Odds and Ends

We have had a busy summer. We painted the house its a grey blue color with chocolate trim. The last picture is the before the first three afters. We planted 40+ trees, Sonya gave us a playset and we set that up in the back yard, we pulled up a bunch of half dead bushes, planted a garden started building a fire pit, fixed the sprinkler system, tried to resurrect the lawn, and put in a dog door and a temporary fence, and that is just the exterior. I want to try and take pictures every year that we are here so I can see how much the place has changed.

Colter got his Halloween costume about 6 weeks before Halloween. Since then there has rarely been a day he hasn't worn it. He is so excited for Halloween and lately he loves Superhero Squad and the Avengers.

We found out that we will be having a girl in February, so I have been painting the computer room to turn it into a nursery. This is the process.

This is my finished paint. I plan on adding fairies, butterflies, and flower to the decor before I am done.

A quick update a long time in coming.

 Colt's 3rd birthday

 Our new cat Si. He insisted on climbing and sleeping on my ladder while I was painting the house.

We went to visit my brother Brandon in Tooele. While we were there we went to the Hogle Zoo.

The merry-go-round at the zoo. Colt rode the Peccary.

Happy Holidays.

Making sugar cookies.

Colt had lots of fun decorating the tree.

Just before Christmas Greg and I were big winners. Greg won 192 King size Snickers2go, and I won a giant teddy bear.

Bowling for cousin T's Birthday was lots of fun.

Colt didn't want to wake up Christmas morning, but when Greg told him Santa had come he yelled  "OH BOY! OH BOY! OH BOY!

A huge update

THOMAS COSTUME
We ask Colter what he wanted to be this year for Halloween and he told us Thomas. Actually he said " Daddy you buy me Thomas costume, please, please, please?' and after he got one "You buy me Percy costume, please, please, please?"  But after all that fuss, when it came down to it, he wouldn't put the costume on. The 30th was trunk or treat at the church, and once I convinced him to put it on and he figured out that costume=candy he was all about it. We went out to Rexburg for Halloween and trick or treated our family and our old neighborhood, and Colt had a great time.

COLTER WAS WAY EXCITED ABOUT ALL HIS TREATS

OUR MONSTER, FRANKENSTEIN, AND SKELETON PUMPKINS
Colter loved the pumpkins. After we got them all carved he wanted to blow out the candles inside and then light them and do it again. We roasted the seeds and they were delicious.

JUST DANCE
This kid is hilarious. I play Just Dance to exercise. Lately Colter tells me he wants to dance too, and I gotta tell you this kid  has moves.

 Painting

 This is the master bedroom. I painted it a deep plum on the back wall. The other three are a brown with a purpleish cast.

I have been busy painting and changing things up in the house to make it more our own. 

The master bath is the a dusty green with the walls above the sink and tub accented with the same plum as is in the bedroom. I added a strip of cream to add definition to the two colors. I love how it turned out.

Close as I can get to a before and after

THE ZOO
 This was our last trip to the zoo this year. Colt loves the zoo. We went in the petting zoo and colt got right in the goats faces and waved "Hi goats!". Since we went anytime I read him the Animal ABC's he tells me "Penguins (or any of the other 25 animals in the book, penguins are just a favorite), I saw them at the zoo." I hear him tell me about the zoo probably 4+ times a week. We are looking forward to spring when we can go again.

A tribute to Elsa

         I was 12 when we got Elsa. I can still remember going down to the mall in Pocatello and there being this woman with a box of puppies sitting on a bench. I was holding this cute puppy and the mall security guy was telling this woman she needed to leave. Elsa was the last puppy she had. She felt like family from that moment, and she was.
         We had three three year olds it seemed like for a while. Adam and Alyssa literally grew up not knowing life without Elsa. She was always my dog, even when I went off to college and then got married. Whenever I came home she was always the first to greet me and was always excited to see me. She would lay next to Mom while she was sick and it seemed that she was trying her best to comfort her and make her happy and in many ways she did just that. After Mom died Elsa seem to take it hard she would lay around the house and sigh these great big sighs. That was when she started showing her age.
       Elsa died October 6, 2012. She was 15. Before she died she had lost a lot of her hearing, and her eyesight was bad (I watched her walk into the fridge door about a week before) The vet had told us that she had many teeth that needed pulled, and when you petted her you could feel the tumors, and to top it off holding her bladder seemed to be a greater and greater challange. We had discussed making an appointment to put her to sleep, and I think Elsa knew what was going to happen. A week later, before we were able the appointment, she was gone. Our neighbors found her in the road and thought she had been hit, another neighbor (a P.A.) thought she had a stroke. She had no broken bones and was not scratched up at all so I think he was probably right. I was grateful that fate interceded and I didn't have to be the one to make that choice for Elsa.
         Everybody who knew Elsa loved her. I remember Brandon would microwave her dog food for her so she would feel spoiled. It made the house reek. Grandma and Grandpa Christiansen loved to have her visit and my mom and her siblings even got them a schnauzer because they like Elsa so much. When Elsa had puppies two of the four ended up with neighbors who liked Elsa. She was a very sweet, quiet, good natured  animal. We will all remember the way she kicked her leg when she wanted to play. She was all of our best friend and she will be missed.

New House

Its been a work in progress but we finally did it. We have moved to Tetonia. We had looked at lots of houses all over the valley. We had an offer in on a house in Victor and an accepted offer in on a house in Driggs, but we just hadn't felt real good about it. So we did a never mind and here we are in Tetonia. Along the way it seemed like if it could go wrong it did, but we finally got all the kinks worked out and were able to move in the first weekend of September. 

It has been really nice being here. I see Greg soooo much more than before. He is able to leave later in the morning and get home earlier at night and I see him for lunch occasionally. I thought Colt might have a little bit of a hard time adjusting but today I took him back to the old house to gather up a few things we left  and he told me no he wanted to go back to the new house. He seems to really enjoy all the extra space and his own big kid bed. One draw back is I have a lever front door handle and he can open it whenever he wants. 

I miss having the grocery store a mile away and the nice paved bike path that Colt and I would ride on nearly daily, but there are lots of great 4-wheeler paths that I am sure we will make use of.  We will have a lot of work ahead of us, but I think it will be a great place for us.