2013

I've been terrible about blogging this year. Here is a quick look at some highlights of our year. 

We started the year off GREAT with an awesome trip to Florida. We LOVED it!

We were so excited to get our backyard finished and loved playing in it all summer long.

We celebrated with both my brother and Zach's brother as they got married over the summer. 

Here is us at Robert and Allison's wedding dinner.

And here we are celebrating Lucas and Melissa's wedding. 

(I feel bad I didn't get pictures of the couples. We got two great girls added to our lives this year and are so glad they take good care of our brothers and make them happy.)

The 4th of July with the Hintzes

And also with the Sheltons

Graham and Raiden celebrating their FOURTH birthday!

Graham was so excited to also have his Gebs cousins visiting from Colorado on his birthday.

 Graham started preschool in the fall and LOVES it!

Halloween! Cinderella and Optimus Prime

 Campbell's SECOND birthday!!

 Thanksgiving! Had fun with the Sheltons, Gebs, and Zenks.

 Visiting temple square

And of course, one of the best things this year was finding out baby Benson is on his way!!! We're all excited to meet him in about 10 more weeks. Hopefully sooner ;)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 

New Front Room "Stuff"

I have had all of these things done for a long time now but just haven't blogged about them before. I recently had a few people tell me they were looking at my blog, so that gave me the incentive to put some new pics on here so you can see that my house is looking better than the previous pictures. 

Here is the front room before-

And here it is now. I'm lucky to have a crafty, manly husband. I just told him what I wanted and he built these window boxes for me. I love them. I think it gives the room a finished look and it hides the $5 bent curtain rods that are behind them ;)

 

( Photo bombed by a cute baby.)

I also got a new chair. I had another chair there for over a year that was an old chair I bought from DI. I had fabric to reupholster it, that had just been draped over the chair for the entire time it had been in this room. (Ugly.) However, I think the reupholstering is going to be much more ambitious than I thought, so I kind of gave up on it. I got this new chair and the old chair is now sitting in our bedroom, still waiting to be reupholstered. 

I found this fabric I love that I'm thinking about making a lumbar pillow with. Like this- It's just draped around an old pillow. Hmmm. Still thinking... Not quite sold...

I've also been searching for 2 years for a rug by the front door and I finally found one at Home Goods (My favorite store!). I didn't think to get a picture of it but you can see it in the corner here-

 I also love shopping at Z Gallerie. And while a lot of their stuff is on the pricey side, they have some really great, inexpensive accessories.

I got this porcelain flower for only $5 

And I got this giant jack for $9. I've seen these all over but I don't care, I still love it. 

I was almost to the end of my "to-do" list for this room. But the longer I think about it the more things get added to the list. So who knows if it will ever really be "done". :)

P.S. You can read about my DIY paneled wall here and my DIY tufted ottoman here.

  P.P.S. Disclaimer... I am not pretending to be a designer or a big blogger or anything. I just love decorating my house and want to share it with my family and friends. I don't want it to seem like I am tooting my own horn or saying "look how great my house is!" I just want to show you my favorite hobby. :)

Pillows and Paint

I FINALLY got around to painting our family room! The old paint has been haunting me for 2 years.  White ceilings and a light gray on the walls (Benjamin Moore's Abalone) make the room feel so much lighter and brighter and happier. It is literally a relief for me! 

Here is a reminder of how it looked before- those horrid beige walls and the pillows, well I was just tired of the pillows.

And here it is now-

My favorite color combo these days in blue and green. I found this fabric on fabric.com

You can see here the new paint on the left and the old paint on the right.

Ahhhhhhhhh. That's better. 

Disneyworld!!

We had the most awesome vacation at the end of January. Because of Zach's awesome sales last year, he earned an all expense paid trip for our family to Florida for 7 days! (Thanks for working hard honey!) We did all the major parks. Our kids were SO well behaved and surprisingly we were able to stay out longer and do much more than we thought we would. 

Magic Kingdom

Clockwise from the top: --Zach and Graham watching the parade. --Graham getting ready to go on Winnie the Pooh ride. --Campbell and I in front of the Beast's castle. --Inside the Be Our Guest restaurant with some friends. The restaurant was SO FUN! --Dance party in Tomorrow land.

Other highlights of Magic Kingdom: Our boat stalling on the jungle cruise. Graham sleeping all through Pirates of the Caribbean, even when water splashed on his face. Watching the fireworks with our friends the Petersons and having them directly over our heads! It was magical. 

Universal Studios

Universal studios highlights: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Such awesome scenery and a ca-razy ride inside Hogwarts castle (on which Zach and I both got motion sick). Playing in Dr Seuss land. Graham naming a newly hatched baby dinosaur in Jurassic park- (he said Tiny but somehow they heard Valerie.?) Taking Campbell on Cat in the Hat, her first ride ever. She was terrified and crying and clawing at me to hold her. They kept stopping the ride and telling us to sit down. Bad idea. 

Downtown Disney

The last day we walked around Downtown Disney and did some souvenir shopping. We also ate at Rainforest Cafe which the kids thought was really fun. Graham had been dying all week to meet Cinderella, but we never did. This made him happy though to take his picture with the fake Cinderella.

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios highlights: Graham meeting two of his favorite peeps, Jake and Handy Manny. Taking Graham on the Toy story ride- it's one of my favorites and Graham loved it too. Watching the car stunt show. Taking pics with Lightening McQueen and Mater- two major celebrities in our house. Eating lunch at Pizza Planet. 

Epcot

Epcot highlights: Watching the dolphins play and swim in the underwater viewing tank- they kept coming right up to us in the glass. Losing our brand new camera and then miraculously meeting the worker who found it and was holding it behind his counter. Eating lunch in "Germany", the scenery inside the restaurant was amazing! (see above for a small glimpse). Meeting Snow White.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom Highlights: The Safari and seeing the animals close up. Meeting Mickey Mouse! Seeing the Nemo musical and the Lion King musical. 

Overall, it was better than we imagined! PERFECT warm weather all week and non-stop fun! We are so grateful we were able to experience it all as a family.

Kitchen Update, Another One.

Let me add a quick disclaimer... I am not pretending to be a designer or a big blogger or anything. I just love decorating my house and want to share it with my family and friends. I don't want it to seem like I am tooting my own horn or saying "look how great my house is!" I just want to show you my favorite hobby. :)

I've done a few more things to my kitchen. And I know it seems silly but I just hated those other pictures of my kitchen that are on this blog so I wanted to get some new ones on. 

Here is our kitchen when we first moved in two years ago. 

And here it is today.

The light blue walls and white ceiling really help lighten the room. ( The paint color in our house has given me anxiety since the day we moved in. I'm slowly getting all the rooms changed and painted. Let's just say, the paint swatch I chose when we built our house looked VERY different than what ended up on the walls. )

 (The yellows are off in these pictures. They are not nearly as bright and deep as it appears here.)

Here was my inspiration picture that I saw on HGTV design star. I loved the blue and yellow and the feminine touches. I still want new light fixtures, a few more accessories, and some accent chairs for the ends of the dining table.