Thanksgiving Trip to Seattle

So Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and we managed to pack in as much as we could possibly handle in 6 days time. Unfortunately I wasn't taking pictures the entire time, but more relied on my little sister to handle the photo responsibilities.

But what I do have, I thought I'd go ahead and post according by which day we were there.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day turned out just like I had hoped it would be! We first awoke to mom gobbling through the house "flying the turkey"! It's a little family tradition of ours and the perfect way to start the day. Then we headed to the living room to watch was left of the Macy's parade and eat gooey cinnamon rolls. The rest of the day was spent working on a puzzle that Jerry & Sherry had bought us for the holidays... and eating, eating and more eating! Mom made a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner with a new addition that I absolutely loved, baked sweet potatoes!! Yum! Everything about the day was so relaxing and fun, and it felt so great to be home for yet another Thanksgiving. And Dad finally had another man around to play Chess, Scrabble and answer Trivia Pursuit questions. You know I have to mention that Jason beat Dad at every game they played, because after all these years when Dad constantly would win at those games and gloat about it - he finally got what was coming to him :-) ha!

Friday

On Friday night, Dad treated us all out to an amazing dinner at Salty's on Alki. The sky was crystal clear, giving us an incredible view of downtown Seattle beneath a full moon. It couldn't have been more beautiful. And the food was so good. Jason and I were so full just after those two days that we didn't have much of an appetite for the rest of our trip! But what else are the holidays for but to spend time with friends and family and stuff yourselves silly!

This is what Dad looks like after a full long day with all his Kelly girls :-) Hee hee....Saturday

Saturday was a total blast and filled with lots of fun things; like a carousel ride downtown, warm Starbucks coffee, a yummy Cheesecake Factory lunch, seeing "Enchanted" the movie and spending some much needed, warm-fuzzy company with our dear friends Roy & Loree Rowland and the Frees family. It was so much fun, I wished it wouldn't have gone by so fast! We hope to get together again in the near future for maybe a few days away by a lake out here in Tennessee - wouldn't that be fun?! I was a total dummy and didn't take any pictures that day, so I had to "borrow" some pictures that Loree had taken (which by the way, she did a great job!)

Sunday

On the Sunday night we were there, I was able to get together with some friends of mine and finally catch up on life. The ironic thing was - almost every single one of them was pregnant, well except for the guys and my dear Katie King. I'm thinking there must be something in the water out there. I was sad that Tom & Katie Hallstrom were unable to be back in town in time, since after all it was hosted at their house. But we knew they were there in spirit with us! I got some great pics with my friends and I'm so glad they were able to be there - I have missed them all so much! Plus with Jason joining me in Seattle this time, it was a great opportunity for them to get to know him better. Everyone brought really yummy desserts to much on and we just sat around the table laughing at different stories. Here's Katie King & I giving big squeezes!

Vanessa & Josh Curtis surrounded by all the sugary-goodness. I was so glad they were able to make it. Pregnancy hasn't been easy on her so far, and I'm praying she starts to feel a little better soon.

Aaron & Heidi Powell - check out her cute baby bump! I can't believe Aarons' gonna be a dad to a little boy!

Josiah & Karlee Blake - also expecting sometime early next summer. These two got some great genes, cause they're daughter Jordyn (below) is absolutely adorable!!

Miss Jordyn Blake. So stinkin cute.

My Nessa Roo :-) And no, I'm not pregnant - its just an unflattering angle.

Monday evening we were able to catch up with Chris Ross over coffee at Starbucks. It was the only day it rained while we were there and I absolutely loved it. The rain is so different back home than it is here, and I didn't realize how much I had missed it. It really did put a big smile on my face.

After we caught up with Chris, we then headed over to our friends Deb & Erik Nielsen's house for dinner. I hadn't seen them since they came out to Nashville earlier this year. And it was so good to hang out and enjoy some of Deb's delicious enchiladas. And Emily is getting so big! Its amazing how fast time flies and what all changes when you've been away for a while.

Then finally on Tuesday, we headed back to Nashville - to our very own home. We definitely needed that week away to get rejuvenated before starting again on the house and work on all our unpacking. But it gave us the rest we needed to get back into the swing of things here at home.

We felt very much loved while we were there and will miss you all until our next visit!

Happy Holidays!

The Keiths

Thanksgiving in Seattle!

