Our Kitchen Remodel + Thanksgiving as a Family!

Yesterday was our Thanksgiving (along with two more meals on Thursday—>  one at his parents’ house and one at my parents’ house) as a family!

Just pretending to be dogs as they go into church.

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After church the kids worked on a turkey craft and Andrew started cooking (he is a better cook than I am:)!

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And then we had Thanksgiving dinner!

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Fun fact:  The cornbread stuffing (you buy it already prepared at Costco) is REALLY good.  Try it.

We even got a little fancy with some sparkling cider;)

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And then we played games!  Thanks for all of your recommendations in this post (we bought a bunch of them, THANKS)… last night we played Push A Monster and Suspend (our kids’ new favorite)!

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We also had triple chocolate pie from Kneader’s for dessert.  We bought it Saturday night and after it was in our fridge for 4 hours, I couldn’t wait any longer and cut into it Saturday night:)  It was delicious both Saturday and Sunday!

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Okay, let’s talk about kitchen stuff now!  PS my sister’s kitchen remodel is much more exciting and you can see that here (I mean she made her own cabinets?!?) but we are really happy with how our kitchen has turned out.  We started the process about a month after we got married and just finished everything on Saturday!  We basically had a list of our priorities of what we wanted to change in the kitchen/main living area and saved up for each change and then did it once we had enough.

Here is a picture from forever ago.  Our first priority was that we wanted to paint the area (I LOVE a very simple/clean look and so does Andrew so that is what we stuck with) a grey color (we used Behr Ultra White Metal) and got new flooring.  For the flooring we did a bunch of research on what was really durable and a great value at the time and decided on laminate.   The house originally had linoleum and old (very lived on;) carpet.  We did laminate throughout the house except for the bedrooms (we did new carpet in the bedrooms) and bathrooms and we really love that.  We also chose a lighter color of laminate to avoid seeing the side effects of having little kids and a lab that loves to shed all of the time;)

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You can kind of see the flooring below:)  Next on our list was a new fridge, a chandelier over the kitchen table and recessed lighting.  Andrew, did the lighting himself (his brother is an electrician and came over and helped him:).   After those changes, we saved up for a little over a year to finish everything off.  PS the chandelier is from Home Depot and our table is from RC Willey.

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So here is what the kitchen looked like as of a few weeks ago:)  We really wanted to lighten it up and add some brightness!

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We chose an Iceland Quartz (we got it for $11 a square foot for the 3 cm kind) and bought two slabs of it (we used it for our bathroom counters too.. at some point we are doing tile in the bathrooms so I’ll show you those when it happens).  Something else we really wanted was to make our island a bit bigger so that we could fit more stools there (we can now fit 5:)!

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We had a guy in my neighborhood come and do the quartz for us and he did a great job!

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I love on this side that there are no seams in the quartz… he used one slab for his whole part.  They also put in a single bowl under mount sink that we really love and added a new faucet from Home Depot.

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My sister came over one day and brought all of their tools and taught Andrew how to do the backsplash.  It took about 7 hours for him to do the entire back splash, those cuts around all of the plugs and windowsill are tough!  He did an AMAZING job and loved learned how to do it.  We bought all of the tiles for $39 and the other materials cost about $40 to do this so we were really happy with how cheap it was to make such a big difference in our kitchen.

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We REALLY wanted to convert from an electric to a gas stove but found out it was going to cost about $600+ to make the change… not in our budget for this.  BUT Andrew found a stove at Lowes that had broken legs in the back so they gave it to him for 60% off and he was easily able to fix it.  We also got a Black Friday deal on the microwave so we were really excited to get good deals on new appliances (I don’t miss our old brokenish ones;)!

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Another detail that I love is that we added the same quartz to the windowsill because the old one didn’t really fit in with the rest of the kitchen.

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And now I’ll just show you pictures of what it all looks like now.  PS I will never be hired to be a photographer for realtors.  House photos are hard to show how good everything really looks!

