2012 Olympics

I love the Olympics. Seriously love the Olympics. While they are going on I have the TV on non-stop no matter what events are playing. (And really, I'm not that into watching sports so, go figure). This year Zach and I wanted to throw an opening ceremony party. Then we realized he would be out of town for work. At the last minute I decided to do it without him and called up my family. Luckily I have a nerdy FUN family like me so they were all for it.

My Team USA decor

Our menu was themed 'Team USA' as well with fried chicken, potato salad, corn bread, and watermelon, and apple pie for dessert. 

I really made my family get into it by painting our faces! (I know, we are nerdy FUN!)

Robert made me promise this picture wouldn't end up on facebook. Nope! Just the blog Rob. :)

 My mom had the idea that we should all make our own family flag. Here is ours. All the things we love: the temple, Jesus Christ, Disney, a tractor (for Graham), electronics (for Zach), decorating (for me), smiling (for Campbell), and being together as a family.

(Notice Campbell wouldn't allow her face to be painted so we painted her foot.)

 Jessica and Zach's flag. Fancy!

 Grandpa's flag we made for him. (and no, that's not an L. It's a Z! )

Shelton flag, made by Melinda. 

Go USA!

Ha ha

My husband is a funny guy. I mean really funny. I laugh out loud at him daily. Life with him is fun. He recently decided to start his own blog. He needed a comedic outlet besides his wife (too many eye rolls and "that one was a 'dad' joke" from me I guess :) 

Check it out!

www.surfacelevelthoughts.blogspot.com

Graham's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe my little baby boy is 3!!  I really can't, and look at him! He doesn't look like a baby anymore. He's lost that cute little baby face and looks like a grown up boy now. (tear!)

He had a great birthday weekend. On Sunday we celebrated with the Hintzes and on Monday he woke up, opened presents, we went swimming, and then had another party with the Sheltons.

 If any of you have talked to Graham in the last few months, I'm sure he has told you all about his "shaking combine" that he wanted for his birthday. Well, he got it and he couldn't stop smiling. It was so cute!

Birthday candles in pancakes :)

Trying out his new big boy bike in the kitchen.

Playing pin the wheel on the tractor with cousins Milika and Zuki

Combine cake

Graham loves his cousin (2nd cousin) Zuki!! Isn't she gorgeous?

I can't tell you how much I love my little boy! He is so funny, he makes me laugh every day. He is so so smart, and so nice to his baby sister, and so full of energy. He never stops talking and I love that he always has something to say. I saw a poster that made me think of Graham. It said "so many of my smiles start with you." Happy birthday Graham!

DIY 6 - Master Closet Spice Up

One of my favorite features about our house is the closet sizes. Each room has a great walk in closet. The master closet is especially large. I think it is literally the size of Graham's bedroom in our last apartment. I've been dreaming of spicing it up ever since we moved in. 

Here's how it looked before:

White, messy, boring. 

And here is how it looks now:

I stenciled the back wall, painted my dresser in a fun teal color and added hardware. I couldn't get a shot that showed the true color of the dresser. Here is a swatch of the color:

For the hardware, I fell in love with these pulls from Anthropologie about a year ago. My original thought was to do the whole dresser with these. But at $8 a pull that really added up. So I decided to just buy two and do some great and less expensive handles for the rest. Here is a close up of the handles from Anthropologie: 

What's cool about them that I didn't realize from the online picture is that each one is slightly different.

I also added some simple hooks on the walls for hanging necklaces.

 I love having color and pattern in there. My other plans for this room include painting Zach's dresser gray and adding chunky manly looking pulls, getting a cool light fixture, adding a large mirror, getting replacement shoe storage- not diggin the laundry baskets we use :) ,  and possibly adding a window treatment.

DIY 5 - Mini Kitchen Update

We recently did a little kitchen update. We added a backsplash and hardware. I took a while doing this because I wasn't sure what type of blacksplash I wanted to do. I ended up going with a plain white subway tile. Classic, won't go out of style, and goes with anything, even if/when we change our counters. 

Here are the before shots:

And the after shots:

I'm happy with how they turned out. They black splash was a half DIY. We hired someone to make all the cuts and put the tile up and then the next day we grouted and caulked it all ourselves. 

Also, I changed up the empty area next to our fridge. Here is what it used to look like:

And this is how it looks now. It's not very pretty yet. I have some different organizers in mind and I need to ditch the orchid ( I am way too impatient to keep it until it blooms again!)

Also, I got this picture a long time ago but never blogged about it. I put it in the kitchen and I LOVE it. I first tried doing a DIY project I saw on Pinterest about how to blow up huge black and white prints for about 7 bucks. But the picture looked terrible. Cheap and pixely. This is definitely more expensive but much better. :)

My future plans for the kitchen include: beautifying the desk area, changing out the pendant lights and the light above the kitchen table, different barstools, and some upholstered chairs for the ends of the  kitchen table.