Tomorrow Jason and I head for Seattle to have Thanksgiving with the family!! I'm so excited to see my parents and my sisters. I have missed them soooooo much!! The things I'm looking forward to the most is waking up Thanksgiving morning to the smell of cinnamon rolls baking in the oven, snuggling out in the living room with Jason and both my sisters to watch the Macys Thanksgiving parade (one of my favorite things to do!), watching mom fly the turkey through the house, putting together puzzles ALL DAY LONG, eating a big ol turkey dinner, getting sick on eggnog and then finishing the day by watching dad meticulously bag all the leftover turkey for turkey sandwiches!! I'm pumped, pumped, pumped!!! Once I get off the plane, the vacation begins!! Yippee!!! But until then, there's new clothes to be bought, laundry to be done, tidying of the house, lovin of the cat, Dancing with the Stars results show and packing!!! A full night at the Keith HOUSE. I just like to say that word...HOUSE.....our HOME.....love it!

We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

The Keiths

Is the weekend over all ready?

So our weekend was jam packed with stuff to do. We were unpacking boxes, teaching 4th grade Sunday school, Jason worked on Saturday night, there were runs to Home Depot, grocery shopping...you name it we were trying to cram it all in. However, we did make a lot of progress on the house, which was great. I could literally feel myself being able to breathe a bit easier when I could finally see the living room floor and the furniture started to fit into place. We now have our living room all set up and its so cute!!! Just seeing how everything is coming together and how great it looks is just so exciting! We're dog tired - but loving how everything is turning out.

To keep ourselves sane in the midst of the chaos, we've been entertaining ourselves in some pretty unusual ways. You try disconnecting all communication to the world for a few days and surround yourselves with cardboard and see how crazy you act! Around 2am on Saturday night after a very draining day of unpacking and a long night of Jason working, we were getting ready to head to bed, when my night-owl of a husband got an idea in his head. Let's turn Kim into a Mrs-Potato-Head and see what happens!

Thus, the following pictures that came as a result of his inspiration:

I know they're not the most flattering pictures, but come on now, its 2 in the morning! I'm sure you all can picture Jason in fits of laughter every time he put a new pair of shoes under my chin. It really started out very innocent. He was tucking me into bed to say goodnight, when he got this silly grin on his face and reached down to grab the first pair of shoes....and there it just continued till we both almost peed our pants.

The other little game we created for self-amusement was a "Where's Waldo" but with Banks. It seemed wherever we went to unpack or move something Banks had found a way there first and was able to squeeze her way into some pretty unusual places. We did not stage any of these pics, she did it all on her own.

Dining Room on top of the bookcase.

Where's Banks is this picture?

Or maybe in the bedroom in our temporary sweater shelf.

The Pantry off the kitchen.

Under the dining room table.

On the shelf of our new coffee cart.

Or maybe they won't find me if I go inside the coffee cart.

Ha! Not so fast Banks! We see you!

A cat after my own heart :-)

Is it bedtime yet? I'm in the middle waiting for you two.

Surrender with your paws up!

Finally - sleeping peacefully under the blankets of our bed with me until Jason found her.

Moving

So Monday night was supposedly our big moving night. We had borrowed our friend Jeff Batson's trailer and Jeff Hooper was coming over to help us out. I left early from work and it was unusually warm outside, like over 70 degrees! I called Jason and told him, 'you know the weather is acting a bit strange and this would be perfect tornado weather'. We both laughed a bit and didn't think much of it. Just before I left work, I received this email from my local news station, which by the way, I didn't read till the next morning:

"The NWS in nashville has issued a tornado warning for: southern davidson county in tennessee, this includes the city of nashville, Until 530 pm cst At 452 pm cst, national weather service doppler radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado 6 miles west of belle meade, or about 11 miles southwest of nashville, moving east at 45 mph. The tornado will be near, oak hill and 7 miles south of nashville by 505 pm cst, and will also cross other southern suburbs of nashville by 530 pm. Do not use your car to try to outrun a tornado. Cars are easily tossed around by tornado winds. If you are caught in the path of a tornado, leave the car and go to a strong building. If no safe structure is nearby, seek shelter in a ditch or low spot and cover your head. The safest place to be during a tornado is in a basement. Get under a workbench or other piece of sturdy furniture. If no basement is available, seek shelter on the lowest floor of the building in an interior hallway or room such as a closet. Use blankets or pillows to cover your body and always stay away from windows. If in mobile homes or vehicles, evacuate them and get inside a substantial shelter. If no shelter is available, lie flat in the nearest ditch or other low spot and cover your head with your hands."

So that was the first time I've ever received one of those emails! Thanks but I'll take an earthquake over a tornado ANY day! We had no idea any of this was really going on, we just thought we might get some rain. HA!! I get to the apartment and we finish boxing some things up and get the couch ready to move into the trailer. No sooner do we get it to the front door then the heavens opened up and the rains came in a torrential downpour! There was all this intense lightening and thunder - it was nuts! The thunder was so intense it shook our building a couple times! Between the sheets of rain coming and going, Jeff finally was able to help us load up the trailer so we could head over to the house to unload. I later came to find out that the Tornado sirens went off throughout downtown Nashville and in surrounding counties. Niiiiccee. We didn't even hear them! And my friend Brooke at work told me that they were evacuating stores and that people in the office went into the stairwell for protection.