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Now on the island we can fit two more stools comfortably on the side… we just need to get some:)

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Luckily we really love our cabinets so we are DONE now!  Just in time for the baby to come too:)

So one more time, here is the before:

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And now our after!  It feels a lot bigger to us now!

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In case you missed out last week, the top three posts were:

*36 weeks + WINTER baby + what we have gotten for gear so far!

*Thursday THINGS + Your Gas Pedal.

*A Movie (from us).  MY Favorites and YOU Are Amazing!

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Holidays—>  Where do you usually go for the holidays?  If you are married how do you split up the time?  Also, if you have kids from a previous marriage, how do you do holidays?

-I don’t really know what we do as far as our families go but both of our kids are on the same schedule for Thanksgiving and Christmas which is really nice—>  each year we just switch off and this year we don’t have them for Thanksgiving but we do have them for Christmas.

Made any changes to where you live?  Do you enjoy house renovations/decorating etc?

What was the best part of your weekend!?!

Have a favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal… what is it?

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64 comments

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Your kitchen looks serene and streamline! May your family enjoy an abundance of cheer in that space!! It will hold many happy memories :)
P.S. Your mom is still looking amazing–she looks super trim and fit, a role model for us all!!

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Love the kitchen remodeling photos — it just looks brighter now!

For the Holidays we split it pretty 50-50 between our two families. We start at his folks for a few days, then meet up with my family for a few days. It’s nice and it works for us!

We just purchased a new living room set! It was time! We had a ton of old college furniture that’s on it’s last leg… so it was past time. Next, we’re going to get new dining room furniture (to better fit our new house color scheme of grey and navy).

My favorite part of Thanksgiving meals is always going around and saying what we’re thankful for!

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Y’all’s kitchen looks so great! Nice work!! :) I’m going home to Texas for Thanksgiving, and I CANNOT WAIT. I haven’t been home since I moved to California a couple of months ago, and I am so excited to see my family because I miss them like crazy!! And I will get to eat my mom’s green bean casserole, which is my absolute favorite dish at Thanksgiving. It is beyond amazing!

I went to a Thanksgiving dinner at my church last night, which was probably the highlight of my week (well, that and sitting peacefully on my favorite lifeguard tower Saturday afternoon) because I’ve been making new friends there and really love that community of people.

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Love your kitchen remodel!!! It looks so much bigger and brighter! My step daughter is with us every second Christmas. So we will have her the week before Xmas, including Christmas Eve/Xmas morning and then she’ll be with her mom after we open gifts at our house until New Years..and then we rotate each year.
Would you share where the kids Christmas pjs are from?

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Thank you so much Ashley! I’m so glad you will get to spend this time during Christmas with your step-daughter… the best! Yes, we got them (and love them) here:
http://amzn.to/2B2UBjn

Have an awesome day!

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I love your new look of your kitchen! This year we are going to be spending it with my husband’s side of the family. We live real close to them now and haven’t been with them for the holidays too much in the past. It is my hope to make it to see my family this Christmas but tickets are pretty pricey to fly. Hope you guys have a beautiful Monday!

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Jenn! Oh I hope you can make it to your family’s for Christmas too! Enjoy this Thanksgiving and I hope your week is a beautiful one!

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Best part of my weekend was by far my first marathon (Brooklyn marathon)yesterday!!! It was SO hard (hill repeats and loops the entire course) but this feeling after is like no other! Congrats on your upcoming baby and beautiful kitchen. Love following you through all these years :))

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Kristen… wow!!! Huge huge huge congrats to you on the Brooklyn Marathon! I want more details… want to do another? What was the coolest part about the race? How do you feel today? I’m so excited for you!

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Hear, hear!! Story time!!

