Christmas 2015 Part One

 This year we had two cute boys to celebrate Christmas with. We traveled to Idaho to spend time with our families but we had some fun partying in Wyoming before we left. The boys got some Christmas jammies and a new book. Ryker had zero interest in opening presents but Jax was only too happy to step in and help.

 At our ward Christmas the boys got to meet Santa. Jax was very excited about Santa from a distance. He kept saying "Mommy it's Santa Claus!" and was sneaking closer. He was pretty shy once he got up there. Ryker was just looking at him like who is this guy? After they got their treats Jax was super excited again. "Santa gave me candy!"

 

Cute boys in their Christmas Jammies. If one kid is difficult to get to pose for a picture two is near impossible.

 Ryker was the destroyer of the Christmas decorations this year. Jax loved all the charaters on the tree. "See Darth Vader everyone!"

 Our new vacuum from Uncle Eric.

 One Saturday Luke took Jax with him to Walmart to get new tires put on the car. While they were there Luke took him to meet Santa and this is the picture they brought back. I laughed so hard. I stuck it on the fridge and he was so proud of it. He would show it to everyone that came to the house :)

Our tradition of gingerbread houses continues. This year Jax got to help, though he was mostly interested in sneaking candy and asking for licks of frosting. "I want to lick it!"

 

December the 18th (or 19th)

For months Jaxon has been watching the preview for The Force Awakens. We would watch it over and over and he would get mad that he couldn't watch the rest of the movie. Finally we were able to take him to see it. We went to a matinee hoping there wouldn't be too busy. I had taken him to see Inside Out a few months ago and it didn't go very well so I was a little nervous but he did really great. He was super excited to go in his Darth Vader costume. There were a couple of other little jedis there as well. He loved it and Luke and I loved all of his cute commentary. "Star Wars!", "Lightsaber red!", "Chewbaca!". He got to go again with Grandma and Grandpa a week later and loved it again. 

An 11 Month Old

An 11 month old! I cannot believe our little man is almost one. It seems like he has always been part of our family. This month he got four new teeth. I put him to bed with two and he woke up with six. He is a tough little bug. He has discovered opening cupboard doors and enjoys pulling out everything in them. He thinks its the funnest/funniest thing to try and pull brother's hair. 

Thanksgiving 2015

Happy Thanksgiving! This year the extended family all went their separate ways, and my family drove up to Wyoming to have it in our new kitchen. Of course a huge storm was supposed to hit the day before. Normally we don't end up getting much snow but this time we woke up to snow Wednesday morning and it snowed pretty steadily until Sunday. We were prepared for it just to be our little family but everybody braved it through the snow and we had an excellent feast. Friday we woke up to 7 degrees and no power. We were all huddled around the fireplace until it came back on around one. We had a fun time and everybody made it home safely. 

Remodel

So in August we bought a new house. It happened fast and we weren't sure what we'd got our selves into but we were excited for a new adventure. The house was built in the 80s and while well maintained still looked dated. The one big thing was the kitchen/living room area. It was three separate areas. I like the newer open designs where it doesn't feel like you are being banished to the kitchen. Luke talked about remodeling but honestly I didn't really believe that my frugal husband would start such a project. Little did I know he was dead serious. Here is what it looked like before:

Like I said, nice but dated, and brown, brown, brown!! Brown has never been my favorite. This was my first sign that Luke was serious. He said he just wanted to see what was in the wall. 

Next he said he was just going to tear down half the wall and I was definitely still going to have a kitchen.

And this is what I'm left with.

So he hooks up the oven from the ceiling for about a week.

And I still have some counter space and a sink and dishwasher.

...and then I don't. :(

The boys thought it was a lot of fun playing around all the construction.

My Dad came up to help us fix the hole in the ceiling.

Things were a little better once we got the debris and old cabinets moved out.

It took me forever to pick a paint color. After six samples I was ready to get painting.

It mostly happened at night after my little helpers went to bed by lamplight since Luke was adding lights.

The longer I painted, the more pink the previous wall color got. I had to build a baby barricade to keep Ryker out of my tray.

We had no kitchen for about six weeks. Our eating area was downstairs in the storage room and we were eating microwave dinners on paper plates forever! Finally our cabinets came. We had a few that had to be replaced so that took a little longer and it was still another few weeks before the counter tops came. Jax had a great time climbing the mountain of boxes that all the cabinets came in.

We ended up sticking our old sink, counters, and oven in while we were waiting for everything to arrive. Jax loved being able to drive his bike around inside while there were no floors.

Our beautiful counter tops.

Our old floor was a nightmare to tear up. It took forever and was so hard. Luke and I both ended up bleeding several times and we all got slivers at one point. The new floor also took a long time to lay down mostly because we did it ourselves, so pretty much when Luke got home from work and I made him stop when the kids went to bed. We have the cutest little "helpers". My family was coming for Thanksgiving and we finished the floor the day before they came. 

All of the big stuff is done and now we need to finish up the little stuff but it feels so great to have it mostly done and it looks amazing. Proud of my hubby and all of his hard work!