March

So, after Kade saw how wonderful I made the Barbie house look, he asked why I didn't make his house look that good. Well, he asked for it . . . . .I started in on our house. These pictures don't do all of the changes justice, but I thought I'd post them anyways, to kind of give you and idea of what we did. It started with me just wanting new carpet. But then we decided we better replace the hard floor surfaces first, which then led to replacing toilets and vanitites in the bathrooms, which then led to getting a new bath surround so the tub didn't look out of place, which finally led to new carpet and paint throughout the upper floor of our house. I was so excited about it, that I scheduled out carpet and new vinyl intalls too close together and we worked ourselves to death for two weeks straight. But we are happy with the results so far and will be even happier when all the details are finished.

Laundry room before (I like to think of this room as outer darkness.) It was so gross and obviously divided from the rest of the house.


New laundry room floor (ignore all the clutter-I've been catching up on long over due laundry:) I will also still be painting the cabinets black in here at some point to finishe this room up as well as putting trim back up.


Old Master bathroom (I forgot to take pics when the toilet and sink were still in here) The old sink was painted white (and it wasn't done well, there were dried paint drips all over it, and the toilet was old and didn't have the best flush power.)


New master bathroom. I still need to finish doing touch up paint and we think we might take the shower doors off and just hang a nice curtain that coordinates with everything. But I love the new paint color. My bathroom is feels so calming instead of sterile now.


This is the old guest bathroom. Kade was working on getting the old sink out. It was painted a 'lovely' green and the counter top was white with gold veins running throuh it. This toilet was also old and didn't have very great flush power. Brancyn was such a good helper. He thought to go and get the flashlight on his own and held it for Kade to see under the sink. He is soooo into Kade's tools.


This is the almost there new guest bathroom. Kade still has to intall the faucet for the sink and the new tub surround that you can see leaning agains the wall.

This is the old dining room. We ripped out gray kitchen carpet. Whoever thought of kitchen carpet was crazy. It is such a pain!

Here is the new kitchen flooring. It isn't hugely different in coloring from what we had in the kitchen before, but it is a little warmer color and a way better pattern not to mention it flows from the kitchen into the dining room and then into the laundry room-not three different floor types anymore!!

We had to move the kitchen appliances out twice. Once for the new vinyl and again for the new vinyl:) (They didn't patch the floor very well the first time and had to come back and do some more patching). Brancyn watched the whole process (we had to take the fridge doors off to get it out of the kitchen) So by the second time around, he was ready with his tools and knew right where to go to work!

This is the old living room. Not bad. It's just the carpet was super light colored and showed everything, it didn't have good padding either, and there was a huge outdated hutch that divided the room in half.


New living room. It has beautiful carpet with nice thick pad. The color hides everything, yay! I still haven't decided how to set up this crazy sized room (now that the hutch has been removed, it is 12' x 32' ) But I've been thinking of some ideas and I'll have it worked out in no time. In the mean time, I'm enjoying the absolutly luxurious feel of new carpet!!

Well, like I said, Kade asked for it and he got it. I did almost all the same things as in the Barbie house. New paint, carpet and vinyl!

February-March
A family in our ward gave us a doll house a few weeks ago. They're kids are all grown and gone and they thought we might be able to get more use out of it. So we made plans to redecorate it for Brylee's birthday.

This is the before . . . .


Here is an after of the kitchen. We (the kids and I) made curtains that open and close, a tablecloth, and plates with different food items painted onto each side. We also added hooks for the dishtowels.


We made a clock for the kitchen and Liberty had the idea to paint the time that Brylee was born on it-so that's what we did.


The house came with the wood furniture, but we made couch cushions that could be removed and little throw pillows, we also paintd a vase and put flowers in it for the coffee table. I painted on windows with scenes of quaking aspens, mountains, clouds, etc.


We also found these cute little frames at the dollar store and put acutal family pictures in them for Brylee. They are attached to the wall with poster putty so she can rearrange all she wants.


We made a big girls room complete with clothing chese, t.v., robe hooks, and mirror.


We made a baby girls room with a clothes chest, coat hooks, a picture of Jesus on the wall and a pink puppy.

And we made a Ken room again with a clothing chest, mirror, tv, and robe hooks.

We had a fun time decorating it (that was always my favorite part of playing dolls when i was growing up-setting up the house). The kids couldn't wait to see what Brylee thought and they also wanted to play with it sooo bad. We'll see if they can keep the secret until Brylee's birthday.

February 21, 2010

Michelene had her baby today! Hunter and Brielle came to our house last night for an impromptu sleepover while Mich and Shaun headed off to the hospital. Mich was in labor but slowed down when they gave her some antibiotics. So the put her on Pit and that got things moving again. She had baby Archer Sunday Morning.

