Ahoy! Baby shower

My sister-in-law Mariah is pregnant with her first and it's a little girl! Because she lives in Texas, I decided, while everyone was in town, we would throw her a surprise baby shower.

We got her out of the house for the day by sending her down to Vanessa's house to "help her with the boys." We also had all of the sisters and their mom go out for dinner. It worked perfectly! Shannon and I stayed back and put the thing whole thing together. 

My sister-in-law Jessica made the adorable cake!

The food turned out great, and it was a total success with 19 people in attendance! She was totally surprised and came out with a pretty good haul! Congratulations Mariah, we can't wait to meet that sweet little girl soon!

Family pictures

While everyone was in town, we decided it would be a good idea to get an updated family picture. We didn't really want to pay anyone to take them, so I took on the job. With the help of a tripod, a borrowed camera with an awesome lens, and some amazingly kind people walking by, we were able to get this shot.

It may not be a "perfect picture" but I think it turned out great for not even being behind the camera.

Family pool day

At the end of August, all of Ethan's family came into town for a little family reunion. Ethan's sister Vanessa lives right down the road from their neighborhood pool, so one day we decided to take it over for a couple hours. The weather was beautiful and the water was great which constitutes a win in my book!

My husband–The Mechanic

Anyone that has ever lived in a hot and humid climate knows you can't live too long without air conditioning in your car. While I was out in Idaho, our Fusion air conditioner went out. Poor Ethan was driving it back and forth between work and school.

He decided to take it in to the shop and see how much it would cost to fix it. There was another thing going on with the wheel bearing that we were going to have checked out as well. In total is was going to be over $1,000. We didn't have the money for both, so the guy told us the problem with the air conditioner was a small little sensor that cost less than $13 for the part. He told Ethan it was something he could actually change himself. So what does Ethan do? He took that as a challenge.

Long story short, we bought the part and decided to tackle it. Ethan had found a YouTube video that went step-by-step on how to change out the sensor. Unfortunately, the sensor was smack dab in the middle of the dash and the very front, making it difficult to reach.

I was even able to be of some help! In order to pull the dash off, we had to pull of the gauge box (where the gas, oil, speed, etc. are located). Ethan had tried to get it out but wasn't having any luck. With my patience, and ingenuity, I was able to pop it out no problem, making it possible for us to pull the dash completely out.

Up to this point it had gone fairly smooth. We got the sensor changed and starting putting the dash back on. Right behind the gauge box is a square nut and bolt that attaches the dash to the frame. We got the dash put back on when the nut moved and fell in this metal box-like area that was almost impossible to get to. It took us almost 1.5 hours to get that nut back to where is needed to be. Luckily, I was small enough to climb in underneath the dash where the pedals are, used a little duck tape to attach the nut to my finger, and maneuvered my finger up through the box so Ethan could screw in the bolt. It worked!!!

The whole process took about 8 hours to totally finish and put everything back together, but saved us hundreds of dollars! I've said it a hundred times before, but I'm so thankful that I have a husband who is able to fix things himself, because it was a total blessing to not have to have someone else fix it. Who knows, if he decides dentistry isn't for him, he could always become a mechanic? Actually... I think we'll stick with dentistry!