I'm Thankful for Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We are spending it with David's family at his mom's house this year and I can't wait. David's dad is also coming up and will be spending the long weekend with us. It should be a wonderful (and yummy) weekend!

To celebrate Thanksgiving, David and I made a "Thankful Tree." I just got a branch from our backyard, put it in a vase with rocks to stabilize it, and cut out leaf shapes from colored paper. Then David and I wrote on the leaves what we are thankful for and hung them up. It was a fun activity and reminded us of how much the Lord has given us.

We also celebrated by harvesting the sweet potatoes from our garden! We planted these on a whim and we couldn't believe how many grew. We will definitely be making these yummy vegetables an annual member of our garden.

Random Pics and Easy Halloween Decor

Here are just some random pictures I've been meaning to post.

This year our garden produced a lot of peppers, tomatoes, some zuchini, and even a couple of pumpkins...but our favorite thing was the watermelons! Neither of us had ever grown watermelons before and it was so fun to watch them go from a small pod to something so large. We will definitely be growing watermelon from now on!



We also recently celebrated Courtney's birthday. We had a fun time getting together as a family and, as always, eating lots of good food!



Finally, here's just a quick idea for a Halloween decoration. I bought these orange candles from Ikea for .99 each. I used some black letter-stickers that I had to spell out "BOO" and the pedestals the candles are sitting on are actually just cups turned upside down with a black ribbon around the top. I then got some leaves from the dollar store and spray-painted them black to put around the base of the cups. For spending $4 I don't think it turned out too bad.

Back Porch Reveal--This is for you, mom!

The last "room" in our house to be redone was our screened-in porch. It sat, unloved, for several years after we moved in and, while we kept thinking about fixing it up, we never actually got around to it. Several things deterred us--the general dilapidation, the dirtiness, and the bugs. However, we finally got the motivation to finish it and are so happy with the results.

{FYI: The reason this post is dedicated to my mother is because she has LOVED our porch and begged us to finish it every since she first saw it. She's been looking forward to having it redone more than we have I think but it was her excitement that gave us the motivation to finish it.}

Here are some before pictures of the porch. The floor was green and I don't think anything had been repainted since the house was first built in 1941. All the paint was chipping, the ivy was growing through the screens, the ceiling fan was rusted and only had one working light, and everything was just dirty!






We started the process by cutting down all the ivy and scrubbing EVERYTHING. We took an entire day {and a half a box of brillo pads} just to clean and we couldn't believe how much better everything looked afterwards.

Then we started painting!

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the left side of the board has been painted and the right side hasn't. There was a stark contrast in how dirty the old paint had become compared to our new coat of white paint.


David even painted the ceiling...in the dark...without any lights...because we had taken the fan down. I love my husband!


Instead of buying a rug for outside we used painter's tape to make a border on the floor. We painted two coats of white, put down the painters tape, and then painted over that to seal the tape. Once we painted the floor, we took the tape off and have a border!


It was all a little bit of a messy process.


David even learned how to install a new ceiling fan!


And the best part is...it has a remote. So cool!


When everything was installed, cleaned, and painted....and painted again....switched the paint color and painted again....one more time.....THEN I got to decorate.



I got the idea for this wreath from my sister-in-law. I just bought a cheap straw wreath form and glue-gunned kidney beans on it in a circular pattern. It didn't take as long as I thought it would {two sessions of general conference} and the result turned out really fun!








Now all we need is for mom to come visit so she can see it in person!

Grandmother's Passing

Three weeks ago my Grandma Ivins passed away. It was very sudden and unexpected but we were grateful that she went quickly and was able to live her life right up to the minute of her passing. She was a wonderful person and I was extremely close to her. Her passing was difficult because of how much we relied on Grandma Ivins to always be there for our family. She was the center of our family and she will be missed.

Even though her passing was sudden, David and I were fortunate enough to be able to get off work, get a last minute flight, and fly to Utah for the funeral.

