House Update

Like I said in my last post, we have been in our house 7 months. Our house. OUR HOUSE. I can't even tell you how much I love and am beyond grateful that we found this house.

We updated Ds bed (he had a low to the ground twin size bed-it was the perfect transition bed). Anyways, there is a little bedroom furniture place that is going out of business and having a huge sale, so we went and bought a few things. Including a real bed/head board.

Tonight is night 1, we'll see how it goes. Side note, I don't like stuffed animals. I think they are germ hugging things. Haha. However, D has a plethra (all that is pictured + maybe 10 more). Although, E brought him the Spiderman when he had his tonsils out. Precious. 

For the last 13.5 months, E has been sharing a dresser with D. It was fine at first, but the bigger both of them get, the harder it has gotten. So, we bought her a dresser as well. 

Notice that cute lamp? We got it for F-R-E-E! It was originally 80+ dollars. Hemming Village was going to be doing a sale for a company in the complex that went out of business, but M had been doing maintenance work there, and the lady just gave it to us. Sweet!

It is also nice to have a whole room dedicated to the toys. This is what the room was before (an office): 

And this is what we did with it, 

It is so great to have space, though we plan to add on to the house in the next couple years.

We went for Tithing Settlement on Sunday (if you want to learn more, go to lds.org.) Our Bishop asked  how things were going, etc. He asked if we had a tree. We didn't. We had been planning on getting one that week. He then offered us a tree that another member of the Bishopric had. 

We have vaulted ceilings in the living and kitchen rooms. The tree is so tall, but fits just perfectly. 

Tall. M had to trim it just a little so we could fit the star on top. D helped M decorate it. 

While Coco checked out the tree. 

The kids and C have been having a fun time with tree. 

      

 It's amazing what the tree did. Made it really feel like Christmas. 

(and for the record, there are 5 stockings. My MIL is coming for Christmas. That is all :-))

Hope everyone is having a fabulous week and is getting in the Christmas spirit. 

SteamMachine

Homeright sent me this sweet little steam machine. Christmas came a little early this year :-)

Inside the box, lay this beauty :

It comes with all that you could possibly need: wallpaper steam plate, floor steam mop WITH microfiber cleaning pad, brass brush (can't wait to try it out on the grill when the snow melts), two nylon brushes, jet nozzle, squeegee, measuring cup with funnel, 

and a perfectly detailed instruction manual (just enough information and pictures, but not super overwhelming)

We have been in our house 7 months. There was a lot of cleaning that happened as we were moving in, but there are still some little things around that I am slowly getting to. I think you have been slowly making progress on. 

One of those little projects was the ice maker. It was nasty! 

See all that gunk in there? Gross. I was super excited for the steammachine to arrive and use it on this. 

It was exciting to pull the little trigger and get my steam on. 

It was pretty caked on there, but it did a pretty good job and a smile was brought to my face the next time I walked by the fridge. 

Some Pros and Cons to it:

                       Pros                                                                             Cons

       -it kills 99.9% of germs                                               -takes 8 minutes to heat up

-all those little brushes/squeegee/jet nozzle                                        -loud                                                                    -small & portable unit (with a nice, long hose)           -you cannot open the storage container                                 

                                                                                                       while it is in use

                                                                                                       

-can get into really tight and odd areas

-can use to steam out the wrinkles in your clothes

                                                -distilled water (I put this in the middle because it could either way). You don't have to use distilled water, but it is recommended if you have hard water. If you chose not to use distilled water, they have instructions on how to clean out the tank.

-easy to pour out the old water

The pros outweigh the cons by far. Thank you Homeright-can't wait for the next package!

**I was not paid by Homeright to review this item, this is solely my opinion**

Thanksgiving 2013

This year we headed to warm and sunny St. George with all but one of Marks siblings. It was so nice to get away from "normal" life for a bit-and be in 65 degree weather in November :-)

The kids were awesome in the car. Emma took 2 naps. David was content with oranges, captain crunch cereal and movies. 

 

We played, ate, laughed and just had a good time!

                                                                                                  

 

 

There was some quality bonding time amongst brother-in-laws.  

The girls had gone out shopping, and when we came home, this is how I found Troy & Mark. 

And some bonding amongst sisters and a brother in particular that wanted to show them some of his police moves. It was hilarious. Amy was the first person Mark showed his moves to. It ended with Amy face down, hands behind her back, on the ground. Needless to say, she didn't want Mark anywhere near him after. 

Next up was Mary. Not quite as painful as Amys, but still good times.

Thanksgiving dinner was delish! So many good foods and even better company. 

                 I think Kennedys favorite (or at least one of her favorite) foods, was the whip cream.                                      

                                         

We went and hiked a rock/mountain/thing the next day. David loved all the rocks, and even brought one home. 

Our time came to an end. We headed back home on Sunday. This is what we drove into. 

We were glad to have been able to spend with the family, getting to know the members, and such, but it was also nice to get back to our beds and sweet little Coco, life...

     

…and snow. It wouldn't be Idaho without snow. We got somewhere between 6 and 8 inches. Welcome to winter! 

 We had a great time and are grateful Dana is a little closer now. Have a great week!

Cute kiddos

These kids are seriously so cute and I just love them! So here are some pictures just because.

 Little miss pulling out all her diapers.

 We got some snow and David loved it! He played out in it multiple times and was so happy to be out there! 

 Church. Love these two adorable kids and their spunky attitudes.

David helping Mark make brownies after church. Im grateful for a washing machine. 

1

Our little lady bug turned 1. She is such a sweet lady, she and David play so well together (the majority of the time), is a great eater and we are so glad she is in our family!

We just did cake with us on her birthday, when we go to UT for Thanksgiving, we are going to a family party. 

Halloween 2013

On our way back from Boise, we stopped at Costco (I love that place!) for a few things…including Halloween costumes! David chose to be Spider man and Emma agreed to be a lady bug ;-)

David loved that costume and I eventually had to hide it to ensure it actually made it to Halloween. Our ward had a trunk or treat. It was a lot of fun despite the cold and rain.

After David took off his costume, I put the mask on Emma. She loved it. Such a ham!

 
THe morning after. Haha. Playing happily, despite Davids face. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't let him have more candy.