Family

Well we just got back from Disneyland and we had a GREAT time! The weather was awesome (sorry about the snow here hehe) and we had tons of fun. I still have to download and edit my pics but here are some pics of a few weeks ago.

My sweet nephew Everett was blessed a few weeks ago and Jon and Julie live near us so we had everyone over to our house after the blessing and lunch.                  The kiddos played outside and Lissie loved picking the flowery weeds in our grass.                        Grandpa and Taylor on our neighbor’s swings.

                   I held Everett most of the day/evening and I loved it. He is the cutest thing ever and he is so good tempered. Look at his amazing eyes!               We had leftovers from Everett’s blessing lunch and it was really fun. I absolutely love having people in my home. It was weird how happy it made me to have so many people and kids running around our home. I feel so blessed to have a home and even more blessed to have great family to share it with.

             I almost feel flattered when people make themselves comfortable in my home. I love it when they are at ease enough to get a drink from the fridge or dig around for something to eat! Some people might feel weird if guests were doing that, but I love it!  Debbie has started doing Tai Chi to help with her muscles and stretching and everyone teases her. She’s teaching the boys some sweet moves here.     Watching some Shrek 2 after dinner and playing outside.                          Lissie, Everett and Wellyn. Lissie’s eyes looked funky in both pictures I took!              Just enjoying some Shrek with Grandpa on the couch. Taylor LOVES Grandpa Hill and follows him around! It’s so stinkin’ cute!

Loads of Fun

I’m definitely not done with the laundry room yet but I’ve made some progress and it could still be a few weeks until I finish up so I wanted to post some updates.

Here are some lovely before shots of the laundry room at its worst. There was a weird laundry room sign outlined in white paint and an ugly shelf that was too tall even for Danny (and we know he doesn’t spend any time in here).                             It’s a pretty small room, but I’m glad to have it! The mini blinds were dirty and gross and the walls were all patchy and plain.              Now here it is after some paint and a few updates!                                  I painted the walls and I LOVE the color. The blue/gray is gorgeous and I might have to use it somewhere else now too! Even Dan likes it and he’s not a fan of blue.

I took down the weird vinyl and added my own cute saying I found online. 

                                  I also took down the huge shelf and patched and cleaned up the walls. I was just going to do some sort of tie up curtain, but I found these amazing grasscloth (I think?) roman shades on sale at Lowes. Holy smokes I am so happy about them. This one was regularly $56 and I got it for $6.25! I’m not kidding! I about died with joy.                  Dan hung them for me and I love them! The texture is awesome and I loved throwing away the gross mini blinds. Since they were pretty long for the window, I put some hooks on the top inside of the window and made some loops and glued them on the inside of the shades so I can hook them up when I want the window open more. It’s hard to explain but because the shades were extra long, they didn’t pull open all the way. But this works great for me!                        Now I still need to get some unfinished double oak cabinets from Lowes and paint them white and put beadboard wall paper on the doors kinda like this:                                   I’ll probably paint the inside of the cabinets a lighter shade of the blue wall color just because I like it. :) The double cabinets will go above the washer here:        

                                  Then a bar for hanging shirts will go above the dryer here:

                 

Kinda like this:                                                     

                          Then I just need to get some organization for an ironing board and brooms/mops. We’re going to Disneyland next week (jealous anyone?) so it will probably be a few weeks until it’s totally finished. But I still love it like this for now!

Attention: Important Announcements

I’m pregnant.

Just kidding.

Buy one get one free Jamba Juice through April 25. Go here to get the coupon.

Buy one Dairy Queen Blizzard, get one for $.25 through April 25. Go here to get the coupon.

Union Pacific

We went to eat with Jon and Julie (Dan’s sister) and their two boys last weekend in downtown Ogden. There is a lot going on down there and after dinner we walked down the street to check out the Union Pacific station. Wellyn was in love (and so was Danny!). It was really cool to see the huge trains and run around and climb on them. Perfect for a 3 (or 23) year old little boy.

