Dining Room

I have a lot to tell you about other rooms in my house. I'm not sure I have much to say about this one except that I love it! Mostly this room was attacked by World Market (love that store!). I don't think there is a single thing in this room that wasn't purchased from there except the rug, the painting and Ethan's swing. Did I mention that I love this room! (But as you will soon learn, there is not a room in my house that I don't love :)

Tomorrow, Living Room...

One Year Ago Yesterday...

Exactly one year ago yesterday, we moved into our very first home!



Don't you love it! I do! Ok, I know that it is not everyones style but, it is the prefect home for Aaron and I. We can't imagine ever having to leave.

Last Year Aaron and I started looking at homes to get a feel for what we liked. We weren't too serious about finding a place to buy, but then we walked into this home and we knew it was the one for us. The home had been on the market for 2 days. There was already another offer on the home. So we quickly made our own offer and magically we beat out the other offer that was higher than ours. Sweet! We closed on the house on July 6, refinished some of the floors, and then moved in on July 17!

Now shortly after moving in I found out that I was pregnant. Then shortly after that I got ridiculously sick. So I gave myself one year to have the house unpacked and decorated. Which turned out to be about to be the prefect deadline because we moved in, in July and we didn't start unpacking until December. Now the house is almost complete. Everything is decorated except our bedroom. Hopefully that will be completed soon! I have some great ideas in mind, I just have to find time to put them into action.

There is so much that I love about where we live...

-I love that it is just 2 minutes from downtown.
-I love the diversity of the neighborhood. From the people to the homes no one is exactly alike.
-I love our friendly next door neighbors and how they adore Ethan.
-I love the lady two houses down. I love that ever since her husband died 7 years ago she just sits on her front porch everyday. I like to think that she is waiting for him to come home. - Although don't park in front of her side walk. She will leave you a nasty note on your car.
-I love how many families live on our street. There are tons of babies and young kids. At anytime I could look out the window and see a stroller passing by.
-I love how we live down the street from the hospital. Convenient! Also it is funny to see Doctors and nurses just strolling by every once in a while. I think they like to take walks on their breaks.
-I love how close we are to City Park, the Denver Zoo, Nature and Science Museum and City Park Golf Course. All within walking distance.
-I love the trees!

And I could keep going on and on.

Now what is it that I love about the house itself? I'll show you. This week in honor of our one year home anniversary, I will be taking you on a tour of our home. Each day I will share with you a different room in the house. So get excited!

Tomorrow, Dining Room...

Yummm!

Purchase #1- A while back, on the day of Ethan's blessing to be exact, we drove into my parents' neighborhood and they were having a community garage sale. We happened to drive by a home that was selling a Weber grill for $50. So we purchased it. The guy who sold it took such good care of it. He didn't even want to part with it. He told us all of the tricks, like how to set up the burners a certain way to get the best tasting chicken. Well after purchasing the grill we realized that it didn't fit in our car. So we put it in the back of Aaron's brother's truck who happened to be there for Ethan's blessing. Then we forgot about it.

A few weeks went by and one night Aaron's brother asks, "When do you guys want your grill?"- Oh yea we purchased a grill! (Who knows if Ryan hadn't said anything, Ryan and Honey you could be the proud owners of a used Weber grill ;) Well thankfully Aaron's brother brought the grill down to our house. This week Aaron purchased a propane tank. We have been loving our new grill. So far nothing too fancy has been made. Just some burgers and kabobs. But we are sure excited about all of our grilling possibilities!

Purchase #2- This has to do with how awesome my husband is. Now obviously I know that, but apparently I am not the only one who has noticed. Every quarter, at Aaron's job, the company- which by the way was just voted the #1 fastest growing company in Denver, Congrats!- holds a company-wide meeting and among other things, awards the Fran Roby award. See a while back, this bonafide award, complete with gold stamp and glass frame, was discovered at a client site rewarding an employee for "Outstanding Work resulting in an Approaches Expectations up from A Needs Improvement" Wow what an award! Well sort of as a joke his company gets together to give away this award- not for a step up from a needs improvement, but they give it to the hardest working employee. In fact all of the employees in the company vote each quarter on who they believed to be the hardest working. Well Aaron has won this award twice in the recent past. Way to go husband! And this award came with a prize- a $100 gift card!

So last night Aaron comes home. "I have a surprise for you!" he tells me. He hands me a grocery bag filled with strawberries, raspberries, cream, and... a gelato recipe book. Gelato recipe book? A trip out to the trunk of the car and the mystery was revealed: "I used my gift card to buy YOU a gelato maker!" Now don't get me wrong, I was stoked! Gelato, ice cream, sorbet- I love it all! But I just thought it was a little suspicious that he kept emphasizing that he bought ME a gelato maker, when I will be the one making the gelato of which he will partake. Gift for me or him? hmmm...

Thanks Aaron! I love it! Last night was Strawberry Gelato. Which actually turned out more like ice cream. I'll get the consistency right eventually. Tonight Raspberry Sorbet! Yummm!

4th of July- Day 3

We had 4 full days of FIREWORKS last weekend. Day 3 we got together with family for a FIREWORKS show of our very own. Check it out!

Independence Eve

We spent July 3rd down in Civic Center Park. We listened to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra play and watched an incredible light show and fireworks show take place on and above the Denver City and County building.

I made wings. We ate raspberries, summer oreos, and drumstick ice cream cones.

And last, but oh so not least, we honored the...

Go Rockies!

We have taken Ethan everywhere. He has been to Toy Story 3, Seussical- my brothers high school musical, endless noisy restaurants and Ethan has done just fine. But lately Ethan has been known to freak out when hearing loud noises. Like while watching the World Cup USA vs. Algeria game when the U.S. scored in overtime. My family went nuts, unfortunately Ethan did too. Don't get me wrong Ethan and I don't just sit in silence all day. I am permanently tapped into gleethemusic.com and Ethan and I have been known to bust a few moves, but I guess it isn't enough to curb his sensitivity to loud noises. So when I bought tickets to the Rockies game so that Aaron could celebrate his 30th birthday by taking his son to his first baseball game, I was taking a little bit of a gamble.

But the game went really well. Ethan was awesome for the first few innings.


But the 8th inning looked mostly like this...


So we took him out, wrapped him up, and he was asleep for the rest of the night.


We did have to spend the 9th inning here...


But it was worth it because we got to see the most incredible fireworks show! (Wray family- it was almost as good as the Hilton Head fireworks ;)

Oh and guess what...

Happy 30th Birthday Aaron!