Jeff meets Florida

I was so lucky 2 weeks ago to have my little brother out to visit me. He recently spent 2 years on his mission and although we saw him when he came home in July it was so nice having him in my home and finally out to see us in Florida!

The first adventure we had was airboating! Unfortunately - my camera's battery was dead and so there was no documentation. But we saw many gators and even ran over a raccoon. We BBQed steaks and had a fire - it was a lot of fun!

The next night we went to the Harmony football game. It was cold and the game wasn't the most exciting, but we enjoyed ourselves and Jeff was able to join in our Friday night tradition of eating Philly Steak sub sandwiches.

Saturday we had breakfast, drove around a bit and lounged at home. Jeff had gator, turtle, and frog legs at dinner that night at the Catfish place - true St. Cloud style!! And we played games over at the Sniders later that night (speaking of gaming - those that know Jeff may want to ask him how our Rummy games went).

Sunday we just went to church and hung out and our last day together, Monday, we spent doing what Jeff does best... hanging up Christmas lights!! We went to several places to find the best deals of course, and then spent the afternoon hanging lights.

The week went by way too fast! I loved having him here and cannot wait for his next visit. Jeff... I loved your company and I miss having you here! You are so fun to be around and I love you!!!



Oh - so any of you that know our pups know that it takes a little while for Cocoa to get used to you. Well... not Jeff!! Cocoa loved him right away! Had no problem jumping on his lap, licking him and he even slept with him!! I think they missed him too when he left. Hurry back!

More pictures from his trip...

We showed Jeff the fine sights of St. Cloud/Kissimmee - the Rodeo grounds
Daniel and Jeff played some pool at the Munns' Hacienda
Harmony Football - so glad Jeff was able to experience our fall Friday nights!
You can't visit Daniel without seeing some hogs!!
We also skateboarded through the neighborhood - it's Daniels and my favorite way to get around these days

Bienvenido A Miami

For our 4 year anniversary we spent a fabulous weekend in Miami with our BFF's, Joey & Eva Snider (they were celebrating 9 years!) Eva is from Miami and volunteered to show us a good time so we drop their kids off at her parents and spent the next couple days seeing the sights and eating some of the most delicious food my palate has ever experienced! We literally left one restaurant and went straight to another - but we only had 2 days so we had to fit it all in! We did some shopping, hit some unfortunate rain, but enjoyed ourselves thoroughly! We can't wait for the next one!! Happy anniversary to us and the Sniders!!

Miami drivers...

Joey and Daniel taking control of the back seat.

I was the navigator (yeah right!)

Here is our tour guide! Eva drove us all over, took us to the best places (to eat of course) and even sang us her high school alma mater.

We only encountered one tiny collision with a very tall curb.

Scenic Miami...

Yeah, I took most of these from the car.

Our Halloween... A little late!

So here are the pictures from our Pumpkin Carving Family Home Evening! The Andersons had us all over for a wonderful evening - even though my pumpkin (or Daniel's) didn't even receive an honorable mention!

Some of you may be wondering whatever happened to the pumpkin seeds??? With the busyness of our move they were pushed aside and when I finally decided to bake them, they were moldy :( So sorry!


Our Halloween Pumpkins!

The cute Anderson family!

The darling Haughts!

What an adorable husband (pumpkins - not so adorable)

The winners of our pumpkin carving contest!

Back in the Blogging World Soon....

So we have finally moved!! Needless to say, blogging has been the last thing on my mind as we've packed, moved and are now trying to unpack.

I have several pictures to post... our Family Home Evening pumpkin carving fest, our anniversary trip to Miami and of course, pictures of our finished home! They will be coming eventually, while we had our internet service hooked up yesterday, our computer currently isn't (I'm sneaking this post in at school.)

My "to do" list is ever growing. I panicked earlier today when I thought of my Christmas cards and then my thoughts naturally went to my brothers mission scrapbook which I wanted to have more pages finished for him when he comes out (which is in 9 days... fat chance of that!) My week long Thanksgiving break will prove to be very useful as will next Monday - Veterans Day.

Anyhow... that will do it for now... I am on my way to get the last of our stuff from our old house. We meet our renter tonight to sign contracts. At least that will be one less thing I have to think about!

The Best 4 Years...