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Thank you for the excitement!! The coolest part of the race was when it was over!! Haha but really although the loops were hard mentally ( i had to use so many mental tricks/ pep talks To not get discouraged) – it was great to see my husband and family so many times! (9 to be exact ;) feel much better today still sore but already thinking about another one (w.o hill repeats and loops!) Happy thanksgiving!!!

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Bahaha that is always my favorite part of the marathon too! I can’t imagine doing loops for a marathon.. you are mentally very strong! I love that you were able to see your family so much though! Huge congrats again!

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Ahh I love it! It’s crazy how much of a difference some tile and countertops can make! Love it!

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Your kitchen looks GREAT! I love the way there is so much more light in the space now!! Kudos to you guys and your sister for doing the reno yourselves. We are NOT DIY people at our house……..probably the reason we really haven’t done any updates to our house even though they could use them. My bathroom is a dusty rose/pink color…………I’ve learned to live with it, but OH MY! :0

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Oh thank you so much Jen!!! I’m not really a DYIer either but Andrew and my sister make it a lot more fun ha! I hope you have a wonderful Monday!

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The kitchen looks amazing!! I love how the changes were relatively simple but made a huge difference. Thanksgiving dinner #1 for you looks delicious, now I can’t wait until mine on Thursday!

This year is the first year that my boyfriend and I are splitting up the holidays. Since my parents live in Chicago were I grew up and we live about 10 minutes away from his parents we are staying put for Thanksgiving. We’ll travel to Chicago for Christmas though and have decided next year will be the opposite. I think it’ll be a good system since no family will get us for both. Enjoy your day Janae :)

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It looks beautiful!

We rent, so no changes to our place…………..we might buy a place one day, but for now renting works best.
And I love Thanksgiving turkey and rolls!

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We are going to be starting a master bath remodel, and when I say we, I do not mean we are actually the ones doing it. Just got done picking out all the stuff though, so that was really fun.

Thanksgiving is a favorite because my aunt hosts, and I get to see so many relatives. I was super close to my cousins growing up, so this is our holiday we still spend together.

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Oh fun!!! Your bathroom is going to be awesome… I want to do ours next:) Sounds like the perfect Thanksgiving Erica… enjoy!!!

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Thanksgiving meal is basically my favorite. I know it’s a lot of people’s favorite but I do like stuffing but also turkey.

We rent so we don’t but also can’t do a lot of housing renovations. That’s ok by me because if something breaks we have someone to fix it.

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I grew up in walking distance to both of my grandparents houses so we always did both thanksgivings on thanks giving! And I loved that. Being married to someone who has divorced parents who are not on good terms has made holidays a little tricky now. We end up squeezing three holiday parties in one day!

My siblings do on and off years. This year is my families on year for thanksgiving so they all come to our dinner. Then next year they will be at their in laws for dinner and my mom will end up doing pie night instead of a big dinner.

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My entire 4000 square foot house was gutted – it took 2 years! I can’t believe how fast your kitchen went – great!

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Oh wow!!! I want to see the before and after pics of your house! Where did you live during the remodel?

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The kitchen does look bigger! I LOVE that chandelier from home depot… I might have to convince my fiance for us to get it too. :) I bet the kiddos would love this turkey high five: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Eq276mDHeA I’ve done it before for patients’ visiting kids/grandchildren and they LOVE it, along with the turkey blown-up gloves.

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I think it’s neat that you were able to get that stove for 60% off! What a great find. We have an electric one and I wish we could switch over to gas too. It’s what I grew up with and just prefer.

We all live in Houston so we try to squeeze both sides of the family in two days. We’ve lived in our home for two years and we haven’t done any remodels yet but there are a few changes we will probably need to make soon. Carpet is the main one that comes to mind!

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looks amazing! i am super impressed!!! we have a galley kitchen and i think if we just changed the cabinet doors and countertops, it would be amazing (lighten it up). Our cabinet doors were painted black and the countertops are blackish too! (weird, right?) We are working on other things right now (new roof!) so we will update the kitchen one day eventually. And probably just make a few small changes like you did – to make a huge difference! as opposed to gutting the entire thing. Thanks for the motivation! lol.

