Thanksgiving

I REALLY wanted to get into our house before Thanksgiving, so we could host it this year. It's really one of my favorite holidays. I love cooking and spending time with family :D. We hosted Thanksgiving when we lived in Raleigh a few years ago and my dad was able to come. We had Johns family and my family and it was amazing. It will always hold a special place in my heart- especially as it was my dad's last Thanksgiving. I am so glad we could all be together for it :D

Anyway, this Thanksgiving we were able to host again! In our new home :D my family couldnt come, but my in-laws did! John was in charge of the turkey and I made the sides. John parents also brought lots of food too. John did an AMAZING job on the turkey. It was one of the best turkey's I have ever had. His company gives their employees a turkey every year for Thanksgiving and ever since then, I've put him in charge of it. haha. This year he looked up a fantastic recipe and used it as a guideline. He will continue to always be in charge of it now! haha. He doesnt mind though, he likes helping.

We ate a HUGE meal and just spent time together. I maybe took a nap ;D. I was up late cooking the night before! haha. It was a great holiday and I look forward to hosting it- hopefully every year! :D

Seriously, look at this bird!! 

 Working his magic!

In our new diningroom!

 SO.MUCH.FOOD!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Martins!

WE ARE HOMEOWNERS!!

I have to say that again- WE ARE HOMEOWNERS!!!!!! Praise the Lord! I still just cant even believe it. I feel SO incredibly blessed. It's amazing to pull up into the driveway of my HOUSE!

So, obviously the past few weeks have just been a whirlwind. I have SO much to share too!

First of all, I was start off by saying that our Lord is faithful and true. I dont think I would have survived this without the comfort of knowing He is in charge. As it got closer to our closing day, John and I got more and more excited- duh. Well the hits from Coastal just kept coming. I will say this and picture me yelling it from the highest mountain top: DO NOT GO THROUGH COASTAL TO GET YOUR MORTGAGE. Seriously. A story for another time.

However, WE CLOSED!!! We LOVE LOVE LOVE our house!! It's just perfect. We moved a LOT of our stuff in the day we closed and we slept in our house for the first time that night :D 

 KEYS!

 

First morning in the new house!

    We spent the next day also moving and Krystal and Josh came into town. They were going out of town for work/vacation and we offered to keep Bailey while they were gone. Bailey is  spoiled now :D That's what aunts do, right? ;D Carter LOVED having her! and so did we :D She is a sweetheart. It was especially helpful because she kept him busy while we moved and unpacked. I also think it made the transition less stressful for him. 

Doing what they do best- PLAY! 

 Love this girl!

  They wore each other out!

 CUDDLES!

 I love this picture of her!

After we moved in, we did our best to unpack what we could quickly. We still have stuff to unpack- but its coming along! It really has been a whirlwind. Buying a new house means there is LOTS of stuff to buy! We had already gone and bought our new fridge and washer and dryer- YAY! and they were getting delivered the day after we closed.

When our fridge got here they scratched it up kind of bad. We bought it from the scratch and dent store, so it was already scratched, so I didnt care TOO much. Luckily, it was on the side you cant see as well. BUT THEN, we went to Lowe's the next day and saw that our fridge was on sale for the same price we got it for at the scratch and dent store, BUT not scratched AND brand new! I called Sears the next day and told them we wanted to return it (it actually was working kind of funny too). They asked why and we told them about the scratch. They wanted to know if we wanted to pick another one and we said no. Then they wanted to know that if they could get us a new one, if we would keep working with them. I told them possibly and he said he would have to see if he could do that. Well, we got online and found that it was actually a Samsung sale, so everywhere had it! When he called back he made a big deal about "pulling strings" to get us a new one. I told him that it was actually on sale new everywhere and I had 15% off at Lowe's on top of the sale. I asked him if he could match that price and he said, yes ma'am! haha. He called back a little later and told me that they would also still honor the tax free credit we had since we bought it tax free weekend. AWESOME! We got a really expensive fridge for more than half off!!!!

I lOVE the freezer on the bottom, the french doors,

and the extra middle drawer! It's absolutely amazing.



 It's HUGE!

I am seriously so proud of finding such a great deal :D I also LOVE my washer and dryer. We decided to go with front loaders and they have been awesome. We also got those from the scratch and dent store and got an amazing deal too!

We also had to buy blinds for the ENTIRE house. haha. Not cheap. We actually ended up buying those on black friday. We were not planning on it, but we went to Lowe's to buy a ladder they had on sale (REALLY cool ladder) and decided to go ahead and go for it. We also got a shopvac. LOL. It was an expensive, but fun trip.

So much stuff in the car- I'M TRAPPED! haha







 working hard!

 The ladder is awesome- seriously. it goes very,

very tall and can also be used as some scaffolding! I hung those all by myself :D lol

 

I have very much enjoyed being a homeowner thus far. The projects are fun! Our neighbors are all really nice too. We've slowly started meeting them. Carter already had a best friend next door too!! Garland- he's a black lab about the same age as Carter and they get along great! There really are no words for how amazing it feels to come home to my own space- nobody else's. it's all mine :D Thank you Lord for our amazing house :D

More to come! Lots to catch you up on :D