Today is our anniversary! Happy anniversary to us! Daniel and I have both said that we can't believe it's 4 years already, but we also feel like we've known each other forever! We are celebrating tonight at PF Changs... the restaurant we went to on our very first date!

On my way to school this morning I was thinking of Daniel and marriage and just how lucky I am to have found him. He is a wonderful husband and makes life so happy for me!! Here are just a few things I love about him...

-the sound of his laugh - definately my favorite sound in the whole world

-his perfect smile (and cute canine teeth!)
-he's funny!

-how much he loves dogs :)

-he is a kind and thoughtful person

-the way he looks in a shirt and tie!

-his "horse eye"

-his sweet, tender heart

-how he loves to buy things for me (because I never buy things for myself)

-that he still gives me flowers, just because

-that he watches The Bachelor with me (and Top Chef)

-that he eats anything I cook

-the way he acts when he's being silly

-the cute notes he'll leave me in my car

-his amazing biceps! (if you saw them, you'd agree!)

-that he always loves me, no matter what!!

My handsome husband!

Rainy Game

We were at the football game last Friday night and it poured!! We could see the downfall approaching us as we scurried to open our umbrellas. I remained fairly dry but others weren't so fortunate. That is Florida for you! I always carry an umbrella in my purse and it has come in handy more times than I can count! (we lost again by the way)

Our New House!

I know I've been saying for awhile that I will be posting pictures of our new house, so here they are! The exterior is almost finished, we will still need to paint the flashing on the gable ends and on the inside they will be laying our wood floors on Monday. Then it's just a matter of touch-ups - paint, trim and some major cleaning! We hope to be in before the month is over. Exciting, huh?

New House Pictures

This is our beautiful kitchen!

Walk through laundry room...

Here is just an example of some of the stone detail you'll find throughout the house.

Pool bath - unfortunately, we have no pool :(

More House Pictures...

Our master bathroom... I love the slate! It's one of my favorite things.

Rustic Bedroom - but will probably be used as an office.

Green Bedroom - will be baby's room if we ever have one.

Yellow Room - this will be our guest room - visitors always welcome!!

Living With Rodents (and I'm NOT referring to Pico & Cocoa)

So, we have had a little issue with mice and rats. I know, it's absolutely disgusting, but our house has a crawl space and we think they live under the house and they come in through our broken doggie door at night because they love the dog food we leave out in self-dispensers. Usually, once we discover the problem, it's taken care of quickly but the rodents seem to be getting smarter and smarter and avoiding our traps. It gets tricky with small dogs, too, because you want to catch the mouse or the rat, not the pup! Anyhow... a few days ago we noticed droppings again (it's been a few months now since the last occurance) but haven't had any success with our glue traps. Well, the other night, Daniel and I were in our living room and we both see a mouse scurry across the room behind our TV stand. I grab a flashlight to investigate but can't find it. So I open the little door underneath the TV and there is the nastiest rat I've ever seen clinging to a speaker. I scream and run for the couch. The rat runs behind our ottoman - and then to our piano. So far we've pulled the TV stand out and the ottomon, now the piano. I can see it huddled inside the back of the piano and Daniel goes to get his knife. What is he going to do, stab it?? Get real. So we chase it from the piano, across the room and it's under our couch now. You know, Sandy will chase and kill cats and squirrels but would she help with this stinking rat? Of course not. I think she was preoccupied watching us scream and jump from furniture to furniture. Okay, so now Daniel is holding a knife and my tennis racket - ready for battle, a tennis racket? What is he thinking? He tells me to chase it out again. I do - he yells - and WHACK! He actually catches the rat with the tennis racket! Such skill!! I had to take a picture and now you can live the experience, too!

Here is our living room in total disarray!

Here is the amazing catch!

RIP you filthy little thing!

Visit from one of my favorite BYU roomies...

Shawnee was my freshman roomate in the dorms at BYU, and we enjoyed living together for many wonderful years after that. Seeing her again made me miss her terribly!! I'm pretty sure she's the best friend/roomate anyone could ever know... and I'm so lucky she was mine!

We met up with Shawnee and her family at their condo and they cooked the most fabulous fish tacos... we've made them twice ourselves since. We had a great time!! Thanks Tom and Linda!!

Here is the cute Collins family!

We were so glad they made the trip down to St. Cloud to see our town/house and have dinner with us. We had a great time!

Shawnee took this picture of our little family - where was Sandy??