Kitchen Day 2 - Who built this thing?

Day 2 consisted of one common theme: "Poor Workmanship." Luckily, no one was referring to themselves in the present day. So, in 1968, when the house was poorly built, the builders at least left their mark, as you can see in this picture below with the 1960's Coke cup that was found in the wall. Uncle Dale spent hours trying to figure out how the electric was run and was extremely amazed at the poor workmanship. In fact, on Day 2 night, he laid awake in bed thinking about our electric. We thought about leaving a "dangling decoration" of light switches for the dining room and kitchen (see Picture 3), but Lindsey vetoed it. Dad was really excited about the designing of a plan to extend the soffit. To be able to get to that point, he spent the day cutting out 2x4's. As he cut out the 2x4's, and we yanked them out of what they were nailed into, we almost pulled down the dining room ceiling that wasn't really attached to anything. He was amazed at the...you guessed it...poor workmanship. -T

Thank you for the gift! They did this in Criminal Minds too! Although, lucky for us, it was a cup and not a dead body wrapped in plastic.

Dangler Switch Decoration? No?

"This is EXTREMELY poor workmanship!"

Definitely more open!

If we just kept it like this, we could have an indoor 25 yard hurdles event.

Seriously though...no dangler decoration?

Kitchen - Our new dining room - the family room

Look how cute my wife is eating lunch in the living room since it's the new place to eat now. She says, "It's just another way for me to show off my ring." Love her! -T

But really it's, "Don't take a picture of me while I'm eating." -L

BUT she really did say, "It's just another way for me to show off my ring." -T

Kitchen Day 1 - Smack Happy

Day 1 of "Kitchen Impossible" or "Renovation Realities" (see the DYINetwork or go to http://www.diynetwork.com/ to get joke...I should get paid for marketing) consisted of the best part - taking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room! I would like to be able to see the TV from as many rooms as possible, SO...add the kitchen to that list! No, not really...well, that's not the main reason. I'm not sure exactly what the main reason is, but it's better than that. Anyway, we all got some smacks in on the wall...Lindsey too (not pictured), and down it came. Unfortunately, now the easiest part is over. -T

The Calm Before the Kitchen Storm

Our kitchen - pre-demolition.

Daggers of Doom

I actually really like the winter...I'd rather be cold than hot, but I've decided, that if I'm not going to get off work, like the days of old for school, that snow is just useless. I hate driving in it...Yetta hates to take me around in it, and like I said, it does me no good. We did set up some mailman traps from our gutters though, which are pretty intimidating. -T

It's easy to be a mom when you can give them back after 3 hours

Mom gave me these great cookie cutters for Christmas, so I decided to use them the day I babysat Kylie and Morgan. The girls helped me from start to finish and we had a lot of fun. I told them that if we made them, they couldn't eat them until after dinner and they never even tried to talk me out of it. It was amazing.

I felt bad twice: Kylie helped me crack the egg, which completely missed the bowl and landed on the table during the whacking part. She said, "I'm not that good at it yet." It was my fault, but how could I convince her? If only I had that picture of Jackie's egg that did the same thing about a month ago.

I also felt bad when the girls got done and realized theirs didn't look just like the ones on the box. Wasn't sure what to do about that, but I'm not a mom yet so I figured eventually I'll know what to say.

I did NOT feel bad giving them extremely watered-down pink lemonade when they wanted some with their crackers. It was before lunch and I wasn't about to mess with spoiling a meal. It wasn't even until they were halfway done with their pink drink when Morgan said, "This lemonade tastes like water."

It was such a fun morning for me, and after they left at noon I could get on with the laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping. Piece of cake! - L

But we liked 2009!

Unfortunately, 2009 had to come to an end. We do look forward to 2010, but definitely will miss 2009. These are a few of the many highlights of a great year! -T

What a weird thing to put atop the tree

We were very excited for our first Christmas together. We loved putting up lights, buying and putting up a tree, even though we never bought a tree topper, just stuck the tree up some random doll's dress who is holding a star. We enjoyed making Christmas treats and, as Lindsey likes to say, "spread holiday cheer" by taking them to different people in the ward and in our neighborhood. We spent Christmas with both of our families, which we feel very blessed to be able to do. -T

November 1st = Time for Christmas music and the holidays

We had a fun 1st Thanksgiving together. We even got into the spirit of it and decorated our house. Here are pictures of all of our decorations! We did enjoy being able to see both families on the day.

It's the most wonderful time of the year (or stressful)...

My loving, supportive wife, made a basketball cake for me before opening night of our basketball season. I helped ice it as part of our Family Home Evening activity. -T

Music to Our Ears

We bought the best home decoration! It looks great where it sits! Oh, we do plan to play it too. Lindsey found a great deal on it and we love it! -T

No kids = No return on investment

Our first Halloween together! We loved passing out candy...at least I think Lindsey did! She says things like, "Stop giving out so much candy! See, we have no kids to bring us back any. The spirit of giving doesn't happen until November!" I am allowed to post things like this because Lindsey won't post anything. We carved an alien for our pumpkin. We didn't have any real reason except for the fact that we thought it looked cool. -T

"I work for an orthopedic product company..."

I had my 10-year reunion. I was excited to show off my hot wife! I pretty much exhausted the line, "I work for an orthopedic product company, what are you doing now?" -T

Celebrity Look-a-like?

Lindsey thinks that I look like Lion-O from Thundercats when my hair is too long. T

For those who don't remember, Lion-O's hair always blew to one side and ended in a point. Even his action figure. Reminded me of Scott's Celebrities I Confuse. L(http://scottspjut.com/2009/07/13/celebrities-i-confuse-5/)

Todd and MJ - Forever United

September 11th will go down as the day Michael Jordan and I will always be united as we entered the Hall of Fame on the same day. I wanna say that I was better supported though, with the amount of family I had come to the festivities! T

The Catch Heard Around the Yard

Lindsey and I play catch sometimes. I was throwing her fly balls as we got into it simulating real live hitting. Lindsey showed how willing she is to go all out for the good of the team as she risked her life, along with pokes and scrapes, by jumping into our version of the "Green Monster." Forgive the blurry camera shots as night was falling upon us. Oh, and we laughed...hard...for a long time. T