New Years Update

January 2nd of last year I did our New Year's Resolution for our house. So, I dug it back up to see how well we did. I've highlighted everything with red that we've accomplished.

Jayden's Room

  • Touch up floor paint
  • Install and paint quarter round and floor trim
  • Finish shelving (this is partly done)
  • Install dimmer switch
  • Blank covers for obsolete outlets
  • Install lighting in closet
  • Paint door

Master Bedroom

  • One more coat of paint on walls
  • Edging on ceiling
  • Plate covers
  • Finish Trim
  • Install Door
  • Install closet lights
  • Run cable to our room

Upstairs Hallway

  • Finish patching cracks
  • Sand
  • Primer and paint ceilings and walls
  • Install lighting
  • Switch plate covers
  • Paint woodwork
  • Install shelving

Kid's Bath

  • Finish Floor
  • Plumbing
  • Order faucet for tub
  • Sand walls
  • Primer and Paint walls and ceiling
  • Finish painting bead board
  • Put up trim
  • Put up and finish door
  • Install Lighting
  • Hang medicine cabinet

Stairway

  • Sand, primer, paint walls and ceiling
  • Sand and varnish woodwork (this is partly done)

Living Room

  • Finish woodwork
  • Finish installing built in media cabinet
  • Finish dresser
  • Finish and install french doors
  • Touch up paint

Family Room

  • Touch up paint
  • Put up woodwork
  • Finish woodwork
  • Install built in bookshelves

Dining Room

  • One more coat of regular paint
  • Top coat paints
  • Woodwork
  • Switch plate covers
  • Door on closet

Half bath

  • Put in ceiling
  • Plaster, sand, primer, and paint walls and ceiling
  • Paint bead board and woodwork
  • Plate covers (all but the lightswitch)
  • Hang medicine cabinet

Kitchen

  • Electrical
  • Plumbing
  • Drywall walls and ceiling
  • Plaster, Sand, Primer and paint walls and ceiling
  • Install and paint woodwork
  • Sand and varnish floor <--We painted instead
  • Install lighting
  • Install cabinets
  • Install appliances

Outside

  • Scrape paint
  • Primer
  • Paint
  • Begin landscaping
So basically, there is a lot we did get done, and there's a lot we didn't get done. BUT, part of what wasn't on the list was the front bedroom, because at the time we weren't necessarily planning on needing to have that room finished anytime soon. I'd still say it was a pretty good year. My list was fairly ambitious, because if we actually had finished it, our house would be done, and that just doesn't happen with old houses.

Last year at this time we didn't have anything close to a working kitchen or a fully functional bathroom, you can simply look here to see what we were living in. We had plastic up on the doorways that led into the kitchen, and I think we were still traveling to our parent's houses in order to shower. Now every appliance is up and going (well, basically...our ice maker isn't hooked up for our fridge and I use a match to light the gas burners on the stovetop), both of our bathrooms are complete, our dining room is actually used as a dining room and all three of our bedrooms are completely liveable. The outside of the house is still scary looking, but hey, we needed one good Halloween with it like it is.

There is a bit of an update. I'll post some pictures of the babies room once I actually take a picture of the near finished product. We still have some woodwork to finish, the floor to repair and the light to hang...but you'll get the gist of it.
So, that's it for our year end review. Maybe I'll be ambitious enough to do a new list here in a few days...but we'll see. With a newish job and a new baby, I don't know what we'll be able to accomplish. Hopefully I'll sell a couple of millions dollar houses and we can just hire the rest of the work done. :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Our family had a GREAT Christmas, but boy, are we exhausted! "We" meaning "me," Jayden is a bundle of endless energy.
Our family Christmas' started out at my sister's house on Sunday, where we celebrated with Dad and Debbie. The boys had a blast playing together, at least until all of the new toys started entering the scene. They received some great toys, and some really cute clothes.

Here are the boys posing in front of Heather's Christmas tree before they were able to open presents.
Ethan played Santa by handing out all of the gifts. Jayden helped Grandpa John open up his Rubix Cube.


