Breathin' Easy

The older I get the more germaphobe I become. As a kid I didn't care about all that. I was particular about how things smelled but that's about it. 

Well moving into a home where really dirty people lived before me has been difficult and I feel like the stress has aged me a few years.

 There was a smell of mold and dirt in the home that kept getting worse and worse no matter how much I cleaned. When I was pregnant I was constantly cleaning. Even when it was as clean as it could get it wasn't good enough because it didn't smell clean.

Well I hit a breaking point a couple weeks ago. The smell was worse than it's ever been. Ever. The humidity was making it worse. I told Ryan we were going to move and that was that. I wasn't going to deal with it anymore. 

So we decided that we would try a couple more things and if that didn't help we would rent the place out and figure something else out. Which would be a pain. Such a pain. But that's literally how much I hated the smell. It was a musty foresty smell, mold and dirt with a tinge of smoke is really the best way I can describe it. It was beginning to make me feel sick

So we researched some things and found out the air ducts could probably be contributing to it. We were able to find a groupon deal where a company would clean and sanitize the air duct system for a little over 100 instead of 350. Great deal. 

It was done on Thursday. 

We're pretty sure it had never been done before. This house was built in 2006. There were huge amounts of dust in the ducts and the furnace had a lot  mold and condensation it was blowing into the home. So they sanitized and cleaned everything up. 

The smell is now GONE. Completely.

The carpets still smell a little weird, so we're ripping them up and getting new carpet next week (just the living and master so it's an affordable project.) but the smell and mustiness is gone. I feel like we live in a completely different home. It's so great!! 

So get your air ducts cleaned every 2 years, people! It's disgusting up there, especially if it hasn't ever been done before!! 

Halloween 2014

Holidays are 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times more fun with kids. Seriously. It's like your reliving your own fun childhood memories with them. I love it.

Halloween was super fun and simple this year. We carved pumpkins, of course. But never lit them. Sad huh?

Emma was not a huge fan. 

AddiLyn got a hold of a chunk of pumpkin slime and thought she'd taste it. :)

I'm not sure anyone would be able to tell what we carved, even if we did light them up and show them off.

We also went to a pumpkin patch in a neighboring town.

A week before Halloween we had trunk or treating at the ranch with the 2nd ward since we weren't going to be able to attend our own wards trunk or treat. Parties at the ranch are always so much fun. We had good food, saw a bunch of awesome costumes, caught up with friends and went trunk or treating. 

This is the only event we all dressed up as a family. 

Haha. Very corny. But it was free, just things we had on hand. I didn't even think about costumes until last minute so I just pulled a bunch of things together and made it work... Sort of.

Halloween night we went trick or treating around the block. There were herds of children everywhere. I've never seen trick or treating as such a huge event, but this neighborhood we live in now is all for it! A bunch of the neighbors intensely decked their houses with Halloween decor. It was a lot of fun. Emma seemed a little wary of some of the costumes. Especially clowns. She'd see them and whisper "it's a alien..." Haha. She also calls skeletons aliens. I don't know where she's even heard the word alien. But she enjoyed trick or treating until she got chilly so we went home and she helped hand out candy with daddy while I got AddiLyn ready for bed. All in all it was a fun Halloween! 

My homemade Halloween decor for the year.