Brancyn and Brielle enjoyed some tub time Sunday morning while we waited for news from mom and dad.


This is a picture of baby Archer when he is two weeks old. ( I didn't get pictures until then). Anybody that knows the daddy of this kid would say there is NO question who he belongs to:)


Brylee meeting her new cousin.


Liberty having her turn


Kayson had a turn too, but I missed it while I was off getting dinner on the table.

February 13-14, 2010

Liberty already had herV-day box made, so the rest of the kids wanted one too. Kade helped Kayson make a pirate ship and Brylee and Brancyn got boxes with hearts all over them. Then the kids exchanged Valentine's They got cards, candy, and even money from each other:) Mom and Dad also stuck a few cards and candies in there for them.




We stopped by Grammy's on Saturday to say hi. She had these cute little Valentine's for the kids. They were dog bowls with bones in them. The bones of course were candy and had cute little sayings on them. They were a total hit with the kids! Thanks Grammy!

Brylee, Kayson, Liberty

Brancyn and Brylee

Finally the kids get a box of chocolates from mom and Dad.

Kade was sweet and got me a neck and shoulder massager. It's a pretty good one. He did a lot of research trying to find the best one. I think it will get a lot of use around here.

Poor Kade only got an extension cord-not very romantic, but something he really needed and has already used (not to mention, that massager was a little bit of a for you/for me gift-he's also hoping to get a lot of use out of it :0).

February 9-12,2010

Liberty had to make a Valentine's box this year. I was just going to glue hearts and stuff all over a box and call it good, but Kade said we had to be more creative (there was a contest in her class) So I tried to get my creative juices flowing, and this is what I came up with. I was pretty impressed with myself ;) So were Liberty and Kade. Liberty even said I thought I was just going to bring something boring, but this is cool (score for mom!)

Liberty's Cheshire Love Day Cat.


Cheshire

Kayson made a big heart envelope in his class and he came home with it loaded! He was pretty impressed with this Valentines business!

February 5-10,2010

So while we were in the middle of building an office, we also got into the middle of redoing counter tops. Our old counter tops cracked, so we started looking at trying to fix or replace them. We found they couldn't be fixed, so we decided we were going to just have to replace them with laminate (that is all we could afford) Then someone told us the insurance might cover them, so we started looking into it. And yes, they did (at least a portion of it.) They covered the cracked piece, which is the largest in piece including the sink and bar. So we decided to replace them with Corian which was close to what we had. Now we have new countertops with a ten year warranty on them!!!

Before


After


I love these countertops. I like deeper colors and even though my kitchen is pretty, I wouldn't have picked such light colored cabinets, so these dark counter tops kind of set them off. The countertops still have flecks of gold that match the cabinets, so it all ties in.

February 2-14, 2010
Kade accepted a new job this month. It is a work from home job, so that means we took on the project of getting an office put together for him. These are the starting pictures. We portioned off some of our storage room for him.

This is what we started with.


Here is that section framed

And here it is with sheet rock and in the process of being mudded.

I'll post the final pics when we are done. It isn't a really big space (not much bigger than his old cubicle-about 7ftx8ft) but we think it will do the job and it is fun to see the room transform. Kade starts his new job on Tuesday-wish us luck!!!!

February 4, 2010

We got to go and give the new play place at the Craze Fun Zone a "test" run tonight. The kids had a blast and haven't stopped asking to go back!

Liberty


Kayson


Brylee

January 15-19, 2010

We went to visit Gillian and her family and Tressie in Boise this weekend. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time and . . . .


AAAHHhhhhhh!!! I chopped off my hair!
Ya, really chopped it! It's gone:) I like the cut, but am still getting used to it. I'm honestly debating chopping off a little more. the cut is actually kind of a super shot a-line at the top. I end up just tucking the long pieces behind my ears all of the time though, so I'm debating chopping the a line off- I don't know. I really love the ease of the hair-do, but I'm still trying to figure out how to keep it out of my face when I'm doing housework, etc.

While we were in Boise, the kids had their first experience at Chuck E. Cheese's. It was a total hit. They loved it. And I didn't have such a bad time myself.

We also checked out the Idaho Discovery Center while we were there. It was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Brancyn and Gavin

Liberty, Kayson, and Tressie playing with the green screen. Harry Potter and his invisibility cloak have nothing on these guys:)

January 3, 2010

Today is Brancyn's first day of Nursery, yay!!!!! I guess he thought he would help things along by putting on his Nursery war paint right before church. Little stinker.

