Monday, February 28, 2011

the trading post

the blog is up and running.

i'm freaking out!!!

check it out {and support me} here! :)

Sunday, February 27, 2011

picture-palooza of the re-do-of-the-house-a-palooza

ok i will admit: ty pennington is pretty good looking, but after this blog you'll see that he's got nothin on me!
i haven't really had any kind of life outside of our living room for the last few months. i sleep there, i eat there, i watch the wall pretending there is a tv there, and most of all i get things really messy and then try and fix it up before jessie notices.
here is the story of our living room transformation.
the first day jessie walked into our future home, i told her we would be renting... from this picture you would probably only want to rent too!
(weird cast iron over the fireplace, yes that's a paper plate covering a big hole, awesome!)
-notice the mantel is white-


isn't the carpet to die for??


my 1st project: i took out the bookshelves and stripped about 5 layers of paint off the mantel.


while jessie was in oklahoma i surprised her and started taking off the wall paper from our ceiling. why would anybody put wall paper on the ceiling??? there were 4 layers.


this is night 1


good thing jess isn't around


i have a great friend and co-worker who has every tool known to man and is a know-it-all at everything! he is amazing and cut out the holes for our can lights.
this is me thinking about what jess would be thinking about. confusing i know.


logan braves the very dusty attic


cans: check
wallpaper: still workin on it
(the white is clean ceiling)


let there be light!

i want to make wall paper an official swear word!
i stayed up til 1:30 monday night and 3 on tuesday night


one of the main reasons we wanted to get rid of the wallpaper is because we saw a huge crack through the paint in our ceiling and we guessed something bad was going on. here you can see the huge cracks going across the ceiling. we think there used to be a partition dividing the room and they took it out and tried to patch the ceiling, it lasted only so long.


boo for evil cracks!

hooray for strong mesh tape
love notes to jessie
once i realized i was not even gonna get close to finishing this project before jessie got home i decided to write some love notes on the ceiling to butter her up; soften the blow of not having a normal living room for a while. as you probably read a while ago she was thrilled to have the "evil wallpaper" gone.
more mesh tape
i work with the two greatest guys EVER!!
this is my principal cody foote. he used to be a drywaller before becoming a seminary teacher and he hasn't lost any of his skills. he was so good to come and save our house. he is the same one who saved our kitchen back when we took the evil wallpaper off the ceiling in there.
he put some intense mud over the mesh tape to cover all the cracks and when it dries it is as good as new
the mega cracks get a makeover
he also had to cover the gap where our walls meet our ceiling. yeah our house is ancient!
these bad boys are banned in california. coolest seminary principal ever!
max enjoying the plastic floor
cody then textured over everything. we are probably gonna name our little girl some hybrid of logan and cody to thank these guys for all their kindness.
it looks so good
i need longer arms... or stilts
what i will look like 30 years from now
what happens when i took an electric palm sander to the mantel
ready for the stain
max loves the stepladder
our temporary dining room and dinner table
red mahogany
varnish smells really bad
but it's really shiny!
booyah
our new dining room fan

it was a lot of work but we love our new living room!
we are almost done:
-still need to find a suitable replacement for our cast iron friend
-paint the brick cream like the walls
-paint some trim around the front door
-move on to the next project

Monday, February 21, 2011

the BIG reveal

remember the little surprise i had up my sleeve??

well, i think it's time for the big reveal:



i am thrilled about everything! the design, the layout, the response that i have gotten so far from etsy shop holders...i can't wait for kick-off week! the first official post will be monday, february 28th. {that's ONE week from today!} i have a week's worth of awesome giveaway's lined up, so be sure and check it out!! {and become a follower + tell EVERYONE you know about it!! :)}

the following week, trading will begin.
read all about how it works on the blog.
it's going to be awesome.
oh, and well you're at it, look through the blog and let me know if you have any questions!
i want to try and get all the kinks fixed before the big launch.

and lastly, if you or anyone you know would be interested in doing a giveaway, donating to the charity auction, or trading, let me know!!

so....what do you think?!?

