Need I Say More...

We are finalizing the purchase of a foreclosure with a kitchen that looks like this! Who cares what the rest of the house looks like? If this was your kitchen you wouldn't care either...


Okay - some of you might, but I don't care because I love the kitchen! We will post more pictures as we go along but we are still waiting to finalize details regarding the inspection, the appraisal, being in a floodplain, the carpet and the bank. I am told that it has been a pretty straight-forward foreclosure and yet it is frustrating and hard to wait all at the same time. Our close date is scheduled for February 28th - but we are shooting for earlier.... We will just have to wait and see.

Note to my magical kitchen: I promise to take good care of you, to fill you with new appliances, to keep you clean, to love you, to make great things that come out of you and to do service because of your functionality. I promise to keep good food storage, make nightly dinners, cook healthy food and love you dearly. I promise to spend a lot of time with you and create family memories with you. I am so glad that you have waited for me this past year. I know a year with no family, just sitting empty, must have been very hard. I am sorry that you had to endure so many hands opening your cabinets, pulling on your doors and feeling violated. I am sorry your hardwear was stolen and that people broke their nails trying to peek inside your appliance garage. Please know this abuse will stop and that your sad journey is almost through. Thanks for your patience. I am coming. And, most importantly, don't worry, I am bringing the bleach. Good night magical kitchen - I love you already and know that my love will just continue to grow for you and all your magic...

The last detail....

We finished paying for the cruise, we bought our airfare from Salt Lake to Rome and back again, we paid for our apartment in Rome, we finalized our staying arangement for Greece and the only missing puzzle piece was how to get from Athens to Rome. Over the past several weeks airfare from Greece to Italy has been about $375 for both of us to fly one-way on a one-hour flight! LAME!

Just this morning, our wonderful Greek hostess (okay, she's not really Greek but she is in Greece) notified us that they were having a great airfare price. YOU BET THEY WERE! For just $171 we are now both flying from Greece to Italy and I am officially done with the planning. We saved about $200! Thanks Aegean Air and THE BIGGEST THANK YOU TO PATTI!

I am waiting for my passport to come with my last name changed and that is it! There is nothing else to do but wait a very pleasant 99 DAYS! I think that finalizing our home purchase and all that entails (packing, moving, unpacking, paiting, deep cleaning, buying appliances, etc) will keep us plenty busy! But today I am just so darn excited!

Primary Kids at the Draper Temple Open House

What a fun time! Erica and I convinced our husbands that we should take our primary class to the Draper Temple Open House. When we got the tickets it was last year and we didn't know that we were going to get a new primary class at the start of the year and so we took last year's class and this year's class. Four adults (none of us have kids) and 11 primary kids was a hoot!
It was the most amazing experience to see the temple through the eyes of a child. A couple of our kids had already enjoyed the tour and every time anyone would oooooooooooh and aaaaaaaaaaah they would tell them to just wait - the best was still coming.

The kids LOVED the celestial room - one little guy told me that he could look up and stare at the chandelier for the rest of his life - it's just like heaven he exclaimed. His brother told me that you could see yourself reflect for forever in the next room and he just wanted to come back here so badly.

Their testimonies are the most precious thing and we absolutely love our kids. I really am going to miss them when we move! It has been my favorite calling. Because I didn't grow up in the church serving them in the primary is my first ever experience in the primary! I will always remember them and I have the biggest love for the primary and now an even greater appreciation of the temple.

Cruisin'

I just booked our flight for our cruise which makes it seem very official. We leave in 114 days! A long and short time all at the same time...
We fly from here to JFK and then straight to Rome where we board our boat. We then have shore excursions in Naples, Cairo (Egypt), Port Said (Egypt), Jerusalem (Israel), Nazareth (Israel), Ephesus (Turkey), Patmos (Greece), Santorini (Greece), and Athens (Greece).

We finish our cruise in Greece so we planned to spend 5 extra days in Greece staying with some friends before we fly back to Rome. We have rented an apartment in Rome overlooking the Vatican and will spend 5 more days in Rome before flying home through JFK.

We booked our cruise last June and are so excited to be going! I just can't wait...

I'd say it's not really a secret anymore...

I always knew it...

