TA-DA and Weekend Guests

Saturday morning when I left my house looked like this.....

Saturday night when I came home from a wedding my house looked like this....my husband is a saint. He worked from 5:30 am to 5 at night, with no lunch mind you. A painter came over and helped him, so that was heaven sent. But they worked really hard! Sad to say I have no pictures of the progress cause I was gone most the day.

Here's the other side. Yay! Once the new windows arrive we can finish the trim work and be done! Wahoo!

This weekend Alan, Amy, and little Miss Nora came for a weekend visit. We did all kinds of fun stuff like take advantage of the hot weather and run around in a diaper, Nora not me, played in the hose, went swimming, etc.

We took naps on the lawn in the shade.

We ate corn fresh out of the field...I love the first corn of the season....so good!

We played in the back of the truck with the dog.

We even did manual labor. She's old enough right. In the final prepping for the painter we trimmed the shrubs and cleaned it all up. Nora was a big help.

We even went down to the river for a swim! Phew, what a weekend!

Progress

My husband really is the hardest working dude I know. Not only does he go to work at some insane hour, every chance he gets he is working on the house. He has been doing alot of this lately....

Maddy has been doing alot of this...

And me, well let's just say I am slacking in the painting department...Emily came up to see her mom for a quick trip so Jonda and I ran to Wenatchee for lunch and a little visit! We some how ended up wearing very similar outfits...random...great minds think alike!

Miss Mary Jean

Saturday Jonda and I shot the wedding of Rob and Jen in Moses Lake...2 reasons I had fun at this wedding, 1 becuase it was a wedding and I got to eat cake, and another reason, I got to see Mary Jean. Jean has been a friend since we were little...I was a bridesmaid in her wedding and her and Jeremy were a huge help at our wedding. They moved to Colfax a few years ago and I love when I get to see her, she is a kick in the pants!

Adventures in House Painting

The man lift was completed and works like a charm...it spins and even he even built a power box on it to plug things in....i told him it was missing a cup holder. This weekend has consisted mostly of prepping...which is by far the worst part of painting.

We completed the power washing, moved onto scraping, re-caulking, and sanding.

Maddy and Brian enjoying a ride on the hoe.

It's even handy for those hard to get to light bulbs!

I did accomplish 1 thing and that was getting the cat condo painted. Here is the color we chose, its called bean pot, I have a thing for brown....Its my go to color. This just needs some touch up and trim work and it's done!

The biggest thing Brian got accomplished was this wall! The south side of the house gets hammered with sun, therefore it was the worst and needed the most prepping. He finished it today and I got it all primed!

Slowly but surely we will get this daunting task completed, it might take another 2 weeks atleast....I actually contemplated falling off the ladder today in order to get out of it...

The Daunting Job of Painting...

Brian and I have taken on the task of painting the exterior of our house. You should all know we both hate painting...really, I can't think of many things that are worse. I don't mind the actual painting part, it is the PREP time that is the killer! The basket he has been building is for the backhoe, so we aren't up and down a ladder...it's almost finished. Yesterday we started power washing and scraping, in preparation for painting...hoping to start soon! There is one side of the house that gets beat with the sun all day, and the paint was looking pretty bad. Here is a TIP for all of you out there...DON'T EVER LET YOUR PAINT PEEL OR CHIP, paint it before then, so much easier...scraping stinks!

Mark my words...someday I am building an all brick house! Not kidding.

Yeah it is bad! See!

Aaron and Amy's AMAZING Kellogg, Idaho Wedding

This weekend was Aaron and Amy's seriously unbelievably beautiful wedding in Kellogg Idaho at the Galena Ridge Golf Course. We stayed at the Silver Mountain Resort Morning Star Lodge, awesome accommodations! Friday we got there around noon, in time for a little lunch and then a little work. I took some detail shots and Brian helped with set up stuff.

Do you know how hard it was to condense a fabulous weekend down into one post....Most of the amazing wedding details (which you seriously won't want to miss) and photos you will have to wait for and find on my Staci J site as I was so blessed to be the photographer for the wedding and Brian was an usher. The Millers and Reimer's worked so hard at creating such an amazing wedding, I can't even describe it, you have to see the pictures! Amy's vision for this wedding was incredible!

The Galena Ridge golf course is a fairly new course (only 9 of the 18 holes are complete) so this was the first wedding to ever happen there! How cool is that!

I also could have also done an entirely separate post on the Miller's amazing house, they literally went around the countryside tearing out old barns and corrals gathering wood for their rustic designed house. It is truly Breathtaking!

Brian and Aaron got to know each other through FFA and were roomies in college, and Aaron was also an usher in our wedding. Anyway, here is a snapshot of the bride and groom leaving the ceremony...I can't wait to share more photos!

Here is a view from the gorgeous mountain top!

Josh, Aaron (the groom), Matt, and the Bri Guy at Rehearsal Dinner.

Wedding Day! Isn't Amy gorgeous! Ok Aaron you are handsome too!

What a view!

Myself, Lyndenn, and Brittany!

The Faw's and The Knodell's!

Ooohhhh All the WSU Boys with Aaron's sweet Chevelle (circa 1967?)! Kacey, Bri, Josh, Matt, Aaron, and Matt

Instead of a money dance, they had a closest to the pin contest. You had until 9:30 to get your hit in. We waited until the last minute, and let's just say I don't golf for a reason. Brian on the other hand did pretty well.

I actually think Brian is starting to enjoy dancing....doesn't he look cute in his purple tie!

Every time we leave an event, I am just so thankful for the amazing friends that we have been blessed with, what a seriously fun and genuine group of people we get to call friends!

Brown Thumb

Everyone knows that I am a brown thumb, so I am proud of the two things I have managed to keep alive....this lavender plant Sarah gave me as a house warming gift when we moved in, I haven't killed it, yay! The other plant I have managed to keep alive is my hens and chicks, which the gal we purchased the house from left me, and they are thriving, I even need to start a new pot of them, they are starting to jump out!

Busy 4th of July Weekend

Sad to say we didn't do anything patriotic or even watch fireworks this Fourth of July, as it was blowing 50 mph here and that didn't sound fun! We started off the weekend on Friday, The Stagg Clan came home for the weekend. Here I am with LindyJean and Addy Lou Hoo.

Main goal of the weekend. Get two of the cows moved. Goal: Accomplished, after a hards days work, we finally got the cows moved at 9:00 pm. Brian and Eric putting in some new fence posts.

Maddy being such a helper.

Again Maddy helping Addy wash the carrots.

Boss in his element. I think he was born to have a backhoe.

While we had the hoe at mom's house, she had a tree that needed a little trimmin' so we hoisted up the Boss and went to work.

Addy Lou Hoo even wanted to drive the hoe.

With all the work going on Addy Lou got many rides on the 4-wheeler and loved everyone of them.

While the boys worked, and I ran out every now and then for assistance, Jolene and I made pickled carrots, raspberry jam, and homemade marshmallows. Here are the carrots from mom and dad's garden.

Brian's favorite thing is raspberry jam....he loves it. He eats toast every single morning, so jam is an essential in this household.

On Sunday the Fourth we hung out with Josh and Lyndenn for the afternoon. We had planned on a nice relaxing day out on the boat, but mother nature kaboshed that one. We lasted about 30 minutes out there and decided skiing in the whitecaps wasn't that fun.