United States Attorney's Award

 This afternoon was an award presentation for my office in the Founder's room at Zion's Bank.  I was the only paralegal in my office presented with an United States Attorney's Award.  I received it for the work I did on a trial 2 1/2 years ago. 

Christmas Tree

Tonight, Zac brought the tree in (Jennifer picked it out) and we had the kids decorate it.  Lily had the honor of putting the star on the tree.  She was so cute about it.  She points at it now and says that she put the star on.

Zac is standing on top of the fireplace stoop.

Thanskgiving weekend

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house this weekend.  Devin and Barb were able to come.  We waited FOREVER for the turkey to be finished.  My thermometer read 163 degrees.  It needed to be 165.  I had Zac check the turkey for me, and he noticed that my thermometer MELTED in the oven and was stuck on 163.  We pulled out the turkey, and I stuck in a different thermometer.  It was at 185.  It was still juicy, even though it was a little over cooked.

We spent the day eating and watching movies.  A great relaxing Thanksgiving.  I loved my double ovens, it helped out so much.

Justin, Andrew, Anna and Devin came and spent Friday night with us.  I went to take the girls picture, and they kept on posing.  I walked into the boys room with the camera and Eric looks at me and says, "You get one."

Saturday, Aubrey and Anna painted all the girls finger nails and toe nails.  I made them do it outside.  I didn't want any accidents on the brand new carpet.

Aubrey and Anna wanted to look like twins.  Aubrey found a shirt that was similar to Anna's, and they put on matching ears, had matching hair, and matching nails.

This was a great weekend!  After they left, we loaded up the van and picked out our Christmas tree.  We dropped off the tree at the house, then headed for dinner and Temple Square.  There were so many people at Temple Square!  More than I have ever seen!  I didn't even remember to take a picture because it was so chaotic.  The kids were exhausted by the time we got home.

Helping

Zac heard some commotion on the stairs and found Jennifer and Lily helping each other to bring their toy

up the stairs.

Time Out for Women

We went to Time Out for Women in Salt Lake this year.  We had the nose bleed seats, but they were perfect!  It wasn't crowded where we were sitting.  We started out the day at Amy's house for all of us to catch up on our blogs.  Unfortunately, my laptop has a virus (we found out when Steve came over during his lunch break to help me), so I wasn't able to access the internet.  We had a potluck of soup and salad before we heading up to the E-Center.

After the talks Friday night, we came to my house to spend the night!  It was so fun to have everyone there.  We played cards (and ate alot) until 1 am.

We got to the E-Center just in time Saturday morning.  Diane and Dad were able to Skype us on Heidi's phone while we were driving down.  They were able to watch the talks online.  It's amazing how much technology has changed things.

We had an "interesting" day trying to eat.  It just wasn't working out for us.  We went the entire day without eating.

After the conference, we went to Red Robin to eat.  There wasn't any one waiting when we arrived.  They had some 16 yr old girls working the hostess stand.  They seemed really confused.  A group came in, and they got seated right away.  Then another.  And another.  We couldn't believe this was happening to us!  We were SO hungry!

We finally have food and were able to eat!

I don't know if I would go again if it is at the E-Center.  The food situation was so bad, that it completely turned me off from going there.  I had a great time with these girls though!  The talks and Hilary Weeks and Sandra Turley were amazing though!  I heard some things in the talks that I really needed to hear.  Even without eating, it was a great weekend!

Gross!

Yes, that is a bug.  In our ice cream.  In the paper.  INSIDE the carton.  Luckily, when Zac called Breyers, they sent us some free coupons for more ice cream.  When he called, they asked him specific questions about the bug.  Including, "Is the bug black, brown, or brown with spots."  It sounded like it was a drop down menu.  Apparently we aren't the first people to have this problem.

I'm just glad we didn't buy a chocolate ice cream.

Random Lily pics

Zac takes random pictures during the day some times.  I found these on the camera as I was trying to update the blog.

Eric loves playing with a Christmas present he got from Uncle Matt last year.

Disney on Ice

My co-worker's son-in-law is a radio DJ and he let me "win" tickets for Disney on Ice.  I got 4 tickets, so Eric was able to come.  It is so nice to live so close to downtown!  We went to the 4 pm show, and Zac drove them down to the Energy Solutions Arena right when I got there from taking trax from work. It was the easiest switch!  When it was finished, we took trax back to my work.  Aubrey got in the car and sighed saying she was so happy we were almost home.  I hadn't even started the car.

Halloween

I know, the make-up is horrible.  We were in a rush to get it on.  The kids LOVED Halloween this year.  Zac took the kids across the golf course to the million dollar homes, and they came home with 52 full size candy bars!

Skeleton Race

We were able to watch Noelle compete again to make the Olympic team for 2014.  She took 1st place!  The kids loved being in Park City and watching the races.  We saw a lot of people from our Eagle Mountain ward up there supporting and cheering her on too!  It was a great night!

Playing

The girls love our new dining room table.  We didn't get the chairs until 3 weeks AFTER the table.  So we ate on the floor a lot.

House Renovations

Sorry for the long post. I wanted to document some of our projects on the house.  We (Zac) had to replace the drywall around the windows and the sub floor in the family room.  The house was covered in wallpaper, so Aubrey and I tore off the wallpaper. 

We found out that we need to paint everywhere that had wallpaper with an oil-based primer so the wallpaper glue wouldn't reactivate.  After we painted it, we need to dry wall mud the entire walls and texture.  We were finally ready to primer/paint the house.

Zac tore up the laminate floors in the kitchen and dining room, and I tore up the tile in the entry way.

We had to replace some subfloors here too.  The kids were great helpers taking up the staples and nails.

Eric is pulling up some more of the subfloors that was damaged so we could replace it.

The new subfloor.

Just finished painting the trim and molding.

Here is the final result of the paint.

Zac laid the hardwood floors in the dining room, kitchen, entry way, hall way, and in part of our bedroom.

Aubrey wanted her room painted yellow.  She helped take off the tape.

Almost finished with the floors.

This hole scared me so bad.  I was so nervous any time Lily and Jennifer went by it. 

I was so glad when Zac started to install the railing.

Lily wanted her room pink.

So much relief at this point.

Zac had to cut every single rod to fit.

I need to take some more "finished" pictures.  Since this time, the railing and handrail is completely installed, stained and sealed.

We were at the house every single day for a month and driving home late back to Dad's house.  As soon as this railing was installed to this point, we had carpet installed and moved in.  It is so much easier for Zac to work on the projects with the kids at school, and Lily having a room and tv to play in.