First Snow 2013

Weee!! Snow!!

Last Sunday was our first snow of the season, and we had a blast!! It began snowing right after we got home from our church. It was our church's grand opening of its new building and relocation, and we were so thankful the snow waited until everyone got home safely :) The weatherman predicted snow, and we were questioning it until after lunch Jarrett said, "Well I don't think it's going to snow." A minute later we looked outside and tiny snowflakes were falling...lol.

Snow falling... We have zero outdoor plugs so we couldn't do lights, but we saw our neighbors had wreaths on the door and thought it looked festive and put some up too!!

Sweet Snow Bunny!

Snow tastes COLD!

My snow angel ;)

It snowed again all day on Tuesday, and we got 2-3 inches. The snow has stuck around too...burr! Forecast shows it is suppose to snow again on Saturday night! I just might get a White Christmas...

Welcome Christmas Season

Hooray!! Welcome Christmas Season... I got the Christmas Spirit early this year, and was super excited to decorate and celebrate our Savior's birth. We took advantage of Mom being here at Thanksgiving to do our decorating so she could feel like she got to be around both holidays, and we had some extra hands to help out. Christmas decorating is kind of a 'thing' in our family, and we put on our Frank Sinatra CD and pull out the bins from the garage and have fun going through the stuff. The girls get so excited seeing the stuffed animals, books and ornaments and can hardly wait to find the perfect place to put them.

 

Madison saw her old friend Rudolph and gave him a smooch hello.

Buffet village

 

I was super excited to discover The Christmas Tree Store, it's an east coast store that is open year round, but has a ton of cool stuff for each of the holidays. Jarrett and I found these ceramic houses there and I fell in love- I have always wanted a Christmas Village... it was my present this year! Thanks J!

This little tree has some history... its been with me since my first apartment in college! We read the book, "J is for Jesus" by Crystal Bowman that tells the story of how the candy cane got its colors and after that the girls wanted to decorate it this year with a Candy Cane Theme.

Oh Christmas Tree... Not a real one, but still pretty ;)

On December 1st, we wrapped up some Christmas PJ's for the girls to wear this month.. the were thrilled to open a gift early...lol.

 

Both girls jammies came with TUTU's... they were beyond excited. Lindsay asked, "You mean we actually get to sleep in a tutu?!?" There was lots of squealing afterwards. I probably won't be able to get the PJ's off until January...

Sister Love ;)

Grammie's Visit

Mom came for a quick four day visit during Thanksgiving and we had a blast! We ate Thanksgiving, hung around in our PJ's, decorated for Christmas, got to see Disney on Ice and the NYC skyline and even snuck in a date ;) Here are some highlights of our visit...

Merry (Early) Christmas Grammie! We let her open her Christmas present, IPhone covers with photos of Lulu & Maddie.

 

Grammie made Lulu and Maddie Potato Pancakes... she was a fan!

We took the girls to see a Disney on Ice show, "Celebrations". It was in Newark, and we drove past Manhattan and saw the skyline on the clear cold day!

Lindsay was mesmerized!

Lindsay's favorite part involved some glow-in-the-dark fans carried by the skaters.

Madison enjoyed the show, and had fun bouncing between Grammie, Daddy and Mommy's laps. There was one part that was a little intense and she pointed her little finger and told Grammie, "Pooky. I don't why-ket."

 

Grammie and her grand girls!

We love you Mom, thank you for making the long journey out to visit us!! We made some sweet memories, and had a blast! xo K

Thanksgiving 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!! We enjoyed having Grammie come out from California to help us eat all the yummy-ness of turkey, gravy, cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole, candied yams, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and of course, chocolate lush!

We had enough food for leftovers... for 3 days!

 

We are so thankful for family ;)

Lindsay was my helper even more than last year. She helped make the pumpkin pie and chocolate lush.. Madison's favorite was licking the pudding off the beaters ;) Lulu helped me set the table and it was fantastic having Grammie there to play with the girls while I cooked! We ate, then everyone took naps and then ate again! My kind of day, right?

I missed being home in Bakersfield cooking Thanksgiving with my Grammie (Gigi), but we felt near her while cooking her recipes in the kitchen and calling her a few times on the phone to be sure I was doing it right ;) Love you Grandma! xo

 

Grammie stayed with us for a few days and we enjoyed her company... Jarrett and I got to go on a date to celebrate our 9 year anniversary, and we got to see Disney on Ice... more posts to come!!

