machine out all the time) and we moved our workout equipment in. It works out really well, ha ha.

Little room "before"

"after"

This room had no windows, so we just made it a storage rooml. This is most of the stuff that was out in our garage for lack of space in California. This is the storage we wanted "access" too. The stuff that is "deep" storage goes up in the attic.

big room "before"
"after"
This room probably saw the most dramatic change. We had housing lay carpet, and we kept an army loan couch. This has become the play room or kid hang out room. The kids already have tons of fun down here with their friends.

Can you believe that all these toys used to be in the kids rooms!!!

This will also double as a guest area, should the need ever arise. Hint hint...

Cora's cubby "before"
"after"

Cora is proud to announce that she was able to keep her "cubby", but the boys did move in too:)

Kitchen/ Half bath before and after

O.K., not the most interesting, but hey, it's still part of our house.

Half bath "before" and "after"

Kitchen "before"

kitchen "before"

"after", tell Grandma Gale, that I still have my apples!

"after" again

not sure why I put this one on, but I can't get it to delete...so you get to look at even though not much changed between the before and after.

Living/dining before and after

These next few posts will probably be pretty boring to most. They are mainly for family, well those that have been bugging for the "after" pictures of our place. Now that we are all moved in, I am finally getting to posting those pictures for you guys. I thought it would be fun to post the before and then after pictures by each other. So, here we go...a tour of the Jeppson residence.

This is the "before" picture of a little entry alcove near the front of our house.

Here is the "after"

We ended up putting our computer hutch right there in the entry. The nice thing is, it closes all up so the computer isn't neccessarily the first thing you see. It just so happen's that ALL the computer and phone hookups are right there in the front of the house, or over by the T.V., no where that was convenient to put a computer desk (like by the dining room table or bookshelves), so this is where it ended up. I am ok with it now, even though it wasn't my first choice. There are no wires strung through out the house, which would have been the case if the computer was elsewhere, and it is still in a public area. So it works.

Dining area "before"
"dining" area after.
a few of our chairs didn't make the move in tact. They were broken before anyway, so we are short a chair. But that is fine, because we pull the highchairs up to the table for meals anyway.
Living are "before"

Living area "after"
I couldn't really get a good shot of the angle I wanted. So the next few pics are of the living area from different view points.

So, that is the living/dining area's of our sweet german house.

Pottenstein

So about a half hour from where we live is this little village called Pottenstein. It is also known in German circles as "little Switzerland". It is like you are driving in a little town, tucked away in the swiss alps. All the homes are wood trimmed with shutters, nestled in this little ridges and hills in the sides of the cliffs that shelter the town. It is very atmospheric, and I fell in love with it. Don't I say that about every town I visit...there is just so much to love about Europe!

While there we visited the lime stone caves that are on the edge of town.

They are called

Teufelshohle Caves

This is a picture of the girls coming out of the caverns. Once out, we were on this trail that wound back to the cave entrance, but it was an amazing little hike. It felt like we were miles from civilization. We also got to see saber tooth tiger skeleton/fossil inside the cave, Mammoth bones, and the remains of an Ice age man. It was a pretty cool cave.

There was a mini golf course nearby, so we decided to stop and play a round.

The boys LOVED it!

I love these little European doors. It almost looks like Matt might take off his head if he goes through, but he has just enough clearance.

Where does this door lead...

To this!

A beautiful Baroque style church. You would never guess at the oppuelence and beauty that is held inside these old churches.

Out and about on the cobble stone streets of Little Switzerland.

Here are some shots of the Schloss that is located above the little town. It doesn't really have a name, but most just call it Schloss Pottenstein.

It was a wonderful little adventure, discovering this town.

Bayreuth

We have mostly been concentrating all our trips on little day outing close to home. This jewel of a town is only about 45 minutes away. I fell in love with it. It has a rich history of music, being the birthplace of the famous german composer: Wagner.

This is the famous opera house

Markgrafliches Opernhaus

This, like most buildings in Europe, Looks pretty general and non-descript on the outside.

