Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas and made lots of great memories.  Tessa did Secret Santa with her cousins. It was so fun to see her excitement each night when the doorbell rang. I had 2 weeks off from teaching and Mark had a 1 to 2 days off the week Christmas and then the week of New Year’s . We got really spoiled! Christmas morning was so much fun! Tessa got a slide from Santa, an electronic cat from Papa & Grandma Foote and a stuffed dog and a little tikes car from Papa & Grandma Oliver. Tessa’s grandma Peggy got her a rocking horse. It makes noises and moves its head. It took Tessa a few days until she would sit on it but she gave it loves and touched it right away.  Needless to say she did not go without! Mark got me tickets to see Reba i concert. That was a total surprise. Mark got an external hard-drive for the computer. He was  happy and you would have to ask him what the hard-drive is for because I don’t know.  I look forward to next Christmas with all its memories!

Fam Pics

Dust, Dust and More Dust

If you can't catch by the title, our house has been a little dusty of late. Starting the last week of September, Mark ripped out our kitchen cabinets and discovered that we had mold. It wasn't a big ordeal to get the mold out but it wasn't something that was planned in our kitchen remodeling. But Mark worked really hard and got the cabinets out and the moldy wall replaced all in a day.

However with no kitchen, we had a few days of eating dinner at Grandma and Papa Foote's house, cooking in the microwave or toaster-oven, and doing dishes in the bathroom sink.

(I really missed my kitchen sink!!!) Then on Thursday of the same week, cabinet installers came and installed our cabinets in one day. We loved that but not the dust that was leftover.

The installers were very careful and cleaned up well but there is no way to control dust as it filters in every direction. In the end after cleaning up dust, dust, and more dust, Mark put in a temporary sink and hooked back up the stove and dishwasher. Yeah! I have a sink again!

We lived with the temporary kitchen until the week of the 12th when the guys came to install the countertops. The countertops are gorgeous and the guys did an amazing job but yet again there is dust! However, this dust took two days to clean up and is still evident in places even though I have cleaned and cleaned that spot. The granite dust is just super fine and went everywhere!!

In the end the kitchen is done and looks beautiful!

Before!

After!

But now on to the back yard!..........

With winter coming, Mark is trying to get the backyard hole filled in so we can plant grass. He rented a tractor to scoop all the dirt that he dug out into a dump-trailer (that didn't dump once at the dump so him, his friend and my dad had to shovel it out by hand). NOT FUN! He also order good dirt to fill in the hole. This dirt removal and dirt filling-in took the whole day. Thank you Dad and Cody for helping!

Tessa is 15months now and talking a lot. I got to be home this week with her because of October break at school and I loved it.

Home Improvements

So the last few weeks have been filled with home improvement projects! WHAT FUN!! We bought new kitchen cabinets, are trying to get the backyard fixed up, and painters come tomorrow to paint the outside of the house.

The kitchen cabinets are very old and need to be updated but the house really needs to be repainted. Mark said he would rather install cabinets than paint the house so that is the game plan. Mark plans to install the cabinet himself (we know someone who can give him some pointers) and by the end of the week the house will freshly painted. I am thrilled about the house but not looking forward to the amount of time it will take to get the old cabinets out, new cabinets in, and the counter tops on but I know that the kitchen will look amazing once its done. I just really want the kitchen done before the holidays.

The backyard is another project WE get to do! When we first saw the house there was a broken-down underground spa in the backyard. The bank had someone break it out and we were so happy that we didn't have to do it. But there was some re-bare exposed and as we dug down to cut it we discovered that what had been broken out was just tossed inside the spa. Mark with a little help from me and ours dads dug all the dirt out. You could imagine all the junk that was thrown inside instead of hauled away.

Tessa is getting bigger and getting really good at climbing. She has been sick the past week and half with a cold and cough and on Friday we found out that she has an ear infection. Our nights have not been so restful.

Getting into the Groove of Things

Well, summer is over for me! Back to Work! It was been a little stressful organizing our schedules for who drops of Tessa and picks her up. But Mark is a big help and my mom tries to help when possible. Luckily Tessa is with two really great people while we're at work!

Before I went back to work, we went camping. Tessa LOVED to be outside and in the DIRT. The first night sleeping was hard and long after almost two hours crying ( i don't know if it was b/c it was a strange place or she was cold) she finally slept but mom and dad sort of slept. Grandma and Grandpa O had lots of fun with her.

Are You Comfy?

This is how I found Tessa when I checked on her during nap time! She eventually turned herself around and fell asleep.

Birthday Fun

So Tessa is officially one year old. We celebrated on the 4th by going swimming at my aunt's house and having dinner. It was warm at 4:00pm when we started (next year I'll know to start later) but it was really fun. The pool felt great! Tessa got clothes, a movie, toys and more toys all of which she enjoys.

I attempted to make her a ladybug cake and it turned out okay for my first attempt at making a cute cake. She wasn't so sure about eating it. She really just put her hands and feet in it. However, she did like the cookies on it.