More Snow

We woke up to a few more inches of snow this morning. It kept coming down all day long. The kids were pretty much playing in the snow all day long!

They find sledding down our little hill in the backyard quite amusing.

Scenes like this make me SO glad that I don't have to drive Caitlin 45 minutes away for school in the morning. She starts at her new school, 1/3 mile away, on Tuesday.

Today we gained a niece. What a cutie. I wish we were closer, so we could snuggle with her. Congratulations Stef and Danny!

A Great Thanksgiving

It was so nice to have mom and Dennis here for Thanksgiving. It just wouldn't have been Thanksgiving without them. I was not up for doing the whole Thanksgiving thing yet. Mom took the reigns and got us there.

She kept our turkey cookie tradition going strong.

The kids had a little too much fun with the red frosting.

A couple of cute little turkeys

Caleb enjoys playing with his food.

The kids had fun playing in the box fort that daddy made them.

The Feast

Mom snuck out of this picture.

Yesterday, mom and I went to see Twilight. I was glad to FINALLY get the chance to go see it. I enjoyed it, but of course, since they couldn't fit the WHOLE book into 2 hours, it seemed choppy to me. I of course picked it apart a little. I did enjoy it though. It was fun to see so many scenes so close to home, in the movie. Now maybe mom will finally read the books! I have to say, she has been busy too. Not too long after we left with all of our stuff. Some friends of some friends stopped by mom and Dennis' and said they had heard they might be planning on selling their house(they were thinking of putting it on the market in the spring.) Long story short, they loved the house and wanted to buy it. The people have already sold their house and they have to be out by the 13th of December. It has been a whirlwind out of the blue, but they feel like this is from the Lord. So, they are packing up and are going to rent a little place of some friends for a while. The whole thing is pretty crazy. I'm excited at the prospect of them moving closer, but it's sad to say goodbye to their house and all that goes with it.

After we dropped Nana and Papa off at the airport, we peaked outside to see this.

The kids were excited to get out and play in it this morning.

My daredevil!

A Little Catch Up

Caleb and I went on one last walk on "our" bike path, before we left the apartments. I always love this waterfall.

We are going to miss watching these cute little guys in the field, outside the gate.

It was WAY harder than I thought it would be, to leave our apartment. I think the kids and I were almost in tears on our last trip out. I'm such a sucker for my routine. I have a hard time giving it up for the unknown. It has been a pretty easy transition so far though.

Our new street

The house got MUCH worse, before it got better. I don't know how we ended up with SO much STUFF in our apartment!

What a mess it made, when we just unloaded it all into the house. I'm still trying to find a spot for everything.

Our projects from the last few days. Thanks for all the help Dennis!



We put in a new microwave and cabinet. The microwave started going out and sounded horrible. So, we decided to replace it. The people had done a horrible job installing the old one and ripping a cabinet out. We tried to get it back to normal. We just need to stain the cabinet.











This is my favorite! After 8 years with no dishwasher and then having one in the apartment, but not enough dishes to use it, I'm in heaven. Doing dishes has never been so fun! The dishwasher they had in here didn't have anything inside, racks, rollers, nothing. And it was a piece of junk anyway. I was excited to find this kitchen aide on clearance. It's SO quiet and everything comes out so clean. I LOVE it!!!

They evidently took the garage door opener with them. So, we got one of those up too. I can't wait until the garage is cleaned out enough to put 2 cars in!

We got our Direct TV hooked up. Five months with no TV can really give you withdrawals. We have all been hooked to it, WAY too much. But it is SO nice!

