pumpkinland

Happy Halloween tomorrow!!  We've got the town trick-or-treat tonight and our ward party tomorrow...the kids should be set!

Over the weekend we went up to Layton to cheer on Danny's brother Aaron while he played in a soccer tournament with Weber State.  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures, but the kids had a great time.  They love their uncle Aaron :)

On our way home we stopped at the famous Pumpkinland in Orem and it did not disappoint!  The kids loved it all + I was happy to finally squeeze something festive into our lives :)

Yay for the holidays!  Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner...

the spirit of elijah

You guys, over the last few weeks & months, I have discovered a new hobby that I am becoming increasingly passionate about...family history work!

It has definitely been a gradual process and something that I have almost tried to push aside!  Thoughts like these seemed to creep in more often than not:

Genealogy work is for the older generation // I've got plenty of other things I'd rather be doing // I have no idea how to even get started!! // Working with older people can be so frustrating!

But the more I thought about it, and after realizing that many of my favorite conference talks revolved around this very topic, I began to challenge my thoughts and do something about it!  It has been a wonderful experience already so if you are interested in getting to know your ancestors, keep on reading :)

+ Create an account here at familysearch.org

Simply follow the steps (everything should be pretty self-explanatory)

+ Once your account has been created and you are on the home page, you should see something like this:  

Click on the tab that says family tree.

+ The work that has been done on your direct family line should show up.  However, if you are married, and your spouse's info does not show up, you will need to merge your line with theirs.  This is done by entering in the information of a family member of theirs that has already passed away.  If your husband/wife has an account as well (they should!) sign into their account and write down the ID number of a member of their family who has passed away most recently.  Then, sign back into your account and enter their info here:

+ Once you've got at least one deceased family member entered in, it should automatically populate the rest of your spouses line.  

**This is the step that we got a little confused on...if you have any questions, send them my way!**

+ Now comes the fun part :)  Visit createfan.com here (sign in with the same login you used for familysearch) and download/print off your fan chart!  

(I found out about this website from my bff Jenny, and it is awesome!!)

+ From that chart, identify the empty spaces and work to fill them!

...

Like I said earlier, this is something that I have been thinking/praying/studying about for a long time.  In my study, I've come across some excellent talks given in General Conference over the last few years.  If you need a little added help catching the "spirit of elijah" click on the links below :)  i highly recommend the first three, if not all!

the joy of redeeming the dead // elder richard g. scott

the hearts of the children shall turn // elder david a. bednar

hearts bound together // president henry b. eyring

generations linked in love // elder russell m. nelson

the spirit of elijah // elder russell m. nelson

families under covenant // president henry b. eyring

PS. Today in sacrament meeting they read this letter from the First Presidency...pretty awesome if you ask me!

PPS. Because this is something that I'm so excited about, I'm sure I'll be posting more of my journey as I go.  I'd love to hear if you found this at all interesting/helpful/informative/boring/dull/etc :)  And seriously, if you have any questions at all, I'm here!

gutted.

not sure how this happened, but i completely forgot to post about all of the work that was done in the basement over the weekend.  we completely gutted it (except for that toilet!) and though it looks mighty scary (just in time for halloween!) i'm can't believe the progress we've made in just a few weeks!

now onto the planning of the layout!  i've got a few ideas in mind, but there is only so much that can be done when every other wall is cement!!! this should be fun :)

one step closer

whew!!  we survived the weekend.  we sent the kids up to danny's parents (again) so we could get a few more things done around the house, but friday morning i woke up feeling less than great.   because of that, the to-do lists didn't all get checked off.  oh well!  we did accomplish a lot and am so pleased with how everything is coming along:

+ the mudroom now has new drywall up that has been taped, mudded, and primed!!  it is, without a doubt, the most beautiful (and smooth!) wall in the house :)  we finally ended up with the right paint color saturday night but we've got a busy week ahead so i'll keep you posted as to when that actually gets done.  

