Aloha to Grandpa Conrad

We love you, Grandpa!

Cade's Mad Skateboarding Skills

A couple weeks ago I was at Aaron's house and got to see Cade skateboarding. He's getting good! I asked him to show me a trick so I could record it on my phone and post it on the family blog so everyone could see.

Don't you agree he's getting good? (Sorry, the video is sideways...)

Don't stop practicing, Cade! You get better every day!

Just don't break any bones when Aunt Nie is watching you...

My mid life crisis, if that's what you want to call it.

Some guys get sports cars, I want an RV :) Because family time rocks! We've (I've) been looking for awhile, tell me all, what do you think about this. Would make for great road tripping (visiting in Reno).

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/rvs/2659603432.html What do you think?

A class C would be nice too. Just cost a bit more and a bit bigger to deal with...

Church Bells

Sorry we've been MIA this past couple of weeks....

• We have now been homeowners for 9 days. Woo hoo!
• You can hear church bells chime from our house. They're so pretty!
  
• We're 90% done with the painting. So far we've painted the dining room, living room, most the hallway and the 3 bedrooms.
• Why yes, I AM tired...
  
• My fingernails will never ever ever be paint free again, my skin looks and feels like sandpaper from paint exposure, being scrubbed clean & more paint exposure. You'd think I'd learn to wear gloves or something....
  
• Did you know that Home Depot carries Martha Stewart paint? I didn't want to love it. I really didn't. But oh that Martha! Every color was perfection!
  
• I had Ella take a bunch of pictures of our finished painting, but then I left the camera hanging in the coat closet. You know, cause I'm awesome like that...
• Colby pulled up the carpet in the 3 bedrooms and the floor is BEAUTIFUL!!! I don't think it's ever been exposed. I'm giddy, I'm so excited. I think we just need to maybe put a coat of something on it. SO AWESOME.
  
• WE HAVE A NEW WASHER AND DRIER!!!! We got it at the Pre-Black-Friday sale. It stacks. It chimes. It washes clothes without leaving lint behind (curses apartment laundromat! I scorn you!)
• We bought a fridge off craigs list, so hopefully this week we'll also HAVE A NEW FRIDGE WITH AN ICEMAKER! HOORAY! (I never believe in a craigslist purchase until I actually have the item in my hands. But still, kind of excited!)
• We also have a new baby niece! Lucy Marie is awesome and tiny and we hope she starts to sleep more so that Auntie Amber can remember what more than 3 hours of sleep at a time is like.
• Gretchen likes to "pet the baby".
• Cousin Kate doesn't want you to hold the baby if you're her mom. She started crying, broken hearted while her mom held Lucy, "I TRUSTED YOU!!!" (Meghan, she trusted you!)

I think that's about it for now. My head has been spinning with all the things to do, get done, work projects coming up, Christmas, Ack. But it's all good. All good, my friends. And I'm going to bed at 8:30 tonight.

Julian

Do you know what Julian, California is famous for?

Apples! And even better? Apple pie!

I didn't even like pie until I had a Julian crumbly top apple pie. Now? I've become a fan.

Josh, Meredith, Uncle Mike and I took a Saturday trip out to Julian a couple weeks ago, at the VERY end of the apple season.

So the apples were kind of slim picking. Josh and I had to climb trees to find any.

At this particular orchard you pay to pick per bag.

The bag is a 1/2 peck.

(As in, Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers - we picked a peck of apples.)

Uncle Mike sampling the goods. We have no idea what kind of apples we picked. Guess we should have asked, huh?

Orchard Pics!

(This next one may or may not end up on Josh and Meredith's Christmas card. Maybe. Maybe not.)

After the apple picking, we had lunch and then headed to the Julian Pie Co. for some hot apple pie a la mode. YUM. I got mine with cinnamon ice cream. I definitely recommend cinnamon ice cream for crumbly top apple pies. FYI.

We had fun - even the boys did!

I think we should make it an annual trip!

In the spirit of the season...

I love Halloween. Seriously love it. Gretchen is right there with me (she says she likes "scary things". You know, unless they're too scary.) And like every year, we've not got a ridiculously thorough collection of pumpkins and have been to the pumpkin patch more than our fair share. So for our Family Night last Monday we went again.

Gretchen amidst the pumpkins.





While we were at the 'patch, we saw some friends and I had them take a picture of me & Colby. I think, not counting our wedding pictures, we now have about five pictures of just the two of us...






We love visiting the piggies. But we knew better than to attempt the corn maze.


Want to know what's awesome about Reno? I mean besides the fact that we can go almost anywhere in town and see friends there (Home Depot, Target, Pumpkin Patch, etc.) NEVADA DAY!!!! Nevada Day is when we celebrate the awesomeness that is our state (Remember, only in Nevada can you do your grocery shopping AND your gambling in one location!) and we celebrate Nevada Day by closing the schools and work. If you're lucky, your friends will have a birthday party and you'll get to go bowling for the first time. And if you're really lucky, they'll have toddle sized bowling shoes. OMG TODDLER SIZED BOWLING SHOES! SWOON!!!






Since we're hopefully closing on the new house in 3 weeks, I'm trying to get a jump on everything Christmas. So this afternoon we had our annual Christmas Ornament Photo Shoot. It started off with a bang.

