Finally...some pics

So here are some of the "Before" pictures (the "After's" yet to come):

Front door on the left, taken from kitchen. (All the wood paneling went)

Upstairs bathroom (The first thing we did once we bought the house was tear down this hideous wallpaper!!!)

Downstairs bathroom...once again I couldn't wait to rip that paper off

Basement (that is the master bedroom door)

Basement from other direction. Once again, all the wood paneling on the walls is now gone.

Upstairs living room (looking towards dining room then kitchen)

Kitchen

Living Room

Upstairs bedroom...we turned this one into our office

So, although we are not near finished I will work on getting some after pictures on what we have accomplished. So far, the office and master bedroom are almost completely done with just a little trim work remaining. The kitchen is almost done; we just need to get new countertops yet. The living rooms up and down are mostly done except they need all the trim yet. Much to do yet we have come so far!

Big News

For those who haven't heard, we have some big changes coming up in our life. This big change will happen around August 4 when our baby arrives. A baby? Yep...though it still hasn't even sunk in for us yet. I am almost 13 weeks, so into my 2nd trimester now. (yeah!) Things have been great (too great I worry at times) since I haven't been sick or even felt pregnant yet. An ultrasound a few weeks ago did confirm the fact and we are now eagerly looking forward to the summer.

Hopefully, our house will be finished to a certain degree so we can turn our attention to more important things in life, namely, a baby. Samson, who is growing FAST, will almost be 1 and he will have to learn to adjust to being a big brother. :)

We learned other very exciting news at Christmas when my sister Juli announced that she too is expecting. Her due date is August 14, so our babies will be only a week or so apart! Needless to say, my mom is very excited. Nate's family is also ecstatic as this will be the first baby on their side of the family.

So for now as we try to wait patiently all we can do is pray for this little one and hope you remember us in your prayers as well!

Happy New Year

Wow...this is awful. I realize I haven't posted since before Thanksgiving. The last month turned out to be a wonderfully crazy and chaotic month! A lot has happened, so I'll just give a brief summary of events.

December started by me flying out to Sioux Falls for about a week. I went out to help my sister Sheri travel to WA with her 3 kids (a 3-year old and twin 1-year olds). It was fun to be there over the twin's birthday and I got to watch Kiera's Christmas program. The weather was WAY to cold though...I definitely don't miss that part of the Midwest. The trip home went surprisingly well, though we were both ready to be done traveling by the end of the day.

My sister Tami and her 3 kids flew out the day after we arrived in WA, so the blessed chaos increased. In all there are 8 kids, 7 of them are 4 & under. We had a great time hanging out. Going anywhere proved to be quite the sideshow with all the car seats and highchairs but it was great. We celebrated my 25th birthday by going to Red Robin with just the adults (a rare treat).

In the midst of all this chaos our house was slowly getting worked on. The cabinet people finished retaining our cabinets, we finally finished painting, and carpet was installed downstairs the week before Christmas. With all the people in my parent's house Nate and I decided to move into ours even though it wasn't completely ready. So I guess we are now moved in, but a lot of work is yet ahead of us. We finally emptied our storage unit (and the van we had parked in storage last year still full of stuff!). It was like Christmas as we went through everything, some stuff we had never even opened since we didn't have a lot of room in Olympia.

As I look back it is hard to believe it has almost been one full year since leaving Olympia. We are VERY ready to finally settle in and get our lives organized. It is amazing to see God's hand in all the events, from losing our jobs in Jan, and incredible trip to Europe, Nate's new job allowing us to live close to family, and my availability to help my dad as he underwent chemo and radiation this summer. God is good!