unpacking, decorating and family

I was very lucky to have my mom come for a visit, solely to help me with the unpacking and organizing of our new home.  Ella and I picked her up in Denver last Thursday and we spent all day there shopping.  Our number one stopping place...Charming Charlie. Ella and my mom we in jewelry heaven and we could have spent so much more time there!!  We hurried home and had a quick pizza dinner with the boys before Drew's fourth grade Christmas concert!  My camera battery was dead so no pictures of his cute elf self!!

Friday morning we hit the ground running and worked and worked all day.   We moved boxes, unpacked boxes, made a plan to organize my pantry and decorated for Christmas.  Matt and I had work Christmas party Friday night so after a huge grocery shopping trip, mom took the kids home for pizza and movie night.  They were thrilled to watch the new Smurfs movie!  Saturday we moved and unpacked more boxes, went to Sidney for Drew's basketball game and shopped for new living room furniture!!!  YEAH!  We worked and played with the kids until late in the evening, and I was able to park the van in the garage for the first time!!

On Sunday we had a fun time hanging out together.  Choir practice (yes....I am singing in the ward choir) went a little long because we have our performance tomorrow night.  We had a delicious dinner after Matt moved some more things to our shop.  The kids were so antsy to decorate the tree.  For three days Ella asked to put her ornaments on the tree...finally the time had come.

Our tradition is to give each of the children a new ornament on Christmas Eve.  Last year I was very optimistic and bought key ornaments for them, hoping that we would be in a new house for this Christmas.

So, they received their special ornament Sunday night to remember our first Christmas in our beautiful new home.

Monday was our last day to have Nana with us.  We were tired of moving and unpacking so we started decorating by hanging curtains and organizing the kids closet system.  Everything is looking pretty good for only being in the home for two weeks!  We took some pictures, much too late at night to remember our special visit with Nana.

Morley and Nana spent some time trying to figure out why one drawer would close like the others.

Morley figured it out...now we have to find a part.  It was fun watching them work together and problem solve.

There was some cold weather and fog that rolled in Monday night.  There was a beautiful frost all over everything outside this morning. 

can you tell which way the wind was blowing?

Matt took my mom to Sidney very early so she could catch her airport shuttle...which I later found out was quite the interesting experience.  After I took the boys to school and ran a bunch of errands, Ella and I worked all day at home and actually hung some pictures on the walls!!!  Now it is starting to feel like home!  Later in the afternoon today we had a surprise visit from a "neighbor" that lives about 15 miles from us!  She was a sweet older lady with her husband who welcomed us to town with a beautiful loaf of fresh bread!  I love small towns!

It was so special to have my mom here to help.  She is a little energizer bunny and just doesn't stop working.  If she wasn't working she was playing games with the kids.  She sure made the unpacking process so much easier and now I feel like finish up very soon!  I have a dining room table in the shop to paint, furniture ordered, a piano to pick up and more pictures/decorating to do.  Somehow we have to figure out a shelving system for all of our books....hmmmm.  Pinterest? 

House pictures coming soon!!!