My Little Brother

I have one brother, he is 6 years younger than me. It's a pretty big difference, most of the time as kids I was scheming on how to not play with him because he was so little. But now that we are adults there is a lot more that we can do together and share and understand. He is 21 years old. And being 21 pretty much sucks. You don't know what you want to do with your life but everyone is making you feel like you better hurry up and make a decision. You are an adult, but you have just barely begun to live on your own and take care of things yourself. And you are suddenly allowed to go to the bar, which of course is only going to get you into trouble.

I would never want to be 21 again.

My brother and I had a fight, and I don't think that we have ever really had a fight before. I feel really bad, and I know he does too.

Christmas 2007:

Making Christmas cookies because Grandpa was sick and Mom and Grandma did not have time:

Thanksgiving 2008:

Easter 2006:

"I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at." ~Maya Angelou

I never knew I could...

When Bryce and I got married I informed him that I wasn't much of a cook. I quickly learned that his mother is a great cook. She even gave all of her kids a "Mom's cookbook" when they left home with all her favorite dinner recipes, and do you know how many there are!? I just counted and there are 54 main course recipes, that does not count the appetizers, beverages, and dessert recipes. 54 main course recipes, do you know that the average person has about 14 meals that they make over and over?

So after Bryce and I got married I realized that it was suddenly very important to me to feed him, it is my way of taking care of him. He can fix things and make more money than I can, so I can feed him and keep our house clean. So I started learning how to cook some things, I learned his favorite of his mom's recipes (Spaghetti Pie) and learned a few of my mom's favorites as well. When I had 14 recipes I was feeling pretty good about myself, no need to push it, average is good. But Bryce gets bored. He likes lots of variety and everytime I bring up "do you want tacos for dinner?" he says "we just had tacos" (even if it was three weeks ago...).

So last night we invited two of our very good friends over, we used to call them our "church friends," because we met them at church, but they said that sounded weird to them and prefer to be called our "drinking friends" because everytime we see each other (even at church) we have a little drink! So in all my infinite wisdom and thinking that I can do more than I actually know how to do, I decided to roast a chicken (you know, try something new!). I have a recipe, follow recipe, easy right? About 2 hours before they are supposed to show up I start to panic, the recipe says things like "tie together the legs and tail and put lemons in the chicken cavity and pull the wings down so the tips touch behind it's back." I start to think, I don't even know what this all means, what was I thinking trying something new for company!?!

But I decided it didn't really matter if I got the chicken positioned correctly as long as it was cooked clear through all would most likely be well. So I mixed up the herbs and oil and spread it over the little chicken in my roasting pan I had never used that we got for our wedding. Stuck in the meat thermometer just as the instructions said and put it in the oven. Not long into it Bryce calls and I tell him I think everything is going well, but something smells like it's burning and I can't tell what, maybe it's just because the roasting pan has never been used before...

Bryce gets home about the time I take the chicken out to add all the yummy vegetables and he looks at me and says "Keely, that is a plastic meat thermometer, you can't leave it in the oven, you are smelling burning plastic." I am aware of the hilarity of this now...but at the moment I was very stressed about this chicken and now the fact that I am clearly an idiot on top of trying to cook something I've never made before. Fortunately, Bryce could tell this was not yet the time to make fun of my stupidity and offered to go buy me a new one at the grocery store. I decided it didn't matter, we would just cut into the chicken to make sure it was done.

The chicken was amazing, moist and tender, and all the vegetables were sweet and seasoned and cooked just right! It was probably the best meal I have ever made and I am rediculously proud of myself over it. Our friends also loved it and were very impressed with my cooking abilities as well. Burning up the meat thermometer wasn't very cool, but then I tell everyone about it, so that's cool. I did not take a picture of my chicken, so I borrowed this picture, but my chicken really did look this good!

Changes! Again...

Oh My Gosh! The things that have been taking place around our house! In mid-November Bryce took a new job with Avista working as an engineering tech. He is loving it! Then, a little over two weeks ago I was able to quit my job at Girl Scouts to become a stay-at-home-mom! Obviously the little one isn't here yet, so currently I am a stay-at-home-wife getting ready for a baby. Everyone keeps asking me what I am going to do all day, well I have been so busy this is the first chance I've even had to blog since I've been home.

The last week has mostly been getting ready for Christmas and finishing up one of my classes at Gonzaga, only 4 more classes until I graduate! So since Christmas is just around the corner here are some pictures from our Christmas tree hunting adventures!



Paul, wearing a little moss to add to his beard...
Note the tree cutting with one hand because of the coffee in the other hand!