+ when danny's parents were still here, his mom & i tried our hands at a little DIY.  i found this table lamp at home goods a few months ago, but wasn't crazy about the coastal fabric.  i upcycled the previous white curtains that i had hanging in the living room to cover the lampshade.  i also got some simple navy blue grosgrain ribbon and we went to town!  i followed this tutorial (even though it took us much longer than 30 minutes!) and i am beyond happy with the finished result!  thanks mom for helping!!

+ we also added an additional support to one of our curtain rods and moved our picture of christ to the other wall.  that window now looks much bigger, which is the look i was going for!  woohoo for simple changes!

before:

after:

demolition derby

we decided to hold a demolition derby in our own home a few weeks ago.
a basement demolition derby that is.  it was wonderful :)

friday night we started out by filming a basement tour (so you can experience the creepy basement for yourself!) and once that was finished, we immediately began ripping off paneling (it was everywhere!) and drywall.  i won't go into all the details of what we found behind those walls...let's just say at some point there were some dirty people living here!! we also found FIVE dead mice (nasty!!!) and plenty of spider webs:

saturday morning we cleaned up the BIG mess (max was such a great helper...avery, not so much :) and when the kids were napping we finished destroying what was left of the basement.  it may seem a little crazy to most of you, but we wanted to be able to see what we had to work with and how we might be able to arrange walls differently (since the layout isn't the most efficient right now).  this will probably be a project that we'll be working on for a while but we'll take it!

...and this weekend we're turning our attention to the mudroom/pantry area at the top of the stairs.  danny has got fall break (beginning tomorrow!! woot woot!) so we are framing, drywalling, taping, mudding, painting, and assembling.  

this is what the room has undergone the past few weeks:

+ the removal of the nasty cupboards:

+ and "tile" wall:

 + the uncovering of some creepy wallpaper:

+ and an unidentifiable space (was it a window?  a gun safe?  who knows...)

check back tomorrow for more progress!

race tracks + piggytails

the house was extremely quiet over the weekend due to the fact that both kids stayed with danny's parents.  i missed my little munchkins so much but i enjoyed my time alone and tried to soak it all in.  i attended time out for women down in richfield, ut and it was wonderful.  they had amazing speakers + performers: sheri dew (love her!) jenny oats baker, emily freeman, s. michael wilcox, virginia pierce (president hinckley's daughter), etc...and i can always use a little spiritual pick-me-up!

...

max & ave really are quite the little team.  they love each other so much and i hope their relationship will continue to get stronger and stronger over the years.  i've got a bunch of random pictures from over the last few weeks and don't know what else to do but smush them all together in one giant post :)  enjoy!

+ ave's pigtails get me every time.  she seems so grown up!! where has my baby gone???  this particular day the kids were totally into max's racetrack and amazingly max was a good sharer!  gotta love moments like this!

+ when avery decides that she's not going to be picky (it happens every now and again, thank goodness!) she is one messy eater!! i should probably bathe her after every meal...but that would get a little excessive, don't you think?  

+ she is our rockstar sleeper and still takes a great afternoon nap (max does too, with enough convincing on our part...) as long as she's got her blankie, binky, and zulie, she is set!!

+ a few weeks ago avey came down with a nasty little bug and i've never seen her this sick her entire life!  she stayed put on the couch while i made dinner (not normal for her!) and laid pretty low the whole day :(

+ max got spoiled by grandma "nell" and grandpa chris (his nephi grandparents!) who gave him three different trucks/tractors.  he is in love and has started to get quite the imagination.  he loves to dump "dirt" into the dump truck.  how do little boys learn these things?!?

+ we scored two little umbrella strollers at a yard sale for $5 each!! can't beat that!  the kids had a blast pushing them around and they have already come in handy.

+ our little sleeping beauty :)  is this not the funniest picture??  avery loves her glasses, and somehow snuck them into bed the other night.  silly girl.

+ max probably would have slept with his sunglasses on if he knew where they were (he loses them often since he loves them so much!) but he sure does love his curious george blankie.  

+ and avery absolutely adores her daddy.  love these two.

+ and last but not least, avery's newest trick!! :)