Christmas!

Merry Christmas! A little late...

We had a wonderful Christmas!

My family came down for the week of Christmas,

my sweet in-laws came down for Christmas Eve and Christmas.

This week, we ate and ate and ate some more!

It was delicious!

This is our Christmas Eve Feast!

 We had a wonderful Christmas Eve, we played a white elephant present game, 

we had a singing Nativity thing.

We read scriptures about the Savior's life and sang Christmas songs that went along with those scriptures.

It was neat.

Then we talked about some of our favorite Christmas memories and Christmas traditions.

After a while we were all tuckered out and went to bed so Santa could come.

And he came!

 Our traditional beautiful Christmas morning by the Christmas tree picture,

in our matching pjs, of course! My mom, my sister, and I made them Christmas Eve.

We're pro.

 Apparently, this next picture is the only picture I took of people opening gifts. 

I guess I got too into it to remember to take pictures.. lol!

My little brother got exactly what he wanted... a bread maker!

I also got one and so did my sister.

It's awesome, we made some bread the next day, it was delicious! And SO easy!

I also got TWO panini makers... a life lesson as my sweet husband says,

my life lesson is... don't tell everyone the same thing whenever they ask you what you want for Christmas.

LOL! Apparently, I almost got three, but my mother-in-law decided against getting it.

We are going to return the one my sweet husband gave me and get something else.

My youngest brother got me the other one. And it works like a champ. We've had several paninis since Christmas and they have been delicious!

I got my sweet husband a backpacking fishing pole and my parents got him a smoker.

We also tried that out and the smoked meat was SO yummy!

My sweet in-laws gave us another section of our pretty willow tree nativity.

We got a few more things, but I won't list them all lest I forget something.
We were so spoiled!

 After we opened all our gifts we had a big, yummy breakfast.

 Then the moms got their favorite gifts!

We got to talk to our missionaries!

First we talked to my sister, she's doing so well!

 Then shortly thereafter we got to my sweet husband's baby brother,

 he is also doing super well!

 They both come home fairly soon, it's so crazy! 

He has about 5 months and my sister has about 6 months!

The day after Christmas, some of the family worked out.

My sister and I cleaned up the kitchen instead.. lol!

Then we ran some errands and smoked some meat and ate it for dinner.
This was our back seat driving back from our errands, comfy eh? lol!

My in-laws went home Christmas Day and my family left Friday morning.

It was sad to see them all go, it was so fun to have them all here!

We love family!
And most of all, we love our Savior,
and love that we have this time of year to help us remember Him
and that we get to celebrate His birth
and all that He did for us!

Projects

My sweet husband finished the trim and

finished painting the shed!

It looks so good! I'm so proud of him!

 We also finally finished the gates for our fence! YAY!

This the back fence 

(really close to the shed actually... you can see it a little. 

It's also where my sweet husband pulls his awesome truck into the backyard).

 And this is the gate right next to our garage.

So glad these projects are finally finished!

My sweet husband and I have decided that from now on, after we finish the rest of the last little parts of all the projects we've started, we are not going to stop working on a project until it is COMPLETELY finished! We are sick of having so many little projects hanging over our heads! Hopefully we stick with it!

Thanksgiving

I am super behind, sorry!

This month has been crazy!

I'm sure you all can relate.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my sweet in-laws' home.

It was really fun to have all the family there (minus the missionary, of course).

We arrived Wednesday evening, we chatted and helped prep a little for the next day.

Thanksgiving day we woke up and prepared some more, I made a pie (that was my assignment).

After preparing for a little while we went to the park and threw the frisbee around a bit and just relaxed.

We ended up getting everything ready a little earlier than expected, so we ate around 2 or 2:30.

It was delicious!

This little guy was all smiles, all weekend!

 The whole group, expect a few that were up getting seconds.

 This little gal can put away some desserts... a girl after my own heart!

 As can my sweet husband...

 But he quickly went into a food coma soon after.

 We spent the rest of the day relaxing... we were SO full!

The next day while most crazy people were finishing up their crazy black Friday shopping, we went bowling.

It was a lot of fun!

 The little kids LOVED it!

And the big kids too!

 This little guy was also all smiles! Can't you just eat him up!

 I'm the top player, check that out, FOUR strikes in one game! 

I don't think I've ever done that before!

Lol, and I still didn't win. Oh well.

 The first game was most definitely a fluke, seeing as the next game I did a lot worse,

but my sweet husband improved and WON! YAY!

The next day we took advantage of the beautiful weather and the beach and had a picnic.

This was the view from our picnic table!

Beautiful! 

 After our yummy turkey sandwiches we walked down the beach and skipped rocks

 And looked at the tide pools.

 I am so grateful for my sweet husband! I sure love him and let him know with this beautiful message.

 That night we decorated Grandma's tree. 

The next day was Sunday. Some people had to head home early that morning, we stayed through church and headed home after lunch. It was a great time. It's always good to be with family!

Breezeway Renovation: Laundry Room!

The last time I posted about this project I said it felt like a neverending project.

Well, guess what!? It's almost finished!

Here is what the laundry room looked like the last time I posted about it.

 Since then, we painted.

Added flooing

Added trim and fire-blocked everything

 More trim

Doesn't it look so pretty?!

Some day we'll have cabinets in there too, but not today.

And some day our dryer will be stacked on the washer and we'll have a big chest freezer,

but again, not today.

I am SO grateful to have the laundry be part of the house and not have to go into the garage to do the laundry!

My mom is SO wise! When she first saw our house she suggested that we do this,

our plan then was to actually just extend the living/dining room out into the breezeway,

but as we thought about it more and more we realized that it would just be awkward and we realized we'd rather have a laundry room and a workshop, so that's what we did!

And I'm SO happy with how it is coming together! 

Veterans' Day Weekend Project

After our home inspection in October we needed to fix a few things.

One of the main ones was that we needed a place to keep our lawn equipment: lawn mower, rakes, shovels, etc.

The garage would work, but we really want to park our cars in the garage with winter and snow and everything.

And we've wanted a shed for a while, so it ended up being a good excuse.

My parents came Veterans' Day weekend and helped us build a shed!

This shed will withstand the millennium.

We started on Friday.

First, we poured footings and the foundation.

 Mostly, I watched and sprayed the hose when needed.

My Dad taught my sweet husband about the proper techniques of finishing concrete.

 Saturday morning we woke up and went to Home Depot for all the supplies.

Then we assembled the walls,

which went REALLY quick!

 Then we put them in place.

 Added some siding

Monday morning, we added a roof

 And some shingles and trim and worked on the doors. 

 My parents had to leave Monday, so we've been finishing the rest... albeit much slower than the rest of it went.

But it's coming along. 

I forgot to take a picture at each of the few final stages.

But I my sweet husband installed the doors,

then I painted it,

and Saturday my sweet husband worked on the trim, until he ran out of it, so it's still missing a few pieces.

When it's completely finished I'll post another picture.

But for now, here it is.

Please ignore the fact that the paint doesn't go all the way up to the trim,

my sweet husband is much better at steady painting than I am, so he's going to finish it for me.

Then after the trim is finished, we'll paint the trim white and install the door handles and lock and it will be finished!

Thanks Mom and Dad for helping us with our shed!