We ended up with three trees, one for us, one for mom and one for Grandma. Now it's time for me to get dinner ready for our friends that are coming over tonight. I have high hopes now that I am home that I will do a better job of blogging regularly, but obviously so far that hasn't worked out, so I will definitely keep everyone posted on the progress of the house. We have baby and guests rooms coming up next!

Christmas Lights

I was gone over the weekend and Bryce planned to put up the Christmas lights while I was over in Seattle baking with his mom and sisters. Bryce is not a lover of heights and it just so happened that my brother showed up on the day of the lights, so he offered to do the tall parts, on the ladder that we had to rent! One trip back to Wal-Mart to exchange lights and several hours later they were done! Bryce even put in a timer that turns the lights on at dawn and turns them off at dusk, very cool! I love Christmas lights, they help those long winter evenings stay bright!

Going to Camp

We have not spent a single weekend in November at home, and we aren't goint to, it's a busy month! This last weekend we went to camp, and I have never been to camp! Now don't feel sorry for me or anything, I had a horse and I was at horse shows contstantly as a kid, and the only camp I was interested in was horse camp, which is very expensive, and you can't bring your own horse so...I've never been to camp!

But this weekend, Bryce and I took 5 of the kiddos from our church to Camp Lutherhaven for a fun Pirate themed weekend in the woods. Camp is beautiful, the food is good, and the songs are still stuck in my head. We were so lucky to have really great kids with us and it was really fun to get to know them better and spend a relaxing weekend in the woods.

When we got home on Sunday afternoon Bryce headed straight to the hardware store, of course. Now, take a look at the picture of our house to the right, see all those beautiful roof lines, now can't you just imagine Christmas lights hanging on all those different levels!? Well I can! And that was one of the first things I told Bryce when we moved in. So on Sunday afternoon he went to the hardware store and bought all those cool little Christmas light hooks and after telling me to take a nap (he knows what makes me happy!!!) he went outside and started installing the hooks.

Last year was our first Christmas together, and Bryce told me he hated putting up Christmas lights, but one day while I was gone he put them up all over our little du-plex, I love Christmas lights so much! They add all this beautiful light to the long evenings and dark mornings. So he happily spent hours installing all those little hooks on our new house while standing on the roof or the tall ladder. And last night he spend a good hour researching LED lights vs. regular lights, how many you can plug in, how much energy they each take, and how many feet for what price. He is very thorough. And tonight while I work late he is going to go to the store and buy Christmas lights! YAY!!!

The lights won't be installed for a few more weeks, but when they are, I will have pictures for you!!!

Pants Optional!

Tomorrow is garbage day. We usually remember tomorrow morning to put the garbage out, which always works out fine because the garbage truck comes after we leave for work, and we are always up early to walk the dogs.

November is the last month that the city picks up the "Green Bin" you know, that special yard waste bin. So at 9:30 this evening we remember the pile of leaves in the back yard that need to go in the bin. Bryce and I head outside and he rakes and puts the leaves in the bin while I hold a flashlight. As I'm standing there freezing aiming the flashlight mostly at Bryce (Thisbe loves the flashlight and I was very entertained flashing it all of the yard for her to chase), I start to think about what our neighbors would think. Our mostly retired neighbors who either do their yard work during their retired days off or hire a service to do it for them. Here we are the young, dumb neighbors raking in the dark with a flashlight!

And then Bryce yells, "I'm not even wearing pants!"

Winter Plans

I got to visit my Dad's side of the family this weekend. I saw several of my cousins, my Aunt and Uncle and of course Grandma! It was a fun weekend (although I did have to work through part of it), but it was great to visit with everyone. We talked a lot about our house, apparently it is one of my main topics of conversation. Everyone tells me how impressed they are with how much we have accomplished in 8.5 months, and usually I am too!

My cousin Josh asked me "so what projects are you working on now?" Well, right this second, we are not in the middle of any house projects (hence the lack of posts). But I did share with him our "winter" list of projects:

1. Finish guest room in basement: Painting, Carpet, new light fixtures, hang up some pictures!
2. Organize Blue Room: (aka dog room) so that we can move the second guest bed into this room.
3. Do the Baby Room!: Put up wanescoating, paint walls (again), closet organizer (please husband!!!), paint bookshelf, re-finish crib, figure out how to put crib together, fix drawers in crib.

And if we have time we will change the hallway closet into a pantry. Bryce plans to knock a hole in the wall in the kitchen into the hall closet and then sheet rock and retexture the hallway part, since we don't really need two hall closets and would rather have a pantry.