Friday, February 18, 2011

baby shoes = cutest things ever.

i'm trying to think of ways to cheer myself up.
so, i decided to get working on these adorable little baby shoes again:



what do you think???
{even if you don't like them, tell me you do. haha. i can't take much criticism right now.}

they are super-duper easy to make, and i have about five more pairs all cut out, waiting to be sewn together.

our little girl is going to have some stylish kicks.
...now if only i could figure out how to make some for me...

boo for byu

i'm having a rough day.

mainly because:
1. the sun isn't shining.
2. this cold that i've been fighting is still hanging on.

and

3. the biggest kicker--i'm not graduating from byu in april anymore.

booooooooooooo.

according to an email that i just received from my counselor, i am 9.5 credits short of the required amount.
what i want to know is, why in the world did NO ONE ever mention this to me?!?

yeah. i'm a teeny tiny bit frustrated. i've been tracking my graduation on mymap and there it tells me that every requirement is complete. however, after talking with my counselor, she informed me that i should have been referring to my progress report. go figure. so i checked out my progress report and at the bottom, in little itty-bitty writing it says, "total credits deficient: 9.5"

looks like i'll be coming back to campus after all.
we still haven't quite figured out when i'll be able to come up for classes. i am having another baby in april, you know?
so life is going to be fun :)

Thursday, February 17, 2011

frost bite

a few days ago, max woke up with a purpleish-red ear.
at first, i didn't think much of it. i thought he had just been sleeping right on his ear and it had fallen asleep for a little while.


but at lunch, when his ear was still purple, i started getting a little worried.
so i sent a text to danny's sister, our very own pediatrician :), and asked her advice. she said,

"doesn't sound normal. is it swollen? has he been in the cold without a hat recently? could be external ear infection but that usually makes the ear hot and swollen and painful to touch. or mild frostbite which is just discoloration of the ear in a pattern consistent with what was exposed to cold."

{this is max's version of "more please" in sign language. he's adorable.}

frostbite?? i was a little nervous. that's when danny got a call from me and i told him about max's mystery ear and he said, "ohhh...is it his right ear?? i forgot to tell you, but he took a major spill yesterday on his ear."

poor guy!! i sent kristina a message and told her not to worry--thank goodness it wasn't frostbite! but his ear has had some major bruising...it does not look pretty. next time i leave max alone with his daddy i'll have to put him in a helmet :)

Monday, February 14, 2011

day of LOVE

happy post-valentines day!!

i've been a little absent from this blog due to:

1. being kicked out of the house by my sweet husband so he could paint/stain and do a bunch of other things around the house that emitted toxic smells.

...this is the only way he survived:


2. my independent study class.

3. a little surprise that i have up my sleeve. get excited!!!


we had a good v-day though. simple and sweet. i'm pretty sure i've eaten my share of sugar cookies for the entire year but i'm also pretty sure that the baby doesn't mind one bit :)

since our lives have been pretty hectic with all of the remodeling, i've been horrible at taking pictures. but here are a couple random one's of little maximus.


{he loves to help out around the house. vacuuming, dishes, sweeping, etc...please let him always love to help!}

hope you all had a wonderful valentines day!
xoxo.

Monday, February 07, 2011

tofw

over the weekend i was able to attend time out for women up in ogden, utah.
it was fantastic.


my friend lori invited me to go with her mom & sister and i am so glad that she did! it started friday night {from 6:30-9:30} and then we came back for a full day on saturday {9-4}.

the speakers they had lined up were great; my favorites were virginia hinckley pearce, john hilton III, and kris belcher--her story of becoming blind was extremely humbling and made me so grateful for my healthy body. we take so much for granted! she talked about how she has to "glue on" her silicone eye-patch every morning and about her five surgeries in five months...with two little kids at home. it was incredible to hear her talk about her challenges...and to top it all off, she was hilarious! i want to be like her.

all in all, it was a great weekend. lori's husband is another seminary teacher at juab with danny, and lori and i talked about how our husbands seem to always be on a spiritual high, and we're just...not. so this event was a great rejuvenation and a reminder to me to try every day to be just a little better than the day before.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

this movie speaks for itself


we can't get enough of that little laugh around here. he is going to be one amazing big brother.


