One year ago today, Josh and I were moving into our house. 

Sometimes it feels like we've lived here as long as we've been married (which is like FOR.EV.ER.), and other times it feels like we just moved here. Some of my very favorite things about living here are: (in no particular order)

• Our open living area. The kitchen opens into the dining room/living room and I love that. Every single day of my life I love that and I'd never have it any other way. I'd show you a picture, but it looks like an enormous mess, and I'd have to kick Josh's half-naked self off the couch, plus pick my lazy self up off my butt to find my camera, and let's face it....that's too much work.
• Our ward. It is hands down the best ward I've ever been a part of in every possible way. We have fantastic neighbors (seriously, the shovel our driveway, take out the trash, tell us when we left our garage door open, and pay Josh for massages. Does it get any better?), friends, and leaders. What an enormous blessing!
• 2 sinks in our bathroom. Really. Best invention ever. I'm sure some guy was like "let's just put another sink right next to this one, whattya think guys?" and everybody said "What a stupid idea, what kind of person uses 2 sinks at the same time? You don't see people walking around with 2 phones up to their ear, or 2 computer screens. That's insane!" Well, I say God bless the insane man who thought of it. My life will never be the same.

• Food storage that belongs to us. OK this didn't come with the house, but because my fantastic husband loves me so much he made me shelves for more storage.  I kinda feel like we're doing a decent job on food storage. (Don't judge it based on the picture, there's more. Plus a lot of it comes in those ugly cans from the church, so I know it's the right thing to have in my food storage.) Sure we have a long way to go, but it eases the guilt to know I have a whole shelf in my laundry closet and a five gallon bucket of flour. That has seriously been my greatest wish since getting married. Don't ask why, just know that my husband loves me enough to be buy me stuff like 5 gallons of flour. The bet part is it's ours instead of the Griggs'.

• Walls that I can decorate! Not a big deal you say? Yes it is.
  
  
  What exactly do you prefer? This?

or this?

This?

or this?

Yeah, that's what I thought. Thank you for agreeing.

• A massage room. I kinda wished it could stay an office at first, but now that Josh is done with school, I fully understand how beautiful it is to have a massage room. *sigh*
• Vaulted ceilings.  Works wonders for a small room.

• My game closet. There are no words.

Lest you think our home is perfect, here is the list of things I hope we can change in the next year:

• Fix the ice dispenser in the fridge. For some reason that's one of those things that makes me feel rich. Our worked for the first few months we lived here, now it doesn't work and I feel poor. And thirsty.
• Paint our base boards. We intended to do that this year, but somehow the year got away from us. I just think the whole thing would be much more beautiful with white baseboards to show some contrast. In my dream world we'd paint all of the walls, but that's a big commitment for me and I'm not so sure I can decide something like that. Our walls are big and I'm a chicken.
• Find something to put on the wall in our bedroom. What I really want is some beautiful sconces and a big piece of art to go above the bed.....but again, I'm chicken and I can't find anything perfect.

That's it. The truth is I love living here and there are very few things I'd change. For Josh and I, right now in our lives, it really is perfect.