When we finally got our stuff into the house and had picked up Banks - we decided to camp out in the guest bedroom (since our closet is STILL being worked on in our bedroom). Well apparently the storm had knocked out our HVAC unit and we ended up losing our heat!! So we've had no heat for the last two nights, freezing in our new little home and surrounded by boxes. I woke up Tuesday morning to Jason snuggled up tight next to me on my right side and Banks snuggled up to me on my left. We were a cozy little bunch with our little space heater on full blast wrapped up in all our blankets. Last night dropped down to high 20's and it was so hard to climb out of bed and face the cold air. But Jason was so sweet and tried to make getting ready as painless as possible and completely blessed me by running down to the nearby coffee shop and buying me a Cappuchino and muffin for my drive into work. The heater was fixed today thank goodness, cause we're expecting another night of below-freezing temperatures!!

I'm SOOO looking forward to this weekend when I will have more of an opportunity to get some things organized and unpacked in the house. I'm going to do whatever necessary to get these boys motivated to finish the repairs on our house, even if means bribing them with chocolate chip cookies!! I need to feel settled soon or I think I might start losing my mind.

They Call Them Man-Boobs - or Moobs

So a couple of fun things in celebration of the holiday.

First - my dad sent me this video, which I thought was absolutely hilarious! If you can appreciate cats, then I think you'll enjoy this too - it reminds me A LOT of Banks :-)

Secondly, Jason and I went to the flea market with our friends Ben & Alicia this last weekend. We had an absolute blast looking around at all the fun things. But Jason happened to come across these rubber stress balls that had nipples on them...you see where I'm going with this. So if your easily offended do not scroll down below and look at the picture of my husband once he found these, dare I say toys? I was laughing pretty darn hard. And the poor elderly woman next to him had no idea what to think. The best part was standing a little off to the side and watching as men noticed these balls sitting in the bucket and not being able to resist picking them up...we seriously all couldn't stop laughing.

If y'all send me pictures of your cute kids or grandkids (or even yourselves!) in full Halloween attire, I'll be sure to post them by the end of the week!

So You Think You Can Dance!

Wednesday night was amazing! Jason and I went to the So You Think You Can Dance Tour here in Nashville and it was INCREDIBLE! I'm a huge fan of the show and was so excited to see some of my favorite dancers out there on stage in person. Neil! Sabra! Pasha! Sara!! Whoohoo!!

My friend Brooke and I had bought tickets as a big group and there was a total of 9 us sitting together in the best seats!!! Seriously, after the moment I sat down for the show, I couldn't stop smiling the entire time. Jason might even be a bit bruised from all the elbowing I continued to do to him every time I was amazed and excited over one of the dances. I so recommend going and hope to go every year there's a tour. No flash cameras were allowed unfortunately and it was pretty dimly lit, not to mention once the dancing began, I could've cared less about anything else, so I forgot to take my camera out till the very end when they were taking their bows.

After the show, Jason and I tried to take pictures of ourselves and they turned out ok, but then when we got home, we had a little fun with the camera and posed a little for ya! Oh yea, and I cut my hair last weekend! It's the shortest I've had it for years, but I really love it and Jason says he likes it too, but I think he's just trying to adjust to it too :-)

And um, whoa! Can you all see how freakin hot my man is!! I'm just gonna say it....Damn!

Because I finally downloaded my pictures, I also found the pictures that we took when we signed the contract on our house! We met up at Battered & Fried, one of our favorite East Nashville places to eat, with our realtor and friend Heidi and her man Ben. So I thought those would be fun pictures to add as well.

Homeowners, yup - that's us!! A couple more weeks and we should be in our new home. The foundation is in mid-repair (thanks to the tons of rain we've been getting) and we're in the midst of various other repairs inside the house too! But very exciting news...we have ourselves a new closet!! Yea!! We've finished painting the guest room and the office and have the bead-boarding to finish in the guest room and the chair rail in the office. Then we're on to paint the living room - I can't wait, its all coming together so nicely! We're exhausted, but excited too!! Our repair guys Charlies, Butch, and a couple other guys have been so incredible getting all the insulation installed in our roof, the plumbing stuff finished, putting up a new ceiling over the porch, installing a fan in the bathroom - they're the best and they're doing a great job!! I'll post some pictures of all the new developments on the house in the near future - right now we're trying to move things over little by little when we get the time together.

That's all I got for now - hope you enjoyed the pics!

