Meet the Pedersons

Our friends, The Pedersons, came up to MD for Thanksgiving this year and brought with them the two coolest little boys ever! Here are some of the fun pics from the weekend:

This is Sean and Sam in the Monkey House at the Baltimore Zoo. There was a chimp in there that was an attention hog - it was my favorite part!

Morgan and Dallin; Natalie and Sam on the Carousel at the zoo. Dallin's horse's name was Dallin.
















This is the boys doing their "Eating Spaghetti Statues" at Bertucci's after the zoo.














And this is how the boys and Sean spent most of the weekend. Except when they were punching me in the gut with the Hulk Hands we bought them! Sean was definitely worn out...we ALL were worn out, but it was one of the best weekends ever.

The boys were cracking us up the whole time. One of my favorites was when we were talking about the animals we would see at the zoo. Sammy brought up that he wanted to see the Polar Bears. Steve asked him what part of the world Polar Bears were from. Sammy's answer??
"Sea World!"

We wish you guys lived closer!!!

Let's Educate Sean

So, we were in BJ's yesterday and Sean freaked out about how expensive 200 diapers were, especially when I told him how long they would probably last. He didn't believe me. So, if you're reading this and have kids, could you please inform my husband just how long 200 diapers might last? Maybe I was wrong....I hope I was wrong!

We're still here...don't worry!

We haven't posted in forever! Here's what's been going on.

Last Friday, the 10th, we celebrated our 4 year anniversary by eating Pizza Hut and drinking 2.5 bottles of wine. It was nice :)

Last Saturday we Mike and Niki over and made these:

They all turned out really well. Right now they're rotting on our front lawn, though.

This weekend we kinda bummed, except we woke up really early to do the Race for the Cure in Hunt Valley. It was cool...there were so many people there. Sean and I did it through the team set up at my job and they were a lot of fun. And afterwards one of our VPs bought us breakfast, so that was nice. It was really cold this morning and when we came home and crashed, but it was worth it.

That's about all for the past week. Congrats to Jeannie for tying the knot...wish I could have been there!

F to the Izzle

We have a split rail fence around the yard. Some sections are in need of some TLC. One in particular is right next to my neighbor's fence. His looks nice which makes ours look 3x crappier. I replaced it today. There is a before and after picture. I forgot to take the before picture while it was still up.

Ahhh, the Beach!

Sean and I took a long weekend and went to visit some family in Bethany Beach, DE. We had a gorgeous view of the golf course that the house was facing, but, alas, Sean and I are horrible about taking pictures! It was rather chilly all weekend, but it was perfect "being at the beach" weather. We really got to relax and let go!
Sean had another dog to torture while we were there. Daisy enjoyed having someone to chase her around and liked to let Sean do this:

These were the only 2 pictures we took all weekend! We had a lot of fun and can't wait for our next time off from work!

Roof and gutters

I didn't take any pictures, but our roof installation went well. We also had new gutters installed. The pictures are not helpful because it looks identical to the old one. Mo says it's more tan and less red, but I think that's because the shingle actually has material in it! We only had to replace three pieces of plywood, but they were really rotten. I figure it was the perfect time to replace the roof. We got as much mileage as we could have without jeopardizing the rest of the house. I cannot wait for it to rain!

The neighbors probably think we're nuts because before when it rained I would go out and monitor how the water drained from the house. Now with the new gutters and roof I'll be out there even longer!

New Furniture!

We bought new furniture for the upstairs living room. I thought it was going to be too dark at first, but I really like it. Here's the couch and the coffee table (and Dum-Dum):
And here' "Sean's Chair" and his Ottoman that he HAD to have ;):
It really makes me like the color of the walls a lot better! The Roxinator is not allowed on this furniture, and she's been very good about staying off. I'm sure one of these days she'll sneak up there and we'll think it's cute, but for now she just lays on the floor near us when we sit in there. Sean uses it to study and I like to sit and read and watch the neighbors!

We also finished and hung our first piece of kitchen furniture. We stained it and poly'd it all by ourselves! The stain matches our kitchen table pretty nicely.

This thing was a pain in the tukus to hang, but we did it. It hasn't come crashing down yet! I'm using it as a spice rack...sure beats the box on top of other boxes in the living room that I was using.

Oh, and Sean wanted to prove that we hung it level, so here:

We REALLY need to change the ugly color in the kitchen, but that can be a winter/spring project. We have 2 more pieces to finish, but staining was such a pain that I think we might paint the big corner cabinet instead. After that, I think we're done starting new projects for awhile!

Light

I put a new flood light on the back of the house. There was a decorative light that shed light on a three foot radius around the light. It made spotting the ground hogs difficult. This new light is 150 Watt halogen. It should blind any intruders, spot ground hogs and keep the neighbors up at night. I included a picture with the light on to prove its functional.