p.s. have you noticed the baby counter to your right?!?!? i start going to my baby appts. every TWO WEEKS now! that is insane. this pregnancy is seriously flyyying by.

p.p.s. i realize i have totally been slacking on the weekly pics. my bad...
i'm really going to try to get a current one up soon.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

how sweet it is

it's funny how you don't fully appreciate things {like a family} until you've been separated for some time.

let's just say that coming home to my two sweet boys was a wonderful thing.

i flew in friday afternoon around 4 p.m. the flight was great and i sat next to a very nice couple who had never been to utah before. it was fun to see and hear their reactions when they saw the mountains!! they couldn't get over how HUGE they were. danny's mom + sister picked me up from the airport and took me to a vegan restaurant in salt lake where we met up with danny. {no, i haven't turned vegan. however, after spending a week with my vegan sis-in-law i do have a bunch of yummy treats/meals to make for danny...he's going to love it! :)}

it was so good to see danny. we've never been separated for this long {i know, i know...a week really isn't that long. but it felt like forever, ok?} so it was a happy reunion :) that night we attended the ces "evening with a general authority." this year president uchtdorf gave the address...score! seriously though, he is amazing and gave a wonderful talk. i feel so blessed to be a part of such a great organization. after the meeting in the tabernacle, everyone made their way over to the conference center for a light dinner. light being the key word. it was still good though. we mingled with a bunch of our seminary friends and made it to provo around 10:30.

i was sooo tempted to run into max's room and kiss/hug/snuggle with him but i thought it would be best to wait until the morning. my parent's just moved into their brand new house so things were a little hectic but my grandparents had come over and set up an air mattress for danny and i in the room max was sleeping in.

morning couldn't come fast enough. i think i woke up every hour to make sure max was still sleeping. and when he finally woke up, he looked SO dang big!! it's a weird feeling being away from your baby for a full week when prior to leaving you've spent 24/7 together.

he saw me, got a huge smile on his face...and then threw himself onto the floor and started screaming. it just about broke my heart. he wouldn't let me hold him for the first hour he was awake...and the rest of the day he still seemed skeptical about everything. he probably thought i was going to abandon him again. poor guy.

when we got back to our home in nephi, max lost it again. i have never seen him so so sad in his life. we still don't know what happened, but i think his little body had had just about enough. he was confused/sad/mad/happy/etc...all at the same time. it took about an hour for him to finally calm down and i think today {tuesday} is the first time that he hasn't had a break down. yay!! he's finally starting to forgive me.

despite all of the hard feelings from little maximus, the trip to oklahoma was wonderful. some of the high-lights included:

.going to the oklahoma temple with bekah.
.reading {multiple} stories to laney every day.
.visiting mike at his school.
.going on a walk in amazingly warm weather.
.hanging out with bekah.
.getting a "kissing hand" from sweet mariah.
.hearing laney say "hi sal" every morning when she woke up.
.trying new, delicious vegan recipes.
.watching the girls experience their first ever bunk-beds.
.driving through colorado, kansas, and oklahoma.
.learning about bekah's 12-week meal plan. it's genius!.
.watching wipe-out with mike and bekah.
.getting THREE lessons done on my independent study class!!.
.spending time with my sweet nieces.
.listening to laney sing "i belong to the church of jesus christ!" with such enthusiasm.


it really was a good trip. just what i needed to recognize how very blessed i am to:
1. have such amazing extended family
2. have such an amazing husband + son

oh, and guess what my incredibly talented, sweet husband did while i was gone????

checked this off of our home renovation to-do list:


he stayed up until at least one-thirty a.m. every night working on his secret project while i was gone. it was quite the undertaking!! there is still a little bit to be done, and thanks to his amazingly talented co-workers, it is so close. and it looks so. amazing. i'll let him post about it one of these days. he was great to document the whole, messy process so i could see what took place. so stay tuned!