Renovation continues...

This was a big and anxiety filled  two days....

Frame up a temporary wall, take down existing wall, unload and carefully maneuver a 1400lb. steel beam from the road to the living room, bring in 3 lifts, lift steel beam into ceiling and secure it so that the upper part of the house doesn't fall onto the lower part of the house.  

All went surprisingly well!

Kitchen Reno: Before

 We've been planning a kitchen reno for several months and finally got to start on March 9th.  Here are the before photos...

Now, don't get me wrong, it's a fine kitchen.  I just find it not functional with the giant island in the middle that I was constantly moving around.  

This wall closed off the kitchen to the rest of the main level. I won't be missing it!

 

This is where our table was and we were so limited because of the two doors.  Hardly any room for a normal sized table.

This is the view from the dining room (aka music room).  This will be closed to add more cabinet space.

 

And so it begins...

The Weinreb's Present...

 2014 marks the 5th Annual Best Christmas Card Award.  

We had a lot of entries!

 This year's winner was submitted by our neighbors, the Korn family.  The main reason they won was because of Kaden, the little guy in the middle.

Seriously.  Look at his swagger!

This is a fun tradition and it's hard to believe it's our 5th year!

Christmas and New Years!

 I find it hard to believe that Christmas came and went and to me, for some reason, it didn't feel too Christmasy. We did have a nice holiday and got to spend time with those we love.

My last time teaching my cute Primary class.  There were several missing but I love those kids and had such fun year getting to know them better.

Sam's wish list.

My mom's world revolves around ornaments so she made this cute one for Sam.

Abby's first trip to the temple so was fun.  I was able to go with her and that made it very special to me!  I love her faith and her sweet testimony.

I had asked the director of Heritage if we could "adopt" a resident for Christmas this year and she gave us Bea Murray's name.  We had fun shopping for her and bringing her gifts.  She was so sweet.

Christmas Eve Eve Eve dinner at Greg & Kattia's house.

 Christmas Eve dinner.  No cooking.  No dishes.  Feliz Navidad!

Christmas morning!  We enjoyed a quiet morning at home, opened fun gifts then headed up to the condo to celebrate with the rest of the family.

Sam got a Tom Bergeron Bobble Head!

Condo fun!

Thankfully, Todd shaved his Jew-fro off!  Angels sang hallelujah!

We were lucky enough to go spend post-Christmas week with G'ma & G'pa along with the Easterly's, Bressman's and Duguid's.  We enjoyed the sunshine, warm temps, swimming in the heated pool, dining out, dining in, playing Monopoly, hunting for shark's teeth, massages, bike rides and spending lots of time together.

We got to celebrate Julianna's 3rd birthday a little early!

New Year's Eve swim!

We enjoyed the holidays and are happy to enter a new year of fun adventures!

Festival of the Nativities

A couple of months ago I was asked to be on the committee for our ward's 

Festival of the Nativity

I declined but it didn't seem to matter.  I had no idea how big of a process this event was but quickly learned that it's HUGE!

We began the process on Monday, December 8th at 10am...tree day.  Those who had signed up to provide trees came and set up their trees (or the committee set them up).  All I know is that I set up, fluffled and lighted a lot of trees. 

Thanks to the seminary students, the tables were in place by Tuesday morning so we began to get tablecloths out, risers up and trees moved into place.

We then got the BIG nativity set up, fluff placed around it and got it lit.

 

Lamp delivery and placement started Wednesday.  I'm surprised we didn't blow up the place with all the cords and lamps we had running through the gym.

 

Thursday was a big day!  Members of the stake brought their nativities and set them up.  Last year there were 300 of them!

 

We also had many pictures of Christ displayed...just to make sure people here in the south knew we were Christians.

 

This is the total number of nativities!  It was a shock!

Louise, our fearless, classy, talented and crazy leader!

 

The committee:

 

At 9:05pm on Saturday, we commenced the take down of the event.  

 

Sunday night-even more take down

 

By Monday, the only thing left was to gather and distribute the many tablecloths that were on loan from other wards.  I brought home a bunch to wash.

It was a great community event.  We had over 1000 people walk through and enjoy the Christmas spirit.