We were able to walk through her home one last time as a family. It was bitter-sweet with all the memories that are present there.

It was fun to see all of the family together. At the funeral it was mentioned that Grandma Ivins had 147 progenitors. WE LOVE OUR FAMILY! I loved growing up with a support system that was so large and loving.

Here's a picture at the luncheon of me with the cousins that are my age: Sydney, Nick, and Nicole.
Here's some pictures from the graveside service.

Hello!

I haven't posted here in a while so I figured I'd give a brief update on our lives.

First, I now work from home (yay!). I'm still working for United Guaranty and doing the same job as I was previously, now I just get to do it in my pajamas.

Second, David got a new job. For the past several years he's been working as a manager at PF Chang's. He recently graduated with his degree in accounting and was able to do an internship for a trust company this past tax season. Once that was completed he started working for Disaster One in their accounting department. He enjoys the people he works with but mostly we are just grateful for an 8-5 job where David is home at night and on the weekends.

Since David is now home for dinner most nights, we've begun to actually cook meals. And when I say 'we' I mean 'David.' One night he made delicious lasagna rolls and another night he made a beautiful apple pie.

David also had a birthday recently (we both turned 26 this year....so old!). David's sister, Courtney, who is an AMAZING cake maker, created this kit kat creation.

Projects and Parents

It's always wonderful to have my parents come for a visit. I wish we could have them around all the time but I'm grateful for the moments I do get to spend with them. This year they came out to North Carolina at the beginning of May. We took a few days to travel into the Appalachian Mountains to Boone and Blowing Rock and to the "Summer Home" of...some rich person I can't currently remember.

Summer Home? Really?

We also visited the Guilford County Courthouse where one of the decisive battles of the Revolutionary War was fought.

Next to the large statue of Nathaniel Greene, after whom Greensboro is named.

We also had the opportunity to go to the Raleigh Temple while they were here. We did sealings, which I had never done before, and it was a very special experience to have my dad there since he couldn't be at my own sealing.


And, of course, no parental trip would be complete without a few projects! My dad helped David and I plant our garden.

Here's a picture of how it currently looks with most of the plants coming up and our new wire fence around it to keep the critters from eating our food.

Our peas, zucchini, and squash

David and dad also decided to tackle the deck. We felt it was too long and was taking up valuable space. David and I had talked about removing part of it and I told David to ask my dad what he thought. So my mom and I leave to go shopping one afternoon and come back to this.


Apparently they had been very busy while we were gone even though every time we called they said they were napping. :)

In the middle of taking apart the deck, I forced the men to take a break and go to a Greensboro Grasshoppers baseball game.

Dad had a really amazing time, apparently.

After the game they went right back to the deck and finished it around midnight.


But look at the great results. I think it looks so much better! (See our main blog picture for the before). Thanks Dad and David. You guys are amazing!


My parents visit and the projects we did with them made David and I want to finish some existing projects that needed to be taken care of. So, we graveled our driveway (look familiar, Dad?). After the gravel was dropped off, David smoothed it all by himself....11 tons of gravel! It took him all day but it's very nice to no longer have a muddy drive every time it rains.


Our neighbor decided to help us out one day and he and David pulled a clothes line out of the ground. Notice the two feet of concrete they had to pull out in the background.


David, being the amazing person he is, also changed out some of the lighting in our house. He removed the (ahem) slightly dated kitchen fixture...

...and replaced it with the fixture that used to be in our dining room.
He then put up a new fixture that we got on CLEARANCE at Lowes. Yay! Isn't my hubbie amazing?


And here's just two random pictures. The first is of David playing video games with his friends. They played the same game over and over again for hours and loved it. I'm not going to lie, it was a little ridiculous.
My wonderful sister sent me flowers the other day and I wanted to share how beautiful they are. I received them almost a week ago and they are still blooming. Thanks, sis!