New Granite

So this week has been not to bad.. Sunday night we were invited to go have dessert at one of the family's in our ward home. The Turner family and it was alot of fun.. They are big game players so we played games and had ice cream we felt very comfortable with their family. I hope we can develop a good friendship with them..  They have a son who is Allie's age, a daughter who is Austin's age and another daughter who is Jessie's age so that is kind of nice.. We seem to have similar likes between our families so it was cool..

We had Monday off due to Martin Luther King Day.. We didn't really do much around here except the normal chores and stuff.. Steve had to work..   Then Steve left on Weds for Dallas which was kind of a bummer. He has been traveling alot lately so that is never fun.. Then Weds night it started to rain/snow but the temps were so cold that we had more of a freezing rain snow mix which made all the roads very icy so they cancelled school, so the kids enjoyed that.. I just wish they would have notified us earlier before we were all dressed up ready to go and heading to the bus stop before we finally found out. Owell I guess I had to be up anyways because the granite company was coming out today to install my new granite..  We were kind of confined to the house, so we didn't get to do much except just wait until the granite people to finish up and leave. We were all starving because we couldn't really go in and make lunch with a bunch of people in our kitchen working.. So we were living on chips and crackers I had managed to sneak out of the pantry while they were working.

We had a little set back because when they ripped off the existing granite they found a bunch of mold on the plywood that the granite had been sitting on near the sink because the people who originally put the granite in did not do a good job on sealing it up and water got back in around the sink.. It looked really bad that's why we wanted to replace the granite in the first place..  One of the workers is allergic to mold and he got this huge rash all over his face and down his neck because of the mold..  So this put everything on hold and we were told to stay out of the kitchen for a while and they all got masks on and was calling a professional to see what they should do.. They told me they were originally going to cut all the wood out that was molded which would have made me feel much better but the professional told them to just spray it with pure bleach and that would take care of it so they did..  My house was toxic smelling for a while they had to leave the doors open to help ventilate it so my house was freezing and the heater was constantly running and we were all confined to our office room because its the warmest room in the house.. Fun times..  I cant wait to see what my utility bills are going to be this month with the heat always running because of our freezing temps this week and our frozen pipes and having to run additional heaters to unfreeze them I am sure it's going to be outrageous.. 

 I would have much rather enjoyed a nice lazy day of watching movies and staying warm with the kids snuggled up in blankets.. Owell we have some very nice granite now.. It makes the kitchen look much better..

Before

 After

 

Now we are just waiting to get our cabinets done..  We have been working through a guy who does his own work so he is extremely busy so we are having to work with his schedule.. Because the cabinets were built in and then the brick built in around them we just cant take the cabinets out without destroying all the brick work around it, so our options are to try and change the existing color that is on them..  Right now its kind of a yellowish color with some black speckled look to it.. I am not very fond of it so I am hoping to make them a little darker, however we are having a hard time trying to find a glaze that can go over it to give it the look that I want..  I did talk to the painter today though and we are going to try putting a black glaze on them to see if that might possibly darken the cabinets to where I want them..  I am also thinking of painting the island cabinets black...  Now with this new granite on I think it would look pretty cool to have a black island which would bring out the black colors in the granite and bring a little more color to the kitchen...

We had a black island in our MI home and I really liked it so I am hoping it will look good in this one..

So we are just playing the waiting game to finally get some samples from the painter to look at and decide on something.. He took a couple of our cabinet doors to experiment on so we can see if its what we want, so just have to wait for him to get them done.. He is thinking it might be spring before we can actually do it which really sucks but he is giving us a deal so guess we will wait..  I will post when we finally get it all done..

So now its Friday and my hubby will be getting home somewhere around midnight and then he will be going skiing Sat afternoon with the ym of our ward for an activity.. So that will be fun for him and Austin tomorrow.. I guess us girls will have a movie day..  Sunday we will be going to our first Stake conference here.. they will be calling a new bishopric so that should be interesting.. I really liked the bishop we currently have.. I have not really gotten to know him in the few short weeks we have been here, but he is always so happy and smiling and has been really nice to talk to..  He called us in last week to meet us and see what callings we have been in before, and all that stuff they do with new families when they move in, so that's all the contact we have really had with him.. I am sure we will get a great new bishopric though...