Bonfire

The Sunday night before Thanksgiving was a bonfire in celebration of Princeton's football victory over Harvard and Yale. This tradition began a couple hundred years ago, and this is the second year it has happened in the last 20 years or so we thought we better check it out this year in case their luck runs out next year! The girls were excited to see the "Big Fire", and had fun watching the firemen in their turnout gear preparing to light it. It was in the center of campus, and the band played while everyone snacked on kettle corn and sipped hot chocolate. It just happened to be the coldest night of the year (so far) and the car read 27 degrees when we got out at 6pm. Burr!

 

Baby Girl all bundled up in the cold... You can see the band in the stands off to the right.

Lindsay was cold, but had fun dancing to the music (as always) and hearing the band play. The Tiger mascot was running around and the girls were mesmerized, but were a little afraid when he ventured too close. After the Tiger went on to hug some other kids across campus, Madison looked at Jarrett with a serious face and asked, "Daddy, Tiger eat me?" LOL. Of course he said, "Oh No baby, Tiger isn't going to eat you..."  we could hear a few people giggle next to us who heard her.

I guess when this event started, they began by burning outhouses (gross!). They continued the tradition by making a pretend outhouse to burn, thank goodness for folks today.

J took a picture from the roof of his building.. so neat!

Now, "Tiger going to eat me?" is Madison's newest question and inside joke she will ask us (or anyone who talks to her for very long) mainly because she loves the consoling ;)

Sweet Home NJ: One Year Later

As of October 31st, 2012 we moved into our first house here in NJ! Halloween marked our one year anniversary and we have come a long way from where we started... Here are some pictures of all our projects and a tour of our home! I have been enjoying HGTV a little too much, so for dramatic effect I posted 'before and after' pictures!

Entryway Before

I am pretty sure wallpaper removal is my least favorite home improvement chore.

Entryway After

Paint, no more textured wallpaper!

 Den/Playroom Before

That TV is making me nervous...

 Den/Playroom After

Paint & curtains do wonders :)

Dining Room Before

Dining Room After 





Close up of our gorgeous fall tree!

 Powder Room Before

 Powder Room After

Removed wallpaper and painted

Here's some pictures of our kitchen... it is the reason we bought the house! I love the range, soft-close cabinets and wine fridge. We plan on getting stainless steel dishwasher and fridge eventually to complete it :)

 

Love to cook on my range



Wine fridge and glass front cabinet

Living Room Before

The previous owners were huge music fans... those shelves held tons of cd's and records.

 Living Room After

Paint, Roman Shade and Furniture

 

Loving my built ins :)

Master Bedroom Before

The windows made it hard to arrange the furniture in the room.

 

Master Bedroom After

 

We centered our bed under window, added curtains and paint.

Master Bath Before

No storage, leaking pink 50's tile...

Master Bath After

Still tiny, but brand new with storage and no leaks!

Girl's Bathroom Before



Tiny sink, no storage and peeling bathtub



 Girls Bathroom After

New tile and tub, clean and white with storage!

Lindsay's Room

Madison's Room

Her room isn't always this dark... it's just a dark cloudy day!

Guest Room

Found a place for all my navy blue Pepperdine décor...Bed is comfy and ready for visitors!

 I can't believe we have lived in our home for a year...in some ways it feels like we just got here, and others like we've been in for years.  Over the past year we have made NJ our home, and jumped into our new lives with gusto. I am pretty sure we suffered from a bout of insanity while we feathered our nest. We completed 2 bathroom renovations, painted the entire house (including closets), removed wallpaper and hung pictures in our home all within 3 months... with two young kids!!  Needless to say, there was a lot of painting during naptimes and after the girls went to bed.  On the weekends one of us would do a project, while the other one watched the girls, then we switched! It feels SO fantastic to simply live in our house and enjoy it without seeing projects everywhere. I have new appreciation for all the home renovation shows and the huge undertaking it is live in a construction zone. Jarrett and I both agree we will not be spending our retirement flipping houses...LOL. Thank you again to Papa for coming to help out with our renovations... couldn't have done it without you! A special thanks to Grammie for coming out, too, and babysitting so we could get a few projects done! And thank you to Gigi and Nonna for helping make it all possible.  (: