January happenings

Hello all. Long time no blog. January has been a pretty humdrum month for us in the Cefalo home. It started off with a very boring New Years. Jake had to work both day's so we pretty much went to bed early on New Years Eve and I spent the day alone. I did make a fun meal and we did a small celebration around 8:30 before we went to bed but it was really not that eventful.

Nathan has been a real good helper. He is learning so much right now. One of my favorite things to do with him over the past month is cook. He gets so excited to help. Especially if he knows it is a treat. I took a few pictures of him last week as he "helped" me make some brownies.

As you can see from the pictures above Nate got a hair cut. Its was long overdue. I have to admit I love his hair long. I get sad every time we cut it. He looks cute either way but I still get a little sad when I see pictures of him with his long hair.

Such a poser


Ta da! Hey good lookin.

As for the rest of the month we have been working of a few projects. Slowly but surely we are getting the house together. We decided that we wouldn't start on any house projects until after we closed. That means even though we have lived here for almost 2 months we have only started projects in the last 3 weeks.

Jake did a wonderful job painting the ceiling.

My sister Melanie came with her kids for a couple of days and she helped with the painting. I am pretty happy with how the room looks now. It feels much cleaner and brighter.

There is still a lot of work to do. We will be painting the molding and door white and we need to replace all of the ivory electrical plates. That should be done later this week. Right now the room is looking pretty bare but we have some grand plans.

I want to find some pillow covers similar to these. Probably a little more yellow.

I don't really know how things are coming together but I really like this pillow as well. We will see.
I love these chairs and I am hoping I can get a couple for a little more seating.

Jake and I are also determined to get one of these as soon as we can possibly afford it.

We will have to see what happens. There are a lot of wants but we need to make sure we can afford so for now I am pretty happy with how things are. Next we will move onto Nathan's and our room. During the summer we hope to tackle the kitchen.

We are so thankful that we were lucky enough to get this house. There is a lot of work we will need to do to make it our own but we are enjoying the adventure right now.

Your such a fat head

This....

+

=

A good laugh. :)

Being mother of the year, and playing cars and animals with Nate. I ended up putting the container to the animals on my head. Following my wonderful example Nathan took it from my head and placed it on his. At first it stayed on the top of his head. Nathan has always had a big head. After a second I tried to take it back from him. Because of this action Nathan pulled down on it to keep me from taking it back. All of the sudden there was a small popping sound and next thing I knew I had a screaming child with a bucket stuck on his head.

I tried for several minutes to get it off. All of that time Nathan was squirming and screaming and crying. As several attempts failed I started to panic. The plastic was hard and wasn't bending much. Nathan was pulling so hard on it himself that I could see it was starting to leave marks of his forehead.

I decided to call Jake because I didn't know what else to do. I was worried I was going to have to take him to the emergency room or something. As I was on the phone with Jake (kind of freaking out at this point) Just as Jake was telling me to try and bend it or cut if off (duh!!...) I picked up Nathan and tried to calm him down. Nathan calmed down enough to let me try one more time pressing the sides and pulling it over his head. Thankfully it worked. He has a nice red mark on his head but that is all of the damage done. It was nothing that a cup of milk and some fruit snacks couldn't fix.

The only thing I regret is that I don't have a video of this happening. I am pretty sure we would win big on America's Funniest Home Videos.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

So the holidays have almost come and gone and now it is time for the warm fuzzy memories. 2010 was a big year for our family. Graduation, moving out of state, having and losing a baby, buying our first house, and many many other good and not so good memories. We have been very blessed this year and my heart is full.

The last few weeks of 2010 have been some of the most eventful with the purchase of our home. It made for a stressful but wonderful Christmas break. Jake had 10 day's off so we were able to go and visit family. Unfortunately/Fortunately we needed to close on the house so we had to come home a little sooner than we would have liked. We had to cut out some Utah activities we wanted to do. Coming home early meant that we had a nice long week at home before Jake went back to work. So in the end it was actually very nice.

We ended up celebrating Christmas at our home on the 23rd before we left to Utah. Nathan got a lot of fun things. He loves his new bike and we spoiled him with puzzles and books. I was actually pretty amazed because Nate could put some of the simpler puzzles together without help. Jake got a mixed birthday/christmas gift with 2 season of How I Met Your Mother. It is one of our favorite TV show and it seems to be turning into a holiday tradition to spend some our lazy days watching our favorite episodes. Jake got me just what I asked for. He got me a copy of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. He also took me shopping on Christmas Eve for a new bedroom set. It was very fun :)

Our first Christmas Tree!

Nate's Booty

We drove to Utah on the afternoon of the 23rd to my parents house. That evening the family gathered together and we had our family party. Mom as usual made a wonderful meal and the house was decked out.

Dad in his super cool old shirt. Only to be worn on Christmas.

One of my favorite holiday traditions is my mom playing the piano while we all sing Christmas songs.

The next favorite tradition is the grandkids dressing up and acting out the christmas story...Nate was a shepherd this year.

Don't they look like they are into it?

As you can see they love doing this.

David especially :)

Nate had a hard time keeping his costume on. Thankfully it didn't stop him from trying to open gifts early.

Aunt Karen made some super yummy treats that all enjoyed.

Nate especially liked them. Notice how he wouldn't eat it with his hands so he could keep them clean...I swear he has OCD.

The next morning we went out with Courtney to do a family photo session. She is going to start working with me for my photography business. I think she did a good job. This is one of my favorites.

Shortly after we headed up to Jake's parents home. One thing that I love is that on the ride up to Bountiful Nathan decided that he wanted to start calling us by our full names. We were trying to teach him to say grandma Cefalo. We then told him he was Nathan Cefalo. He staredt to say both of them. Then he stared to say Jake Cefalo and Kristy Cefalo. It is now a problem. Cute...but a problem :)

We spend a wonderful evening with Jakes family. His parents prepared a wonderful meal. There was also a very nice program that all of the kids got to participate in. It involved opening presents so Nate loved it.

Like I said Nate loves opening gifts.

I have to say that I think Alex is so stinking cute.

So that was Christmas for us. It is a wonderful time of the year. Not only is it a time for family but it is a time to remember our Savior.

Choo Choo

So over the past month or two Nathan has become obsessed with trains. He saw a episode of Thomas the Train at his cousins and ever since he loves telling everyone about trains.

As Jake and I have been planning our first Christmas in our new house we have been getting more and more excited about getting a tree. We decided the best way to compliment that tree would be with a train.

Today we went and picked one up and we were to excited to wait until we move in. Just this once we thought we would take it out for a test drive.

Nathan LOVED it :)

Now we just need to keep him from touching it so he doesn't knock it off the track :)

We got a house ;)

(I took this yesterday morning. I think it looks cute with the red tree)

So Jake and I are feeling really blessed right now. As most of you know we have been looking for a house for the past several months. We have had a lot of ups and downs. Here in Elko houses seem to run 30 to 50,000 more than they do in Salt Lake. Add that to very little inventory and it makes one of the biggest financial decisions in your life really hard. We have put down 3 offers in the fast few months and none of them worked out. To say it has been a roller coaster is an understatement. As of last week we were really discouraged. Well this week the Lord lead us to the right place.

On Monday night I called our friends the Mortinsons and asked if they wanted to come over for dinner. Lyndsie told me that they were actually having some friends from their old ward over that evening. She then asked if we wanted to join them for dessert. I at first told her that we didn't want to barge in on their evening but she insisted so we ended up at their house. This is where we meet the Muelstiens (spelling is probably incorrect :)) The were a super nice couple and we had a wonderful time. As the evening went on the conversation turned to our ongoing house hunt. After we told the Muelstiens our situation they told us that they knew of a house that would be coming up for sale in the next little bit. They said a couple in their ward was moving to be closer to their children and they had already bought a house. As far as they knew their house wasn't up for sale yet. We told them we were interested to see what they were asking so they said they would find out for us. As the end of the night we headed home and hoped we would hear from them in the next week or so.

Well the next afternoon I got a message from Lindsey Muelstien (there are 2 Lindsey's in the story). She said her husband has gone by to see their neighbor and had talked to him. She told me the price and it was a lot and I mean a lot less than the houses we were currently looking at. I then wondered what the house might be like because a lot of the houses in our price range need major work. I ended up calling and getting the phone number of the Kukinhimers from Lindsey.

Joseph and Dawn Kukinhimer are a sweet couple and I knew it from the minute that Dawn answered her phone that we were dealing with angles. When I finally got ahold of Dawn that evening I asked if we could come over sometime this week to see the house. She told me that they were currently packing up but if we didn't mind the mess we could come over right then. Excited but nervous we went over. When we got to the house we really couldn't believe it. It was a house that was comparable if not better than the ones we had put offers on. Walking through Jake and I both though that the Muelstien's may have heard the wrong price. Well after we had gone through the house we talked with Joseph and he told us the price we had heard was right. They to had found it difficult to find an affordable house when they came to Elko and they felt that they wanted to give someone a break. He told us they were retired and had already purchased a house. They said they already have what they need in life so why not help someone out.

Jake and I were floored. We shook hands with Joseph that night saying we would get papers drawn up and ready. They were taking their first truck load the next day to their new house so he said we could meet up on Saturday evening after they got home and get the ball rolling. The rest of the week Jake and I were worried that they may want to change their minds or that we had dreamed it. Finally last night we were able to go over and sign the papers.

All I can say is that the Kukinhimer's are the kindest people in the world. Jake and I have felt so blessed. We are so excited to move our family into this home for the next few years. I only hope that someday Jake and I can be in a position to do something as kind and the Kukinhimer's did for us. I guess I need to remember that the Lord knows what is supposed to happen. I will keep you all updated with pics as we get settled in. :)

Halloween

I just wanted to post a pic of Nathan in his costume. Sadly I don't have any other pictures. Jake had to take Nathan trick-or-treating alone because I had a photo session. I think he was super cute. Jake said it only took him one time saying trick-or-treat before he figured out what was going on. He then went around and after people would give him his candy he would say "kank kou". I have raised such a polite little boy :)