Way Too Long!

Well, it has been ages. Sorry my blogger friends! Recap:

Sometime before Christmas, Molly stepped on a nail in the back yard and hurt her paw and she had to get a splint. I thought the pictures were entertaining:

She ended up escaping out the front door one night and took off around the neighborhood and broke her splint! It was crazy and I'm glad that ordeal is over with!

We had wonderful Holidays, spent time with Brian's family for Thanksgiving and drove up to D.C. for Christmas to see my family. The only downside of the trip was that we got caught in the snow storm that hit the Northeast in December. An 18 hour trip lasted 27 hours. I seriously didn't think we would make it and was so relieved to get there--thank God for his protection!

We also closed on our house December 15. So excited to be settled and have slowly been buying the big things we need. We are still waiting on our grass to grow! Here are some pictures of the barstools we purchased and our new table/chairs/rug. Love it all!

This weekend we are going to Branson for Brian's birthday so I will try to take some pictures and get back on the blog train! =)

Stone

We were pleasantly surprised when our builder called us a few weeks ago to tell us he was throwing in some stone on the front for no extra charge =) We'll take that sir! So, we headed to pick some out and just wanted something very neutral since our brick is pretty colorful. We are very happy with how it is turning out. Today we meet with the painter to go over our color options for the walls/celings and stain options for the cabinets and our front door.

Molly

I have gotten some cute pics over the last few weeks of Molly and just have to share. She is just the sweetest dog. Very low maintenance, happy go lucky, and a fluff ball! We love her!

More House Pics

Jacuzzi tub in master bath

Right side of the house:

Back covered porch--so excited to chill out there!

Master bath

Looking into master bath from room

French doors in master bedroom

Big windows in living room---my favorite part about the house!

Fireplace in living room

Kitchen!

Front door that will be stained.

Dining area:

Back door leading to porch

Back porch and our room

back porch again

Because he loves me....

Last week Brian suprised me with these:

Because he loves me and doesn't want our relationship to be "messy". (KPCer's know what I'm talking about). I am blessed with an awesome husband =)

House Update

Our house is coming along quickly! This past week they started the brick. We are so happy with the brick we chose, it's always a little iffy since you don't know how something you picked out is going to look once it's on or in the house. I actually haven't seen it in person yet, these are pics Brian took on his phone to show me. I might drive up there today so I can see for myself.

Spirit Week

This past week at Brian's school was Spirit Week.

Brian and another teacher on "crazy sock day"

Yes, those are my purple soccer socks!

Thursday (game day) was 50's day. Brian's hair wasn't quite long enough to slick back but we did the best we could!
Rolled up jeans and a white tee.

Monday was "what not to wear day"

This is Brian's favorite week of school =)

Our Silly Dogs

The other afternoon I found all three of them sleeping:

Just thought it was super cute.

Here is Moses getting spoiled--totally knocked out. Brian and I were cracking up at this next picture:

My mom said she needs to "get her grand-dog braces". lol...He was totally out of it.

Some Favorite Recipes of Mine

Everyone has their favorite dishes that they make all the time. Thought I would share a few of mine =)

Mexican Chicken Casserole (Brian's favorite, he would seriously eat it once a week if I made it)

3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 can of cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, and rotel
1/2 lb of velveeta cheese, cubed
tortilla chips

Spray the bottom of a 13x9 pan
layer chicken in bottom of pan
layer cubed cheese on top
mix together soups and rotel, pour on top

bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly, crush chips and put on top for last 5 minutes

Salsa (great for parties)

1 large can of Petite Diced Tomatoes (drained as much as possible)
1 bellpepper
1 jalepeno
1/4 cup onion
garlic, cilantro, lemon juice, cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt

Cut bellpepper, jalepeno, and onion into big chunks.
Mix tomatoes and bellpepper, jalepeno, and onion in a bowl.
Add 2 teaspoons of garlic, 3 squirts of lemon juice, and a few handfuls of cilantro
"mix" in a blender until everything is finely chopped

Add spices/salt to taste. You may need more garlic and cilantro too. It's all about how spicy/garlicy you like it. I usually add a lot of cilantro.

If you need to make it for a large party, double everything except diced tomatoes, just add one smaller can.

Also, if you like it more chunky, get 2 cans of diced tomatoes instead of a large one, and only add one to the blender then add the second can in after.

Guacomole (also great for parties)

4 avocados, peeled and pits removed
1 can rotel (drained as much as possible)
cilantro
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 teaspoons garlic
lemon juice
salt or garlic salt (instead of garlic) to taste

mash avocados with a fork
mix everything and chill!

YUM!

I will try to post some more favorites later =)

House Update!

Things are moving along very quickly and we are so excited. We met with the builder today to do a walk thru and check on things so far. Our shingles were put on yesterday. He said we are still on track for the house being completed in December.


We also met with the brick supplier today and narrowed down our brick choices to three. We are getting addresses from him to go look and see what they look like on the houses. We have different tastes in brick but we quickly came into agreement on the top three (not in any order):



This has been a really fun process so far. I expected it to be really stressful but so far so good =)

We Have a Partial Roof!

Before the rain hit today:

The doggies usually eat inside but they didn't finish their food by the time we were ready to leave on Saturday so we put it outside. Moses is the paranoid one guarding his food while Molly gets a nap in. Just thought this picture was pretty funny. Goobers!!!

Progress

Our house has made some progress the last 2 weeks. It has been framed! We are so excited. Now only if the rain would move it along and we could have some consistent dry weather! We went yesterday and looked around for about 5 hours at samples of tile, wood, carpet, and granite. We came up with some samples that we really like. The square granite piece is called Santa Cecelia. It is our fav and what we matched everything to. Then we went to the supplier to make sure they had it in stock. Turns out that they got new slabs of it in BUT since it is not man-made and is natural, the new slabs are totally different. So, the other piece is still Santa Cecelia but it has a new look. I like it as well, just LOVED the other one. We are gonna still look around and see if any suppliers have any left of the old slab. If anyone has any inside info on granite--let us know =)