Valentines Day & Mice

Haha, the title sounds so romantic, doesn't it? :)
I'm sure you are all dying to know what we did for our first Valentines Day. :)

I decided to pick up Chinese on the way home from work because I'm been wanting it SO badly. Apparently Daniel was going to surprise me with that... but I kinda jumped the gun on that one. Whoops! At least he thought of it first!

So I picked up Chinese and we ate dinner, we did a very large stack of dishes that has been piling up, and then we went "trapping" together. :) Haha... we went and checked our mouse traps in the basement. I discovered one behind the dryer(and it was still alive!) while I was doing laundry, and Daniel found another one dead. Gag.... that took our number up to 5 in the basement since we've moved. Ugghhh. I do NOT want mice in the house, but welcome to the country I guess!!

We have been so busy this week, we haven't even sat down in our new living room since we've moved. So we sat and relaxed. Daniel decided not to do any studying or homework. It was soo nice! We don't have an evening like that very often these days!


Speaking of mice.... this morning I was not happy at all. I found mouse droppings by my basket of onions & potatoes in the kitchen. Mice... you can be downstairs, we don't really use it... but STAY AWAY from my kitchen!! Every time I opened the cubboards this morning I jumped back.

So today at lunch I went and bought 12 mouse traps. A lot of them will be going in the garage, hoping we catch them before they make their new home the kitchen.

I don't like cats, but I am VERY tempted to get one to live in the garage/outside. I know my nieces and nephews would love it if I decided not to show it any love. :) Plus Daniel's family has a lot of kittens right now so it'd be simple to just take one home with us.


So the adventures start as we live in our new(but old farm) house...

It's almost here!

Moving day is almost here! Tomorrow morning we get to move to a house! We are very excited. Last night we drove to the house to drop a load of stuff off, and we seriously saw about 40 deer out in the field right by our house. After we saw that, Daniel asked me if we could live there forever. Haha, I don't think I want to be in that house forever, but we can live in the country forever! :)

Anyway, last Saturday was the first day we had the house. Daniel worked a 16 hr shift that day, so Mom, Heidi, Kendra and I all cleaned and scrubbed the place.

 Literally scrubbed. Kendra and I got on our hands and knees on the concrete basement floor. Ugh. Let's just say that it hurt to kneel in church the next day!

 Heidi scrubbed the horrible looking shower/tub. She got it to look a lot better though! Thanks to Shaklee's scrub! :)

 And my mother..was a trooper. She cleaned all the carpets and also helped wipe down walls, base boards, etc.

To say I was tired that night is an understatement. It felt so good to get all the dirt out of that house though! It's probably the cleanest it will ever be!

Since I'm SO excited to post pictures of the new house, especially as I begin to decorate, I thought I better post a few pictures of our apartment. Sorry my apartment wasn't cleaner... I took these when we had already started to move a bit. And the decor is slacking, because I didn't think it was worth it for just a few months.

 Our bedroom- view from the door

 View 2 of our bedroom

 View 3- don't you love the ironing board? :)

 This room is the "office." The place where Daniel studies. It's also sort of our junk room...we put stuff there when we don't know what to do with it! Like I said it's sort of mess, my apologies!

 The living room- looking quite bare.

 Kitchen/living room-- don't judge me by my messy kitchen. :/

The kitchen again-this was taken at a different time when I didn't have as many dishes. :)

And the little tiny bathroom with our pinkish toliet. Something I will not miss. I am so excited for more counter space and a bigger mirror in our new bathroom.

So that's it for now folks! It might be awhile until you see another post. Lots of boxes to sort through, and we don't have internet at our house yet.

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve night we went over to my Mom & Dad's. It's been a tradition that Heidi & Luke spend the night, even with kids, so we spent the night too.

It's so much fun. Especially waking up in the morning with the kiddos and having brunch together.

The kiddos got stockings... I guess we're too old for those now. :) I love Bridget's face in this picture. She got a headband with a mistletoe hanging from it... you will see her with it on in nearly every picture I have of her! She loves the thing!

We all went to church together Christmas day morning, except Dad was sick, so he wasn't able to come. After church we had a late lunch of prime rib.

The whole fam. We ate lunch while the kids were taking naps. :) It was much more enjoyable that way! I'd say Dad looks pretty good in this picture for being sick!

After the 2nd big meal of the day, we opened presents with a fire in the fireplace. Ahhh, my favorite time of the year.

 Bridget with her new doll house that she was QUITE protective of. Especially from Carter. :)

 Mom framed a picture for Luke of his favorite time of the year...harvest time with Uncle Tom.

 Dad's new hat that Luke gave him. :)

 Adam gave me Crate & Barrel bowls that I LOVE! Haha, I also got folding chairs from my parents... oh the things you ask for when you have a house of your own!

 First Christmas together.

 Like I mentioned, she LOVED the hilarious headband.

 Oh this girl brings us so much JOY. She keeps us all smiling!!

It was a very FUN two days with family.

Although, like I mentioned, my Dad was sick with the flu. Unfortunately, he didn't enjoy our family Christmas very much. Almost my whole family got it after Christmas Day. Oh well, it was well worth it I suppose! :)

Leman Christmas

On Christmas Eve we went to Mom & Dad Leman's for lunch. It was such a GOOD lunch. We each brought a Chinese dish, which included several stir frys, crab ragoons, egg rolls, fried rice, all the works.

Like most Christmases, the day was full of eating, talking, games, and gifts. One thing that was different is we reenacted the Christmas story. Grandma Knapp had all the costumes(which is a lot) that she made for her grandkids to do this same thing every Christmas.  

 I had Shiloh's name for Christmas...I gave him a little piggy bank. He loved it so much he sleeps with it quite often. :)

 Here is the Nativity scene. We actually have a Mary & a Joseph, along with a baby! :)

 Fred & Jodi's family. Such a darling picture. Letty truly is a little angel!

 Robert & Mary's family

 Daniel & I in our costumes. I think we mostly dressed up for the pictures. ;)

 Grandpa was reading to the boys. This picture is SO typical!

 Me & Elisabeth. I am so blessed with such a wonderful sister-in-law! Can't wait for her to get married so we can do things together as couples! :)

 All the brothers except for Timothy

 Elisabeth & sweet little Asher

 Eating the great Chinese food!

Jodi crocheted all the boys slippers for Christmas presents. I'm pretty sure they all loved them!

It was of course a wonderful Christmas Eve. So fun to be in a new family and learn their traditions. Makes me excited to make OUR very own traditions when we have a family!