Santa and Snow Boots

I've been calling this Grady's first "real" Christmas...I guess just because he was too young to know what was going on last Christmas. So I've been showing him nativities with baby Jesus, been pointing out Christmas trees everywhere we go, and of course have been trying to drill the name "Santa" into his head. Well tonight was our ward Christmas party and Grady freaked out when it was his turn on Santa's lap. I don't know if he was actually scared or just grumpy because he wanted the candy bag already. But I love this picture--it captures perfectly the naughty stage that Grady is going through right now (I hope it's a stage).

Grady has been loving this Christmas season, though...he loves driving past all of the lit up houses and yards at night, loves pulling all of the ornaments off our tree (luckily they aren't breakable), and loves playing with all of my mom's nativity sets. He is also excited to have snow outside (he pronounces it "no") even though he hasn't been able to really play in it yet. He got his first pair of snowboots and now when I tell him to go get his shoes, he always comes back with the boots.

Check out the beautiful hardwood floors above--my Christmas gift from Todd. Not too shabby.

SOLD!

Today we can officially say that our house is SOLD. Everything went really fast--in fact, we accepted an offer on it just two weeks ago and had to have everything packed and out of there by today. So now we are on to our next project! My extended family knows this house as "Grandma's House"--feel free to stop by for a game of jailbreak or a drink from the water fountain. We have some minor improvements to make before we officially move in (painting, carpeting, refinishing hard wood floors) but hopefully we'll be in before the holidays--Todd says he's not making any promises.

BATMAN

Addalyn and Grady
Apparently Batman only has one eye once the mask goes on

Fall Fun

Pumpkin Patch

Kindergarten Field Trip--Oct. 2008

My Gorgeous Sister and the Cutest Boys in Her Life

Jody, Grady, Kaden, and Brandt
(Wendy, I stole this picture from you :))

For Sale

So our house is up for sale. I didn't think I would be sad at all because I am so desperate for more space...but as I think back on all of our hard work (okay so all of Todd's hardwork) it is kind of sad to think that we could be giving this place up. Here is a before and after look at our cozy little home.

TREES, TREES, and MORE TREES (The house used to not be visible from the street...we are not tree haters and we do love the environment but I was feeling majorly claustrophobic.) So in one day we brought down probably 20 trees/bushes in our yard.

MASTER BEDROOM WALLS (Not what you hope to find after scraping wallpaper for two whole days)
THE PICTURE BELOW SHOWS WHAT WE RIPPED OUR HOUSE DOWN TO AFTER WE FOUND THE CONDITION OF THE WALLS UNDER LAYERS AND LAYERS OF WALLPAPER
DINING AREA AFTER
MASTER BEDROOM AFTER

KITCHEN BEFORE

KITCHEN AFTER
LIVING ROOM BEFORE(floor to ceiling wallpaper)
LIVING ROOM AFTER

EXTERIOR BEFORE

EXTERIOR AFTER

Thanks to everyone who helped us get this far...both of our dad's for electrical and plumbing work, my mom for helping me strip wall paper for two days before we ended up just tearing the walls out, Debbie for helping Todd paint the whole place while I volunteered at a track meet, Carrie and Eric for spending one whole vacation day sanding the green paint off the original kitchen cabinets before Todd came home and chucked them, Heath for electrical work and re-siding help, Brad for breaking up the ancient tub that was in here and weighed a thousand pounds, Wendy for helping get everything hung, and poor Matt who spent most of his senior year working for free!