Christmas Card 2014

 I always love to think of something fun for our Christmas card. This year we had some exciting news to reveal and we thought it would be perfect to announce it on our card. I dreamed up with the help of Pinterest to make lottery ticket cards where they got to guess the answers, including whether we would be having a little girl or little boy in April.

We got them sent out as quick as we could after Thanksgiving since I am not that great of a secret keeper. The day I decided to sit down to actually put the scratch off paint was a daunting task I have to admit but I got into a rhythm and soon 60 cards were painted and laid out to dry.

Here was the finished, unscratched card!

Christmas

 This year we had Christmas in our new house. It was exciting and a little bittersweet to be in a different house. I think spending the holidays here made it feel like home much more quickly. We now have memories in this house with family and friends which is what a home is all about.

Our Christmas Eve was much less hectic than in years past. Mostly because Dave worked on some special projects at work that I wasn't expecting him to do and the presents that were left to wrap weren't as large or hard to wrap. We made our cookies for Santa on Chrismtas Eve and was in luck that Channing had plenty of cutouts for me to use! The boys had fun cutting out and frosting the cookies. Jaxson has been very into art lately took this job very serious trying for more intricate decorations. The frosting we had to work with probably wasn't the best but he had fun trying. Asher loved the sprinkles. Sprinkles on everything!

Christmas morning couldn't have come fast enough, but not before a little breakfast. Our boys are not ones to tear downstairs and want to open gifts. They woke up a touch earlier than usual but both agreed they definitely wanted breakfast before doing any gifts. Their patience is one thing I am most proud of them for. Once it was time Asher played Santa and separated all the gifts into piles for each of us and we opened them one by one. At Christmas at my Grandma's house all the grandkids always wanted to play Santa. With 13+ of us it was a pretty big deal to get to do it!

 For Christmas dinner we hosted Dan, Anne, and Ava along with Larry. It is so nice to have a space large enough to host people. Anne had a great idea to get a photo of all of us together using the tripod so I found all the pieces and set it up. It didn't take much effort and was definitely worth it!

To Eat or Not to Eat the Gingerbread House

 At Asher's preschool they had a party before the break and we decorated gingerbread houses. The best part of this was I am not very good at it and it was nice to be able to follow along with the teachers and other parents. :)

Asher wasted NO space on his house at all. He filled every ounce of it with candy of some sort or another. Maybe because he planned on eating it later...

Yellow Belt

Jaxson passed to his yellow belt this summer and now the real fun starts. He gets to spar with others and has worked on breaking boards. He seems to be doing well with the moves and all the forms they have to learn. His biggest struggle is watching those around him and following. Many times he will find an older person nearest him and follow but many times he knows the form better than them! He needs little Taekwondo blinders!

We Moved!

It has been a few weeks that we have moved and we are starting to feel more at home in our new house. I only had one day that I had an overwhelming feel of wanting to go home but everything has settled now and it feels more like home now. The boys did surprisingly well the first night. Much better than I expected. It definitely helps that we have spent so much time in the house so they were much more comfortable here than if they had only stopped by a time or two before moving in. The boys upgraded their beds, Asher getting his brothers big boy bed and Jaxson upgraded to a full size. He looks so tiny in that big bed now! It is how I remember him first in his crib looking way too big for it.

I am not sure why and or how people move without movers. Movers I have decided have the worst job in the world. I felt so bad for them so many times during the day. But now that we are out of college I doubt we would get much response if we asked all our friends with trucks to help us.

We have all seemed to settle in easily, with the exception of Bandana. Nanners just wants to escape and we couldn't leave him alone outdoors for any amount of time. Out of habit I left one afternoon a couple days after moving in and shortly after got a phone call that Bandana had made a friend (another dog from the neighborhood who had also got out of his yard) and they were gallivanting around the area and Grey's Lake together. He took both dogs home to his yard where we picked him up later. We have a doggy door and a small area outdoors that it leads to so they could still have an area we felt safe leaving them in but we felt bad not letting have the freedom of the yard like they did before. Later that day Dave was outside with them in the yard before we were going to bed to let them run for a minute and it was only 5 minutes later I heard a knock (and then a scratch) at the front door. Nanners had trotted right inside a house a few down from ours on our road right behind the son who was coming in. Luckily Bandana looks like a big happy, goofy dog but I am sure that it was still a little nerve-racking having a dog all the sudden be in your house. We have since found a few areas that he seems to zero in on and feel much more comfortable with him in the yard while we are home keeping an eye but it will be awhile before we just let him roam while we are gone.

The best parts of the house so far...

1. Having a dining room is fantastic. Having a small table with four people around it in our small kitchen for dinner was so crowded. It is so nice to be able to sit at a table and have some elbow room!

