Boys seeing our new house

We were very blessed that my brother and his wife agreed to let us rent out the 2 bedroom basement apartment of the place they were living (with no notice) after things changed from a short vacation, to a temporary living situation while we looked for and then bought a home.  We lived there for exactly 2 months while all of our belongings were in storage, and while we finished the home we were lucky enough to find most of the way finished.

While we are super grateful that we were able to stay with them, it didn't change the fact that it was nonetheless a temporary living situation...and was therefor sometimes challenging, especially for the kids.  Not only had the boys been given no say (or notice) in our sudden move, but they didn't get to say goodbye to friends at school or church.  They didn't get to say goodbye to their home, their favorite places to go, or even to all their toys!  We had simply packed up a suitcase, allowed them 2 toys each, and then upon arriving in Utah for vacation ended up telling them that we wouldn't be going back to Arizona.  On top of this, much of their parents attention was occupied with this new little baby that cried all the time and with daddy's new job.  And then they both started at new schools amidst all of this to boot!

So!  Two months later when we moved into a home where the WHOLE house was ours, where we could unpack all the boxes of their things, and promise them some consistency...that was exciting - for all of us!  With all of the change and instability over the last couple of months - we wanted them to be excited about and take ownership in their new home.  So, even though not one other box was unpacked in the house, we got the boys own beds set up and one thing hung up on the wall in each of their rooms.  And then we filmed their reactions seeing it for the first time.  We went straight from church to our first time showing the boys inside our house:

First was Noah's room.

Next was Lincoln's room.  Unfortunately we found out late at night while setting up Lincoln's bed (that we were converting from being a toddler bed) that we had purchased the wrong size of mattress.  That has since been rectified, but we didn't have time to do anything about it before our big reveal of the house to the boys.

The last thing we showed the boys was the play area that we designed when we finished the basement.  They loved it, and I think Lincoln was equally as excited about the prospect of digging out all of his old toys that were still boxed up!

Hurray for being first time home owners! :)