All our love - The Keiths!

Lily

Tuesday was the passing of the Keiths family pet, Lily. She was so quirky and lots of fun to be around. Jerry, Sherry, Kelley, Scott and Jason, I am so sorry for your loss.

She was well loved and will be greatly missed!

Kati took this picture of Lily while she was out in California with my dad for Promise Keepers.

Welcome To Our Home!

Let me give you the tour!

This is me opening our front door into our living room! I love the hardwood floors!! Any decorations you see actually belong to the seller, its supposed to be for staging. I guess they didn't really need them, cause we made an offer on the house the first day it was on the market!
This is our living room, the front door is on the left. And the windows on the left wall face the front porch.

We finally have a fireplace! Unfortunately the old homes are not safe for actual wood fires, this fireplace was originally intended for coal. But hey we have a mantal to hang stockings on!! And just beyond the living room you can see a glimpse into the master bedroom.
This is our master bath, which is right off the master bedroom and laundry room.
For a time it will be quite cozy, but we have some great expansion ideas for the future!
Here's another shot of the living room, taken from the dining room. We LOVE the original windows you see against the far wall. They need a little cleaning up, but they are so cute! This picture was taken from the dining room.
A wide entryway seperates the dining room from the living room. Jason and I would agree that the dining room is definately our favorite room in the house.Here's Jason enjoying a corner from the dining room.
The windows to the right face out onto the front porch and you can see from the reflection on the floors, they let in a ton of natural light! Just beyond the dining room is the kitchen with brand new cabinets, stainless steel appliances, tile floors and gorgous Italian countertops and backsplash.

Through the kitchen is the hallways into the back bedrooms which will serve as Jason's Writing Room/Office and our guestroom.

It's a bit odd shaped for a hallway, but that's just part of the fun character that an old home posseses. If you look closely, you can see the back door that leads into the backyard.
Here's the view if you looked back from the hallway toward the kitchen and dining room.

It was hard to get a good overall shot of the bedrooms, but Tina did a great job at getting both windows. This is a picture of Jason's Writing Room/Office.

This is our guest bathroom that is located in the back of the house between the two back bedrooms.

Here's another shot of the guest bathroom. It also has new cabinets and all new fixtures.

This is our guest bedroom, which you can see the two windows and closest. It's bigger than it seems, but there was really no point in taking a picture of the blank walls :-)

And here we are Home Sweet Home!!

We're in the midst of finishing the loan process with the bank and title company. Once we've finished with that, we'll be able to close and start on repairing the foundation. The seller cut us a check to finish what he was unable to do before he left on his trip. So it should only take a couple weeks or so and then we'll be able to begin the moving process. Thankfully, there's no stress, because we have plenty of time to move our things from the apartment into our new home. We can't wait to see what memories God has in store for us as we open up our home to our friends, our family and all our loved ones. We even plan to extend our family with the addition of two Labrador puppies sometime after Thanksgiving!!

Too Good Not To Share

So I apologize for taking so long to get the pictures that Tina took of our new home up on the blog. We downloaded them at the apartment, but I tend to spend the majority of my time on the computer here at work. So this weekend I will definitely post them all for you to see - they turned out great, as I knew they would!

But in the meantime, I had to share with you all the funniest thing that happened early this morning. Baby, you know its too good to keep to ourselves :-)

I have a horrible tendency to set my alarm WAY before I actually need to get up. Its debatable whether psychologically I feel more rested because I dupe myself into thinking I'm sleeping in more, or whether I'm actually keeping myself up and losing more sleep. And this I might add, is an ongoing conversation between Jason and I. But no matter, I set my alarm one hour before I actually HAVE to get out of bed and spend the next hour repeatedly hitting snooze. Jason has grown accustomed to this bad habit of mine and has gotten to the place where he can completely tune out the radio and not even realize that I've hit snooze over 20 times, then eventually gotten up to shower, got dressed, fed the cat and blown dry my hair before I finally wake him to say goodbye for the day.

Well this morning started out on a much more humorous note. At 6:30am my alarm starts off with "Rockstar" by Nickelback. Not the most soothing song to wake up to, so I groggily lean over to hit snooze. As I do, I hear from behind me "I want to be a star!" Huh? I roll over to face Jason and say "What honey?" And I kid you not - he repeats himself, while shooting his arm straight up into the air - "I want to be a star!" Oh my word - did that just happen? I was giggling about it all morning as I got ready. Then when I finally was ready to go and went to his side to wake him with a kiss and to say goodbye, I told him "You are never going to believe what you did in your sleep this time baby". He laughed so hard when I told him, he couldn't believe it. At some point, I want to film our sleep habits one night, I think it would be absolutely hilarious.