Christmas with the Carvers/Applegates/Story's

My family has always traveled all over the state for Christmas. Since I've moved to Louisville, I've had to get used to even more traveling. I drove home (2.5 hour trip) last Thursday morning to Webster County (Western Kentucky) and Aaron followed later that night. We celebrated Christmas with church friends & family that Thursday. We went to Aaron's family lunch on Christmas Eve and then my dad's side family Christmas later on that night. After waking up on Christmas morning and exchanging gifts at home, we then travel over 4 hours to the eastern side of the state to visit my mom's side of the family. And then of course we have to drive back to Louisville! It's busy but A LOT of fun. Here are some pictures...

 the Carvers!!

 grandkids picture

mammaw's LED christmas lights! 

bryce is such a goof 

 not sure what this says about how my family feels about Aaron......

best buds

Christmas with the Johnsons

Aaron and I were very excited to go home and spend some time with both of our families. Neither of us had seen Aaron's niece (and my future niece :), Kenley, in a few months so we were excited to see her. We got to spend most of Friday and Saturday with Aaron's family. Here are a few pictures of our time with them...

Aaron showing off house pictures to his grandparents. 

group shot!

 Aaron and I with Kenley at the Johnson's Christmas Eve family get-to-gether.

Frankie was so proud of this hat.

 Kenley, Kristen, and Leica before we started opening presents.

Aaron and Kenley on Christmas Eve. She immediately posed for the picture and put her arm around him!

Closing......then chaos

Aaron and I closed on the house last Wednesday morning. The day went really well up until we actually got to the house. We packed Aaron's stuff into a U-haul in record time and the closing itself went very smooth. We were so excited as we drove over to Arlington Meadows (the subdivision our house is in). BUT - when we got there the day kind of went downhill. A couple of weeks ago carpet was installed in a few rooms but there was a mix-up and not enough carpet had been ordered. It was supposed to have been delivered and installed last Monday but when that didn't happen it was rescheduled to be done the morning we closed. We expected to get to the house as they were finishing up. However, when we got there the carpet guys told us that not only were they short on carpet AGAIN but the carpet that had been installed weeks ago had been done so incorrectly. This meant that all of that carpet had to be ripped up and more needed to be ordered again. So..... there we were with a U-haul full of stuff and no place to put any of it. We were NOT happy at all. Typically, Aaron and I are both pretty easy going but this was the fourth mix-up with the carpet we had gone through. We had to reschedule things so many times it was ridiculous. We were just fed up! After all..... when the only thing you do is carpet, why should it be so hard to get that ONe thing right? We ended up picking out new carpet after we had already closed and they magically got it all installed in one day.

After that the day really just kept getting worse. We discovered that our brand new refrigerator was leaking water all over our brand new wood floors. When we flushed the master bathroom toilet, we found out that it makes a horrible noise that sounds like a garbage disposal. We tried to pick up our new living room furniture and only were able to get 1/3 of what we ordered..... one piece had been damaged and the other was never ordered at all. Aaron had arranged for the DirectTV people to be out at the house wednesday afternoon because after all.... he might die if he didn't have TV immediately. The guy DirectTV sent was a total diva.... he said that we wouldn't install anything because our yard was too muddy. Aaron had to bribe him with extra money and practically beg him to stay. Aaron rolled out the trashed carpet pieces across the yard so that the DirectTV princess didn't have to get his shoes any dirtier. Aaron then tried to hang the TVs on the walls so that the TV guy could hook up everything but mounts didn't even come with the right pieces. Needless to say, we were both a bit frazzled.

Despite all of the closing day chaos... we are still EXTREMELY grateful for our beautiful new home. Thank you to everyone who helped us make it beautiful along the way.

pictures of the house to come.....

Christmas Trees

My mom's side of the family is kind of notorious for their Christmas trees. There are literally about as many trees as there are rooms in our houses. Most of the trees have their own theme. I have a penguin themed tree in my room. My aunt's most unique tree is her M&M tree. My mom's cutest themed tree is her Mickey Mouse tree. Even Aaron has his own UK/softball themed tree... which I of course started for him. He is still a little hesitant about how seriously my family takes Christmas! I thought I should share some pictures of our trees because they are just so cute!

Aaron's tree

My aunt's M&M tree 

 This is my Mammaw's main tree

 My mom's Mickey tree

 red & white

 main family tree

 scrapbook room tree at my aunt's house

12ft red and green tree

I love the snow covered tree with all glass ornaments at my aunt's

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures of family and house stuff!

 This is part of my family on Thanksgiving.

 This is my sister, Kelsey, and my two little cousins.... Z & B.

Little man!

 Bryce liked how the carpet felt!

The carpet was installed today in each of the bedrooms.

Only one week left!!

I can't believe that the house is already pretty much done! We are scheduled to have a walk-through on the 16th and if all goes well we will be closing the beginning of next week. The last big thing left is carpet - it should be installed tomorrow. Hard wood was installed over the weekend. We are hoping that we can move Aaron in on Wednesday. Here are some pictures...

