I forgot to post that Travis left on his mission!  His mission farewell was a few weeks ago and my parents came over to spend it with us and him.  The photo above is after his talk in church.  We were so proud of him and wish him the best of luck as he spends the next two years in Puerto Rico!

Wedding Season

We started off the wedding season by attending a wedding of a co-worker of mine's (Alyssa) on Saturday.  It was in Athol, Idaho (yes, ATH-OL just like it sounds he he) which is about an hour from our house.  The drive was far, but the wedding was beautiful and the day was gorgeous.  It was a cowboy/western themed wedding, and all of the details were so cute. 

Look at the cute cake!  SO cute, and it was really tasty as well. 

And here's a shot of me and my lady-friends at the wedding.  We ate BBQ and danced the night away. 

Oh, I almost forgot!  The wedding night ended with fireworks at sundown!  Her parents put on the whole thing on their property (they have 5 acres) and they did a really good job.  I love fireworks!

The Chiefs Room

Before we moved into our home, I told Ellie that I would decorate her new bedroom however she wanted.  She didn't even think before she said that she wanted a Spokane Chiefs themed room.  Each year we get season tickets to the Chiefs (the local hockey team), and Shawn has been taking Ellie since she was like 4 years old.  She is a HUGE superfan. 

At first I wasn't real excited to do a Chiefs bedroom, just because it didn't seem cute and girly.  But it was what she really wanted, so I figured I better go all out!  I painted one wall red, one wall blue, and the other two white.  Then on the white walls I would paint a Chiefs logo to go over her bed, and stripes to go around.  I figured it wouldn't be too hard - I could get it done in a weekend, right??? 

The red and blue walls each took about four coats to cover and look good.  I wanted to cry - this was going to take WAY longer than I thought.  I thought, "it's a good thing Ellie is at her mom's for the next two weeks to buy me time."  I was going to need it. 

The logo took way longer than expected as well.  I felt like I was way in over my head, but I certainly couldn't stop now.  I finished the first coat only of the blue outline in about six hours.  My body was so cramped up that it wasn't funny.  And, if you remember (like I did) from painting the red and blue walls, it would take about 4 coats to get a good color cover.  Each night after work, I would come home and paint one more coat of blue on the logo.  After several days of this, I started in on the red.  Four coats of red and two weeks later, the painting was finally done.  Shawn did the stripes for me - he could see a meltdown was on the verge.  What a nice husband; I love him.

Anyway, the room is finally done and I am SO proud of the result.  Here are some photos of the finished product. 

Home Sweet Home

We bought our first home!  We have been in the house for about 3 weeks now, and are totally loving it.  There is always a lot to do trying to make it our own home, so the busy stuff is all fun stuff.  Here are some photos of the house before we moved in:

Here is the inside looking at the front door

Here is looking out from the kitchen to the family room - kind of a "great room" feel

Here is the kitchen.  This photo is actually kind of funny - we had them change out all of the white appliances for stainless, so it looks SO weird to see the white still in the kitchen.  It looks so different!

I will be better at posting than I have been.  We finally have internet in our house now, so hopefully that will help things out.  Stay tuned for photos of Ellie's Spokane Chiefs themed room, photos of things actually in the house, and all other kinds of homeowner excitement. 

Here is a photo of the family on the front steps of our brand new home