Third Anniversary!

We have now been married for three years!  Crazy how time flies...!  We've been in serious need of some R&R lately.  So we decided to splurge money we don't have and go up to Logan for a few days - where the magic all began. We rented a cheap hotel room that had a pool and hot tub (GREATLY needed, and amazingly relaxing), and drove around town reminiscing the good ol' days.  

The beautiful Logan Temple we first attended as a couple, and got asked to do sealings on our first visit together.

The Bluebird, where we always wanted to eat, but thought we couldn't afford.  We ate dinner here, and it was so good!  I introduced Josh to Ironport - so yummy!

The A&W with the world's best rootbeer on tap!  While painting our first apartment, we'd go to Little Caesar's and get a $5 pizza, and a gallon of rootbeer from here, then ate it on the floor.  Great, cheap dates!

 

The Toaster, the church where we went to our single's ward while engaged.

Josh changing clothes for the first time in a car.  I had to snap a picture of this momentous occasion (we had already checked out of the hotel, and went to the temple, but had to change to finish our travels).

 

And Utah State University campus, where we met, had our first kiss, got engaged, went to school, and everything else happened.

We also went to Gossner's on our way home.  Josh had never been, so I had to introduce him to it.  Yummy squeaky cheese, really awesome cheese spread, and crazy-flavored milk :)  (We ran out of batteries in our camera, so I couldn't take anymore pictures.)

 

Unfortunately, it was raining most of the time, so we didn't make it to the Willow Park Zoo like we wanted.  But we spent some quality time in the hot tub and pool, just relaxing and talking and enjoying our time together.

I surprised Josh like none other, and I'm very proud of it.  I got him a new belt buckle to add to his new hickness.  However, the belt he wears his buckle on was permanently attached to his old one he always wears (a scorpion) in El Salvador.  So when he saw the gift, he was touched, but was thinking in his head, "I can't wear it with any belt that I own."  But then I told him to take his belt off and try anyway.  Much to his surprise, I had switched out the rivets that held his old buckle on with snaps sometime last week.  He had been running around for a week wearing this belt, not realizing what I had done!  Yeah, I'm amazing.  So now he can switch between the belt buckles, no problem!  I'm awesome...

Before.... After!!

 After 3 months of work (though the last month and a half we haven't really done a lot) I have finally broken down, taken some pictures of our house, and provided them to you below.  I put the before and after pics with the same angles next to each other.  You'll probably have to click on them to see them all the way.  I also provided additional pictures of what they look like now (I've been writing too many scholarly papers to talk normal apparently).  

Let me know what you think!  We've put a lot of work into our new home!

  

Here's some pics and videos of us working on the house before we moved in:

 Quinn camped out in the living room the first day we came to work on the house just after signing.  The heat wasn't turned on, though the electricity was, so he watched movie and cuddled in his coat in front of a space heater all day.

Daddy getting dressed up to take down nastiness on the ceiling and climb into the attic.

We had to take a lot of wallpaper down, too...

Quinn loved helping us paint

 Even though he was getting the wrong colors everywhere.  To this day, we still have fun little Quinn art on some of the doors.

 FRONT ROOM

 

I actually have a large clock and iron designs on the tv wall now, so it's not so bare.  I just don't have any pics of that wall yet.

We replaced the carpets, painted the trim white, took the popcorn texture off the ceiling and painted that, then painted the walls.  We also installed a new fan in here and in the office.

(I'm rather proud of my decorating in the living room.  I love my blue accent wall!)

OFFICE

Green yuckiness to a full office

Josh finally have a place to display his scout stuff. 

And, we have our old 26" TV as the computer monitor - it's awesome 

BATHROOM

The old tub surround was nasty, moldy, gross.  So we got a brand new one and installed that, and painted the walls to match my shower curtain and other bath accessories :) We also installed a new toilet (the old one was really short), and a shower features (Josh is loving that we put it higher for him so he doesn't have to bend over to get his head wet anymore).

Quinn and Pooch were following me around while I was taking pictures, so I had to add them in it.

HALLWAY

A view from the other end with my model son.  We have yet to finish painting the hall and kitchen ceilings, thus why the light fixture is hanging down

QUINN'S BEDROOM

I haven't finished his room yet.  The bottom half will be painted in stripes to match the curtains.

KITCHEN

We removed that excess cabinet downstairs, knocked down the wall over the stairs, replaces all the major appliances, then painted the cabinets to look a little better until we can replace them.

I also installed a chandelier over the dining table.  We still have to finish the wall we knocked down and paint the stairs.

 

I didn't include any pics of our bedroom, because other than painting it, we haven't touched it.  Nothing is put away, it's really messy and thus embarrassing.  I'll include pics of it some other time most likely - once we get all the mounds of laundry sorted, washed, and put away :)