2. Having more than one bathroom. One of my biggest pet peeves to the other house was having our guests use the same bathroom that we used to get ready. It was hard to keep it uncluttered and clean when it is the only bathroom ever used. It is nice to have a bathroom on the main level!

3. Large Windows. I am a natural light lover and even though the windows might not get all the direct sunlight they are large and make the house feel so bright! The photographer in my LOVES this part of the house. 

The worst parts of the house so far...

1. Not knowing where stuff is. Not only is so much still in boxes but it is also hard to remember all the new homes of the stuff that has been put away. We will be moving stuff more and more as we see what is the best use of the space for us. For now, we are constantly looking for stuff. 

2. The Circle. So, this would be the BEST part if you asked the kids probably but the house makes a circle around the staircase so all day long they run around and around and around. We want them to enjoy having more space to run and play, but it is hard to watch a show or relax in the living room when every 20 seconds two giggling boys are running through as fast as they can slipping and sliding on the wood floor.

3. Being cold. A bigger house means it takes more to heat it. I am trying to get accustomed to keeping the thermostat lower than with the other house but in addition to trying get used to be cold, is that it takes so long for the house to get warmer even when I give in and turn up the heat. At our smaller house I could turn up the heat, jump in the shower and when I was done the house would be toasty warm. That I miss. Alot.

Thanksgiving

Just days after moving in to our new house was Thanksgiving. We decided to just make a small Thankgiving dinner for just our family. It worked out well that Carol was coming to town Thanksgiving night and stopped by and with such a small crowd my dad even joined. It was fun for Carol to see the house done and with our furniture in finally instead of with drywall missing and floors covered.

Dave made a great dinner. Everyone was full and happy. It was different not seeing family on a holiday but it had a nice feel not leaving home at all too. I am not good at taking photos on holidays for some reason. So here are the two photos I snapped, one being our first picture taken in our new home!

First Lost Tooth

Jaxson lost his first tooth during his last bath at our first home on 11.16! I am kind of glad in a weird way it was there. I know it's just a house but it was the house his first tooth came in so it seemed fitting. It has been loose for awhile but during bath I heard yelling.. then shrieking.. and crying. I ran in and saw blood and a crying Jaxson holding his hand up high out of the water. Losing a tooth causes alot of blood and it freaked him out and I was a little freaked until I realized what was going on! Being in the bath and now causing the water to dirty made it extra dramatic. Out of the bath they came and we cleaned him up and got the bleeding to stop. Once the scary part was over came the fun part, checking out the new smile and carefully placing it under your pillow! 

Little brother was pretty impressed with the now empty hold in brother's mouth. Maybe he won't be as scared when it happens to him after watching Jaxson go through it several times I am sure before his first lost tooth.

3 Best Things About Having A Designer

1. Go bold without worry. Interior design does not come easy to me. At. All. I am one to look on Pinterest or other places for inspiration and get overwhelmed and walk away. You might think I am exaggerating my complete inability for design, but to put into perspective I had never even bought a lamp before because there were too many choices and where would I put it! I don't know where to start or how to add things that go together. I don't get a vision then know how to bring it together. When I am looking through a camera lens I can see things differently but when I am in the home goods aisle it all looks confusing and expensive. Renovating a house is a big project that needs a vision. Insert designer here. Luckily for me Channing and I are friends so I didn't even have to explain my style to her (because I don't know if I could even put it into words. I am just that bad at it) but I would show her items I liked and she has compiled an entire vision out the few items I showed her. Would I have put a burnt orange color in my kitchen, or know what to put in the dining room next to a kitchen in that color? No way! Do I love it? Yes! I am so excited to have a home that is colorful but actually looks good! :)

2. She agrees with your husband sometimes. Yes, you read that correctly. In my case my husband might be more challenging than most. Many guys don't care what the interior design is unless it is something totally crazy. My husband cares. Alot. When an idea is brought up and we don't see eye to eye on it (which is a common occurrence), step in Channing. The thing is sometimes she agreed with Dave, despite our friendship. (I forgive her!) But why was this so helpful? When she did agree with me Dave was much more receptive to the idea because he knew that she was giving him HER honest opinion, and not just siding with me because I am the girl/wife/her friend. And there were times she didn't even agree with either of us and had another (much better) idea all together. It is hard to agree when there are so many decisions being made in such a short amount of time. She comes in without the emotion and stress and sets us straight. And ultimately eliminated so many arguments. If she wasn't a designer she would be a great mediator. :)


3. She isn't afraid of a bargain.  Again, luckily we are friends and she knows my love of a bargain. Unless I am buying camera equipment that is! :/ I feel a stereotype of most designers is they would be apt to take you into a top dollar store like Pottery Barn and you walk out without a dime in your pocket. I know before knowing Channing I would think that there was no way I could have someone help me with design because I am not in the tax bracket to afford it. Not Channing! She is frugal at heart as well and has been bargain hunting right along side me. I have found lamps and tables at Goodwill, she finds second hand items for me all the time, and is all for a good DIY or using items we already have in a new way. There is no item we have purchased for the design of the house that was at full price or expensive. Except for that one item at Ikea... but it was Ikea so that doesn't really count right!? Our home will look expensive but will have been put together one smart deal at a time.


