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. 

Graham's Room Update

I decided to start transforming Graham's room into more a big boy look. We painted, removed some "babyish" items, got a new bed spread and added new things to the wall. 

This was my inspiration picture. My room is not as great, but we're getting there.

Here it is before- Bad phone pics, sorry. (And messy room)

And here it is after--

This picture is a little blurry, but we found this cool clock at IKEA and also added a bulletin board for things Graham likes to keep in his room. 

Ok, this picture might not seem like much but I am very proud of this part. I found this inspiration picture on a design blog which I loved.

She paid $20 for each of her prints and about $50 for her white animal head. 

Well, I made all of my prints and found a less expensive animal head for about $20 so I am pretty stoked with the results and the price. 

I wanted a giant G on the wall and after debating how to do it I finally just free handed it. I got a large platter to draw the circle and then just measured out the rest. Don't look too hard, I know it's not perfect. 

His bed spread is something else I was super excited about. I had been lusting after a duvet cover from West Elm. It was about $60 and then there was tax and shipping on top of that equaling around $75. I had Zach's blessing but I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much on a duvet cover for a 3 year old that would most likely get ruined in a year or so. 

Here is the West Elm duvet:

THEN, I found this from Target:

Basically the exact same thing for so much less! $20- BAM. 

Here are Graham and Campbell enjoying the new pad.

I had to keep this photo in here, I can't get enough of Graham's face, he was laughing so hard :)

We still need to get a headboard. My inspiration picture used a pallet but I'm thinking pallets may be too trendy right now. I'll have to think about it. Also, as he gets older we'll continue to phase out the babyish things (ie the polka dot curtains) and replace them with new, more mature things. 

Seattle Trip

On November 10, Zach and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! We wanted to take a trip to celebrate and we wanted to go somewhere where we had never been before so we chose Seattle. We were only there 3 days and 2 nights so it was a quick trip, but it was fun to experience new things. 

We of course went to the space needle. We ate at the restaurant at the top which was so amazing! It slowly rotates, so over about an hour you get a full rotation and get to enjoy the view while eating fresh seafood. 

Seattle has a very interesting history. When the city was first built it had a lot of drainage issues and other things so after a fire occurred they decided to rebuild the city right on top of the old city. There are parts that you can take an underground tour of the old city. Some spots have been renovated and are in use today. It was a really interesting tour. I recommend it if you are ever in Seattle. 

Another MUST in Seattle was the Chihuly glass museum. SO AMAZING! These pictures are NOTHING compared to the real thing.

 

 We also hopped on the Washington State ferry and took a little ride across the bay. It was freezing! But beautiful!

Zach enjoying some potstickers at the market. 

Food was a major highlight of our trip. We had A LOT of really good food. There is nothing like FRESH fresh seafood. YUM.

For some reason, theater ticket prices are majorly inflated in Salt Lake City. When we saw that Wicked would be in Seattle at the same time as us, and at a MUCH cheaper price, we couldn't pass it up. We ate at Morton's Steakhouse before the show and let me just say, it was hands down the best meal I have ever eaten in my life. The staff there was amazing as well. They knew we were celebrating our anniversary and printed us our own menu with our name and anniversary date on the front. They also took our picture and gave it to us in a frame, we got a complimentary souffle for dessert, and we had multiple staff members come to ask if we needed help with parking or directions to the show. It was a definite splurge but totally worth it once every five years. :)

It was our first time seeing Wicked and we LOVED it! We had heard so much hype about it that we thought it wouldn't live up to expectations but, it did. :)

Five years went really fast! And yet we look back at how much has happened and we can't believe it's only been five years!

I love you Zach. You are my best friend and the love of my life. I couldn't ask to be married to a better person. Happy 5 years!

Christmas DIYs and Decor

The day after Thanksgiving I pulled out our Christmas decorations and realized how few decorations I had! And even of the few I had there were a lot that I didn't like anymore. (You know those, $2 decorations that you get for like 90% off after Christmas? I bought them because they were so cheap, not so necessarily because I liked them.)

So any who, I went to Hobby Lobby that night-- after the crazy crowds were gone for the day-- to get a few more decorations. I swear to you, it seems like they are clearing out Christmas decorations already! I went a couple of weeks ago and they had WAY more than they have now. That really bugs me. 

Anyway, anyway, so I didn't see much I liked so I decided to make a few decorations myself. I started with some styrofoam things, spray painted them red, and added some fake berries. 

The ball is done! Took a few hours. Not really cost effective after I added it all up, but I like it :)

Here it is in place. (Sorry for the terrible phone shots.)

I haven't finished decking out the entertainment center yet, but this is a start.

And here is the styrofoam tree after the berries were added. I LOVED the berries on the stems, they were so pretty. They don't look as amazing on the tree, but I still like it so I'll keep it. No, I'll definitely keep it because this thing was a pain in the butt to make! With the smaller ball there were wires that I just stuck into the foam. These balls didn't have wire so I had to glue them on and it took hours for the glue to dry. I had to do it section by section waiting hours in between. 

Here it is in place on the entry table-

I have never blogged about the wreath on my door before but I should. That's how much I love it. I use the same basic boxwood wreath all year round. Most of the year it is just plain - which I like, I'm a simple girl-- but during holidays I change out the berries and decor. I really love it. I wish I would have gotten a shot of the fall version before I switched it out. 

Here is the Christmas-y version of my wreath. 

Just for comparison, here is the Halloween version of my wreath-

Here's the front porch. I hate the wires!! But I don't know what to do with them?? I've got to do something.

By the way, I got these two potted Christmas trees for $43 dollars at Lowes online on black Friday. I got them BOTH for $43. Killer deal!!  ( Trust me, I looked around A LOT!)

I also did one more DIY Christmas tree. This one was MUCH easier and MUCH cheaper than the other two projects. I bought this Christmas tree form at Hobby Lobby for $4 and just Modge Podged scrapbook paper onto it. 

Here it is in place on top of the book shelf.

I have a lot more decorating to do but our house has been plagued with illness so it will just have to wait.

Merry Christmas and happy decorating! :)