Happy Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving in our new house. Karen, Max, Kevin, Cynthia, Emma and Adam joined us for the holiday weekend. We had a lot of fun watching movies, eating, going to see '2012' and shopping black Friday sales. Matt had to work every day this week due to the big lobby renovation at the Hyatt so it was nice to have some company. Everyone left today so right now I am cleaning and keeping tabs on the BYU vs Utah game. Go cougs :)

Max and Adam

Emma

Matt got home right in time for dinner. It was my first time making Thanksgiving dinner and I had (and needed) a lot of help from Karen :) Thanks Karen!

This weekend was the first time Matt and I slept over in the house. It was so much fun and we can't wait to have more visitors in the future.

Transformation of The Wall

This is the wall that Ami thought would be a disaster and now she loves it.

This wall was very crooked to start with.

So I cut off most of the crooked part.

I refinished it with drywall and texture.

Then painted it brown,

added a pine cap with some moldings,

patched it up,

painted the cap white,

added some base boards,

and voila!

Here are some pics from this week.

The beautiful sunset from our backyard.

Our new couch/chair! (only furniture in the house right now)

The completed entry way; it has all been cleaned and painted. In the future we hope to put down hardwood floors.

Matt finished the wall! Well sort of.....he is capping it off so there will be more pics to follow.

This house has been consuming all of our time and energy. I go over after work every single night and we are there all Friday and Saturday. It's going to be so worth it when we are done! I am so excited to move in and have a home.

Week In Review

So this has been an eventful week.

First off my baby sister turned 11 on Tuesday! WHAT?! I know she is 11 and I am old. I remember when she was born. Oi Vey. And when I asked her what she got for her birthday I expected to hear such things as a littlest pet shop toy, a web kins pet or a DS game. I didn't hear any of those things instead she told me she got clothes and a purse. A PURSE. She is too little for a purse. I don't want my baby sisters to grow up. Happy birthday to my hay hays.

Second, Kyra got her license. Again WHAT?! Not gonna lie, I'm a little scared but I gotta trust the DMV dude that passed her. haha. JK I'm sure she is fine. And big kudos to her for passing on her first try. She is the first in the family to do this. Yes it took me 4 tries and before you judge me maybe you should try to parallel park a suburban. Go Kyra!

Third, my Uncle John came to visit us last night! He was here on business and took the time to take us to dinner and then drive out to see the new house. It was great to visit with him. Thanks Uncle John!

Fourth, I had a wonderful opportunity to substitute teach for a 5th grade class this week. It was so much fun and I think I could definitely enjoy being a teacher. But I'm not gonna lie, by the end of the last day I was exhausted and when the bell rang I told the kids, "please get out"! I said it in a nice voice for those who are concerned. Then today they delivered me letters from each kid thanking me for teaching them. I was laughing out loud at each letter. One boy said it was the best day of his life. hahahaha.

That's about it for this week. I'm hoping next week I can say that I won McDonald's Monopoly game. I have been sucked into that game and have been to McDonald's more times in the past 2 weeks than in the last 5 years. Not. Good.

Friends and Fall

The Stokes were visiting Lindsey's family in Flagstaff last weekend and they were nice enough to let us come stay with them. It was so much fun seeing our friends and catching up. Of course being with them made us that much more home sick. While there we headed up into the mountains and got to experience a little bit of fall. Phoenix is still 85-100 every day so there isn't much fall going on. Thanks guys for making time for us and we miss you!!

Now how could you not be her friend?!

Progress

We made quite a bit of progress on the house this week. Matt finished tearing out the stinky carpet and took it to the dump.

I started painting the living room and it makes a world of difference.

We finished painting the den and are now ready to decorate it!

Again here is the family room carpetless and the walls ready for paint.....

and here we are painting it. I love the color.

Primary

Today was the primary program in my ward and it made me miss these guys.

I sang along to all of the songs and laughed at the teachers chasing the children on the stage. Matt and I have been gone for 4 months but we feel like we could just go back and pick up right where we left off. Maybe one day.....