Five Weeks Down - Five Weeks To Go!

Our house is halfway done! I am so ready to move in and buy new furniture and decorate! So far it looks like we should be in before Thanksgiving! I can't wait to spend the holidays in our first home! Here are just a few shots of the progress so far. We go out each Saturday to see what they have done.

Week One - they excavated and poured the footings:

Week Two - they poured the foundation walls:

Week Three - they framed the house:

Week Four - they finished framing and installed the insulation:

Week Five - they hung the drywall and sprayed on the stucco:

Labor Day Cooking

It was so great to have some time off from work on Labor Day. Both David and I had the day off and for whatever reason we were both in cooking moods that day. We starting the morning off with a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and orange juice. The pancakes were from my new Pioneer Woman Cookbook - her secret ingredient is sour cream. I had never made pancakes before so I don't even know what you normally put in pancakes but either way they were delicious! Perfect consistency - and I didn't even burn any of them! (I couldn't find the recipe on her website; I guess it is only in her book so if you really want to try her pancakes, just let me know and I'll send it to you.) David made the eggs with loads of cheese - just like we like it - and some orange juice.

We didn't really have specific plans for the rest of the day, which was really nice. Sometimes it is nice to have nothing to do when you usually work all the time. We did go to the mall and buy me a birthday gift. :) Then we went to the Quarry in Provo since we had a coupon for it. The Quarry is an indoor rock climbing place. The last time we went was three years ago when we were dating. Wow are we out of shape compared to when we went three years ago! It was a ton of fun but our arms killed when we finished! What a work out!

(This picture is from when we went in 2007 - we forgot to take pictures this time)

After that we went home and started cooking dinner. My sister Lori recently posted her version of my brother-in-law Matt's homemade mac-n-cheese on her blog - thecluelesschef.blogspot.com - and I really wanted to try it. So David and I worked together and made this delicious meal! I used Lori's altered version and put diced red peppers and finely chopped spinach in the mac-n-cheese, too. (Oh and I couldn't find flax seed or wheat germ so we just crushed up some Ritz crackers and put them on top) It was so good! And it was nice to be eating some vegetables for once! Thank you to both Matt and Lori! And as Lori says on her blog - the recipe makes a ton - I made half the recipe and we still were able to eat it for three nights.

The best part was when you got a bite that had one of the big cheese cubes in it.

Then we ended the day with an exciting football game - Boise St. vs Virginia Tech. Sadly, it was back to work the next day. Hope everyone else had a great Labor Day!