I learned something about hubby this weekend....no matter what kind of deal he can get he's not willing to do a Black Friday adventure again in his lifetime! He finally caved to my never-ending desire for a Dyson vacuum because Kohl's had a deal you just couldn't pass on. The whole plan was to stay up until midnight to order it online and never have to leave the comfort of our kitchen....Yeah right! Their website crashed at 12am on the dot, I'm assuming I wasn't the only one not wanting to miss their deal! I proceeded to try for the next hour and a half (even though I had already been so close to done at around 11:45 I could see the vacuum in the UPS truck...stupid me just forgot about the limit on my bank card...so back to trying with the good 'ol credit card) we made an executive decision we couldn't let this opportunity pass, so we packed the car and were going to head to Sioux Falls. I woke grandma up and asked if she wanted to stay or go with and she was in for the fight....so we made a plan to deal with Syd and off we went. Sydney did her 3rd Black Friday adventure (if you count the year I was a week away from my due date but unwilling to miss it) and managed to sleep through all but an hour of the fun! (lucky girl) NO, I was not stupid enough to drag my little princess into every store with me just to get deals....she stayed in the car with one of us fast asleep! We did breakfast when she woke up then visited Penny's and Target (by this time it was already after 9) ....so to all those people that were making rude comments like I was hauling my precious little cargo around all morning being a crazy all out shopper...I DIDN'T! Daddy and I visited menards for more house stuff while Grandma tried to get Syd down for a nap then we were off on our way back home! You are free to count the hours....I was up by 7:30 thursday to get ready for hosting our first Thanksgiving in a home that belongs to us....and made it until about noon the next day before I needed a cat nap to make the triple vision go away...yes, NO sleep for those in search of a good deal! I didn't even go all out, my sister started at 11pm thanksgiving waiting in line at ToysRUs! Silly girl!

So here it is....

I can't believe the suction that thing has....I just couldn't leave it in the box anymore, and no matter how tired I was I dug in, put it together, and attacked every piece of carpet in the house! Let me just say....GROSS!

Here are a few more pictures of what's been going on around here....

merry christmas to me...FINALLY a room big enough for the monster again! We officially have 3 christmas trees in our house...Why not, right? All the prints are on the walls in the Living room as well so no more worries about getting broken in the closet.

Here's my fully functioning kitchen all spruced up with my coke stuff! (I never knew it amounted to so much! It's all been packed up!) It's still not recovered yet from Thanksgiving dinner, but I was sick of cleaning!

My other two favorite appliances! Those things are a dream! The dryer actually beats the washer with a load...even an entire load of towels! So far the max run time on the dryer when on sensor is about 36 minutes! Now to just finish the sheetrock and put up shelving!

This is what will become the studio! I hate the yellow walls, I just don't have the energy to paint another room! The room is HUGE and completely open so will be perfect for a studio! The bed on the floor is actually Sydney's but the box spring is broken yet again so I'm waiting for hubby to fix it or build a little something for it's replacement before it moves into its' permanent home. My computer also belongs in this room, not on the kitchen cabinets like pictured, but we were trying not to wake grandma while waiting for midnight!

And the front! Notice anything different? If you can't you're completely blind! Well at least I think you are! Then again you didn't have to live with the previous edition! NO, the white rectangles on the grass aren't it....and the car in the driveway isn't it either! I could not wait any longer to paint the shutters and I got in trouble for using the grass, but the garage was still full so I chose the lesser of two evils! The front doors are also a nice dark blue now instead of puke green or pastel green whichever you prefer to use!

Here's the before...now can you see the difference?

I have all that ugly green eliminated except the hinges on the door out of the back side of the garage...and that's only because I didn't realize those were the same color as the rest! That is also the hardest color I have ever come across to get rid of! Covering that is harder than covering black!

And for the finale....

This is the view out the front of our house! Absolutely perfect! I thought I'd catch it since we've learned that the same guy owns lots across the street so we don't know how long we'll actually be lucky enough to keep this view!