I have been trying - really I have - I just have to give in when the migraines come...

http://health.discovery.com/national-body-challenge/articles/whats-so-bad-about-diet-soda.html

This should make me feel better: http://funwithfoodstorage.net/

228 and Still Counting

I thought that I would finally update our blog this morning - but it is going to require a lot of work. I went to camera to get some new pics to put up and found that there are more than 228 pics and it is still downloading from my camera. So you have missed quite a bit - but here goes...there are 7 new posts so you may have to come back a couple of times...

Christmas Afternoon in LaCenter...

After Christmas stockings, brunch, movie and nap we made our way through a snow storm up to Washington to continue our festivities. Our family was in the middle of doing gifts when we arrived (Oliver had to shovel us out twice and push - no wonder his back hurts). But we made it safely and enjoyed an afternoon of gifts, good company, good food and games. Here is Kelly and Alec...

Grandpa, Grandma and Aiden...
Deb doing the new slipper dance...

Apples to Apples fun...

All in all, we had a great day!

And when we finally got back to my mom's house around midnight we exchanged gifts with her too. We were up really late laughing and visiting and having a ball. I am glad to be home, because that was a totally different adventure, but we are glad to have celebrated Christmas this year with so many people that we love!

Can you find your bag?

This is what the Portland airport baggage claim looked like when we arrived. There were piles of bags in every direction. There were literally thousands of unclaimed bags piled everywhere. You could barley walk to the carousel to get your own luggage. Luckily we flew on the first day that they didn't cancel any flights and having a direct flight meant no further complications...if only getting home had gone so smoothly...

Chirstmas Morning in Oregon

Due to some crazy weather in the northwest this year - we all spent the night at my mom's best friend's home and got to do stockings first thing in the morning. Do you see my hot pink duct tape in the background?
Here is Benn enjoying the new puzzel that they got from Santa to take the beach.

And here we all are (Oliver's snapping the picture) with our stockings.

And here is Oliver really excited about his new legos...

And then we had the yummiest Christmas brunch ever!

The Youngs Join Us

Thank goodness they are so flexible! Our plans moved and rotated and changed up until the day that we all got together for some dinner and a quick gift exhcange. They got us an electric carving knife which we are really excited about and we got then some great silverware. Kyle received a kid's copy of the Book of Mormon and wasn't all that attentive - so being the good mom that she is - Holly held the book in his line of sight so he could appreciate it more. Happy reading!

Lyon Family Christmas Party

Every year we get together with the Lyon family for Christmas and have a traditional Swedish Dinner. Due to some scheduling complications and last minute changes it wasn't as well attended as usual - but it was still really fun. Here is our patriarch - we sure do love him!
And mom and dad, content to observe the family chaos...

And the newest great-grand-baby...

And Emily contemplating her first year as part of the festivities :) (Okay maybe not the best picture - but we love you all the same.)

And the awesome carolers who knocked on the door. A men's trio, a guitar and a violin - it was great!

For those of you who didn't make it - we hope to see you next year and you were missed!

The Christmas Story in Primary

During sharing time - the last Sunday before Christmas - the kids got to act out the Christmas Story. Our lovely primary president is still at home because she just had a baby and so we took lots of pictures for her to enjoy (I probably should get them to her). Anyway, the kids had a blast and here is a little preview.

This is Sarah explaining how we are going to pick parts (draw names of course) and she is in front of Bethlehem which is made out of some plastic sheet thing which sticks to the wall and can be reused!
Here's Mary and an angel and a shepherd...
And two more shepherds...

And the whole group...

Beky and Lance Get Married

I think their expressions say it all - we are so happy for them and so glad to welcome Lance into our growing family! They are the fourth cousin to get married in the last year and a half and we are loving all the new additions and the new fun! Congratulations we love you!

After the beautiful ceremony we went to Market Street Grill to help set up for their reception. They had a candy buffet...

And, I don't know about you, but this is what some of the men in our family do to help set-up for events like weddings and family parties...SUPERVISE. It is actually pretty impressive that they found themselves a table to supervise from because usually there is quite a bit of hovering... :)

Isn't her dress beautiful?

One of Those Days...

I went to bed early last night after throwing up and not feeling well at all. When I woke up this morning I decided that I would go to work (I am off from Dec 24 - Jan 5 so there are some things to do...) I went to work driving on icy and windy roads with dumb drivers. Then, upon getting there I was feeling really nauseous so I told myself that I just had to make it through my morning meeting. I spoke with Oliver for a few minutes from my cell phone and upon hanging it up it fell into my coke cup and knocked it over so I now have a huge brown spot down the entire right pant leg, my phone was soaked and I had ice all over the floor of my office.