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You’re kitchen looks amazing! I love a clean look too!

My husband and I alternate holidays between our families. We’ll be doing Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with his this year. We’re also on the same schedule as my sister and her family so that we can spend the holidays with them too! I can’t wait until my husband and I can buy a home and host holidays at our place!

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Your kitchen is gorgeous!! I love the new counter tops and appliances!! Great work to you and Andrew! I love watching you get everything done before baby girl arrives :-) So soon!!

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Thank you so so much Torrie! I really appreciate it! Have a wonderful day:)

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Looks gorgeous!! Congrats!!!

When we moved into our house just over a year and a half ago, we had to replace 100% of the kitchen. Such an undertaking, but makes such a big difference. We did everything ourselves-except putting in the quartz (hung new cabinets, light fixtures, paint, appliances and backsplash). Quite the feeling of accomplishment! hahaha.

Enjoy your beautiful countertops!!

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Your kitchen looks fantastic! Haven’t really had to do any remodeling or renos as the woman who lived here previously had done some remodelling and up grades which we loved.

We don’t usually go anywhere for the Christmas holidays. This year for our Canadian thanksgiving long weekend, we went away to some hot springs about 4 hours from us and it was pretty much perfect:).

Best part of the weekend – 2 best parts – winter is here in full force, and a group of us went snowshoeing up a local trail and it snowed non – stop. I got a text from my man saying that my polar fleece onesie Pjs (with a hood:) ) had arrived and it was the best thing to come home to. I lived in those PJS:)

Our thanksgiving was in October – but I love stuffing (more than the turkey I have to confess). Happy Monday!

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My father made cornbread dressing every Thanksgiving and now we have taken over the tradition! Homemade cornbread in the dressing! We go to my sister’s house for the holiday. Your kitchen looks great! Happy Thanksgiving!

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That sounds AMAZING… I want to try that:) I hope your Monday is a great one! Thank you Aimee!

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I LOVE the kitchen! So impressed. You guys did an amazing job!! :)

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THANK YOU CHELSEA!! I hope your Monday is a great one!

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Love the new kitchen! I’ve had quartz in my kitchen for 3yrs and love it – so easy to take care of. Next step is replacing the tiled bathroom counters with quartz. Grouted countertops in a teenage boy bathroom is not a great choice.

Yay! We love Push a Monster in this house – something everyone can play and have fun.

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Love the kitchen, it looks so much more open and bright.

Holidays are weird for me. I’m single, no kids, and live 7 hours from my parents and my sister. So, generally for holidays I’ve driven to spend with them. But this Thanksgiving I just really wanted to stay where I live because its starting to feel more like home to me and I’ve never done a turkey trot, etc so I’m excited to do that with my friends. & Then, after thinking I would be alone for thanksgiving (which wasn’t a big deal for me), 5 families have invited me over! So, I’m excited to spend it with church families this year and be a part of welcoming families!

Best part of my weekend was leading kids ministry on Sunday. I love all my kiddos and this Sunday one of the little 4th grade girls made me a little choker necklace, which I wore all day. :)

Love seeing your blended family Thanksgiving! Hope you all have a great week!

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Thank you so much Eleanor! I think that is GREAT that you are feeling more at home where you live and wanting to be there. I love it! Enjoy every second of your turkey trot with your friends and the church families in your area. People are the best! Sounds like an awesome Sunday and I love that they made you a necklace! Thank you Eleanor and have a beautiful day!

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So I NEED the details on your dinner table! I love that style so much ! And your quartz countertops are beautiful…and so durable!
We usually spend time with my parents and my husband’s parents for the holidays but we’re starting our own traditions slowly and like to spend Christmas Eve/Christmas morning in our own house! No kids yet ;) Thanksgiving is a huge event at my husband’s aunt’s house…there is going to be about 30 people there this year!
The best part of my weekend was family time and decorating the house for Christmas!
That cake looks absolutely delicious!

