Well hello world! I may possibly be one of the worst bloggers as of late, but I guess that means I had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend with little time to blog. I'll take it. But I would feel a little ungrateful if I didn't take a moment to jot down a few things I am especially grateful for at this time:

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+ I am grateful for our house, and more importantly the memories that are made inside of it. I love making a house a home. The sunrises and sunsets we see every day over the river in our backyard melt my heart.

+ My mom's orange roll recipe! I made it for the first time this weekend. It turned out pretty good... not as good as my mom's, but practice should hopefully make perfect.

+ My faith, the gospel of Jesus Christ and His love for me and my family. We are always taken care of.

+ Finding new music. Thanks to Spotify, new music has been flooding my ears and I love it.

+ Russell's job that allows us to live close to our families. We were fortunate enough to see both of our families this weekend -- it was fabulous.

+ My health. We have a lot of family members and close friends who have had this taken away from them this last year. I believe that a healthy body is one of those things we take for granted until it is gone.

I Appreciate Him.

This is my bearded husband enjoying three delicious scoops of Gelato from Costco. Who knew Costco could be so fancy? 

Our offices are pretty close together, so we try to meet for lunch once in a while, whether it's bringing our PB&J's to a park or supporting one of our favorite dining establishments (ahem, Costco). Yes, we're classy like that. Just get me the cheesiest cheese pizza with a Diet Coke and you've got one happy girl.

As we were leaving I was digging through my pockets to find the receipt for the lady to check and Russ was kindly holding my Diet Coke, my purse and pushing the cart. The lady looks at me and says "I bet you've never appreciated him more than you do now." It took me a minute to realize she was talking to us. Of course it wasn't until I got to my car I wanted to run back and say "Huh? What are you talking about? I always appreciate this guy! I mean, he meets me at Costco and buys me a Diet Coke! What more could I want?!?"

It's the little things that really make you appreciate life, ain't it?

Take a Seat

I have another house update to report! Casa de Lewis finally has a few more places to sit! One thing we found with moving into our house after being in apartments and renting is we are seriously lacking some furniture. We had one couch, and therefore only one place to sit and hang out in the whole house. Needless to say, we've kept our eye out for some good deals on furniture. Well this last week I'd say we hit the jackpot! Introducing our first "sitting chair":

This chair was a bit unplanned. We walked into the store looking for couches, but found this neglected guy in the clearance corner due to a broken leg. After figuring out the leg was fixable and a bit of negotiating on Russell's end, we got this guy for $75, normal price was $400. Right now it is in our main living room area, but it might end up in the front room/future piano room.

The second score was found at Down East Home. Oh this store is amazing. There were so many couches I wanted there, but this guy was the winner for a few reasons. A) it was on sale, B) Russ actually liked it even though it was "cute," mainly because he found it to be functional with such a high back, and C) it was on sale. I love when we agree :)

We have it upstairs in the loft, where we hope to get some sort of projector/movie area going on in the future. The pillows and rugs were laying around needing to be used; I don't know if they will stay here, but I didn't really want to spend any more money in this area of the house yet. You know, one thing at a time...

Sew Many Pillows

I had some old pillows that needed to be recovered, so these last few weeks I've decided to break into the world of making pillows! Most of them will probably go in the guest bedroom. I found one of my favorite Amy Butler fabrics (Midwestern Modern II Collection - Floating Buds) at Material Girls fabric store (which is my new favorite fabric store for any of you Utahns), and knew the exact pillow I was going to make. I saw THIS PILLOW a year ago from one of my favorite bloggers and it hasn't left my mind since, so I recreated it!

Just don't look too close. I'm definitely still working on my pillow-making skills. As for now, I'll go make a few more. Practice makes {almost} perfect, right?

The Monopolizer

Look at that face.

That's the face of a very, very serious Monopoly player makin' a sweet real-estate deal.

Who here loves Monopoly? I have a love-hate relationship with this game. When we were newlyweds of maybe a month or two and had just moved to Texas, we bought the game with a gift card from our wedding. I was so excited to find a game that we could play together. Ha! Wasn't I surprised when we sat down to play one Sunday evening and I saw a side of Russ I had never seen. The sweet, loving and light-hearted Russ turned into a super intense, deal-making, dominating Monopoly player. I admit that the fact I was getting dominated every. single. time made me not love the game so much, but let's just say the air would get a teensy bit tense and Monopoly soon became a game I hated.

But Russ loves it.

Like a lot.

So sometimes we still play. He usually dominates me, except like on Sunday when we sat down with our friends to play. You would have thought it was Christmas morning for Russ and Dave. Too bad Danielle and I totally dominated their Monoploy-playing lives. It felt good.

Have I mentioned we've had some house guests lately? One of my best friends/former roommate Danielle, her husband Dave, and their adorable son Cameron just moved to Utah from New York City and have been camping out at Casa de Lewis while they get things settled. We've had some good times. I mean, how could you not with an 8-month old who smiles and waves the moment you walk in the room??