Goodbye to Begonia Court

This week we will begin some "lasts".  My kids keep reminding me.

Our last Sunday, Monday, Tuesday... in this house.

Our last family prayer in this house.

Our last meal, etc. etc.

And then we'll move our belongings, clean up all our last crumbs, and lock the door one last time.

We will hand the key to a stranger and drive away.

When we listed our home our prayers were certainly that we would sell it and quickly, but even more so we prayed to sell it to a family.  We wanted to leave our neighbors with a family and not investors if possible.  A family with children who would enjoy our large yard and family-friendly floor plan.  We were so grateful for many offers to choose from, but the particular offer that we chose came not only with the finances to prove it was the best, but also a hand written letter.  A local family with two children and some particular needs and desires to have our home and it's accompanying school and neighborhood.  However, I am glad to be handing it over to a seemingly nice family, I will miss it probably more than any other material possession I've left behind or moved on from.

You see, in this house we began our "real" grown-up life as I'd always pictured for myself (married, babies, a yard to have a swing-set in, a nursery to paint and decorate, and most importantly a place to call HOME).  I knew it would be a place where many of most treasured memories would unfold.

We moved to Rocklin in 2000 expecting our first child, living in an apartment, looking for a house, and found this floor plan and quickly fell in love with it.  We thought living in a cul-de-sac would be great, although had NO idea how much we would LOVE it and swear to forever have a home in one.  We looked at our lot on the map and walked it's dirt borders, knowing it was the place for us.  We put money down and I thought Tyler would throw up right there in the sales office.  We picked out the cabinets, the countertops, the flooring, the appliances, and a few other track home choices.  We checked on the progress often as it was being built.  We paid one of the contractors to change a closet into an additional pantry.  And finally in April of 2001 we moved in.

In every corner there are many, many memories.  Through the front door we have brought all our babies "home".  It's been through years of trick or treaters, first day of school pics, younger kids standing on the porch waving (and sometimes crying) as older ones go to school, and me waiting and welcoming kids home from school and Tyler home from work and business trips.  It's heard loud squeals from an occasional out of state visitor just showing up unexpectedly and many heart felt conversations with friends right there on the porch. 

We've welcomed and squished in family members and friends for baby births, blessings, and baptisms.  We've partied it up for summer solstice, barbecues galore, and played so many games of kickball for family home evening I'm surprised there aren't "field" lines in the grass by now. The living room was empty for the first several years, an ideal place for forts for little ones, then was filled with an indoor/outdoor ping-pong table, before finally looking like a more traditional living room.  It has hosted our traditional family "pillow game" with home teachers for years. We've enjoyed decorating our Christmas tree to the sounds of sweet music and smells of my Grandma's wassail.  And then Christmas mornings under the tree together with all the special moments that includes (including one of my favorite memories was two year old Aubrey running in and seeing her new play kitchen and squealing in delight, "A chicken, a chicken!") We recently started sleeping out together under the tree in this living room.  There's years of memories having Easter Passover dinner there on the floor together, sitting in a circle on the floor enjoying the simple foods that maybe our Savior would have eaten.
 
The family room has been our gathering place for years of family prayers and scripture reading before bed or before school.  It's been where Tyler has given father's Priesthood blessings to our children the night before school started. It's been the chosen spot for mounds of laundry folded every Monday and Friday.  Tyler and the kids always choose it's open carpet to wrestle on.  Many family movie nights when the kids insist on the "movie theater" feel, with blinds being closed and popcorn being popped.  And my favorite memories there are family nights where we've gathered on Sunday evenings to play a game, have a lesson, share a talent, laugh, and maybe even cry.  Those are the memories and sounds in those walls that luckily I too have in my heart. 

In the kitchen we've made hundreds of batches of cookies all with at least three kids standing on buckets right next me.  We've dipped leaves in paraffin wax and carved pumpkins every October.  We've enjoyed many meals together some in total chaos while trying to feed a two year old and two babies and more recently enjoyable conversations that are starting to transform our Sunday evenings into meaningful teaching opportunities about more than how to not slurp soup.

Tyler and I have invested hours of projects into this cute house.  We've (he gets total credit for most of these) spent many late night hours painting rooms, hanging crown molding, window trim, and curtains, adding storage to every last inch of this house, putting in the retaining wall and back yard, installing whole house fan, and a whole bunch more many of which Tyler's parents have been here to help out with. I treasure those hours working together, talking the night away, and going to bed with a huge sense of accomplishment. 

We've been blessed with kind neighbors who have been willing to loan a can of tomato sauce,  mow our lawn when we were out of town, and give a friendly wave as we've come and gone.  We've shared Easter egg hunts, Halloween soups, and a fourth of July party with fireworks that would compete with the best of them.

This home has a cement foundation.  A foundation that I've thought about many times as we've tried to raise our children here with a solid testimony and foundation on Christ.  Without family and memories it would just feel like a building, but with love and relationships this house has been our home for eleven and a half years.  We will miss it dearly.  Now on to our next home, with a desire and determination to fill it too with love, laughter, and the best of memories.