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Kitchen looks great! I love the chandelier!

We usually trade off thanksgiving between my family and my in-laws. Christmas is always with my family cause my husbands family doesn’t really get together….each family just does their own thing.

My daughter from my previous marriage is now grown so she does whatever she wants lol. But when she was little we had to split holidays (one year thanksgiving with me and Xmas with him, next year switch). That worked ok. After a few years you kind of get used to it.

Have a great Thanksgiving!!

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I have a 5 month old, so we are hosting holidays. It sounds like that would be more difficult, but honestly I feel traveling and getting my daughter off her routine would be worse. So we have an open invite to all family to our house, I enjoy cooking so I’ll be preparing everything, and the baby doesn’t have to adjust to anything :)

The kitchen looks great! We moved into our house in the spring and have already painted the entire house, gotten all new appliances, changed over from electric to propane, (my main non-negotiable item,) fenced in the backyard, and ripped out nearly all the landscaping. It’s going to be years before this house is what we want it to be, but the process is kind of fun! Next on the list is chickens…. cross your fingers for us lol.

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Best part of my weekend… I just moved and got to do some exploring in my new neighborhood. After years of reading your blog and hearing about your love of Costco, I am finally living close to one and made my first trip. It was pretty great :)

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AHHHH LAUREN!!! I am so excited for your move and all of the exploring… most of all COSTCO THOUGH:) That is so awesome Lauren. Keep enjoying and I hope you have a beautiful week!

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We usually switch off for Thanksgiving because my family is in California and Les’ family always meets in Florida. For only the 3rd time in almost 30 years we aren’t going to be with either family. We decided to just take the weekend and go away by ourselves. We taking our bikes and going to Carmel by the Sea!

Les has done a lot of renovations on our house (flooring, trim, paint, etc.) His engineering degree really comes in handy.

Best part of our weekend was being home!

I love the entire Thanksgiving meal – so many great side dishes and most that we only eat once a year. Since we always travel we never have leftovers and that’s kind of a bummer.

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I love how much brighter your kitchen looks and it’s great to know you can change little things like flooring and tile to make it look spruced up. I know when I get a house, the kitchen will be the first place I tackle. I want good food photos ;) and also I spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

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Looks amazing!!! I love how everything brightened right up! And I love that extra seating!!! Also, I noticed your candle on the island. I have that same one & cant get enough of it during the holidays. My first baby was due 12/19 so much of what you’re busy doing in terms of prep and nesting brings back such fun & happy memories. She ended up arriving 12/29…such a long wait, but so worth it.

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Best candle ever!! Oh wow, she waited ten days to come:) I really am enjoying the nesting stage! I hope you have a wonderful day Jeannie!

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Love the new kitchen! It looks much brighter and open now! I can’t wait to redo our kitchen. It’s awful… like laminate tile, but they put down scotch tape along the edges, so it’s just so so bad… We want to knock down a wall, but it’s a supporting beam, so we are waiting to save up some more, bc we also need to buy all new appliances… this kitchen does NOT have an oven… we’ve been using a toaster oven in the mean time, which gets the job done, but definitely not the same!
My husband and I are both from the same city, so when we go home for the holidays, we try to spend time with both, but for the actual holiday, we usually split up. We tried to do both one year and it feels like we rush from one place to another and barely get to spend time with family. Plus my husband’s parents used to live 15 mins from my parents, but they moved 2 years ago and are now 45 mins apart, which makes it harder to try and do both. Next year, we’ll have a baby, so not sure what we’ll do then!

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Holidays—> Where do you usually go for the holidays? If you are married how do you split up the time? Also, if you have kids from a previous marriage, how do you do holidays?

to my folks. it’s easy b/c my ILs are not American (they’re Canadian).

