Ginger Bread Houses

We have a fun tradition with our good friends, Dallin and Emilee of making gingerbread houses. Dallin and Emilee are always way more creative than we are. Dustin and I have always just bought kits and made our gingerbread houses from those. This year, Dallin and Emilee did a gingerbread train. The coolest part was, they actually made their own gingerbread! I always say, next year, we will try making our own. Really, next year is the year! We are going to be creative AND with homemade gingerbread. I can just smell it now! :) Usually Dallin takes the longest, this year, it was me. I took so long that Dustin and I didn't even get our picture with our completed houses. My house was having problems, as usual. Something ALWAYS goes wrong with mine, the roof, the walls, the sprinkles, everything! It's still fun and something I look forward to each year. Thanks guys for such a fun tradition!

The Construction is FINISHED!!

I am SO happy! Our condo has been under construction since the day before Thanksgiving. Last weekend, we finally finished everything and got it put back together! Dustin and his awesome friend Dallin installed new tile in our kitchen, entry way and bathroom Thanksgiving weekend. While they were doing that, I painted the whole front room, kitchen and hallway. Yes, I taped, and painted EVERYTHING by myself. Its been A LOT of work to say the least. Thursday and Friday, the carpet installers came and put in our new carpet! YAY! We have felt like we've been living in a war zone the past couple weeks. I didn't really get a "before" pic. But I did get the whole process. I have to apologize to our neighbors for all the loud noise we've been making. It's done and we have no plans of any more loudness.

Dustin scrapping the tile off the kitchen floor. It was hard work! It got easier when he finally let me try a trick I read online. We poured HOT water on a towel on top of the glue. He said it was a lot easier after the water trick. The bathroom wasn't glued down, so that lifted right off.

Dustin and Dallin tiling the bathroom the night before Thanksgiving. We were all up until 3:30 in the AM. Notice, there is no toilet... We stayed up so late so we could let the floor set for 24 hours and get the toilet in first thing Friday morning. Thanksgiving day was a little interesting. But it did get me to the gym.

The day after Thanksgiving Dallin was over again to help Dustin tile the kitchen and front entry way. It took longer than I thought it would. After you set the tile, you have to let it sit for an hour. Then you can grout it and you have to let it sit for 3 hours. Then the washing begins. Dustin said that was his LEAST favorite part because he's been on his knees so much already and its all set but you have to wash the excess grout.

While the boys were tiling, I taped and painted the whole house. My shoulder got the best workout! After I painted, I decided I wanted to paint the floor boards and chair rail too. I worked on that in the mornings before work. That takes a lot longer than you would think too.

Getting ready for the carpet in the bedrooms and hallway. We had just about everything we owned in the front room. Luckily, we only had to live like this for one day.

Getting ready for the carpet in the front room. We took all the carpet out. It was SO heavy! I'm amazed I was able to get it to the truck! lol

The carpet installers we went with gave us the biggest scare the day before they were installing the carpet. We already had all our things out of the bedrooms for them. I called to confirm they were coming. I get a call back not 5 minutes later saying the carpet we wanted was on back order. CRAP! We go in, we actually found something we liked even better that they had in stock. Because of the mess up, they gave us the nicer carpet for the same price we were getting on the original. We got $9 off per yard. We were pretty happy to say the least.

This is the last thing we got! It's an early Christmas present. I LOVE IT! I will try and play it down, but in all reality, I really like it!!

THANK YOU DUSTIN!!! I LOVE EVERYTHING!!!!! I LOVE YOU SWEETIE!!!!

Thank you Dallin for helping with the tile, it looks AMAZING!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This year, we spent Thanksgiving with Dustin's family. Every year, they have a pinata for the kids. I volunteered to be in charge of it this year. While looking for the perfect pinata, I realized not many places have cute "Thanksgiving" themed pinatas. I found this pattern online and had to give it a chance. I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of him. He turned out SUPER cute!! It look a long time but was SO worth it! I'm pretty sure all 20 kids had a chance to hit it. When it finally broke open and all the kids were scrambling around looking for their candy and gathering as much as they could, I took a big bag of the remaining candy that did not fit and dumped it all on their heads.

I missed my family this year but was so grateful we were able to spend time with family members. My family means the world to me and they are some of my best friends. I am so grateful for both my family and Dustin's family. Both are always so ready and willing to help us with everything we need. Our parents prepared us for one another and did such a great job.

I am grateful for a wonderful husband who loves me and willing to provide for me. He is so optimistic about any mishap that may come our way. He is willing to work the whole holiday weekend on our wonderful condo to make me happy. He and his friend Dallin was up til close to 4 am one night so he could get it all finished. Pics to come once the carpet is in.

We would be lost with out the gospel in our lives. The spirit and the blessings we receive because of it is so great. I am so grateful for the temple. The fact that I can be with my incredible husband for eternity brings such great joy.

There are so many things to be grateful for. It's great to have a holiday to remind us of everything we have but I hope we can remember them all year long.

Pumpkin Carving

Last night we had our friends Dallin and Emilee over to carve some pumpkins. They turned out really cool! I always thought the cool design ones were really hard to carve, but they proved to be Way easier than any "normal" one I've ever done... I carverd the cool Monster (he is my favorite!) Dustin did a pretty sweet pirate ship and Dallin and Emilee did the hot vampire, aka Edward!!

This is always the worst part, it wan't too bad this time though... We had a lot of fun with it!

The final results

They look WAY cooler when they are lit! Pics are cool but really dont do them justice.