Since September.....the recap continues

Once we made it through the summer months, there was more fun to be had.  On we go....this turned out a bit longer than I planned, but it's some of my 'best' work. 

September 3: Kitchen and Bathroom Demolition

We made the decision to undergo major and very necessary home renovation.  We took on the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom.  When I say we, I mean the contractor.  We did do the demo in the both rooms. And when I say we, I mean Ned and Bob.  The majority happened in the kitchen though.  

Thank goodness Bob came to help.  He really got the smashing going with the sledge hammer.

We still had the tile to take off the wall in the kitchen.  I'm not sure why we didn't have to do the tile in the bathroom, but Scott (the contractor and his crew) did it for us.  I'm not really complaining.

 September 5: Kitchen remodel

After the demolition came to good stuff.  There were a lot of progress pictures, but I'm not going to bore you with them.  All you really care about is the 'before' and 'after' shots.  

The new kitchen went from that mess, to that wonderful kitchen you see there.  The new stuff included: new custom built cabinets, counter tops, new can and pendent lighting (they took out all the old lighting), backsplash, plumbing, tile floor and ALL new appliances. Okay, we kept the same dishwasher because it wasn't that old and it matched.  

Can you see the backsplash there?  It's silver and three-dimensional.  It's the definition of awesomeness. Also, my new gas stove is perfection.  It has continuous burners instead of four separate ones.  The refrigerator is pretty great too.  It has the french doors and two freezer drawers.  It has this neat little alarm feature that beeps when the doors are open too long.  It's pretty funny to watch people look around when it starts beeping.  hehe

This little built in cabinet is one of my favorite things about this house.  It adds a little charm.  Awe.  We  decided to put the same stuff inside the cabinet as we did on the backsplash.  LOVE it!  If you look at the bead board, we stained that too.  We just added a little color to it.  This is one of my favorite changes in the kitchen. 

September 5: Bathroom Remodel

We decided that why tear the house up twice, might as well do it all at once.  The bathroom needed a ton of work too. Back a few years ago, we had the window taken out of the bathroom and replaced it with glass block.  We also had them make the opening a little bigger.  After that, we left it just the way it was.  We desperately needed to get the tub and shower surround fixed.  We also, had a gravity defying sink.  How that thing stayed on the wall, I'll never know.  

The new bathroom included: more custom built cabinets, new counter top, mirror, lighting, sink, fixtures and flooring.  We did leave the old tub. It was in pretty good shape and it was a unique size.  It would have been difficult and expensive to find on the correct size.  Isn't it pretty?  I am happy to report that there is an outlet IN the bathroom now.  There wasn't before.....

The tub.  I am a bit embarrassed to show the before picture.  We had to put shower curtain over the glass block to keep the moisture out.   It worked ghettoly (of course I made that word up) well.  The new shower tub included: marble slab surround with a marble trim, two handy shelves, and new fixtures.  It's so pretty now!  I'm not sure which I'm more happy about: the missing pink tile or the usable shower?  It's a toss up. 

September 6: First day of 4 year old preschool

Abby was super excited to start school.  She loves Ms. Jill and all her friends. She was lucky to have so many of the same friends in her class.  She has also made a lot of new friends.  She tells me that she has a "boyfriend" named Ashton.  I asked her what they did if she was "a girlfriend and he was a boyfriend".  She told me that they play "spider kids".  She is a spider girl and he's a spider boy and there are a lot of other spider girls.  They run around and chase each other.  Sounds about right to me.

Isn't she darling with the dance pose thing going on?  Love her!

September: The remaining days

We spent the remaining days of September hiding in the basement, where the mess wasn't so bad, going anywhere but our own house, and cleaning up the mess.  The remodel was totally complete in just over two weeks.  Phew.  It was like a sprint.  I'm so glad that they were able to have it finished that fast though.  I would have gone totally crazy if it had been longer.  Once everything was complete, I spent a lot of time putting things away and getting organized, as well as, cleaning every square inch of the entire house.  It got a really good spring cleaning in the Fall.  We did have a little "cabin time" there at the end of September. It was nice to get away from the craziness for a minute.  Of course, Abby puked the night we got there.  We always have a mysterious illness or physical ailment arise when we reach the "cabin".  Someone either throws up, gets a cold, ear infection, random skin rash....you name it and it happens as soon as we pull in the driveway. It's really weird.  Abby commented, "I really like it here, but I always throw up."  So true, so true. 

I think this is a good time to insert some pictures of Zoey.  She is the funniest kid ever.  Somewhere along the way, she quit being a baby and started being a kid.  Although, she does refer to herself as, "bebe."  I'm not sure if she's confused because sometimes we call her baby or if she just knows that she is mama's baby. 