Oh...and a little teaser for those that haven't been here yet!

Got pink?!!! So Syd's room turned out REALLY pink, I didn't want pastel, but we didn't want it to be dark either, so here it is! The more white we add the better it gets too! The wall I plan on having fun with didn't get finished before thanksgiving, so I've got about 3 weeks to get it done before we host a party for Syd and her cousin Camden!

Thanksgiving is almost here! So of the 10 or so people that were originally coming we're down to a whopping 2! Hopefully the kiddos come on Friday since Caley ended up having to work Thurs! There's lots of changes around here, only a few boxes left to empty, and almost no trace of my most hated color....would you believe a pastel green is harder to cover up that a black? I decided that I should get to work on Syd's birthday invites since that is coming up on us as well....here's a almost complete invite, a girly border to come along with a date, I just couldn't sit and not unpack anymore....

We've been tossing the idea around to do a double party with my nephew Camden since they're only about 2 weeks apart, so I'm waiting for word on that before a date comes along! Then off to wally to print them and get them to their respected parties!

....I can't really believe she's 2 already! I was looking at pictures from this spring and she looked so teeny yet, now she's all grown up, with the temper to prove it!

Where do they keep coming from?!! Boxes that is! I have emptied what seems like a never ending pile of boxes, and they just keep showing up! Stay tuned for a big surprise after Thanksgiving, I don't want to spoil it for those of you coming here for Dinner, so I won't show it on here until after said people have come and gone....It's shocking!

Here are a few pictures of the main living space. The befores are without power so one of them is a little dark...

This is the view from the front door of the house....I absolutely HATED those cupboards that color, and couldn't wait to get my hands on them....

Here's the new paint from almost the same view....ignore the mess, it'll get put away by the end of the week if all goes well. A little confession....I must have picked the perfect color for the walls, I now like the cupboards the way they are! Hubby is rather relieved that I no longer plan on violating them! The island is also different than when we moved in, it was turned the long way, but that wasn't ever going to stay as is as far as I was concerned...much more useful the way it is now! Also note the pretty new appliances, SO excited about those. We had a small snaffu with the microwave over the stove however, and had to already have a service guy come out and fix it...it was messed up right out of the box! Now I just need the dishwasher to come in...until then, they'll keep finding a home in the sink.

Here's the original view of the living room from the kitchen....

Note the ugly light fixture hanging in the middle of the room, totally out of place (it might be easier to see it in the kitchen picture...)

And now...

Voila....paint and a new light fixture! There are gaudy gold fixtures almost everywhere in the house that are going to all be replaced eventually. All that's left in this room are the big fancy pictures that hubby says I have to keep putting up.

A little story about what our friday was like....Closed on the house on time, but found out at our final walk through the water AND electricity had been shut off. It had been raining most of the night and continued raining most of the day friday....the sump hole was getting fuller by the minute...FINALLY at 5 the guy showed up to turn our power back on so we could heat the place up and have lights! I'm really glad it wasn't super cold at all last week so we didn't end up with more problems than we had already encountered. All the painting in this room was done after 5 friday night....and I had 2 coats done by midnight! (it's a 15x32) room! I was proud of myself! Now to just find a home for everything...

we made it! I"ll post pictures of before and after later, right now I need to sift through more stuff in our garage so I can get my car inside someday soon! Would you belive an entire house full of stuff fits inside a 2 car garage? Oh, and a 4-wheeler? I was pretty amazed, I won't tell you how high it was stacked though ;)