We got the sump pump in, just in case we end up with more water in the sump pit. We need to finish getting it piped up. The radon people sealed it all in though.
When we had our inspection, we tested for radon(it is very common in Colorado.) Of course it tested a little high. If it's over a certain number, they recommend you fix it, because if you spend a lot of time in the basement, it can give you lung cancer after a long period of time. So, they came and hooked up a suction pipe to our sump pit that has pipes under ground around the perimeter of our foundation. The fan outside supposedly sucks all the radon out of the ground and pipes it out near the roof. I found it pretty interesting. Too bad the previous owners didn't test and get it taken care of though. Oh the joys of home ownership!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're finally back online. It's been a weird week, without one of my most used items, the Internet. But it has been a VERY busy week with LONG days working on the house, early mornings commuting Caitlin to school 45 minutes away, and wonderful nights sleep on OUR bed, although sleep is always too short. I will have to post pictures later of ALL of our many projects. I've been forced to try my hand at handyman skills. After we moved in last Wednesday, Ryan worked 5, 14 hour days in a row. Thus, I was forced to do things I would otherwise deem a manly job. My aching body is very tired of moving boxes around, but I did clear the garage out enough for one car! I started installing the garage door opener, the sump pump, the dishwasher, and spent WAY too many hours in stores like Lowe's and Home Depot. I am definitely not a natural in a home improvement store, but I eventually found what I needed for various projects.

Now, it's Thanksgiving and we have our first company. Mom and Dennis decided to join us on Tuesday. We were excited to show them the new house and I was looking forward to taking a little break. Dennis got right to work on various unfinished projects and hasn't quit yet. Of course I love the projects getting done, but this was suppose to be a VACATION. Yesterday was a busy day with various people in and out. We had the Direct TV people here and people fixing our radon problem all day, and the phone got hooked up. During all that, we(being mostly Ryan and Dennis. I did a good job overseeing.) installed the dishwasher, microwave, a cabinet, and the garage door is up and running! Yahoo. The kitchen is looking MUCH nicer. We are getting a little more put together around here, but still FAR from done. I will post pictures later. I've gotta get started on the cooking!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

We're going offline. :(

Well, unfortunately, I was too sidetracked with EVERYTHING else the past few weeks and didn't get to setting up our Internet and satellite, until this week. So, we will have no Internet or TV until the 26th. Good thing there are SO many things to get done on the house. We might get bored, otherwise. :) Well, I better get going. I still have a LOT of cleaning to do, before we leave tomorrow.

On a side note, I'm LOVING this weather. Who would have thought, we'd be in shorts, in mid-November, in COLORADO! I was about to relent and put the flip flops away. My toes actually were starting to get pretty cold! But this weeks weather has given me a little more time, before I have to enclose my poor feet. I'll admit, this area has some quirks.

A few being: 1. Obviously sales tax stinks! 2. I'm STILL adjusting to pumping my own gas. 3. I don't think they believe in drive through banking here. I have not found a drive through YET! Anyone with kids knows, it's ALWAYS way better not to have to drag everyone out of the car, especially for a quick deposit. Ugh! 4. I've come to the conclusion that people here were never taught to use there turn signals. How annoying!

Despite all of this, I think it's SO worth all of the blue skies and sun. I can't say enough about it! Now hopefully I won't be dampened by 3ft of snow for the next 4 months!

Getting Closer

We spent our first night at the house on Friday. It was nice to just be able to stay and not head back to the apartment at 11 at night. We are STILL living in the apartment. There seems to be a fine line between having enough stuff to live in both places. We'll be packing it all over to the house in the next 3 days though. I'm not looking forward to that transition. I'd like to keep Caitlin at her school she's in not until Thanksgiving. The house is about 25-30 minutes away from the apartment. So, that will be even more driving than we've already been doing, going back and forth to work on the house. Oh well.

We've made a lot of progress on the house. It's actually starting to feel like a home. I have to say I am VERY sick of painting though. We have a little more trim to touch up, but other than that, the kitchen, eating area, living room, sitting area, and one bedroom are all painted! Yahoo! Now I'm taking a break until we paint the hall, bathrooms, and 2 more bedrooms. I'm done will painting for a little while. My poor hands are all cracked and scraped with broken nails from all the cleaning, painting, and moving boxes.

Here's some of our progress.

The Kitchen

Before

After

I'll have to put a better picture up(in the daylight).

Eating Area

Before

After



Before

After

Stairs

Before


After

Living Room

Before

After

Sitting Area/Office

Before

After

Not put together, but at least painted!

Obviously we still have many works in progress, but at least we have a few rooms that are all put together. We still have a lot of cleaning, replacing, and touchup to do, not to mention unpacking. At least we're getting closer. Maybe someday I'll be able to start decorating!