One part of the shower glass was installed over the weekend. One of Aaron's softball friends installed the door and it looks great! Neither one of us were used to the glass being there and its so clear that we both almost ran into it tonight!

 Aaron installed the backsplash over the weekend and it looks awesome!

The hardwood in the kitchen looks beautiful!

And we have a mailbox!

Engagement Pictures

We got our engagement pictures in the mail today! We had them done about 2 months ago in Madisonville, KY by Focus Photography llc. Here are a few of the pictures...

Almost done!

There are only a few weeks left before we get to close on the house. Everything is coming together! Aaron and I (& lots of family) have been busy painting the whole house for the past 3 weekends. The weekend of the 12th my aunt, uncle, and mom came to help out. Last weekend (19th) Aaron's mom and my sister & mom came up to help us. This holiday weekend my dad finally got to come up to see the house and he helped Aaron tile the laundry room. Today Aaron tiled the guest bathroom all by himself. He was VERY proud that he could get it finished without my Uncle Andy's help. I lucked out and got to spend most of the afternoon painting in the garage since it was SO warm outside. I couldn't believe we are less than a week away from December and it was 70 degrees out today! Tomorrow Aaron's dad (and possibly uncle) are coming up to help wrap up some of the last minute chores - pipe insulation, vapor barrier, grout 3 rooms of tile, and finishing up the last bit of painting. The end is in sight!!

BIG thanks to everyone who have helped us out over the past couple of weeks!!!

Guest Bathroom Tile - Aaron did an AWESOME job!

Master Bathroom Shower.... almost complete!

Laundry room....the tiling was finished on Thanksgiving day by Aaron, my dad, and uncle Andy - just the grout left to go!

We have a driveway! It has been very exciting to be able to park in our own driveway and not have all of our cars lined up on the street! 

November 11 - time is flying by!

The house is almost finished! The last we heard, the superintendent was expecting the house to be complete during the first week of December.... which is just right around the corner. Since Aaron and I are in charge of painting the entire house & trim as well as finishing tile projects in 3 rooms, we have our work cut out for us. All of this work could not have hit at a worse time - we were supposed to go home this weekend to visit with family and I am already in the busiest time of year at school with finals coming up.  The superintendent called Aaron yesterday to give him the basic plan for the next 2 weeks and we realized there was no way that we would have time to finish the work if we went home. We will be lucky if we get it all done with this extra 2 days.

Our plan for the weekend is to get the first coat on the entire house and Aaron might tile the shower in the master bath. Last weekend he, Andy (my uncle), and I spent Saturday prepping for the tile. I had no idea it would take around 7 hours of work to just get the shower ready for tile. I can't wait to see what the finished product looks like! Aaron and Andy also put down a floor in the attic above the garage Wednesday night.

Master Bath Shower - ready for tile!

Front door

House Updates -Nov. 3

The brick is now complete! It looks great. Insulation was installed today and we are hoping for both siding and dry wall tomorrow. However.... since weather has been pretty rainy here today we aren't expecting anything for sure. Aaron and my uncle wired up the whole house Wednesday night so we can have televisions everywhere (yay?). haha! Aaron is dead set on getting a massive 55in. television for the livingroom. Between all the 1080P, LED, LCD, HDTV, 3D, etc..options, I get so confused - it must just be a man thing. I still can't believe that we will be painting soon! so so exciting.

We have brick!

The front of the house is almost totally covered in brick now! Aaron picked out the darkest brick and mortar possible for the house.... I was a little hesitant but he absolutely loved it so that's what we got. We have actually both been really good about compromising so far given that our color tastes are pretty opposite! I was really surprised by how much I liked the brick he chose for the house. I think it looks SO great! Aaron and I spent the afternoon out at the house today. Once again, Aaron spent a lot of time cleaning while I spent a lot of time reading. Here are some pictures of the progress...  the brick should be totally finished tomorrow I think.

 About half of the brick is done.

Close up of the brick

Inside the house...obviously! That's the front door.

Welcome to the living room/kitchen!

October 23, 2011

The weekends pass by SO quickly! Aaron and I were both looking forward to this weekend because neither one of us had anything we had to do. Saturday we ended up buying new living room furniture which was exciting! Aaron found this overstock furniture warehouse here in Louisville that had great deals on name brand furniture. We will definitely be going back to LOW (Louisville Overstock Warehouse) if we decide to get any other pieces.  We pretty much finalized our decisions on paint colors for the house which surprisingly took us all of about 15 minutes to do. It is a good thing we have the same taste in colors!

The roof on the house is pretty much complete now. There is only one small portion of the roof that doesn't have shingles on it yet. They are supposed to start working on the brick tomorrow. Aaron and I spent a few hours out at the house today; Aaron is a neat-freak when it comes to the house so he spent a lot of time picking up things and sweeping while I finished some reading for school. My mom came up to Louisville today so she got to come see the house too!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend...

 I had to take a picture of these two because of their accidental matching outfits. haha!

 so cute!

 It is starting to look like a real house!

Side view of the shingles.