WOW it's been almost a week since any updates....probably because of all the hurdles we've been jumping. So we were originally supposed to close on our house yesterday....no such luck, even though it turns out everything we asked to be completed had been....so we could have easily closed yesterday. INSTEAD we close on Friday, which means we're packing what we originally thought we'd have 5 days to do into 3 short little days! That list includes: Painting as much of what I have paint for as I can, which will probably just be the main living area, and doing Syd's pink room after we're moved. Getting a pedestal built for my spiffy new washer and dryer (super excited about those guys) after the remainder of their cubby is sheetrocked. (hubby gets to sheetrock while I paint....I've already told him he has to do his duties with the door closed so my paint stays pretty) and that needs to be completed before saturday morning when my stove and washer dryer get delivered. Friday and Saturday are going to be spent moving everything from here to the new house whoever gets that fun job on friday gets to do it alone as most of us have jobs that need to be completed asap so the extra hands we have around probably won't be  having tons of fun! Everything has to be out of our rental Saturday when we have additional extra hands and so I have a bare house to clean on Sunday.... Then next week I'll worry about finding homes for everything in OUR house....yes, that had to be emphasized....it's OURS! No more having stuff packed away for a house, with one room of a rental for storage! That gives me a week and a half to have my house presentable for grandpas and grandmas and cole and caley to come for turkey! I can't wait to use the new oven! Hopefully my kitchen is all put away by then!

Wish me luck, and no more wrenches!

Let me start off by saying that I love my little brother, even though he's worse than a fly somedays...my life wouldn't be the same without him or any of my siblings....however, the kid blinks like a madman....like he's scared of the camera. I got my spiffy new camera a year ago and haven't even begun to get into all the bells and whistles of the thing, I do however wish there was a mechanism to keep eyes open when it takes a picture.

Coles' eyes are like that in more than half of his photos! Don't even get me started on the crazy hound either....she wasn't happy unless she was right in the middle of a picture, but was too busy watching everything that moved to look at me, even when I was trying to bribe her with food. What am I going to do with the two of them? I hate to admit I might have to break down and take a hundred more pictures of the little brother to get enough for a senior session (bring on the snow!)  I have a DSLR to take pictures with...and it couldn't even keep up with the eyes...and it takes bursts of up to 64 pictures!

Still going as planned with our house too...only 6 days till closing!

Here's the little birthday girl! Jalyn celebrated her first birthday on Sunday with a big party! She spent more time trying to figure out what the cake was than actually eating it. No problem though, once my little piggy saw her cake she was more than happy to help her get rid of it! It was a nice distraction from the house to go down for the party and hang out with almost all my family last weekend. I tried my darndest to find some willing helpers, but everywhere I went had a list for me to do instead!

I managed to sqeeze almost everything I had planned into two short days....I definately didn't spend much time sitting around (other than waiting for little brother to get dressed....you'd swear he had roots growing out of his feet as slow as he moves) Now we're back to getting ready for moving day, which hopefully is still on for Tuesday! (I know, it seems like forever, but the last month has gone so fast that it will probably seem like tomorrow to me) I'm going to try to get some of Syds new comforter assembled before the move. I swore I had way more fabric than I needed (the quilt that has been in the process since before she was born) and I ran out yesterday that's just my luck!

I decided I wasn't going to rush out and buy a costume for Syd this year with all the flu and such going around....well grandma must have felt sorry for her, so she asked what I'd like to dress her up in if I was going to buy a costume....my first choice was a skunk (which would have been a likeness to the attitude lately) and also in the top 5 were devil, jailbird, monster and such....

Here is what she ended up wearing....

I must say it was definately fitting!

I told great-grandma what she was going to wear and she said it was mean, little girls are supposed to be fairies or angels or princesses, not little devils. She hasn't seen her in a while! As devilish as she was, she was still a cute devil! Although I'd swear those horns were actually growing out of her head instead of attached to a headband.

She had a blast, even with the handful of places we took her dressed up...ate more candy than I could have eaten in a night, and it didn't phase her!

Mark a second halloween off the list! Next year I should plan ahead, I'd really like to see her as a skunk, I have a feeling we're looking forward to many years as girly things so I should have fun with the costumes while I still have my choice! And with that I better be off to do more packing....we're down to 8 days before we get the house, and 7 gallons of paint before we move! (that part already sounds painful!)