Made any changes to where you live? Do you enjoy house renovations/decorating etc?

not recently. but yes i do enjoy redecorating.

What was the best part of your weekend!?!

not getting injured in the race i did with friends!

Have a favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal… what is it?

stuffing. i don’t know why but i love it.

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The kitchen looks awesome!! Can I ask where you got your countertop? We’re getting ready to redo our kitchen and you got a screamin deal!

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We really did!!! We got the pricing through our contractor! It was Contempo in American Fork and we loved it… So many amazing options:) let me know what you end up getting! Have a great day Mindy!

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Your kitchen looks great – and so much lighter. I’m impressed that Andrew did the back splash all on his own!

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You guys did an AMAZING job!! The kitchen looks just beautiful :) Happy Holidays!!
Hugs,
Amanda

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Love the kitchen remodel!

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The kitchen looks great!! We moved into our house I think because of our kitchen and we do have a gas stove, an amazing gas stove!!! There honestly is nothing I would change about the kitchen expect maybe a bigger pantry because my teeny little town house that I used to have had 2 pantries. We used one as the pantry and the other as a toy closet when we had our first child.
I am lucky that my Mom lives close and my in laws are only an hour away so we really just have a combo Thanksgiving celebration. My sister in law primarily has Thanksgiving with her husband’s family and my sister lives 12 hours away so we just have a cozy little Thanksgiving. I host because it is always close to my youngest daughter’s birthday (on Black Friday this year). We are going on age 7 and she is as happy as can be that we have Turkey and cake or cupcakes. And YES I hosted the year she was born, the day after she was born. Gotta love birth centers in which you can leave after 6 hours… My favorite part of Thanksgiving will always be my own little Turkey!!

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When my brother (my only sibling) was married, they would alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family and hers. The year they divorced was the year me and my husband started dating. My husband’s mom was in Florida so we were never pressured to go there for the holidays (and she hated to travel so she wouldn’t come to us). We went up to his dad and step-mother’s house once for Thanksgiving, and whenever we asked them to come down to our house they refused. So it has always been just our family and my parents (and sometimes brother). We host almost all the time, just the 6 of us.

No more house projects for us anytime soon – in spring of 2016 we finished our basement which was a 3 month project. And right after the holidays we re-modeled our family room (a new entertainment center built (which of course required a new TV, so the old one could go in the basement), new paint and new flooring and a new recliner. This will be our first holidays in the new room so I am so excited for that!

Our stuffing is by far my favorite part of Thanksgiving – overall I am not a lover of Thanksgiving food. Bring on Christmas!

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Everything looks great in the kitchen!

My favorite part of the meal…..stuffing and cranberries (but I like the canned kind ~ nothing fancy here ;-)

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IT looks awesome! I love how seemingly things like counters tile and paint (meaning you didn’t even rip out cabinets or completely gut the space etc) can change the whole look of a room! Also love hearing how you made it budget friendly.

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*seemingly small

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LOVE the kitchen. So happy you kept the cabinets. A lot of people are paining all things white but I love the wood contrast.
We stay put for Thanksgiving here. We are a military family but have my in laws here and lots of fellow military wives to celebrate with. Our husbands are deployed so this holiday season will be a little sad. BUTTTTTTT I can’t wait to eat massive amounts of dressing and gravy. My favorites :)

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Congrats on your kitchen remodel! It looks so much brighter, and bigger! The best part of my weekend was walking along dog beach at sunset. The sky changed from golden yellow, to pink, to orange it was beautiful!

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Oh, Suspend is great. I’ve spent hours playing that. It sis great for all ages and kids get creative and make-up their own versions.

Congratulations on the kitchen! Looks great. I love doing my own home stuff. Nice job keeping the cabinets. Some people are so eager to get rid of perfectly good cabinets.

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way to go you two! (and others ;) ) looks really great!

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Where are your stools from??

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