Furniture

Mo and I bought some unfinished furniture. I included a before and a semi after. The before is bare pine. The semi after is with a stain, but not its polyurethane gloss finish. We'll have to do that later. It took us a while. We bought a third, bigger piece. It's as tall as me (sean), so it should be interesting. That is delivered on Wed. There is also a picture of Mo "sanding". I think she's just laying on her back.

Dogs

We finally got a picture of Roxanne and Pepper Ann (Mo's dog) together when we were in Philly this weekend. Yet another picture with our dog sitting down - lazy pig.

Lazy Dog

So, I get out of the shower the other day and I find this:

Now, mind you, she is not THAT smart. When Sean was done changing he threw his clothes on top of her and she STAYED that way for at least 30 minutes.

And this says it all: A co-worker of mine asked "Don't you have any pictures of your dog standing up?" Oh, Fish Breath, you are so lazy.

Lil' Monsters

I'm home sick today, so I was updating the blog. I found pictures of our favorite Lil' Monsters. I thought the pictures were pretty funny, so here they are. I think they're from last Thanksgiving. Sammy's on the top (literally) and Dallin's on the bottom. I'm not exactly sure why I'm petting him, but maybe because it works on the dog to calm her down it will work on a Dallin. I think most of our pictures with the boys have me in them because Steve, Natalie and Morgan all agree I'm a better influence than Morgan. I teach them to tell Mo to get into the kitchen and cook my dinner. I also encourage jumping on furniture and squirting their Mom and Mo with water guns. I saw some really cool Incredible Hulk hands/boxing gloves that roar when you bop someone. I think I'll have to pick them up for the next time we see them :0

Munchkin

Here are some pictures of my parent's dog. Her name is Munchkin. She's pretty spoiled and has run of the house. Much like Roxanne.

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Mailbox

Our mailbox was green with a red post. The guy before us must have been drunk and decided he wanted a new color on his mailbox post. He painted over the numbers and around the mailbox. It was U G L Y - UGLY. We scraped the post, sanded it and then painted it white. We added the numbers and put a new mailbox up. I think it looks nice.

The New 'Do

So here's the new cut! I know, it took me forever to post, but I couldn't take a picture I even sort of liked until this morning. You can't really tell, but it angles up in the back. It's called a Concave Bob. Love it!

New Light

The excitement of being a homeowner... we picked up a new light for over our front door. The old one was Ghetto with a capital G. I was pretty excited to install it, so I did it this afternoon. I took a before (after I took the old light down) and an after. It's got a motion sensor and everything! Tonight we're going to start finishing some furniture we bought for the kitchen. I'll post pictures of that later.

Before....(the bees nest was behind it!)

After...I took a picture with a light on to prove it worked!

For the record - of the new tools purchased I used my torpedo level, ratcheting screwdriver and pliers. All were craftsman of course!

Trip to Gambrill State Park

Before I go into that, I need to share this. I went outside the other night for ~45 minutes to do some weeding and this is what I came back with! And that's just the calf of one leg! Stupid mosquitoes >:( Sean seriously needs to take me back for a newer model..I'm broken!

Anyway, today we took a trip to Gambrill State Park in Frederick, MD. We ate lunch there and then went to the overlooks to take in the view. Here's the two love birds! You can't tell from this picture, but I got my hair chopped. I'll have to take a pic when I actually style it!

Here's one of the views we had:
And here's one of the statues in the park!

It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time. It was nice to relax and not worry about the house for a day!

Morgan finally gets in the game!

So, I've finally taken the time to sit down and add to this thing so we can send it out to everyone! I know you all know how horrible I am about keeping in touch, so hopefully this will help. I am going to make it my mission to update this frequently...we'll see how it goes!

We wanted to add a picture of our new place. If you didn't know already, Sean and I bought a house a month ago! It's weird, we still feel like we're just visiting. Anyway, the picture below is of me and Dum-Dum sitting outside the afternoon after we finished putting up shutters and painting the front door (they used to all be red).
Next we're going to change the light fixture above the door and hopefully soon a new storm door. It's amazing what a difference a little paint, weeding and mulch can make!

As I was prepping the door for painting, The Roxinator kept inching her way down the steps to get closer and closer. Every time I turned around she was another step down! She just loves to be in the center of everything. That's because she KNOWS she is the center of everything. We use a lot of names interchangably for her, but she answers to every one of them. She's our baby and she knows it!

We just got back from buying some unfinished furniture for the kitchen (yea!). Once I decide what I want the kitchen to look like, we'll actually finish it! Sean also bought some new tools so he can start making things himself. I'll be sure to post all of the pictures when he hurts himself (and if you know him well enough, you know he will!).

Anyway, it's weird to think that a year ago today we were just making our way back across the country from two years in CA. So much has happened in a year, including us having 4 different addresses! We're definitely looking forward to the next year!