 This kid is so snuggly.  She also still drinks a bottle.  I'm not sure I care. 

 She always has to have sponge bath after she eats.  I mostly just hose her down in the sink, but sometimes a real bath is in order. 

Just the perfect place to sit.

September 22: Blake Fowers was born

Suzie and Jared welcomed this darling baby boy into their family.  He is such a sweet baby!

October 2: Ned's Chicago Bears obsession heads for Solider Field - Chicago, IL

Ned had some meetings in Chicago and those meetings happened to fall on the same weekend that the Bears played at home.  Ned, being a huge Bear's fan just had to go to the game.  His being a fan has been taken to a whole new level this year.  New jerseys, shirts, sweatshirts....two games.  It's been crazy.

Before the game started

Da Bears!

October 4: Abby started her first dance class

Abby is taking from Mrs. Peek at South Weber Elementary.  She loves it.  It's a tap class with a little tumbling too.  There are only 4 girls in her class and it turns out that we knew one of them.  Later another girl joined and it was my cousin Holly's little girl.  She is doing really well.  I'm glad she is enjoying herself!

October 13: Pumpkin Patch

We were lucky enough to tag along with Erin and her ward's playgroup at Black Island Farms.  The girls LOVED it!  We bought all of our pumpkins for carving and some little ones for decoration.  

I brought them home and arranged them on the front porch.  That night I couldn't sleep because I kept picturing someone smashing my new, beautiful pumpkins.  I ended up bringing them in each night.  I slept a lot better that way. 

October 16: The Primary Program

This was Abby's first primary program.  She was so excited and got her part all memorized.  It turned out that she was the very FIRST speaker of the program.  She got up there and froze.  She just shook her head and stepped off the stool.  She stood right on the front row with tears in her eyes and sang every song just the same.  Ned had to keep me in the pew.  I was really wanted to go up there an rescue her.  I really, really wanted to save her from the program.  Instead of doing that, we all waved at her, gave her thumbs up signs, and smiles.  She stayed on the stand the entire time. After watching everyone else do their part, she got very brave and wanted a turn too.  The member of the primary presidency that was sitting by the podium made up a little part for to say and she was the final speaker.  She was SO proud of herself.  

This was taken during the 'dress rehearsal' before she was so scared and teary.

October 27: Grandma and Grandpa's Trunk or Treat

We crashed my parent's ward's trunk or treat this year.  It was so cool.  People have games, and music and lights, and awesome decorations.  Best trunk or treat I've ever seen. 

 Zoey the kitty

 Abby the too cool cat

With Grandma and Grandpa.  All Zoey is worried about it the candy in her hand.  I don't blame her.

October 28: Playgroup Halloween Party

How cute are these kids?

October 30: Pumpkin Carving and Chili dinner at Great-Grandma's house

 Looks quite vicious with all the knives sitting there on the table - those are the most dull knives every, by the way. Ned game me new sharp knives for Christmas.  Next year's pumpkins better watch out. 

 Ready for the party!  So darling!

Me dressed in normal clothes with a witch hat, Natalie, Brad as the Joker (Natalie made his whole costume) and Sherry as Dorothy.

October 31: Halloween!

 The official kitty costume pictures

 Abby and Zoey with Grandma and Grandpa

 A pretty 'scary' family photo

We always thought it would be so fun to have a fire on Halloween. This year, it was so warm we didn't need one, but we did it anyway. It was kind of fun.  All the people trick-or-treating really liked it.  We may have a new tradition on our hands. 

November 3: Playing in the leaves

November 5: The first snow of the season

November 22: Christmas lights

We switched all our outdoor lights to LED ones.  This sent us on a hunt for the Philips brand LED lights.  Since Ned is an employee of Philips, we thought we should probably support.  After we found our wonderful lights, Ned got them hung on the roof.  Because it didn't really snow ALL holiday season, they stayed on the roof really perfectly.

November 25: Thanksgiving Day

Sadly I have no pictures of this blessed event.  We had a wonderful dinner with the Wallis family at Ned's parent's house.  It was great to see everyone and eat yummy food.  The next day Ned went hunting with the Richey boys and that night we had a casual post Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandma's house.  After all the good food, we were ready for the Christmas season. 

December 1: The wind storm

Although I think that December needs it's own post, I think I'll add the wind storm to this already lengthy post.  Our house was totally not at all effected by the wind storm other than the loss of power.  My parents  giant blue spruce was not so lucky.

 It just missed the garage, the car was in it. 

 We gathered cones to make wreaths. My girls with Sherry and Brad

 My dad starting to cut the tree apart to get it off the driveway

 The root system. 

Well, that about does it for September, October and November.  This turned out much, much longer than I originally planed.  That's the beauty of it being my blog....it can be as long as I want it to be.