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.

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!

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?

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.

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.

Merry Christmas Time

Every year, same time, but usually a different place. This year's Christmas Eve get-together was at Lani's house. We had fun celebrating Grandma's birthday and exchanging Christmas presents.


Lani and Jeff. Lani is pregnant with a girl! Expected arrival will be some time in May.

Obviously, matching my clothes did not make it high on my priority list. Oh well.

Nordel does not like the Yankees, FYI.


Lyf and Angie...

Gramdpa and Grandma...


Here is the recipient of my purse, Mary Jane. And she loooovvvveeesss her Kelly Bag.

Jayde with Harry. She loves holding my babies.

Ooh, so exciting, opening presents.



And the fun continued on Christmas Day. Eli was in no mood to wait. Let's get the show on the road!



And what you have all been waiting for...Raef opens his present from Santa Claus...

Kelly Bags

I have been busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas because I pulled out my sewing machine (my gift from Rinar last Christmas) to make some gifts for Christmas. I decided to make bags. It is kind of ironic, considering the fact that I have only owned a handful of bags in my lifetime. I think I just get annoyed at how expensive they are.



Please! If I were to add up the cost of the 5 purses shown in these pictures it would probably cost well under $15 to make all of them, even less than that, most likely. It is the time that is so costly. But I started to get the hang of it, so it came a lot easier with each new endeavor. I am especially enamored with ruffles right now. They are just too cute. The picture of the green purse doesn't do it justice because it has lots of ruffles you can't see and it is much brighter.



I even put my brand label inside. I have such an original name for my creations. They are called Kelly Bags.

I really enjoy making them. I have a few that I am planning on doing for some people. Who knows, it might be you. It doesn't hurt if you slather on the praise. I may be more inclined to whip one up for you. They make great scripture bags as well.

I love, love, love Erin's blog called Sutton Grace. I added her to my link list. Anyways, she loves to re-purpose things. It has helped me to rethink how I do things. Today I was at DI and I saw a whole stack of purses. But most importantly, I noticed the straps and hardware on the out-of-style bags. Guess what I bought today? I am so excited to get to work.