you wanted to know

how are we doing? well here goes! I can’t possible type all that I want to, so a shortened, disjointed version is going to have to do

For those who don’t know- this house is not in livable condition. We are redoing everything from paint to carpet to wood floors to light fixtures. We have learned lots about this house and that is in a lower section of this post

Thanksgiving-

• my family was so sweet to come to our new home and help us work!
• we worked for three days nonstop
• thankgiving dinner was a frozen lasagna  until later on saturday when we had one with my grandparents
• my fam slept in our basement while we slept outside in the rv – kind of sad that someone else slept in our home before we did  - it is a good thing we love our family
• enjoyed an overflowing toilet
• photos below

Brookie-

• spends most of the days wanting to be in my arms, but more likely on the floor looking up at me working
• thank you for teething during all of this!
• so doesn’t sleep through the night yet… we are starting sleep training but it is kind of tough without doors so we can hear the screech all night long
• grabs at everything and has had her share of painting marks because of it

Abi-

• sings all day long
• “helps” us paint all the time
• rolls in spilled paint
• always has paint on her
• har ruined quite a few outfits from paint
• likes to paint while we aren’t around
• likes to sneak snacks out of the pantry and into “secret” spots in the house
• has become quite a handful
• likes to talk back
• likes to sing about Jerry her Banka and her “Handsome Erik” like this “Err EEEEEEEEK”
• has a new friend Avery that she loves
• thinks that putting her hand over her nose hides her picking her nose with the other hand
• thinks that putting her hand over her eyes hides her from us – yeah, seriously
• likes to say, “holy crimeny” and “holy jump rabbits” – more where those came from

Dan-

• works all day
• works all night
• already has some great friends in the ward
• grew a beard for Movember
• is so good with house repairs
• is handsome and mine!

Claire-

• sported pink hair from pink paint
• trying to stay sane
• paints every chance I get
• wants to cook SO bad, but only has half a kitchen
• should be stick thin from all this work – but still, to no avail, can’t fit in her preprego jeans
• is so behind on emails, texts, and birthday presents
• will be behind on chirstmas presents too – all in a box to be made somewhere
• missing my Brother and his family in NY like crazy
• needs a haircut and color badly!
• wishes I had more time to blog all our adventures
• hates painting closets
• Dan calls me the bandaid queen because I have so many wounds

Our home- the new “family member”

• has no carpet except for one room
• wood floors done and incredibly beautiful thanks to Dan, my Dad and my brother
• most painting done upstairs
• we moved into the basement because we were tired of the RV
• we brush our teeth in the basement bathroom, use the main bathroom to go potty, use the girls’ bathroom to do my hair and makeup and bath the girls, and then shower in the master bath shower – we are just getting used to each one :)
• has stainless steel appliances – thanks again to my hubby
• has paint that I finally like (I went and recolored the first bucket of paint and I am much happier)
• has quite the story
• used to be the nicest home on the block
• was the old bishop’s house and then another family lived here
• the other family was disastrous
• let their boys run motorcycles in the yard and ruined the grass
• put holes in the walls wherever
• painted horribly
• the wife was obsessed with vinyl decals and nails in the walls
• if my girls ever put staples in the walls I will make them pull out the staples with their teeth – I pulled at least 400 out of one bedroom – they just kept coming back like a bad dream
• we have a live chirstmas tree – thanks to Dan yet again – with one strand of red lights and one strand of white lights – in our front room with no carpet – kind of crooked (that is an understatement)
• found a toothbrush shoved down one drain, a marble down the other, we are pretty sure there is a toy in the toilet in the basement bathroom

So here is a load of photos for those who didn’t get sick of us yet- but you know, I don’t ever want to forget how good it has been! I have more photos coming and those are from my mom, she did a good job documenting Thanksgiving week-

check out my pink hair!

these photos are at my grandparents for Thanksgiving on Saturday- Dan’s sister Jocie made the girls these outfits and I am SO in LOVE with them! They were perfect and just what the girls needed-

Dan’s beard

Abi’s cool paper dolls that are magnetic (why didn’t they have these when I was young?)

Look at this big girl!

I love these photos of my grandpa. He was shaking his keys at Brookie and I haven’t seen such joy from him in a long time. I also love that there are his favorite paintings in the background.

I so wanted to show just one photo for this picture, but that is so unlike my family. You just have to get the feel for what this whole attempt was like – and not one came out “picture perfect” – but I love these even more

This one is my favorite of Brookie-

This one is my favorite of Abi

House photos – our Christmas tree

we (I mean, Dan) were trying to take apart the toilet from the master bath in the bathtub in the girl’s bathroom – he couldn’t get the bolts loose so he pulled out the grinder – Abi loved the “fireworks” and hated the smell

here is a sneak peak of the girls’ room – the pink hair of mine came from this glorious, girly ceiling. but check out where out computer is right now -

sneak peak at the mater bedroom (that light is going away very soon) – check out the stone that is going in our bathrooms :) we quarried this in New York so it is near and dear to my aching back and heart – I took this out of the mountain

PS- there is moss growing in the windowsill – you can see the black spot on the right side – I plan on making a terrarium out of it – and nurturing that little piece of what this house once was

the master bath – ready to get stoned – this is our only working shower right now

check out my pants – I just change into the every time I go to paint. Pay attention to the photos as time goes on because they get more splotches on them

almost finished kitchen – too bad you can’t see my appliances (can you tell how proud I am of them) – dan did such a great job – you can see my two different colors of pain in the upper corner on the left -

this is the wash station – gets dirtier every day – check out the WALLS!!! Nothing could be as nasty as this faux texture this woman tried to create – it looks like mold growing

This is a photo of Dan’s office. Abi was helping Darwin paint it for us. She just followed him around all afternoon painting where he was painting – can you see her big letter “A” on the wall on the right?

these are photos of today – stringing our two strings on the christmas tree

I think this tree needs some helps – just like us :) But it smells good – unlike us :)