News

This is somewhat overdue, but we bought a house last month! We are renting out our condo and looking forward to having more space now. It’s a fixer-upper, with much of the house being original or just old. It’s a work in progress, and we haven’t moved in yet. Having Aiden there is a handful, so I often stay away with him.

So far, Isaac has torn off the vines that were covering the balcony. I took this picture after he tore them down. Otherwise, this is original. We are having a new garage door put in this week, and we just got a new front door since I’m pretty sure I could knock this one in without trying too hard.

Here you can see (through the door) the entry tile that we will be be replacing with a slate laminate. We tore out the doors, and Mom refinished the doorway. This is the original kitchen. Isaac tore up FOUR layers of old flooring… it literally added two vertical inches to the room. He tore out the cabinets because some were broken and in bad shape. He tore out the old appliances and bought new ones. He and our friend Jon tore down the unimportant wall to the left of the fridge and the dark beams running all around and across the ceiling. We took down the old light fixtures.

The paint in the kitchen was so dark, and the two different kinds of vinyl were dated, so I wasn’t sad to see any of it go. The house has a country kitchen where the kitchen area runs right into the family room, which is great, but I did not love the wood paneling covering the family room walls, the old AC unit, or the 5’ x 6’ window that was a sheet of glass and didn’t open. We said goodbye to it all.

Isaac and Dad replaced the giant window with two single-hung windows this weekend.

Chris, from our ward, helped us out a lot by fixing our electrical, then Mom and Isaac patched the walls. We went with a lighter, warmer wall color. Mom and Patrick textured the ceiling and walls, and Dad and Isaac joined in for painting.

We have been doing a lot on our own to cut costs, but we decided it was worth a little extra money to have someone else do the cabinets and countertops. They did most of the work in three days. It was amazing.

Now we just have to finish patching the back wall, do finish work around the new windows, texture, paint, and lay the wood laminate flooring we got for this room and the living room.

We have lots more on our list of things to do, but once this is done, we’ll get the master ready, and then we can move in and work on other things as we have time and money. All of the bedrooms have beautiful hardwood flooring that we are planning to uncover and refinish. We already bought paint for the whole house. We are replacing a few upstairs windows, and we need to do a lot of work on the bathrooms… One nice thing about moving into a fixer-upper is that we can fix it up in ways we like.

We have been SO lucky to have friends help us load all of our stuff into the living room and pile up lots of debris in the backyard. My parents are amazing to let us stay with them for so long and to help us do so much work on the house. Everyone has done so much for us, and we look forward to cooking them meals in our new kitchen soon!

Happy Easter!

Aiden was pretty good about his egg hunt in the patio. He needed a little prompting on some of the eggs, but he was diligent and kind of counted them as he went.

 Aiden didn't get a flying elephant in his back yard for his birthday, but he got a little elephant in his front yard for Easter, so that's pretty good, right? He was excited. :)

Happy Halloween!

We went to Perry Farms to pick out a pumpkin again this year, supporting our local farm (it’s about a mile away from us). This was the first time we were ambitious enough to carve it though… AND roast the seeds, which were super good.

Tonight we went to the ward Trunk or Treat, and Aiden did a pretty good job. He said “trick or treat” at almost every car and always said thank you, even if he had to be prompted sometimes. He didn’t eat any candy there, and after we’d gone around once, he said “Done car treat, Mommy,” and he just wanted to sit in my lap and later my dad’s while we handed out candy. Once he got the candy home, though, it was a different story. He wasn’t very happy to find out that he wasn’t allowed to eat as much as he wanted.

He and Larry were practically car-loving twins.

Bonus points if you can guess our pop culture homage here. I couldn’t pass up an easy literary allusion. I was glad so many of my students figured it out.

7 years

We had our seventh anniversary in June. Seven is a lucky number, so Isaac figures this next year is bound to bring some great things.

We celebrated by going to church and attending a baptism and spending time at home with our little family.

It was funny going through all the wedding planning and events with Mandy lately because on one hand, it doesn’t seem like it was really seven years ago that it was us in their shoes, but on the other, it seems like it was a long time ago. Does that make sense?

Anyway, here’s to lots more!

Happy Mothers’ Day!

I enjoyed Mothers’ Day by waking up to French toast and eggs made by Isaac, going to church and teaching Nursery with Aiden, eating a superb BLT with avocado for lunch (made by Isaac again), spending time with family, and eating dinner of ribs and veggies prepared by Isaac and my dad. Do I sound like I ate a lot? I didn’t even mention Isaac’s brownies. Wow. I’m a pig.

This little bean sure makes it an adventure to be a mom!

Here is my mommy! I don’t know what I’d do without her. She is such a good example of loving service and dedication.

I just missed his cheeser smile. Oh well. What is Mandy doing with her foot?

Mandy… who is getting married in FIVE weeks! I spent time addressing announcements today. It was not as bad as you might think. I don’t have very many skills, but decently neat handwriting is one of them—glad to be of service today!

Presidents’ Day Weekend

I got a four-day weekend, so Isaac took a day off, and we made the most of having more family time.

Friday we walked around Don Edwards Wildlife Preserve and hung out at a playground.

Aiden was impressed by the wildlife… even though we only saw birds and squirrels…

Saturday we hiked around Mount Tamalpais State Park and enjoyed some time at Stinson Beach. We did not go in the water but loved being on the sand.

After we put Aiden to bed, my brother came over while Isaac and I went to see a movie. I still can’t believe we had a date night on a Saturday night; I don’t remember the last time that happened. Today we both have lots of homework to do, and Isaac goes back to work, but I am relishing in the chance to be home another day. Happy Presidents’ Day to all!