Our house is nearing the end and we will get to see it all come together very soon. I completely trust it will be amazing!

The Wall

 Everyone knows that Asher has a thing for yellow. We were going to paint yellow stripes on his wall but precision wasn't really something I was looking forward to. When I came across this idea I knew we had something. We went tape crazy making all different size triangles with no rythm or reason to where we taped. Then we painted! It was easy as that.

Asher was a little bummed when it was time to take the tape off since he loved the yellow tape.

Pumpkin Winner!

Jamie Wins! Jamie Wins! Jamie Wins! 

Thank you all for voting this year!! We love doing this contest but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun without all of you voting for your favorite.

Dave carved the giant pumpkins as many of you guessed. He went big this year hoping that going big would bring home another year in the win column. But since I knew his plan I knew I had to find something pretty difficult to counteract the shear size of his pumpkin.

I carved for just over four hours and drew the pattern on with a permanent marker once I realized stenciling on wasn't going to work. I am not an artist so I paid close attention to try to make sure it looked just like the stencil! They I carved and etched away.

 Dave took hours emptying out the inside of his pumpkin and took power tools to make the perfect, traditonal scary pumpkin face. Just a giant version. He did the carving in the back of the car since it was too heavy to lift and we only wanted to lift it as little as possible.

I do have to say that Dave won the unofficial trick-or-treating parent and kid's vote. All were amazed walking up, one little girl even too afraid to come because of the giant pumpkin. Everyone was shocked it was a real pumpkin and almost everyone wanted to touch it, asked how long it took to carve, how we lifted it. The dad's particularly loved it, not surprisingly. My pumpkin didn't get as much love that night sitting in the big guys shadows. So I am happily taking the win but realize that it was a close and very fair fight. Until next year!!!!

Asher Preschool Pumpkin Party

Asher has been loving preschool and I love being able to volunteer at his class parties! We had a fun pumpkin party and I loved being able to get a peek into his classroom and him interacting with his classmates and teachers! 

Pumpkin Preschool Party

I love watching the boys in their classrooms. It is fun for me to see them interact with the other kids and learn from the teacher. Their cute little smiles at the songs or watching them knowing all the words. I volunteered at Asher's school for the Pumpkin party and grabbed a few photos of him "in action" learning at school.

Pumpking Carve-off

Another year another pumpkin carving contest. I was worried it wasn't going to happen with all that is going on but it wouldn't be Halloween without it. And I had several people ask me about it so I knew it wouldn't be Halloween for all of you without it either! We hate to disappoint our family and friends. So we found time on the calendar, found the perfect pumpkins, and got to work. We always try to get better (and in someone's case bigger) every year and I don't think this year will disappoint! This year we went to the pumpkin patch and chose pumpkins. One of us chose a 150 lb giant pumpkin (yes you read that correctly) and the other went with a perfect carving pumpkin. The big guy had to be put in the hack rack using the wheelchair lift. It is that big. Here are the before they are carved pumpkins!

 Introducing the 2014 Pumpkins!

Pumpkin A

Pumpkin B

Curious what we carved in previous years? Here are some links for you!

2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008

Coach Dave

 Jaxson played soccer with a league for the first time this year and they were in need for parent volunteers. Dave stepped up and was the coach for the season. He thought he was going to get 8 little Jaxson's who would follow some type of directions. He got 1 Jaxson and several other little kids who weren't as interested in listening. The first few games they sure did get killed. Like 20 goals to a few. The kids got frustrated and worn out.

Little by little they got better as each game went by. By the last game, they played the same team they played the first game, and tied them! Jaxson got a goal and both teams ended with 9 goals!! They might not make the world cup team, but they had fun and got better!

Roller Baby

 Jaxson got invited to a friend's birthday party from school at a roller rink! I was a little worried given that he had never done anything even close and I didn't know what his coordination would be like. When we got there we got him fitted and they tightened the wheels pretty good since he was a beginner. It didn't take long for him to want to loosen them just a touch to really get going. I was really impressed with both his ability and also his willingness to give it a try!