a christmas-y and homey home

So remember when the house we bought was siiiccck nasty??

Like tabacco spits in the grout, red- haired beard shavings in the bathroom crevices, carpet stains from who knows what, fist punched doors, beer and katchup splattered walls, and a micowave, toliet and oven that hadn't been cleaned EVER kinda-nasty?

Yeah me too. Barf.

With A TON of help and many many hours deep cleanin' and scrubbin'... it's starting to look like a home.

Steven and I both wholeheartedly agree that KSL classifieds is the 3rd best thing of all time. Right after Disneyland and puppies of course. If it weren't for KSL, we wouldn't have ANY furniture. But luckily we got a steal of a deal on so many things! Actually, we literally did on our fridge. We might have stolen it from some African ladies in Rose Park. Unintentionally of course, and we drove straight back with the money.. but still. Basically though, KSL is heaven sent.

The TV room before....

and after! Yes, the carpet stains actually did come out, thank goodness.

These pictures just don't do justice to the bathroom's night and day difference after a full scrub down. Before.. when you walked in there you could feel things crawling on you. I'm convinced it was the  mutated bacteria growth from the many years of non-cleaning.

 

Our baby boy is just growing up to fast! He has slowly become a toddler the past couple weeks, but the good news is... he is learning how to potty in his litter box! Hurray!! He is only waking us up 2-3 times a night! We are such proud parents.

After watching this video I realized something. Steven and I have become one of those people. The people who totally act like their pet is their child. Dressing them up, showing off their pictures, and taking them EVERYWHERE.

(i.e. grocery shopping, movie theater, chili's, the christmas carol play... you get the drift)

But you know what? We are not ashamed.

We took Flynn over to my parents house to meet his Uncle Chuck. But aparently, Uncle Chuck is not too fond of children. And when I say children, I mean puppies.

Last night we got to go up to "This is the Place State Park" for my work party. Steven was foolish, and didn't bring a coat. Even though I specifically told him to dress warm. It was kind of a chilly night to be wandering around a pioneer village without an eskimo suit.

Best part of the night by far though, was when Steven heard Santa Clause was there. He basically ran the whole way. Almost as fast as I ran to the cookies and hot chocolate. (Even if he says it's just because he "was cold"... uh huh. Sure it was.) And it got even better. When we ran up the stairs, no one was there. We might have stood there awkwardly for a couple minutes before Steven asked if he could sit on his lap. Or he asked if I could sit on his lap... I don't remember. Either way, I wasn't going in there alone, so I took him down with me. Poor Santa.

I must really love you Steven.

But I also think you owe me a bag of almond hershey kisses for that one.

Once Upon a Time...

Steven and I discovered a new favorite show. Don't you just LOVE it when that happens?

And since USA network's "Psych" (aka the best show EVER) is about to take it's seasonal break, we found it just in time.

Heard of the new show on ABC's Sunday nights called Once Upon a Time?

No? Well, I just did you a huge favor then.

The title basically tells what it's about - fairytales!

If you know me, you'll know I'm an absolute sucker for them.

I won't try and summarize what it's about, because this trailer covers it perfectly.

(gah! I love the actress who plays Snow White/Mary Margaret, she's gorgeous!)

It's beautifully done. The actors, makeup, costumes, storyline, effects, and sets are incredible.

Super entertaining, and facinating. It takes all the fairytales we know, and digs in so much deeper to them.And the best part? It's a 100% family friendly show.

And for a bonus? Half of it takes place in Maine.

I sure do love Maine.

And good news! It's only six episodes in, and all the previous are on Hulu.

Happy Christmas.

natural disaster + puppy = awesome

I love eventful weekends. Actually, just weekends in general.

For all those non-utahn-davis-countyer's... you shoulda seen the storm that hit us Thursday!

106mph winds. For reals.

It went all through the night and I'm pretty sure no one slept.

We woke up to no power, but figured to go about our day normally anyways.

On the way to work, Steven almost had his car door ripped off it's hinges at the gas station, and watched a man get blown over while crossing the street. Crazy!

I got ready in the dark, and decided no shower was way better then a cold shower.

When I tried to open the garage to leave to work... it wouldn't open. I smacked myself on the forehead for being so silly in thinking it would while the power was off.

I pulled out my phone to call someone for a ride, then come to find it was dead dead dead because I hadn't charged it at night. I was stuck. No car, no phone, no internet, and no food.

As a last effort, I went outside and clinged to the walls to knock and see if any of might neighbors were home. No dice.

I went back inside my freezing house, lit the leftover tea lights from the wedding, and finally gave into the massive pile of thank you notes still needing to be written. I wrote until my fingers froze up, then crawled into bed defeated. Basically, I don't know how the pioneers survived. And I'm a total wuss when it comes to the cold.

Steven came to my rescue at lunch after he couldn't get a hold of me all morning. I spent the rest of the day at my in-laws house keeping warm by the fire with family.

The damage that the wind had caused was unreal. Power lines hanging all over, massive trees ripped right from the ground, fences blown to shreds, debris and shingles everywhere...
I'd never seen anything like it.
 

This is the only picture I actually took, but you get the idea.

After spending an entire morning alone in a big empty house, I decided I needed a dog before another natural disaster hit. Long story short, we weren't planning on getting a dog till Spring. But one thing led to another and we ended up finding our dream puppy, and we were smitten.

This is our sweet boy, Flynn Rider. He is a 7 week old yorkie mix and will get to be about 5lbs. He just wants to be held and cuddled all the time and cries whenever he isn't close to us. We can't believe how much personality he has already, and how crazy smart he is. He is so so fun and too stinkin' adorable. And he loves his daddy :)

Here's a couple videos to make you happy. He's the bomb.