I know this sounds like a LOT of projects for one house, okay it really didn't sound like all that many until I listed them out just now, whoa I have high expectations (especially if you note that half of these projects I can't do...hmmmm). But there is still so much that we want to do! Sometimes it is hard to remember and appreciate all the hard work we have already done and I just want to jump into the next thing...

new carpet, new flooring in kitchen, hallway, stairs, re-paint kitchen cabinets, new railings on stairs, new fence, fix or new sprinkler system, repaint outside of house, get a new door in the bathroom! Oh my list could go on and on...

Recent Craigslist Find

Back when we bought our house Bryce aunt and uncle gave their old dining room table, which was great since we were using a poker table my Grandpa has built and some school like chairs that I got at goodwill in college. The table is solid oak with several leaves so it gets nice and big for lots of family. The chairs were also oak, with not so beautiful 80's material on the seat and back. I originally had great plans to reupholster the chairs, until we discovered that the way they are built is not very sturdy and several of them were close to breaking down.

So I spent the summer searching yard sales and craigslist, but even used chairs are terribly expensive! Bryce came across these pretty oak chairs a few weeks ago and was finally able to pick them up on Saturday:



The set of 4 chairs was only $60, which is a great deal! A plain old ladder back chair new is $60, and these are much prettier than that! There are only 4, and our 80's set had 8, but we figure if a lot of family and friends are over we can supplement with folding chairs, which are much easier to store than the bulky 80's chairs which have been taking up a good portion of our guest bedroom downstairs. So here's to many yummy dinners with our beautiful hand-me-down table and craigslist chairs!

The Anniversary Door

On October 18th we celebrated our 1st anniversary! We spent the day at church and grocery shopping, terribly exciting I know. Our trip to California at the beginning of October was really our anniversary trip. We had decided not to buy each other anything because again, we just spent a bunch on our trip, but instead we decided to think of something that we wanted that we would buy for our anniversary.

We tried to think of something fun for our house, but many of the things were too expensive or things we were going to buy anyway and I really wanted the thing we bought to be meaningful somehow. Finally, we decided on a new front door. I like the idea of remembering our wedding and our first anniversary every time we walk in our house. The previous door was ugly and we wanted to replace it, but it definitely was not necessary, so we purchased this door on our anniversary, it took a while to paint it and install it, but here it is!


And the inside:
We feel like it has totally changed the look of the front of our house, our pretty red door stands out and has a window to let light in! It makes the house look cheerful and happy, rather than sad because it had an ugly brown door with dents and a peep-hole.

And every time we walk in and out we will remember the love that lives in our house.

The entry where I brag a little

So I recently had a wonderful Aunt of mine complain that I don't brag enough on my blog. She didn't know that I am currently over half-way through my Master's at Gonzaga University and when my mother told her this news she wondered why I didn't post THAT on my blog!

Who else would ask for bragging but family :) So this feels a bit like a bragging entry, but you can choose to read it (or not) by clicking here: http://www.thefigtree.org/

Pumpkins Death

So last night we ran out and bought some pumpkins, invited Bryce's sister Bekah over and broke out our brand new pumpkin carving kit that my mom gave us. We have some artistic people around this house so I knew they would be awesome pumpkins. Here are Bryce, Kendal (Paul's Girlfriend) and Paul sitting around the table waiting for inspiration:



Paul trying to draw his creation before putting it on his pumpkin.
Paul drawing on his pumpkin.
Can you guess what this is going to be?
And here they are in all their beautiful glory. They look amazing lit up, but I'm not talented enough to take those pictures apparently...from left to right we have Bryce, Keely, Bekah, Kendal, and Paul.
Here is Bryce's amazing WSU creation:
Mine is a pretty lady...
Bekah did the bat signal
Kendal did an amazing scary tree scene
And Paul did is infamous nautical star
Although we live in a great neighborhood, I decided it was best to leave the pumpkins on the deck rather than the front porch. I would be devastated if some hooligans smashed our beautiful artwork. Unfortunately, I never considered the damage a dog might do...




Yes, three of the four pumpkins were sent to an early grave when Thisbe decided they would make a good snack. Our masterpieces did not even last 24 hours, let alone last until Halloween. Fun was had by all last night, but today we are mourning the loss of our pumpkins...

Thisbe will be mourning the loss of her bed tonight as pumpkins are a great laxative, she will be spending the night in her kennel.

The Chimney and Outlets

It was another productive weekend around our house! On Saturday morning we got right in and started working on projects. First, we convinced Paul to climb up on our roof and clean the chimney. He doesn't really like two story houses because you can not jump off the roof semi-safely if there is a bees nest in the chimney. Fortunately, our chimney was bee free! Unfortunately, there appear to be some soft spots on that roof that will need attention when re-roofing takes place. But, on the plus side we did find some of those super cool, heavy-duty, fun to play with magnets in the gutter.

