Christmas on Shirls' side

We celebrated Christmas today w/ mom's side, Sunday Dec. 21st. Some people couldn't make it due to the weather. Unfortunately, Grandma is sick so she wasn't able to make it down either. It was different celebrating without her, but we know it's in her best health to stay home and get well. We love you, grandma.

The kids had fun opening presents. The chow was good. It's always fun to get together and celebrate the holidays. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Addison opening a card from Great-Grandma

Addison & Riley playing after opening gifts

Poppa, Linds and Mamma

Trim

As promised, here are some final pictures of the trim. It looks great! The top overhangs on each side a little bit and the line was added to the window and door tops, as well as the base trim.

The front bay window w/ trim

The trim up close

Little Girl

The new cool thing to do is flash the peace sign. :) Funny how things cycle.

Peace

Enameled!

The past few days have been LONG ones. We've been on a tight timeline to have the trim completed by Friday so that the painter could come enamel it white. Troy made all of the trim for the whole house and has been putting in about 15 hours a day.

A few weeks back we played with some different options and we decided to move forward with a simple, sleek shaker style trim. Here's a picture before the trim went up.

The office door pre-trim

Here's a picture once the trim was up, sanded and ready to go.

Kaitlyn's bedroom window - trim, but not finished

We stopped in this evening to check out the finished product and it looks AWESOME! We'll be back tomorrow to work on the tile in the lower-level and entry area, so I'll take some pictures of the finished trim. It looks great. It's shiny, glossy and white! Nice work, Troy. :)

Don't lock the what...?

Troy was working at the house when I left work last night. I stopped by his place to pick up Dozer and started his old truck to take to the new house. I let the truck run for a bit, grabbed the dog and locked the door behind me. I put Dozer in the truck, along with the keys and my wallet and shut the door. After scraping the snow off, I tried to get back in... and I was LOCKED out! I'm not sure if Dozer hit the lock or if I accidentally did when I tossed everything in the truck, but either way I was LOCKED out of the truck and she was LOCKED inside. :) I called Troy to save the day and he arrived a good 20 - 25 minutes later. I was freezing (luckily I dressed warm!) and wet. We got the spare key and unlocked the truck, grabbed the dog and were off to the new house.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Today we brought Dozer to have her picture taken w/ Kaitlyn and Santa! She was pretty nervous at first and kept her tail between her legs, but once Kaitlyn sat down with her, she did a good job.

Santa, Kaitlyn & Mila

After taking their picture we went outside and played. Kaitlyn and Dozer ran around and played in the snow and got all wet. It was such a beautiful day, nice and sunny outside.

Cookies, Cookies and more Cookies!

Tuesday night was our annual girls cookie bake! Shanon, Sheila and myself make cookies (and boy do we make LOTS of them) every year just before the holiday season. Shan's little one, Cullen, was able to help all night long this year! We made a variety of cookies:

peanut butter kisses, monster cookies, pretzel rods w/ almond bark and bacon & eggs - just to name a few

We have such a great time catching up, laughing and spending time together. I look forward to this every year.

Shanon, Cullen, Lindsay & Sheila

Cabinets, Anyone?

It's finally starting to look like a house! We got most of the cabinets installed over the weekend and finished up the rest of them this evening. I can't wait to see the finished product once the counter tops are in place.

Sleepy Puppy

We had Mila at the new house all day on Saturday while we were working. This is where she landed once we got home and didn't move for a good two hours. This is her blanket that she just loves. What a sleepy puppy...

Marcia's Holiday Party

Talk about a holiday party... we had a great time at Marcia's this past Saturday. This year they accepted donations ($10/person) and are going to help needy families with the money raised, what a great idea.

Between all of us girls there, I'm sure over 300 pictures were taken - flashes non-stop! Around midnight we all headed over to The Loop to end the lovely evening in a crowded bar. Happy Holidays!

Troy & Lindsay

The girls

A Diamond in the Rough

This past summer we came across a house in foreclosure that we absolutely loved. After weeks of conversation I decided to put an offer on the house; the offer was accepted. In September we started on a loooong journey of rennovation to make this diamond in the rough our dream home.

The house in foreclosure.

There is a front door!

Inside: pre-rennovation.

The DOZER...

She's normally known as Mila... but we call her DOZER. This cute, little dog manages to bulldoze her way into any nook-and-cranny. She thinks she weighs 5 pounds and is the size of a chihuahua; not so much. Welcome to the DOZER chronicles.