That's been our week...

 

2012 Year End

Ok so I forgot a little bit more of the end of our 2012 year end.. I found some more pictures on my camera and due to that most of it was during the process of our moving I had forgotten they were even on there, so here is a little more catching up from the end of our 2012 year..

Our Halloween Dinner.. I didnt get real creative this year. There was just too much going on with getting ready to fly out west in 15 days.. I managed to get the brain jello, the blood for drinking, Somebody's ribs for the main course. The kids still enjoyed it..

 Our ward had a Halloween party and I was assigned a room to decorate and give out candy..

Then came the infamous birthday month.. Steve, Austin and my birthday are all in Nov. Starting with Austin.. The big 14.. Wow where has the time gone.. He has grown like a weed lately and he is so excited to finally be taller then me.. It has been a game between us for the past year and I always could say ya but I am still taller but not any more.... I cant seem to keep him in shoes or pants.. We have had to buy new shoes and pants within 3 months of each other..

Well for Steve's birthday the kids and I flew out to Utah to make our Journey to our new home.. So we didnt really get to celebrate his.. And then unfortunatly we were still stuck in a hotel waiting to get closed on our home here in idaho so thankfully Steve had one of his reps let us borrow her parents condo so we could have a Thanksgiving Dinner.. Didn't think to get pictures.. And then my Birthday is on Thanksgiving every 4 years so we kind of celebrated it on Thanksgiving this year since steve was going to be gone on a business trip for it.. We didnt do anything really. He and my parents had the kids make me cards.. So not to fun a year for our birthdays this year..

We went to Brigham, Utah for Christmas this year.. We hadnt even gotten all our boxes unpacked let alone any christmas decor or tree up..  This is Steves brothers and sister and their kids.. We usually jave the kids draw names for a gift exchange..

Austin is all about eating right now so they got him a box of honeycoombs with a gift card attached to it..

Aunt Kim

Aunt Chandra

Uncle Nate

Me and my Baby!!

Looks like I'v been sipping a little too much eggnog.. :)

Uncle Mike.. Actually cousin Mike but we call him Uncle..

Christmas morning at my parents house..

I must have been very naughty this year to get this big of a lump of coal.. It's usually a tradition between me and my dad to get each other a lump of coal and stick of wood for each other.

So the first week of Jan Allie finished her driving portion of her class so she now officially has a drivers permit.. so she has to drive a total of 50 hours with her parents in the car over a 6 month period before she can get her official license..  All she did was drive 3 times with the instructor.  So the majority of teaching her rests upon us which bugs me.. The first couple times driving with her was scarry...

It's been so cold here we woke up to this yesterday and today.. Everything is frozen.. We have been having temps down in the 5 and 10 below zero with the wind chill... UGGH  to cold.. Seems my furnace runs non stop...

OK So here are the pictures of our new home..  This is a storage area.. It used to be their laundry room but they decided to add on to the house so they put in cabinets on both sides so that makes it really nice..except my laundry is now down 3 flights of stairs..

This is the best part of the house.. It is our theater room and it is so cool. It was made to look like your in the street of an Italian pavillion.. With a few italian shops around and under the stars it is so cool. The pictures dont do it justice..

My Laundry room

My kitchen.. However its going to change a little in a couple weeks.. We are putting in new granite and glazing the cabinets a bit darker.. You cant tell in the picture but they are yellow.. In fact this whole house is yellow.. They really must have liked the color yellow..  Not to big of a fan of yellow cabinets..

Dining room off of kitchen

Entry way.

Great room/Living Room

Office... See yellow..

Master

Spare bathroom.. They had a painter come paint the sink and toilet.. Its actually pretty cool.

Allie's room

Food Storage room.. Alot smaller then my last one so it was a little hard to fit everything in there.. Thank heavens we have a big pantry in the kitchen.. And yep its yellow...

Basement family room

Austin's Room

Logan's room

Jessie's Room

Front of House

Back Deck

One thing I love about the West is their awesome sunsets..

OK now I think I got the rest of the year in..