Sunday, January 31, 2010

Projects, Projects

Please forgive my hiatus from blogging. I have been up to my eyeballs in projects. And we are still not done. But we have been progressing nicely and I am loving the way my house is looking these days. All of my dreaming and scheming is starting to come to fruition.

This is what our stairs have looked like for the past 5 years. Las Vegas streets are so dirty. If you go outside barefoot at all, your feet are covered in black. And my stairs have paid the price for all of that blackness, especially the first four steps. So I decided a while ago that I wanted wood stairs. Here is the before picture.




So we had to get everything ready for the floor guy. We painted the base boards upstairs for the hallway that was getting re-floored also.


And we repainted the hallway twice. I picked the wrong color, so we had to do it again the next day. I will spare you the pain of the first color. It is best forgotten as quickly as possible.

Voila! New pictures on the wall, a little rearranging, a new rug...and it is like I have a new house.



This is looking towards the stairs. You will noticed a barely painted green wall. That is on my list for this week. I hope to get it done before we have visitors this coming weekend for Raef and Zach's baptism. I am not done, so that is why there is still junk on the counter. It is my painting things.

Oh yeah, I forgot. We originally picked flooring that did not match. He put in the stairs and I about threw-up when I saw it and it sunk in. So, I had to get it redone. Luckily, it didn't cost that much more to fix the mistake. Thank goodness!



I also put up picture frames to complete the entire wall going up the stairs. I am now in the process of picking out my favorite pictures to put in these frames. It is going to be fantastic when it is done.



And life moves on with the kids. Here is Eli taking a bath.



And Zach reading a book today, since he can't watch tv or play the Wii. What is a boy to do?


Julia is still in her car seat sleeping, even as I write this blog.



And I thought I would include this little video of Eli talking. You can hear all of the chaos in the background. My house sounds like that all day. Don't let the crying scare you off.



What is left for me to do, you might ask? Okay, I want to repaint my bedroom, Eli's bedroom, and the nursery. I need to make new curtains, put up bead board, find a girly quilt for Julia's room, re-organize my kitchen, and update my food storage. Hmmm, what else? Oh yeah, I want to re-upholster these brown chairs I have with some cool fabric I got for a song and a dance, and make my play kitchen. I have the entertainment center and now all I need to do is find a silver bowl for a sink and a faucet that will fit.

Fun times are ahead, but I really am looking forward to completing these tasks.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Stronger Than I Think

Well, it is a new day and it is pouring down rain outside. I love it. I love the smell of rain and the cozy feeling, staying in the house. In Las Vegas, you do not get much variation of weather. It is usually hot and hotter, sunny and sunnier. But not this week.

I have been busy with my Olympic Challenge and so far I have been successful. I have eaten under my calories so that I can lose weight, and as hard as it has been to fit it in, I have been able to exercise for 4 days straight. I have been surprised at myself and how easy it has been to stay away from the treats and junk.

I guess I am stronger than I thought. But I know I need to just take this one day at a time.

My clothes are going to fit soon.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Do and Re-do

Well, the last couple of days have been quite interesting. I decided to do a few home improvement projects with my wonderful husband. And I really mean that, he is quite wonderful. We are getting wood flooring put in tomorrow on the stairs and in the hallway upstairs. So, naturally I felt the need to repaint the hallway. It had gotten dingy from little hands and wasn't quite as dark as I would have liked it to be.

Lucky for me, I had some leftover paint from Christi's house from a month ago. I really liked the color when I picked it out for her basement and it looked very nice on her walls. I started to paint our walls and Rinar said it looked pink. I told him he was crazy. I knew for a fact it wasn't pink, so I just forged ahead. Then I had to stop when it was almost done for a baby feeding break. Rinar finished it up for me.

About an hour later I went to see the final result and I was horrified. I had a very pink hallway. No, I didn't take a picture. It is best forgotten as soon as possible.

Naturally, I had to repaint it. So guess what we did on Saturday? I did a lot of it, but Rinar once again helped me a lot. He also cleared out our walk-in closet and repainted it. Then we worked on putting in a new Closetmaid. It is totally awesome and I am excited to load it all in.

I love it when we have a productive weekend.


Thursday, January 14, 2010

Olympic Challenge

I decided it is time to get serious about losing the baby fat. I need my clothes to fit me again. So I have set up a blog, an Olympic Challenge. It is a competition with family and friends for 3 weeks. It starts on Sunday. If you want to join in on the fun, come take a look. Leave a comment if this is something for you.


Ladies Olympic Challenge!


Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A New Year of Neat Things

We had special visitors over the New Year. Jared, Melanie, Halle, Caleb, and Ava. It was lots of fun. They stayed at our house and we hung out. We also hosted a New Year's Eve party and it was fun having lots of friends over. That is a great way to ring in the new year.

Say hi to Jared...
Melanie and me posing with our new outfits we procured from the DI or as Angie likes to call it...Dezi's or the Bee Boutique.

Melanie found Stuart Weitzman heels that looked totally awesome on her. I found a great little blue purse that is worth a lot more than the $2 I spent on it.

Look at the kids...they had a blast together.

Eli...he is always such a happy kid. Can't you tell?

Aaaahhhh....this was a few days later. Dad and Eli together. What a cute couple.



I had a song practice with Jen M. for a number we sang together at church on Sunday. Eli and Jocelyn got in on the action.



And here are some cute pictures of Daddy with Julia. She looks like a little yoda, except much cuter.

She is all grins these days. When she smiles her little nose crinkles up and her eyes sparkle. Can't you see the twinkle in her eye?


Monday, January 11, 2010

When They Start Talking

Eli has been talking in complete sentences for several months now. There is only one problem. I don't have a clue what the kid is saying. And I think I am the worst person at comprehending the mutterings of my little tot.

Everyone else seems to know what he is saying and they will interpret for me occassionally. For instance, a week ago my sister stopped by on the way to Cedar City. Eli started blabbering to her about something and they had a good exchange of words. I was holding a baby and she came back to report the interaction. She told me that Eli said "I want a cookie. I want one for my other hand too." Okay, it might not have been exactly that, but it was along those lines.

Why am I the only person that can't understand what he is saying? This week I have really put an extra effort into understanding all of the words coming out of his mouth. I have made some headway, but I still think it is mostly a bunch of jibber jabber.

Monday, January 4, 2010

My Little Blessings

Here are some incredible pictures of my two little blessings in their blessing outfits. Gorgeous. I am very blessed to have such talented friends. Justin snaps the pictures and Lindsay keeps them happy. Justin is the best! If you need a "for-real" photographer, he is your guy. He works for the Las Vegas Sun as a photographer and does other things as well. The guy knows his stuff and is worth every penny.















p.s. My mom spent a million hours (or so) making her incredible blessing dress.
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