Christina got bit by the gardening bug! It might be a little late in the season, but with the tremendous help of Aunt Cindy we have cleaned out the overgrown, weeded front yard, and replaced it with beautiful flowers and shrubs. Cindy hunted the world to find our little Alberta Spruces that frame our entry way, and we love them. It looks a MILLION times better (previous pictures to come) and it feels so much more welcoming.
This front area has taken us a few weeks to tackle because we can't seem to do anything without the help of Cindy and Colin. On Monday Cindy spent the day finding just the right finishing touches for our front yard and then recruited Mike and Cheri until 10:30 at night to finish planting. Christina's cousin Lee lent us his tiller, which really helped a ton since the soil needed help. Carter loved helping us with this job since he could be outside and play with the hose.

Wow, what a job! The previous soil was filled with tons of roots of weeds and the monstrous plants the previous owners had. Even though we spent hours picking away at each root there are plenty left, so that is why weeding will never be done! At least for now though it looks "perfect" and nothing pesky is showing its face...yet.

We got couches! We finally have a place to sit comfortably in our home and it feels amazing! It's funny how the little things in life (fridges and couches) make such a difference. ;-) Anyway, we found these chocolate brown real leather couches online from Han Imports . They are a killer deal on their own with the sofa only be $549 instead of $1000 or more in other stores. Plus, Christina talked Cheri into getting the same style for her home so we TOTALLY recommend them to anyone. They are sleek and kind of firm, but way comfy.

This weekend was kind of busy and sad...Mike had to study for a couple of tests, we worked on the house, and we attended a funeral for Christina's uncle's mother, Marion Conrad. She had lived a great life with a wonderful family legacy, but it is still sad to lose someone. Her testimony in the gospel, her speedy driving habits, and her famous phrase "Oh, brother!" will always stay with us.

We ended the weekend on a happy note with setting up Mike's drum set! That was a sight to see and fantastic to hear in our basement. He is such a talented musician and it will be awesome for him to improve his skills at anytime. Carter will probably follow in his daddy's footsteps. :-) Hopefully the neighbors won't mind.

Great News! Last night/early this morning we finally covered the last of the old, grayish pink, brown, dirty, flat paint that has been haunting us since we saw this house over 5 months ago.

We were a little crazy to start the first coat in the master bathroom at 11:00 pm, but we were just itching to get it done. It took a long time to finish though due to all the cutting in, but it felt amazing to wake up to a fresh coat of paint. We still have some second coats of paint and touch ups here and there to do, but our top floor is officially painted! Yeah!!
One of our absolute favorite colors is the Autumn Leaves in our master bedroom. It is a rich burnt orange color that pops next to the Desert Sand light color around the windows. We can't wait to decorate our house now to accentuate our color choices. We truly do love each color and the house feels so much better with all new paint.

BEFORE

AFTER
With Andy's help we were also able to paint the baseboards in the living room so that it is ready to move in our new leather couches that will hopefully be here tomorrow! It feels amazing to get things done, and we're so appreciate of everyone's help. Our house is becoming a home and it's wonderful.

We FINALLY have a refrigerator in our house! For those of you who don't the story, getting this fridge has been a big ordeal. The shorten nicer version is that we ordered a fridge from Lowe's 3 weeks ago, and each week it has been pushed back and delayed for various reasons that we didn't know about when we ordered it.
Since September 3rd we have been living out of a cooler and a mini fridge that Mike's parents let us borrow. Our food has been sitting in Mike's sister's fridge since then. We thought living out of these small things was going to be a temporary fix and it would be no big deal, but the fridge came 2 weeks later than we originally expected. We basically have lived off of milk, eggs, and the fast food chain for 3 weeks now, so we are definitely excited to have our fridge. We absolutely love it and we can't wait to use the ice maker and have a good home cooked meal.
Having this refrigerator makes our kitchen practically complete! Besides painting the baseboards and door frames our kitchen is pretty much done. Now we just need to find the time to move everything from the garage into the house. All in due time. :-) As for the rest of the house, we've made some awesome progress. We are almost done painting the front area, which is a huge feat with vaulted ceilings and decorate upper shelves. We finally got rid of the last bit of random blue & red the previous owners had. It looks much more uniformed and inviting, and we love it!
We couldn't be this far without all of our family and friends that have sacrificed their nights to come and help us paint, clean, and watch Carter. Our neighbors have asked a few times where we get all the help and we just say that we're blessed with awesome family and friends. We learned very quickly that we could not get the house how we wanted without help, so we are very thankful for everyone's love and support.
Another room that is practically done is our main bathroom. We bought almost everything for the shower and we got the first coat of black spray paint on the framed mirror that we found at Ross for a steal so we're getting there! It's so fun to see progress and get some sort of stability in our home.




We were also able to go on our first official date on Saturday night. We even paid a babysitter for the first time. We worked hard all day to mow the lawn and paint and clean, but then we took time out to go on a double date with Angela & Steve.
We went and saw Steve's brother-in-law Jason Hewlett perform at the Sandy Amphitheater. He did a fantastic job impersonating different singers and actors. It was hilarious and it felt good to get out and enjoy life again. The night ended with running in the rain to our cars and then grabbing some Red Mango.