December 30-31, 2009

We invited Elena's kids over for a sleepover on the 30th. We had Kate, Carter, and Halle come over. The kids had fun playing games, and watching movies. They didn't settle down until about 12:30 (That sure made it hard for some of them to make it until midnight the next night:) The next morning we went out to try out our new sleds from Grammy and Grampy. The weather had cooperated and dumped quite a few inches on us the day before (so the grass was finally covered). The kids had a ball. Smith park was perfect, not too big or too small. We played for a good hour. Even Brancyn stuck it out and had a lot of fun. We finally called it quits, but just a minute too late. Kate was taken out by the boys on one of their last runs. Poor girl, she went flying. Thank goodness she wasn't hurt, just super scared. We went home and enjoyed some hot cocoa and lunch and then sent the kids home to get ready for their own New Year's Eve plans.


Loot at those rosy cheeks!


I somehow didn't get any pictures of our new years eve. We had my sister and her family over as well as a mutal friend's family. We enjoyed games while the kids played downstairs. It was slow paced (we had two very pregnant womet there:), but fun. The power went out about 11:30, so we toasted in the new year by lantern light. Finally it was off to bed, we all needed a good sleep-in, luckily the kids cooperated.

December 25, 2009

Well, we got home last night and got our stocking laid out, read our Christmas stories, and jumped into bed just in time. Santa came!!! Our Christmas pictures turned out fuzzy this year, we must have had the cmaera on the wrong setting, so I'm only posting a couple.

Liberty, Kayson, Brylee, and Kayson waiting to open presents, but already eating treats from their stockings:)

I got some slippers for Christmas. Brancyn was watching me open them and when he saw what they were, he immediately lifted his own foot for them. What a nut.

After we opened our gifts, which included the finished and beautiful quilts for the kids beds that I made!!! We had breakfast of pancakes with strawberry/raspberry jam and whip cream and then packed up and headed out for Grammy's. We enjoyed board games, play time, movies, good food, and a night over at Grammy's. Quin and Natalie stayed until the next day, so we also got a good visit in with them. It was a nice Christmas, but I'm glad the hustle and bustle is over.

December 24, 2009

Quin and Natalie decided to drive back up from California for Christmas, so we waited to do the Nativity this year until Christmas Eve. It was a little crazy and rushed (we had to get home to bed so Santa could come), but we pulled it off.

Grammy & Grampy -Deidra, Kade, Quin, Natalie, & Cameron
Jarom, Elena, Alyssa, Kayson, Liberty, Emily, &Bryon
Carter, Brancyn, Brylee, Kate, & Halle



Kayson and Liberty got to be Joseph and Mary this year and little Cameron was baby Jesus

December 18, 2009

Today was soooo busy, but a lot of fun. We started the day off with Liberty's Christmas program at 9:00 a.m. It was adorable. The second grade sang and danced for us. I was so excited that they did a program this year, I've been waiting for her to do one ever since she started school:) Grammy came up to watch and offer her support.

Here is Liberty in her cute little elf hat.


Next, I headed off to Kaysons class as 10:00 for his class Christmas party. I was in charge of the snack/treat. We made cute little snowmen out of banana slices, apples, mini chocolate chips raisins, and pretzels. The kids seemed to enjoy making them and enjoyed eating them even more. I also sent them home with a little baggie of chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies.

Kayson with his snowman.

Later that afternoon, Liberty had her Christmas piano recital. She did an awesome job. Grammy again drove up to support Liberty (and Liberty felt pretty special).

Liberty dressed in her Christmas dress after the performance.

Then to finish off the night and next day, we had visitors. My two best friends Nicole and Tiffany came for a girls night at my house. We enjoyed a nice dinner, games, and lots of visiting. This was also my first chance to meet Tiff's cute little guy, Bently.

Nicole, Tiffany, and Bently

My Aunt Karen and Uncle Allan also stayed at our house that night ( they were picking their girls up from BYU-I). I enjoyed a quick visit with them over breakfast before they were on their way.

December 12, 2009

Now that Grandma has the internet at home, we thought it would be fun to wish her a happy birthday online. Hope you have a great birthday Mom, we love you!!!

December 1, 2008.

I apologize it has been sooo long since i posted. In about the middle of October, I got the hair-brined idea to make some MAJORLY time consuming gifts for my kids for Christmas. I usually do a homemade something or other for them. But, this was above and beyond any other year. I won't post what it is right now, 'cuz Liberty reads this blog from time to time. Anyways, I finally finished the projects!!! They are wrapped and stashed away. I feel so relieved to have them done in time. So, that is why I haven't even looked at blogging for a good little while. Hope you enjoy the updates.