Thursday, December 30, 2010

Week 13 & 14 Recap

With the holiday I never got around to posting last week, so I'll just combine the two. Honestly, not much is different between the two weeks anyway. The inside is almost done - yea! The counter tops came, all but three of the lights are installed and those are on back order, the fireplace was rocked, the mirrors and shower doors are hung, and Travis finished the hardwood. Really the only things we have left on the inside is to finish the stone, the baseboards in the living room & office, paint touch up, carpet, and install the appliances. We have a ton of paint touch up to do, so I am working on bids for that. As most of you know, I have a huge hatred for painting. I used to love it, but I painted our last house - twice - by myself now I hate it! The appliances have been a bit troublesome. I ordered them back in November & we've had them in storage in my parent's barn. Travis tried to install the microwave on Sunday night and it was missing some bolt threads (??) that actually hold it to the cupboard. I took it back on Monday, spent two hours at Home Depot & got a new one ordered. Today he took the dishwasher over to install it, opened the box and it was white. It was supposed to be stainless steel. So I've been on the phone with Home Depot half the day trying to fix the order. Let's cross our fingers that the stove is the correct one & has all of it's parts.

Our real delay now is on the outside. It has rained or snowed for the past week and nothing is getting done. For my Utah friends, you know how cold it is this week so I don't see much getting done this week either. They have a big tent over the house but when it's only 12 degrees outside, I don't think that will help much.

Kitchen. We put can lights in, but there's not enough. You can't tell by the picture, but it is too dark in there. The two black circles are where the pendant lights go that are on back order. We are going to have to install a few more can lights after we get moved in & our energy star inspection has been done.
Front entryway. You can almost see the hardwood under the endless dust. I wish we would have put a window down the side of the door. It seems too closed in. Too late now.
Boys' bathroom. The shower door is way too tall! We had them add some height in our shower so Travis' head was not sticking up over the top. For whatever reason they added the height in this bathroom as well. It looks ridiculous, but I guess it will keep the water in better.
Master bathroom. We have two vanities, one about 2' longer than the other. Mine was supposed to be the bigger one, but for some reason I am more drawn to the smaller one so I am trading Travis. You can just see in the picture where I have tile under the mirror. Adding that tile is on Travis' things to do list one of these days.

I love the fireplace. I turn it on every time I go over there. As soon as Parker sees it he will be thrilled we have a rock wall in the house. Should keep him busy for hours!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas

We spent Christmas this year at my mom's house. I thought it would be hard not being in our house, but it really wasn't. I actually liked that I didn't have to decorate, especially the tree. I have always hated decorating the tree. If there was a way that I could store it fully decorated, I would.

We did our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at my Mom's house, and put the boys to bed around 9:30 pm. Travis was sound asleep by 10:00 pm & I watched a movie then Mass from The Vatican. I got up around 1:00 am to do the gift delivery thing, then went to bed. The boys didn't get up until about 7:00 am, which totally surprised me. Travis and I were up watching The Today Show at 6:00 am thinking they'd be up any minute. We did the Santa thing when they got up & decided we'd do our immediate family gifts later in the day.

Normally we host a big breakfast at our house, but since we were at my mom's we went simple with the menu. For the first time ever my sister and Liam came. I assume that is because we were at my parent's house, and not ours. We'll never see her for breakfast again once we move.

After breakfast we exchanged gifts with my parents, sister & aunt, then sat around eating off the snack table being lazy. I could have very easily taken a nap, but didn't get one. The boys were up running around like mad men, making a ton of noise so we all sat & watched them. It was great to just sit and doing nothing, we didn't even get out of our PJ's all day!

On Sunday, Travis & the boys went skiing & I went to the house and cleaned. It felt good to be doing something physical for a change. We've all gotten lazy without yard work and house work to keep us busy.

I think Preston looks a bit like Ron Weasley in this picture. In either year two or three at Hogwarts, Ron has a hat just like this one.
Parker got a Paper Jamz guitar from Santa and he's been putting on a daily concert for us.
I've been trying to talk Preston into letting me redo his room when we move and use a bit of U of U stuff. I want to do it a bit more grown up, get him a full sized bed, etc. He wants to keep his firetruck stuff. Dude, you are too old for firetrucks!
Parker sat on Jessa's lap half the morning so she could help him open presents. To him the helping part was letting her throw his wrapping paper in the garbage sack. Lucky girl!
The annual get to open one present on Christmas Eve PJ's. Neither of them has figured out that the one gift they get to open is PJ's. Parker wondered all day what was in the box.
Grandpa & Preston on Christmas Eve.
Liam, Grandpa, Parker, Preston & Grandma on Christmas Eve. It was impossible to get a good picture of all five of them. My dad is worse than the kids when it comes to pictures. He can't hold still and won't look at the camera. I'm not sure what face Parker is pulling.
Me, Parker, Cricket and Preston on Christmas Eve.
Preston, Cricket, Liam, Parker & Sonny on Christmas Eve.
This is one of the few years that I like my mom's tree. She and I have very opposite taste in decorating. I like very traditional Christmas decorations. I have a village, snowmen & my tree is always red & green. Each year she does a different tree, and it is almost always colors like black, gold, turquoise, pink, etc. Not my style at all. I love the red & green this year with the snowmen hats. She also collects nutcrackers. Preston tried to count, and it is somewhere in the 200 range.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Snow, snow & more snow!

This picture was taken on Christmas Eve up at Alta Ski Resort. Something like 4' of snow fell in two days. I am not sure how much snow they have total, but Travis is over 6' tall so there is a lot.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Three Words

Parker came running down the stairs at my mom's the other day excited as he could be. He came into the kitchen yelling and laughing, "I have three words for you, 'San Ta Claus'".

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Dog vs. Dog

My aunt in Boise sent a picture today of her dog ready for the big game. Naturally, I had to get Cricket ready. I will say that the Boise cheerleader looks much happier than the Utah cheerleader!

Cricket barks, "Go Utes!" Ok, she is really saying, "get this stupid jersey off of me so I can walk around."

Abby cheering for the Broncos!

May 2011