So, I went to my meeting wet, nauseous and cold. 1.5 hours later I wanted to rip my hair out due to total boredom - but I decided instead to join some co-workers for soup & salad at Olive Garden. Well, my cell phone is hopefully there because I can't find it anywhere else and that is the last place I remember having it. So I decided, I'm done, I'm going home! While driving home it started to snow and I almost hit an idiot who slammed on her breaks at the first sighting of slush...

Then, upon getting home I remember that Christmas bonus checks come out this afternoon at work - NOPE my boss isn't going to find me because I am done with this day! Tomorrow should be better....

Fanatic

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Christmas Tree and Tree Farm

Last year we were in Oregon over Thanksgiving weekend. We celebrated with my family and we had our second wedding reception. Because we had to get a moving truck to move my things back to Utah, we decided to go to a tree farm in Oregon and cut down our tree. We brought back both our tree and Oliver's parents tree and we had a blast running through the tree farm and finding our perfect first tree.

Oliver had so much fun last year that he decided that we needed to cut down our own tree this year too. So we went to a local tree farm in Alpine Utah - not anything like an Oregon tree farm - but still really fun. Here is Oliver standing in front of several of our choices - there were mostly blue spruce trees and a couple ponderosa pines.
When we found the perfect tree one of the men at the lot came out to cut it down for us and then he loaded it onto the four wheeler and took it back out front. We got to watch and help just a little.

Then Oliver and I loaded it on top of our car. (You want the trunk of the tree in the rear so that the wind doesn't dry out your tree on the way home.) We cut down an 11' tree and then trimmed it to the perfect height when we got home. We learned, from last year's fun, to guess really well the right height to trim the tree the first time because last year we drug the tree in and out and in and out to try to make it short enough. Sure enough - first chop was a charm!
Then we strung the lights - this year the lights are white and we have a themed tree - Oliver's request. We were smart and wore gloves to string the lights because Blue Spruce needles are painful and poky. It we had kids they would not mess with this kind of tree.
After stringing the lights we wound the ribbon around the tree and put up all our ornaments. The ribbon is actually sheer in real life - but I don't know how to work our camera yet and so it looks solid.
But, by all means, come on over and see our tree! I love sitting on our couch with nothing but the tree lights on and enjoying the season and a good book or good company. Come for some hot chocolate or a funny story - we would love to have you!

Digital SLR

Oliver got me a digital SLR for my birthday. It was supposed to be our family Christmas gift this year so that we could take great pictures on our trip in May, but he surprised me early and we are really loving it! If you have a DSLR then check-out this free giveaway: http://scribblesandstitches.blogspot.com/

Plus, I visit teach the woman behind the creation and she is one of the most talented and generous people I know...

Meeting Sarah

Our sister-in-law had a layover in Salt Lake today on her way from Alaska to Colorado for Thanksgiving. We all went to breakfast and spent three or four hours just visiting - it was a wonderful time...

We Own This!

As of today (well the check will technically post on Monday), Oliver and I own this car - a 2003 Ford Focus ZX5! Mind you we own a nice blue one that is missing a side view mirror...but own it we do.

I just love paying off debt it makes me feel so free and it assures me that I am doing what I have been commanded to do!

Kyle's First Bowling

We haven't gotten to spend any time with Holly, Evan and Kyle in these last two weeks. We were really excited to get together for dinner (cooked by the fabulous Holly), dollar ice cream cones and a game of bowling. Our little nephew is now two months old but he still only weighs 8 lbs. I was born heavier than that so I don't know what that was like. He is getting a strong neck and like to stand up. Here is being Superman...

After dinner we headed to a bowling alley to play for awhile. We have the baby, the balls and most importantly, the hand sanitizer.

Amidst passing the baby around we bowled a pretty horrible game. Here is Evan...Oliver...

Heidi...

And Holly...

By the tenth frame Kyle was ready to be fed and go home. Some really bad music, disco balls and white lights came on and he was not the happiest camper.
See, I told you, we all bowled really badly. I am sure next time will be better and then, maybe Kyle will be old enough to roll his own ball.