Being Thankful while Eating Too Much

Every few years we celebrate Thanksgiving with Nate's extended family from his mom's side. Since there are soooooo many people we have it at a church (basketball court included) and everyone is given food assignments to contribute to the feast.

Mabel and her cousin Myah chillin' Bumbo style...

mid conversation:

more cousins...

Nate's favorite part - pie!

Then on Saturday we drove up to Kamas to celebrate again with my grandparents, aunt, and cousins....and I forgot my camera. :( But the food was delicious and Mabel had fun watching her cousin Jack crawl around.

I am so thankful for family and friends who love and support us, for a warm home and food on our table, for Nate's job, for clean water, education, and for a happy healthy little girl.

happy thanksgiving!

six months today!

happy six months to our sweet Mabel!

17.6 lbs 27.5 inches long
(and two bottom teeth ready to make an appearance any day now!)

West Jordan

oh yeah...we moved!

we have been looking at houses for a long time...just daydreaming about moving never really thinking it could work until a little further into the future. (since we bought our condo right before the market crashed. awesome.) but a few months ago we spotted a cute house in west jordan that was an awesome deal, we found renters for the condo, and within a month we were sleeping under a new roof!

west jordan is slowly growing on me. i was worried because i really love salt lake and sometimes i feel so far away from everything familiar but i have to remind myself we are only 20 minutes away. (thank goodness mabel is starting to tolerate her carseat.) nate's office is super close too so that is a plus.

i did have a few anxiety attacks right when we moved in because almost EVERY SINGLE ROAD near our house was under construction. no really, EVERY SINGLE ROAD. i wanted to scream every time I tried to go somewhere since it would take me 3x as long. especially the grocery store. we are right by jordan landing which has every store known to man except a grocery store. (i refuse to go to walmart) and then andrea told me about a harmons right by our house. oh harmons, how i love you. things have gotten much better since that day.

we are still trying to get unpacked (things go a lot slower with a baby) but we are making progress. i love having more space (a whole basement too!) and we are thrilled to have a yard where mabel can play and we can have a garden. the catchildren have done remarkably well, they still haven't gone outside though. we are liking our neighborhood, have made a few new friends, and who knew a garage could make nate so happy? :)

can't wait for lots of happy memories to be made in our new home.

That's Mr. Broker to You!

Several weeks ago Nate finished all his classes,
took the test, and received his Broker's License!

Congratulations babe, we are so proud of you!

ta da!

collection complete and on the wall, hooray!
nate hung each one with tender love and care.
i love that man.
i would also love a yellow rotary phone to go on that jack.


before



painted



prep



first row



almost there



yay!

Mumsie Visits

Earlier last month my mom came out for a long weekend to help us get unpacked and settled in the new house and oh how I wish she could have stayed for several weeks! Actually, mom - do you guys want to come live in our basement? YEAH!

While my mom was here she mopped my kitchen floor, planted 50+ bulbs in my front flower garden, re-potted my plants, adjusted my kitchen shelves (that was harder than it looked!), fixed my stove top, spent hours in the backseat of our car entertaining Mabel while we ran errands (and that was truly a labor of love because she gets wicked carsick!), helped me rearrange the office, finished my entire sewing project (wow, it was crazy), helped us clean and do touch up paint at the condo, grocery shopped with me, and only quite frequently got distracted by the cutest baby ever. ;)

reading the foot book

nap with Mabel, then sewing, sewing, and more sewing

i LOVE you Mom!

Fried Egg with Sausage

How clever is this?

White chocolate, yellow m & m, and pretzel sticks.

(Image found on Pinterest...idea came from this blog)

love fern

while my mom was here last month (need to blog about that too!) we re-potted my plants....including my precious shamrock; which Nate and I have had since we were first married. it had grown really big and so we decided to split it into two pots to give it some room and fresh soil. we also gave it a major CHOP to stimulate new growth and i was a little scared at first but lo and behold it was just was they needed! (insert analogy here)

freshly potted and looking a little sad:

one month later:

Thanks Mom!

PS: the little hanging elf belonged to my great grandma Eula :)