Working at the House

Matt was supposed to work the Monday after Christmas but ended up not being put on the schedule! We were thrilled to have that time. We went over to the house to do more cleaning.

I'm cleaning the half bath on the first floor while Matt cleaned the laundry room that is adjacent to the bathroom.

And Matt cleaning the floor too with his little shadow close by.


Good work, babe!


Heading home once again.


In front of the house.


Later that week we got the vaulted ceiling over the kitchen and front room scraped. The whole house had popcorn ceilings a year ago. But the previous owner had the whole rest of the house scraped EXCEPT for this ceiling, so we decided to go ahead and get it done.

For those who are curious as to what this project looks like (Dad!), I took a few pictures the one night we were there.




Crawling around up there is kind of a weird/scary feeling. I just did it last week cleaning up their dust.


These are the tools they use.


You can see that this guy on the left has a spray bottle. They wet it down and scrape it off. Because the previous owner had the popcorn painted in the summer, this job probably was a little bit more difficult according to the estimator/owner of the company.




Nathan came along to check out their work.


This is a messy job. So glad we got it done now because it would be a P-A-I-N to do it when we lived there. Considering the 3-4 day job actually took 10, it would be nearly impossible...especially with a one year old!

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning, Nathan found Swoop under the tree, right away. He has become quite the fan of this pillow pet.

As you can see, his black eye is progressing in color.

A wagon from Daddy & Mommy!


Taking a break for a banana bite :)






Aunt Courtney got Nathan a Scooby Doo train!

Unfortunately, Daddy & Mommy weren't on the ball enough to think to open it up ahead of time and charge the battery!

Nathan "working" just like his daddy.

We have this train in the basement of our house now. He likes to push the buttons and tries to push it. I think he just needs to grow into it a little bit more. He can't quite reach the buttons to make it go when he is sitting on it. It will be a good thing to ride on this summer! Thanks Aunt Court!

This snaps in on top of his wagon. You snap blocks into it. Of course, it is upside down here so he can work on it with his screwdriver.


After some gift opening we headed to the Christmas morning service since we missed the Christmas Eve ones the day before. It was nice, it wasn't packed and Nathan came in the service with us...until the end, that is! We took a few pictures by the fireplace when we got home. This is how it began...it didn't look too hopeful!


Getting better...


Perfect!

We captured this one quite by mistake. Nathan was actually running away from us so I grabbed him and pulled him back on my lap. He was laughing hysterically and that's how we got our good Christmas family portrait.

I've enjoyed every Christmas in this apartment with my one and only. This is the fourth! Can't believe this is our last Christmas here!


ha ha. Nathan is totally thrilled.


Christmas Dinner.




Ham and Potato casserole with green and red peppers in it. I know. Fancy, right?

Oh yeah, and sparkling apple cider and white grape.

He tried the ham but preferred the casserole.


He liked being pulled around in the wagon...with Swoop.




That evening, after naps and football, we headed over to our house to get some work done. Matt & I scrubbed down all of the kitchen cabinets, inside and out! Nathan helped too :)


It was really cute.


He did this in between dragging his wagon around the island.


Matt and I put Nathan down to bed upstairs in his pack 'n play. He didn't like it and cried for quite some time until he fell asleep. But then he did and Matt and I were able to get the kitchen finished. It took a long time! But it was so nice to have the appliances cleaned up and looking brand new. And the cupboards all ready to put dishes into. We went to sleep on the floor by the fireplace at 2am. However, Nathan woke up crying at 4 so we headed back to the apartment where he fell right to sleep! And that was our family's Christmas this year.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning...


Matt & I decided to sleep on the living room floor by the fire the night before and when Nathan got up in the morning he had a good time climbing around the air mattress. And being tossed up by daddy.



Happy boy.


:)


Nathan's first shiner.

It actually looked worse before it looked better! This isn't from being tossed up by daddy. It actually happened a few days before while were over at the house cleaning. He fell into a plastic bin/basket that I brought his toys over in and the edge and corner hit all along the bottom of his eye and above his nose. He tripped on something and fell into it :( He looks like a tough guy now!

We went over to Kyle's parents for their family Christmas Eve again this year. For some reason, I only took two pictures. And they aren't great but you'll get the idea. We all went upstairs to listen to some carolers that rang the doorbell!


In their basement playing with all of Jamin's cousins! Actually, Nathan isn't even in this particular picture but you can see Jamin in the red shirt!

We are grateful for this family and their willingness to invite us to their family celebration! We always enjoy being with them.

After being with the VanHorn's we went home and put Nathan to bed, and Matt and I wrapped some gifts!


Matt's favorite Christmas gift for Nathan under the tree..."Swoop" the Eagles mascot as a pillow pet.

Mom helped me to get a great deal on this while we were in Pennsylvania! You saw it smooshed in the air bag in a previous post.



Often when I was young, we would celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. We would read the Christmas story and open all of our gifts. Opening stockings happened on Christmas morning. There was something festive about celebrating at night with all of the pretty lights. So Matt and I decided to do a little celebrating ourselves on Christmas Eve.


We broke out the Sparkling Cider that Ashley gave us to say "Congrats on your new home!"


Two fires :)


We exchanged our gifts to each other.




Fake excitement when I realized the box is a disguise. We own this speaker...actually, two of them. I doubted he was giving me a 3rd for Christmas.


Sweet! A new and faster card for my camera. I hate getting the busy signal when I'm taking pics of people!


Matt's was kind of a pseudo gift because what I went to buy him Lowe's was out of stock of. He liked this gift, but ultimately we chose a drill bit set that was larger and nicer. I kind of grabbed this because I had no idea what else to buy him and Nathan was grabbing at all of the tools!


His parents got him a Kobalt drill for Christmas so he has been having fun with it and a few other tools he got with there money...including the drill bit set. So thanks, Dad & Mom Witt! I really should take a picture of him using the drill. He is so happy using it.



This is the tool we did end up getting him from me. Guys will understand why this is so cool. Apparently, they have been sold out everywhere. We got super lucky that when we went to Lowe's they had one in the back that had been returned or something. Now they are saying they won't be back until April. Although, I believe you can still order them online. Anyway, he's a happy man with his tools!