New House - before & after

So sorry I have been gone so long but with the move to the new house and all the construction and changes we have been making has made me busy! We had my brother in law Curtis come and do tons for us:

1. Remove popcorn ceiling, texture & paint the ceiling. This place was a MESS!!

He set up scaffolding in the entry way to get to the ceiling and then he also painted the walls up there too.



2. Replace all the lighting in the house

3. Rip out both of the upstairs bathrooms which had lots of water damage & mold and re-do them.

The girls bathroom - Before









Girls bathroom - After







Master Bathroom - before








Master Bathroom - After



The Master bathroom before just had a tub with a shower and a toliet in it but Curtis suggested to us that there was plenty of room to add in a sink so we did that and we love it. There is another sink in the bedroom that I use and when we have more money we will have Curtis come back and re-do that part.



It was super hard to get a good shot of the shower since it has that huge window, but if you can tell he gave us 2 showers heads so that we can shower together and each have our own which is amazing and we are totally spoiled now.



The side yard looked like a tornado hit with all the old crap from the bathrooms.



4. Replace the side yard gate ( you can see the old one in the above picture)



He was a work horse and we couldn't have done it without him!

Dori also came down and helped me paint the whole house! She was amazing to help me and we go sooo much done.



Then a couple of months later my parents came down for a month and my amazing Mom helped me to paint the kitchen cabinets. We removed the doors, cleaned everything, sanded everything, removed the old hinges, added new hinges, add hardware. Seriously I could never have done it without her.

Kitchen - Before



In progress



Kitchen - After



Crazy what paint and hardware will do huh? It is amazing and I love it!



The view from the dining room into the kitchen and tv room.





So.... can you see how crazy it has been here? The girls love the house. Now that that HUGE post is over with I should be able to start getting back to blogging.

Christmas 2010

Christmas was sure awesome this year. Having kids is just the best at Christmas time. Santa came and both the girls ripped, squealed, and had tons of fun opening their gifts. Gwen got a bike this year and it took alot from Brett and I to get her to look at it. Santa left the bike off to the side so she wouldn't see it when she came downstairs. She walked right to the tree with all the presents and then Brett and I told her to look by the kitchen and she looked and said nothing. We told her to go over there by the kitchen and she ran right into the kitchen walking right by the bike without saying anything. Then we pointed the bike out to her and she was like " This is for me???" She loved it!

It was funny each time Gwen opened a gift I told her to open another one and she was like " Is it for me?" She was so hesitant thinking the presents were not for her. Such a sweetie.



Penelope was excited to get her own purse and so was Gwen since Penelope always took hers to use.



Penelope was really into all the present opening but once we started getting a good amount of wrapping paper all on the floor she decided she just wanted to eat it. I swear this girl eats anything she can get her hands on.



Cinderella Gwen's favorite princess, mainly because she has blue clothes.



After all of that Gwen just wanted to go and ride her bike outside. It took alittle bit for her to get the hang of it, but she now is a pro.



Then we got dressed and went to Brett's parents to open all the gifts there. Gwen got a crash kart from Kami to add to all the Doctor stuff she has and loves.





Gwen was so giddy when she opened Winnie the Pooh in a blanket from Grandma. She was sad when Santa didn't bring it.



Penelope just wanted Kami or Papa.



Penelope's favorite was this ball machine that Grandma gave her. She screams with excitement whenever a ball comes out.



The girls got a whole toy store between Santa, Brett & I and Grandma and Papa.



Brett got this awesome shirt from Kami which was great since we all love Arrested Development. Mr. Manager.



Brett's parents are always buying us kitchen things since I hate buying them. I would rather spend my money on other things. They all laugh since I call it " kitchen crap". It is great to have new pots & pans we really needed them.



Christmas was huge this year and I wouldn't have it any other way!

It is hard to get a family picture

Apparently Brett was having issues along with the girls.

