The weather outside is frightful?!?

The weather outside looks frightful....


Looks like winter is trying to rear its ugly head early this year. At least I have been able to enjoy some beautiful fall weather the past few weeks. We've gone up to the mountains twice and I'm ready to go up again, even though the changing leaves are pretty much gone I'm happy to go anytime.

I cannot believe its mid November, these past few weeks have FLOWN by because we've just been so busy.

October 19th I was in a wedding, Oct 24th we flew down to Disney and stayed in an awesome resort for 5 nights, on Oct 29th we flew home and celebrated my birthday! November 2nd we threw a post-Halloween bash in our new garage then the following week we threw another party for Josh's 30th birthday, and then officially celebrated his birthday on the 11th (yesterday)... It has certainly been non stop the past few weeks and I wouldn't have it any other way!

I've seen a lot of people on Facebook write what they are thankful for this past month and even though I haven't "joined the crowd" does not mean I am any less thankful for who or what in my life... Here are just a few things I am grateful for not just for this time of year, but always:

* loving parents who taught: me right from wrong, how to live on my own and take care of myself, independence, courage, kindness and so much more

* a wonderful, thoughtful husband who's there for me no matter what and provides for our family

* my brothers and sisters, we are always there for each other if we ever need anything

* kind, generous in-laws

* amazing friends who've been there through thick and thin, who respect and love me no matter what, friends who are always there by my side, who will drop anything to help me/us no questions asked

* my job, with a great boss and co-worker

* our beautiful home & new garage!

* our rambunctious, but lovable dog (there is not a mean bone in his body)

* for the freedoms we are able to enjoy in our country, even the system and country are not perfect we are far more 'free' than people in other countries

* mostly, for a loving and forgiving Heavenly Father who I know still loves me, my family and friends despite all our faults.

Creating a new backyard, brick by brick

After watching tons and tons of DIY Network and HGTV the past few weeks, Josh and I have decided to re-do our backyard. Of course having a tornado go through our yard has also motivated us as well. We'll be doing the backyard in sections, but I think after we're through it's going to look great!

The first phase will be a large paved area on the right when you come down the steps with a fire pit area and seating for guests.

Once it starts to getting cooler here, we'll start working away! I can't wait, our yard desperately needs a make-over. I'd LOVE if we could get crashed by one of DIY's Yard Crashers, but that's just wishful thinking. For now, it'll just be us - it's always fun to learn a new skill, right?!

Here are some of the different ideas we have for fire pits and paved ares for our backyard, hopefully we can make some magic happen!

Underground fire pit

Paved area with fire pit

My FAVORITES with the seating around

Trapped in my own bed...

Well... Tonight is the first day of the year when it will reach down in the teens sometime in the night. Typically we let our puppy stay outside through the night, with his think fur and all he was made for this weather! However, we decided 14 degrees was just too cold for him... So tonight's the first night in months he will be sleeping inside with us, an adventure for sure!

We put a gate up in our bathroom (tho he can knock it down in one jump he doesn't even try, one of the few things embedded in him), and then turned off all the lights so he knew it was time for bed. Well, Josh and I didn't move for about 20 min straight... We knew if the puppy saw us move he'd want to come join in too, why should he be trapped!? We put up with the whining, ignoring it as best we could while not tossing and turning in the bed, hardly moving at all.... It is now almost 2 hours later and Josh is fast asleep and has been for awhile and amazingly enough, Stryder is too!! Mission accomplished (so far) but with all the worry of making sure I didn't move and listening to the puppy whine for so long, now I can't go to sleep! At least 2 out of 3 getting sleep isn't bad... Maybe tomorrow will be better!