I put up Halloween lights last week and since there are no outlets outside on the front of the house there has been an extension cord running out the front door. I found that if you do something that annoys Bryce, he will quickly find a solution! So he put in an outlet on the front porch for my Halloween lights and Christmas lights!


Then came the really tough project, and apparently during this project I was too distracted to take any pictures. While SIL Sarah's house was being built they had the option to put an outlet in the eaves to plug in Christmas lights. Bryce thought this was a great idea, keeps the extension cords out of the way and such, and since I am a HUGE fan of Christmas lights, he decided we should have one of these outlets as well.

Unfortunately it was a little more difficult than anticipated because the roof lines in our house come down making it impossible for Bryce to get from the back of the house, where the attic access is, to the front of the house, where we wanted the outlet. But after a couple of extra runs to the hardware store and some help from Paul, they were able to feed the wire across the attic without climbing in there, and we now have a working outlet in the eaves. I am starting to get excited about our first Christmas in our house!

Oh baby baby!

We got to see our little one for the first time on Wednesday. The Dr. wanted to check on my due date, but either way it's still the first week in April.


Ohhhh, scary skeleton looking picture!

Look at those little tiny legs! They are so cute!

The little one was moving around like crazy, flipping over and then looking at us and then moving around, and waving those little arms. It was so amazing! Only 5.5 months until we meet the little one in person!

Why homeowners rarely go on vacation...

So we spent the last week driving all over Washington, Oregon and California. It was an amazing trip, with two national parks and lots of great camping. My little brother who is living with us, was of course put in charge of the house while we were gone. He called while we drove home to tell us that a massive wind storm had come through and our fence had fallen down:




Fortunately, Bryce was able to pick it up and prop it up with more t-posts. Hopefully next year we can afford to start replacing the fence, and maybe avoid the constant falling and leaning of this 20 year old maintained-very-poorly fence.

Road Trip!

So our big 1 year anniversary is coming up in less than a month. Back when we got married we talked about where we would go and what we would do for our 1 year anniversary. I think it was sometime this spring that we decided to go to Yosemite National Park and meet up with my Uncle Steven to hike half-dome. I did this once before, several years ago with my brother and Uncle Steven. And I would like to insert a picture here, but I can't fine one, so they must be on a disc somewhere...

Anyway, the original plan was to fly of course, but then I realized for two people to fly it would cost twice as much as driving my super efficient Dodge Neon. So we thought how fun would it be to drive to Yosemite and camp all the way there and back with all our sweet new camping gear that we got for our wedding? So on Wednesday morning we will be taking off to drive to Yosemite. On the way back we will drive through the Red Woods and hopefully find a camping spot on the beach.

We are both very ready for a break from work and excited to try out our road tripping skills as well as all our sweet camping stuff. Now if I could just get excited about packing and shopping for our trip...

Tune in next week for pictures of all our fun! (I keep going on and on about how fun this is going to be, please don't be surprised if you come back and find pictures of us with flat tires and stranded on the side of the road, it runs in my family!)

Babysitting

Earlier this summer our niece Arielle was over for a visit. We were pretty busy mowing the lawn and cleaning out the garage, so we showed her the dog kennel:

We are going to be GREAT parents!

Happy Birthday!

Bryce celebrated Birthday number 26 on August 29th and I then I celebrated number 27 on September 17th. Although Bryce still holds to the "fact" that he is older than me. Here is the first birthday cake I have ever made for Bryce.

Then my very sweet niece decided to help me out a bit, so the spelling of Bryce's name changed slightly as her hand entered the cake unexpectedly...I only cried a little bit even though I thought it was funny, I still cried, silly hormones...



This has been MY favorite present that he recieved (so far). He has learned a lot about pregnancy and babies and it has made him very understanding (and worried in a very sweet way!)
I bought him this light so that he can continue working even after it gets dark out, haha!
Here is Bryce trying to guess what this present is by touching it, he couldn't guess. His parents bought him a chop saw, now he can really get a lot of work done.
Then it was my Birthday! And my amazing sister-in-law Bekah made this amazing cake! I love Rainbow Brite and Bryce asked her if she could make me a cake, she did awesome, and all by free-hand even.
This is my surprised face when I first saw the cake.



Bryce bought me the Belly Book. I've been having fun filling it out and taking pictures to track being pregnant. So fun!
We both had great birthdays with our families and each other of course. We got lots of fun baby things, including a Little Saints blanket from Carroll College and a Cougar stocking hat from WSU. Our baby will be all decked out whether in Montana or Washington!