Our traditional kids photo on the stairs before opening presents.



More Christmas to come......

Thanksgiving with my parents

This trip turned out to be the trip from HELL (sorry for the profanity but there is no other word but that one to describe it). We have traveled to my parents before many times during Thanksgiving and Christmas and have NEVER had traffic like we did this trip. It took us 9 hours to get there when it normally takes us 6.5 or 7 hours at most.

We had a great time with my parents. The girls loved having the huge house to themselves and being able to do what they wanted. Most of my parents things are packed since they will be moving soon so the house was EMPTY which made it easy for the girls to roam and play. We got there Wednesday night late and talked to my parents to let the girls run around since they had been in the car forever. Then when we woke up I made pumpkin pies (yummy!) and we ate lunch/dinner at my sister Dori's that lives next door to my parents.

They have 2 little dogs and the girls loved them. That is all they are getting since Brett and I do not like dogs :)

We ate with Dori's family and some of her friends and my parents. I thought I got a picture of all of us at the table but apparently not.



While at my parents both of the girls allergies were TERRIBLE. Brett got a terrible sore throat which turned into laryngitis and then once we got home we both got Bronchitis. Apparently Utah in the winter does not agree with us.

We did have fun and the girls loved being with my parents. This is what everyone did:

Gwen & Grandma Helen (aka my mom) did crafts. They made Grandma (aka Bretts mom) a birthday card since we would be driving home on her birthday.



The card in progress. Gwen loved the glue and glitter and that my Mom had her wear an apron. She just loves all that crafty stuff.



Then Grandma Helen found playdoh that she had made and some toys and Gwen was in heaven.



Penelope pushed her stroller around since there was a ton of open space in the house. She had a ball. Can you tell from this picture how awful her face looks? It is all red and broken out from her terrible allergies. Poor thing.



Papa Helen played, wait sorry, worked on his computer. He is addicted.



Watched movies on the ipad.



Played cards. My family is huge on playing cards and always has been.



Braved the snow. It was one of the coldest winters Cedar had seen -10 degrees one day.



Gwen loved the snow and took every opportunity to play and jump around in it.



Then on our trip home we had the scariest thing ever happen to us. We left my parents house at 5:30am so we would miss the traffic. Once we hit this place in Cedar City on your way to St. George called the "Black Ridge" it is one of the worst places with the most accidents in Utah. Well it turned into one scary time for us. We were going slow since it was snowing and the roads were not the best and we got on some ice and totally lost control of the car and did 2 360's which made us go into the embankment between the road and the mountain. We felt like we were going to flip over but then we hit the mountain and it stopped us from flipping (well that and we were blessed). Brett then got the car in reverse and drive really fast to try to get us out of the embankment. One awesome good Samaritan pulled over and helped us push the car out and jumped on the side rail to help give the wheels some traction so we could make it out of there. We did as you can see from the picture below. We are on the side of the rode were we stopped to look at the car and found out we had a ruined tire and had a dent in the bumper.





What made it even worse was that we had to wait 3 hours for the tow truck/AAA to come and help us. We did have a little bit of excitement when no one was passing us for almost 45 minutes and we knew there had been an accident before us so no one, now, could get to us. After another hour, making it 3 hours we had waited, a fire truck and an ambulance pulled over to check on us. Gwen liked talking to the fireman. They just wanted to make sure we were warm and had help coming but they were not allowed to help us with the tire or anything. Which did suck since we had been waiting forever but oh well. Finally the AAA people came and fixed the car for us so we could be on the way. Well now it was way late and we had not even got to St. George yet! Traffic was horrible, oh course, and finally in Jean, Nevada we were done and got a room for the night. We rested and let the girls run around for a couple of hours and ate but then decided to just leave and get on the rode since Brett had to be in court first thing in the morning.

So all in all we left my parents house at 5:30am and didn't get home until midnight. Worst trip ever. We may never go to Utah again. Snow is the devil.