EVIL EYE. Big sisters. Humph.

But, like all our photo shoots, if you take enough pictures, maybe ONE will turn out great. I think this one's it:

I'll photoshop out the background so you can't tell it was taken in front of our tv "backdrop". (Last year I had to explain to my friends at the Costco Photo Center that I didn't have a photo release for the portraits because they were TAKEN IN FRONT OF THE TV. They didn't believe me.)

Ok, I know this is a long post this week, but I'm almost done. 2 thing to tell you:

1. We won the class pumpkin contest! R2D2 beat out the impressive Angry Birds display (which really, I feel a little bit guilty about. I secretly think theirs was better... But theirs didn't have the sound effects...)

2. We helped clean the church yesterday morning. Gretchen & Ella were with a lovely older child who was helping them clean all the chalkboards. They finished that & then played in the nursery. Just as I finished up the bathroom, I found a surprise. The shredded paper had been emptied from the church clerk's office, and it filled a whole garbage can. Gretchen discovered it first and decided to "decorate for a party". There was shredded paper DOWN THE WHOLE HALLWAY. And a giant pile in the nursery. Where she'd dumped it and then thrown handfuls in the air. And danced in it. It was everywhere, even her hair. But luckily it vacuumed up pretty quick (Though there were some tears. She didn't understand why we couldn't just leave her party decorations there....)

Have a wonderful Halloween!!!
And we love you Grandpa Conrad! Ella's been carrying around the little teddy bear he gave her since Friday.

Whoa.

Sooner than any of us expected, sooner than I thought possible, so soon that I'm freaking out. FREAKING. OUT....we will be moving from this view.....


(don't be jealous... graffiti compliments of the Window Crayons I got on sale at Target)


....to this view:



Yes my friends, that there is our own backyard. Our own swath of grass, watered with our own set of real sprinklers. Welcome to what hopefully will be our new home in approx. 4 weeks. Unless I freak out about it again and Colby calls the whole thing off.

(Mom, you may not want to look at these pictures. It might just stress you out. We'll just show you all the "after" ones....)

As you walk in the front door, you'll see the beautiful foyer.
THINGS THAT WILL STAY: Awesome light fixture. Awesome tile. Awesome door.
THINGS THAT WILL CHANGE: Fort Knox style iron work over all doors and windows, green carpet, amber glass in door. (Hey Angela & Amber, want to help me replace that glass with something lovely? Any ideas?)


Here's the first room we'll welcome you in to. Take a seat in our BRAND NEW LIVING ROOM!!!
THINGS THAT WILL STAY: Fabulous speakers (to compliment our ridiculously huge tv, white walls
THINGS THAT WILL GO: Wood paneling (it's kind of thin and cheap, otherwise I would totally keep it), carpet (wood floors under there, people!!!) and possibly the white fireplace color. Any ideas? Any suggestions?


Come in! Come in! Here's another view of the living room.
(I'm seriously considering keeping the window treatment. Cause that is fantastic.)



Wait, does your dining room have a WINDOW SEAT???? Yes, yes it does.


Here's the girls room. I love the wallpaper, but I think we're going to repaint. I'll keep the cute shutter window covering, but take out the other one. I really like that light fixture. I think I'll keep it too. The floors will hopefully be restored to the hardwood that lies in wait under the carpet. (Ella is fighting to keep the teal carpet. Anyone on her side?)


And her is (dum Dum DUM) MY OFFICE!!!! For the first time EVER EVER EVER I will have my own space to work in! No more bedroom/livingroom/office for me! Woo hoo!!!! And yes, I WILL be keeping that flocked wallpaper, decorative eagle over the closet and the shelves thankyouverymuch. I'm afraid the amber window covering is falling apart, so it will have to go. (sniff). Carpet will also be removed to make way for wood floors here too.


Here's the kitchen.... Can you guess what year it was remodeled? Go ahead, guess...


And here's the piece de resistance.... OUR ONLY SLIGHTLY CREEPY BASEMENT!!!! It doesn't have any windows, but who needs windows when you have a FULL SIZE FIREPLACE!!!! At the brilliant suggestion of Angela & Lismarie, I think we're going to install a sola tube through the kitchen down to the basement to get some natural light in the space. Off the basement is an additional storage room. That's where YOU'LL be sleeping when you come visit. You're welcome. Perfect for all your makeout-party needs (right Adrianne?)



So yeah. Freak out, so excited, cutest house on cutest street, in such good condition, adorable and wonderful, loveitloveitloveit, wait, what are we doing? This is all happening so fast! AHHHHHHHH. (And repeat.)

Ok, now we're going to stop that fun little thought train and show you these OMG SO CUTE cakes that we made for the Harvest Fest Cake Walk. Fabulous Julie gave me a huge bag of leftover supplies to decorate them with. SO FUN, right? (That's a spider, by the way. What, you can't tell?)



We also carved an R2D2 pumkin with Ella's class. You can't tell in this picture, but it has lights in it and a Star Wars soundtrack playing behind it.



The Harvest Fest was SO FUN. There were lamas, people. LAMAS.


It was very exciting.

That's what we're up to. (insert another random freakout here.) What are your plans for the week?