House progress

Most of you know that we bought a fixer upper a few months ago and have since been gut-renovating the entire main floor. I've been keeping a blog chronicling the progress at tamingtanglewood.blogspot.com.
Progress is slow and steady...

Christmas 2014

This Christmas we spent in Portland with Luke's family. We're a little short on pictures this year because we were sick most of the vacation, but that didn't stop us from having a good time with everyone.

A couple more from Calvin and Hobbes

I just uploaded our pictures from the camera and there were so many really cute ones, I had to share:

Happy Halloween!

From: Calvin and Hobbes

The kids had such a good time trick-or-treating last night. Audrey was so cute -- she wouldn't say a word until we put her back in the wagon and started on to the next house and then she would say, "tat too! Tat-too!" (Thank you). This happened after every house. Darling. She also had a death-grip on her bag and didn't let it go even once the whole time we were out.

Seth also loved it this year. Last year we visited two houses and he wanted to go home, but this year I think he would have continued for a few more hours...

It was a great chance for us to meet our neighbors on the street. We've got quite a group -- from a woman who is turning 90 in December (her husband is 91), to a couple from the Netherlands that are here for just a couple more years and then they're going back, to a couple who built one of the first homes in the neighborhood and has seen all the growth in the last 35 years. Almost everyone we talked to said they loved this neighborhood -- despite all the snow they get. We keep getting warned that we are going to get a ton of snow in the winter. I guess the snow storms just re-circulate and dump and dump. We'll make it through this winter and then I guess we'll see if Luke is going to get that snow-blower he wants...

Where to begin...

The last six months have been a roller coaster of events and feelings and unfortunately the blog has taken a back-seat to everything that has unfolded. Here's my attempt to catch up:

July: JOB OFFER in Salt Lake City. Luke started work at the end of the month

August: Said a very tearful goodbye to our friends and neighbors in Colorado, packed up and moved to Utah.
Began house hunting.
Annual "Celebration Week" with Seth's 4th birthday, Luke's birthday and our 9th Anniversary...

SETH'S BIRTHDAY:

(Pin the propeller on Dusty)

New bike (he has awesome cousins!)

Paper airplane contests

LUKE'S DAY:

Getting a lot of "help" from the kiddos:

Do they fit?

September:

More house hunting

Found a house that had potential

Closed at the end of the month

October:

Moved in, began demo

We've decided to chronicle the progress @: tamingtanglewood.blogspot.com

Easter

I usually have to take about 5,203 pictures to get a good one of these two, but on Easter we had a few minutest to kill before church and I finally got one where 1) they are both looking at the camera 2) Seth wasn't strangling Audrey and 3) Audrey wasn't trying to crawl away.

After church we spent the afternoon with some friends of ours. My friend set up an easter egg hunt in their backyard and Seth thought it was the coolest thing ever. For the next week, he hid eggs around the house and I got to find them. After about a week, somehow all the eggs disappeared...weird.

My baby turned one!

Warning: Picture overload...

It is so cliche, but I cannot believe my sweet baby is one already. This past year just flew by. I don't know if it was just because I was so sleep deprived or because I was busier with two, but it truly seemed way too short to be a full year.

We planned a birthday party when Luke's family was in town visiting at the end of March. We had a "make your own pizza" party.

I think my kiddos like parties... ;)

Audrey took a bit of time to dig into the smash cake. She just poked it and licked her finger for the first few minutes.

But, it didn't take long for her to get into her usual full-demolish mode.

After a bath and nap, Seth opened her presents she had some help opening her presents by Seth. 

Love my sweet girl.

February

In February, we had a visit from Grandpa and Grandma and my sister's family. My dad had Audrey crawling within a couple of hours of arriving. Her motivation? Cinnamon bears. Yep, a girl after my own heart.