But then you step inside and see....

This!

This is facing towards the back, so you can see the "princes box"

This Opera house is considered the "crown Jewel" of Germany.

Napoleon came to this opera house, and loved the blue velevet curtains so much that he sent them as a gift to a Duchess in Vienna. They have never replaced the stage curtains, instead they have thin wood and canvas painted to look like blue velvet curtains. It is still very beautiful, but I wish Napoleon had kept the originals in place.

You hear, in history, vague refrences to Napoleon's height and how he was sensative about it. I think that generally, people back then where shorter in stature. Here is Matt and the girls standing under the balcony in the Opernhaus. Matt's head almost reaches the ceiling!

This is the palace Neues. It is a grand structure in the center of town. We arrived to late to take a tour, but we were able to walk in the gardens and the park connected to the palace grounds. They were so lovely...even on a rainy, wet day.

Another wing of the palace.

We were also able to visit a small dinosaur museum while here. Who knew that you could find these things in Europe too. Ha Ha! The kids were impressed. There is more documented in Europe about dinosaurs and early man. It was a different region then the Americas, so we have seen different species of dinosaurs then we saw in the States. It is so cool! We have also seen the remains of an ice age man.

Hannah loves Geodes. She has a collection of Geodes she has been working on for awhile, along with different stones and crystals.

This, by far, has to be the biggest, natural Geode we have ever seen. Sitting inside a tiny little museum, tucked away on the busy streets of Bayreuth where Wagner was born.

It was a fun day!

The boys Update

On the first day of school, I gave a girls update...so I thought it was only fair that I give the boys one too. Of course, I have more pictures of the boys too. That is not completely my fault. The girls love to get my camera and take pictures of the boys. There are only a few in this post that I have taken, the rest are from Anya and Hannah. The boys are their favorite subject.

The boys favorite time of the day is snack time. There are three favored areas for eating snacks.

1. The fluffy rug in the living area

2. sitting on the bottom step of our stairs

Last is under the Kitchen sink of course...where else?

Having fun during the unpacking frenzy. At one point the boys would bury each other under paper, until you couldn't even see them. And burst out and say "AHHHh". Of course, they are much too fast to get a picture while they are doing this!

Jack, lately, has been doing this when we take pictures. We call it the "cheesy smile". He only does it when he sees the camera out. It brings back memories for us, Cora used to do the same thing!

Anyone who knows Matt, knows his passion for sports, especially golf! Here he is, putting around with his boys. It was kind of funny because the boys wanted NO help. They wanted to golf all on their own. As a side note, you should know, that Jack sleeps with a pitching wedge and a golf ball. Could he be like his father?

Hunter loves sports too, he likes throwing balls, but mostly the guys like playing catch all together. Here Hunter is getting some tutorials from dad.

The boys love water! The have NO fear of water. We often find them trying to swim, literally swim, away from us in pools. It can be scary, but I do laugh sometimes...because they are better swimmers in someways then their sisters. Cora won't even put her face in water yet!

It's sad, but true, my babies are growing up.

They are now in big boy beds. They do surprisingly very well. Sure, they get out and play around after lay them down for naps or bed, but the funny thing is...they always get back in bed before they fall alseep. Hannah we would find on the floor, under her bed, in front of the door, when we were transisitioning her to a bed. Not the boys, they like their beds!

Here they are in their beds (which I have since moved in different positions), looking so small and precious.

What these pictures don't show, is they are officially weened off their binkies. Yay! It was time...mom was the hold out on that one. But, after one night, they were done...and we never looked back.

When we check on them before we go to bed, matt and I often find them like this...sleeping together.

After a day filled with mischief and getting into one thing after another until I feel like I am ready to scream...or bust out the pack-n-plays...

I find them doing things like this.

It doesn't get much better then this! Witnessing their love for each other, they look out for each other, play together. If one or the other gets two of something, they run and give one to their brother. I love seeing them in these quiet positions, softly jabbering to each other and laughing.

Despite all the hard work boys bring, I love these two. They bring a special joy into our home!