Jayden had present opening down, but each toy had to be taken out of it's box before he'd agree to go on to the next gift.
On Christmas Eve, we went to my mom's house to celebrate with that portion of the family. My mom, my sister's family was there, my brother (after work) along with my Uncle Perry, Hanna and George, and Brittany and Jacob. The present opening here was a flurry of paper, and was done in about 5 minutes...you can definitely tell the boys are getting older. Here, they both got a lot of great toys, and were actually pretty much content with their own presents that they didn't bother each other too much by trying to play with each other's new toys.
This is our in front of the Christmas tree pose. We were trying to get a picture with Ethan, Jayden and Jacob, but it's almost impossible to get all three boys to look at the camera, stay seated, and smile at the same time. You can see how thrilled Jayden was by the time this picture was taken.
Ethan and Jayden.
After Christmas at my mom's house, we went to midnight mass. Josh is in the choir, and he organized some people to get together and performed "An Angel Came Down" by the Transiberian Orchestra. They did an awesome job, and if I can somehow get a video of it on my computer, I'll post it. They all sounded great, Josh especially. :)

Christmas morning we opened presents from Santa. He brought Jayden some really cool toys (if I do say so myself), and luckily, even though it wasn't wrapped, he didn't notice the best present until the very end. It was a four wheeler that was still charging, and since he's gotten that, it's pretty much been in motion the whole time.

Here is Jayden in the middle of opening, he received a couple of more dinosaurs, a camera, a Buzz Lightyear, and some more trucks. Santa is nice enough to put together all of the toys that he's received for Christmas so far so Jayden can play with those too on Christmas morning.
This is the way Jayden got a start on most of his presents, he had to bite off the corner of the paper.

In the middle of it all.

Finally, mid morning, we had the Steven's family over to our house for the Christmas celebration. The kids were starting to get pretty worn down by now, but they perked up quickly enough.
We started the morning with some homemade donuts. We all teased Josh because he wanted to make 50, which seemed like way too many. But, we only had 1 left over, so he had the last laugh. Josh had to recruit Joe and his frosting making abilities, so they both pretty much were in charge of breakfast. We also had a braided bread roll, and some fruit.
Two hours later, we had lunch. I knew if we started presents before we ate lunch, we wouldn't be eating until mid afternoon. Thankfully, people were still willing to eat.

Joe and Josh making their famous donuts.

Jayden opening more and more gifts! We had a rule here, no opening up the toys until all of the presents had been opened. It was really difficult when we was getting guitars and other cool toys, but he made it through. In addition to the toys, he got some great clothes, so he's going to be totally stylish for the rest of the winter.
Jayden and Taylor have been wrestling a lot lately. It's hilarious, because they both love it, and they actually don't annoy each other when they're in the middle of a good wrestling match.
Here they are, taking a quick break to pose for the camera.

Here's the newest family...aww....aren't they cute?
Here's a shot of the mess, while Taylor is opening up her gifts.
One gift that Jayden received from Hanna and George at my mom's house was a whoopee cushion. George was disappointed at first, because the boys weren't all that thrilled. By the end of the night, Jayden was having a great time with it. But then again, he is ALL boy, so he would think that it's hilarious. What I didn't expect, was for Taylor to have such a great time with it too. Who knew?
Well, that pretty much sums up this years Christmas. I think I could have written much longer chapters, but I'm sure you all get the gist of it. We had such a great time...it feels like every Christmas just gets better and better, especially with so many new additions to the family.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and will have a great new year!

ps. Stay tuned for a house update post, whenever I get another chance to sit at the computer undisturbed again. I'll have some pictures of the babies room, and maybe a year end update of what's been accomplished this year.

Welcome to the family!

Our newest family member, Kimmie and Nate's son, Peyton Thomas.

Snow Day!

It snowed!!
Duh, right?
Jayden and I took full advantage of it, he bundled all up (making him look like he'd gained about 30 pounds) to head out to play, and I was able to get the rest of the walks shoveled. I thought we'd only be out for 5 or 10 minutes before it got old, but he did NOT want to come in. He loved throwing snowballs, eating the snow, and falling straight into it covering himself from head to toe in snow. And of course, I had my camera ready.


Here he is when we first got out, he refused to put his mittens on before we headed out, but it gave him a good opportunity to get a few hand fulls in before he realized that mittens were a good thing.
And with a couple of hand fulls, came many mouth fulls.

He went straight for his sand box, which is a lot of fun to climb up with mittens, especially when your mom can't get your thumbs into the thumb place.


Obviously I had to throw my mittens on him, he wouldn't keep his own on. He liked them because they built up snow, which made for a really handy snack (no pun intended!).
He even braved the slide!
Of course, we had to get his truck out. The best $12 we ever spent on a toy.