Due to Popular Demand

And now, the moment you have all been waiting for. I present to you, our new place of dwelling. For anyone who doesn't know, Katie & Josh bought this house in June, and have been renovating it. We will rent the bottom 2 floors from them, and they will be in the upper 2 floors. We are moved in and for the most part, have things put away. They will be moving in soon. . . but are still finishing parts of the upstairs. As we speak, they are working on a fence, among other things. You'll see. . .

Our Kitchen. . . Katie shopped around on Craigslist and found the cabinets. Josh did the handiwork of piecing them all in just right. Its beautiful. To the left is the hallway where you walk in the door and the bathroom is off that hallway as well. The lovely laminate flooring was installed by my dad, my sister and myself.
On the other side of the kitchen, the dining room. I haven't done any decorating to the walls yet. But I have big plans. I'm working on some things :) You can see to the right is the living room.
Living room showcasing our lovely window and Ryan's new treasure :) Don't mind the plaster on the wall. We have to touch up the paint in a couple places. This is the best way our couches fit.
Bathroom. Lovely tile job done by my father with the help of my sister.
Katie found this old vanity and painted it white for us. Looks great.
And now, heading downstairs. . . The room straight ahead is our bedroom. New baby has a little room that is attached to ours. It is not included in the pictures because it currently houses just "stuff" that we either need to move or get rid of. Crew's bedroom is off to the right.
Our bedroom - view 1.
Our bedroom - view from the doorway. Just to the right of the closet is where you enter new baby's room.
Crew's room - view 1.
Crew's room - view 2.Shared laundry room and pantry. Aren't they beautiful?! Brand new washer and dryer. Can't wait to use those babies.
This is the door to enter our apt on the left. They are building a deck off of their dining room.
Another view of the back yard. It will be really great.
And that's that. Its beautiful, and things are coming along very nicely.

Pumpkin Picking

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch, which Crew thoroughly enjoyed. He loved pulling the wagon, and being set free in the field.

Debating with Jackie over which pumpkin would look best.

Stopped to drive the tractor on the way back.

Crew insisted on helping pull the wagon the entire time :)

Jackie & Lauren visit

Jackie, my intelligent, genuine, sweet sweet friend who recently got her Masters in Accounting, came to stay with me for a few days. It was a blast. Back in my BYU days, Jackie and I were hardcore study buddies. We used to spend at least 12 hours of every day together,due to our heavy class load. And that doesn't include when we studied for exams. We were seriously together A LOT. She got me through the Junior Core. We are financial statement buddies. Through it all, we became good friends. While Jackie was here we got to do a bunch of fun things: make delicious raspberry jam, visit the city (Chinatown, Little Italy, Grimaldi's under the brooklyn bridge, eat gelato and "the best Cannoli on the planet", which was not actually the best) and go pumpkin picking. Jackie read me the first half of mockingjay during all the time that was spent in the car, AND we went to the beach on the most windy day I have ever experienced. Crew got knocked over at least twice just from the wind. It was insane. I loved having her here, it was so nice to catch up - and stay up late just chatting. Thanks for being a great friend, Jackie!

While Jackie was here, we got to meet up with Lauren, one of my other sweet college friends. A talented artist, and I'm so happy that through the years we have stayed close even though we live so far. We spent our days together at the University of Washington. Lauren was here working, so we only got to spend the day with her and her mom, but it was great to be reunited with them.

Katie joined us for the day and we all met for Pizza in Brooklyn. Here is the lovely group:

A Buckle Fracture

Let me relate the evening to you. It was moving day. We had EVERYTHING packed and in boxes - it was a very organized move, might I add. The only thing left to do was take down Crew's crib. He had taken a nap while Ryan and I finished taping up some of the last few boxes. All of our moving help was going to be arriving in about 15 minutes. So Ryan started dis-assembling Crew's crib. He back was turned for only a second, when Crew had pulled one of the pieces down and it fell on his arm. He cried, but it wasn't really different than any of his other falls. We watched it, but it didn't swell, and he moved it the same as always, so we didn't really think it was anything major. About 3 hours later, I told Ryan something must be wrong because he had just been really fussy during that whole period. Katie & I took him to the ER while Ryan & Josh put his crib back together so he would have somewhere to sleep when we got home. Turns out he had a buckle fracture. The doctor described it like when you push a pencil eraser on the table, and it bulges out. His bone didn't have a clean break, it just sort of bulged in the spot where he fell on it. He had this soft cast for 2 weeks, and then had a hard cast for 2 more weeks.

This photo was right after Ryan had given him a bath, and he was playing by the door with Josh's tools. My camera died a little while ago, so its one of the few pics I have of him that features his lovely cast. What a handsome little man. He had his cast cut off last Friday - and it has made meal-times and bath-time much more enjoyable for us, and I'm sure for Crew as well :)

Bye Bye Jar Binkelhoff

Jared was with us for almost a year - I can't believe it! Ryan's dad came to drive him back to Utah in the end of August. Before they left, we had a few days to do some fun things: Took the ferry to Staten Island to see the statue of liberty.

Went to the King Tut exhibit.

Wandered the streets of NYC. It was a hot day. A very hot day.

Times Square, of course.

Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

And went to a Yankees game.

It was nice to have Mike with us for a few days, and to get to do some fun things during our few days together. We miss having Jared around. But we are excited for him to be in school, working, and moving forward in his life. We love you Jared!

Family Pics

I really wanted family pictures for 2 reasons. Crew needed some 1 year photos taken (these were done when he was 13 months - close enough), and I wanted a family picture while there are still only 3 of us. Ryan's sister in law did a great job, and was super willing to do it for us on short notice while we were in Utah for the summer. Here are some of my favorites:

Where have we been?

I took a nice little break from blogging. But now its time to catch up. Its been on my mind for some time now, and I just keep procrastinating. But I've gotta do it before I accrue even more posts to catch up on (Halloween, new baby, etc. . .)

So where have we been? Here are some of the posts to look forward to. I'm going to do them in the order they occurred since this blog will eventually be made into a blurb book for our family records. Starting from the LEAST recent . . . 1) We had family pictures taken over the summer, 2) our dear Jared left us to begin his life as a student in Utah, 3) little Crew broke his arm, 4)we moved into a new house, 5)my college buddy Jackie came to visit, 6) pumpkin patch!

So here we go. . .