     Wellyn and Jon climbing up the train! Wellyn and I checking things out. I was scared he was going to jump off the top! He has no fear.                                          Posing as the conductor….

Heavenly.

I made these sweet treats this weekend and they were heavenly.            It made a ton and luckily we had family over on Sunday to help finish them off! If you like peanut butter and chocolate, please make these immediately. You won’t regret it.

Until you step on the scale.  

The yard before…

I need to post some before pictures of our yard because we’re doing a lot of work on it and we’re really excited about how it’s hopefully going to turn out! Right now it’s a pretty big mess and these pictures were taken after Dan had already hacked through the 3 feet tall weeds that were all over.                                                                        This is the east side of our house and they didn’t ever plant grass in most of it so Dan killed the grass and weeds and dug it all up and we’re going to put down sod there and maybe eventually put in a cement pad.                  I have big plans for the front porch, door and flower beds. I am going to paint the front door and build a bench for the porch. We’re getting a double rocker and I’ll put some flower pots on the porch as well. I want hanging baskets on either side of the porch steps and we’ll put in a flower bed on the right side of the porch and around the side of the house.                        Backyard view (that’s our neighbor’s swing set in the picture). The back was a forest and we are going to tear out a lot of the sod/weeds and replace it with fresh sod. We’ll have to see bare patches and get rid of the weeds! Ahhhh!           The dreaded pit. We didn’t know this was here until we bought the house! It was filled with weeds, trees (a Christmas tree), mice and a mole! But Dan cleared it out and we have plans to turn it into a fire pit area and I can’t wait!                             The back door. I need to stain the steps and pain the back door and trim. We’re going to tear out most of the weeds/grass in this picture and put flower beds (except for right in front of the cement area which will be sod). Lots of work!     Hopefully our yard will be beautiful like these at some point! I love the bright colors, hanging baskets and little bushes. Too bad I have to work all day or I would become obsessive about the yard! I can’t wait to get it all done!             Here is some general ideas of our fire pit area. We’re going to do gravel/stone for the floor then build a small retaining wall around the fire pit area with room for benches and chairs. Then we’ll build the stone fire pit in the center.

Updates:

The laundry room looks awesome and I LOVE the color (Behr Smokey Blue). I still need to do the trim and finish everything else then I’ll post pictures. We had friends over Saturday and family over Sunday so I didn’t get a lot done. I decided to put bead board wallpaper on the front of the cabinets and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. I also found some really cool bamboo/grasscloth shades at Lowes I want to use in there. They were regularly $56 and I got them for $7! Holy schnikies I love it!

Macey’s is having their case lot sale through April 27 and they have a lot of really good deals. I bought a bunch of food and some food storage buckets, gamma lids, and 5 gallon water buckets. I need more shelves for my expanding food storage!

Love me some Bountiful Baskets

 

I heard about Bountiful Baskets from another blog (can’t remember whose), but I decided to check it out this week and I loved it so I wanted to share! Basically it’s a food co-op that allows you to contribute and then get a ton of fresh produce for a lot less than the grocery store. It’s completely run by volunteers which is amazing (you are encouraged to volunteer) and there are tons of pick up sites across Utah as well as Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Washington.              In order to get a basket, you have to log on to their site here on Tuesdays starting at noon (you may have to double check but I think this is the time). Then you can choose your pick up site and what you want to order. The regular baskets are $15 and then you can add bread, strawberries and other seasonal food.                                                  I picked up my basket on Saturday at 8:15 am and it was only a few minutes from my house. I had to wait about 15 minutes but it was so efficient and I was amazed at what I got:

• roma tomatoes
• 3 heads of broccoli
• bunch of bananas
• squash
• yams
• romaine lettuce
• strawberries
• blackberries
• apples
• oranges
• onions
• pineapple

I think that’s everything but I might forget a few things! We had a salad last night with the lettuce and tomatoes and it was delish! The apples and strawberries were also amazing and I’m really excited about it! I ended up paying exactly $19.50 for taxes/processing and a first time fee. But I think I got a lot more than I paid and I love having fresh yummy food to eat. So go check it out!