House Pictures

We moved in on Saturday and we are loving all the space we have. Moving is a LOT of work! I took the pictures the night before the move because I knew that once we brought all of our stuff it would never look as nice. Now that I look at these all together I realize that it all looks the same color! I'll definitely have to bring in some color when I get around to actually decorating the place.

Also - since moving in we are trying really hard to find things we would have done differently. The biggest surprise so far - our fridge doesn't work. At all. So, luckily my brother had an extra one in his garage that we are using until ours gets fixed. Which hopefully is going to happen sooner than later!

No pics today

I don't have any pictures today, but still wanted to write a few things down before I forget them. The house is coming along and we are hoping to move in two weeks. So far I have really liked all of the choices we have made and all the colors are coming together nicely. The only things left to like are the carpet and backsplash. I'll post pictures soon.

Second, I had the chance to head down to Kalispell with Mom and two sisters for some black friday shopping. We all got to leave our kids behind (thanks to our amazing husbands) and shop until we dropped! That's not a figure of speech either. We literally did. We got there at 10:00pm and decided to head over to Walmart to catch some of their door crashers. Well, we didn't get to bed until 6:30 the next morning! That was my first all-nighter since college (unless you count all the sleepless nights with my babies). Then we woke up at 9:30 and headed out again! Crazy, I KNOW. But we had fun and I got all my Christmas shopping done, so now December will be stress free... other than the stress of moving and unpacking into a new home. :)

Funny story: When I got home Saturday night, we put the kids to bed and once they were asleep we starting bringing all my purchases in from the van. Brandon and I sat at the kitchen table and one by one I pulled out each of the gifts to show him. I pulled out the very LAST gift and said something along the lines of, "and I bought this one for Luke, but if we feel like we've already spent enough we can just give it to him for his birthday". As I set the gift on the table I heard a little voice coming from the stairs behind me,

"Mommy.... is that for my birthday?"

Awesome

We are now currently looking for a new gift from the man in red.

RAWR!!!

Well, halloween has come and gone. I have to say when I got the kids in bed tonight I gave a big sigh of relief. Not because I don't love Halloween, but because Bryson is cutting an eye tooth and was MISERABLE today.

However, I LOVED watching my kids run around in their costumes this year. Watching my two little dinosaurs run down the street made my heart burst. I did make them hats as well, but of course they wouldn't wear them. At least Brandon was able to make some use out of one.

I especially love this picture. The quality is poor because I had to zoom in so much, but I think it is still so tender. I love that it looks like Luke is the brave older brother who is helping his little brother be brave as well. I LOVE this picture also. Just three little boys out making memories. Childhood is too short. Brandon decided to think way outside the box and dress up as a lawyer. He really nailed his costume this year. :) Luke asked me all day, "Mommy, what are you going to be for halloween? You should be a witch". I just kept telling him, "I'm just going to be a Mom for halloween". That's close enough, isn't it? :)

We've been working on Bryson's "cheese" face. I think this one is really effective.

Sick Day

Well, I think I undercooked dinner last night because Brandon and I both woke up feeling rotten this morning. We each only threw up once, so I guess it could be worse. Luckily, my kids won't eat pork chops and had pasta instead. Anyway, I am lying in bed in my P.J.'s going crazy because I'm not getting done any of things I wanted to today. And with nothing else to do, I thought I'd write another post.

To follow up on my last post, I think I have decided to go with red instead of blue. But I'm still a little scared because red is so BOLD! Today I'm thinking I may just go with a boring beige like the rest of my house, but decorate with a lot of red.
I know this picture is a bedroom, but still, you get the point. I could really make the room feel red without painting it that color.
Having said that, I still really like the red with the tall wainscoting. I need to decided soon because they are starting paint next week! I'm sure I will still be deciding the night before they start

Granite goes in tomorrow. I'll take pictures and put them up as soon as I can.

If only I were a designer...

If I were a designer it would be a lot easier to make decisions on my house. I doubt myself and second guess everything I choose. There was an episode on the Nate Bergus show a few months back, that was about following your gut. He had a woman come on the show who was struggling to decorate her home. He showed the same room decorated 3 different ways and had her pick which one felt right at FIRST glance. I have used his advice OVER and OVER again on my house and really tried to trust my instincts that something will look good. Side note: I NEVER watch decorating shows, I'd much rather watch a cooking show, but I HAPPENED to catch the end of this one. I wonder if I started watching more decorating shows I'd start to like to do it? Hmm.....

Anyway, I'm rambling. Point is, I've really tried to follow my initial gut instinct. I am currently trying to decide what color to put in my dining room, and I know what my heart is telling me, but my head is trying to talk me out of it. So, opinions PLEASE!

I am choosing between two colors. I am putting some fairly tall wainscoting in my dining room and this room was my inspiration. In fact, this is the picture I gave to my finisher, so my wainscoting should look exactly like this:

So, the question is, would you go red or blue in your dining room? There are two combinations I'm trying to choose from. Below is the tile we are using, and the off-white trim (also the color of the wainscoting). Which combo would you use?

- OR -

CABINETS!

Our cabinets went in this week and I LOVE them. Actually, the word LOVE hardly does justice to how I feel. They turned out exactly as I pictured them. They still look a little rough now, but it will feel a lot more put together when the countertops and the appliances are in. When Brandon saw them for the first time he stopped and then said, "This kitchen could be in a magazine". BEST COMPLIMENT EVER! I lost a lot of sleep over these cabinets - was it worth it? Yes, yes it was.

It's thanksgiving this weekend and I have so much to be grateful for. SO MUCH!

P.S. Tammy - does this look familiar at all? :)

And life goes on...

Well, conference came on the perfect weekend, because we were all sick. So, we got to stay home in our jammies and be uplifted and edified in the comfort of our own living room. Conference was wonderful, but my favourite talk was still Elder Uchtdorf's from the relief society broadcast. AMAZING.And while Brandon and I were being taught by the prophets and apostles, our children were being taught by the Berenstain Bears. Isn't one of your best memories being able to sleep in your parents bed when you are sick?
Bryson is growing SO fast. He is talking more and more each day and has a very clear understanding of what is going on. Don't let his limited vocabulary trick you. He knows what you are saying. He has also learned that every night before bed Luke gets a book. So, not to be outdone, he know INSISTS that he gets a "gook" before we put him in his crib.

I don't know if you can really see what I was trying to capture in these pictures. Let me tell you, it's hard to get a close-up of a 1-year-olds feet. It's not like he will hold still, especially when there is a shiny camera in front of him he's trying to grab. However, let me explain what these pictures are. Bryson has worn the same blue crocs everyday this summer, and as a result has the CUTEST little circle tan lines on his feet. It seriously makes my heart want to burst every time I look them. It is definitely not a memory I want to forget, so thank goodness for cameras.

Also, our cabinets are being installed tomorrow. If I wasn't so worn out from being up with sick kids all weekend, I probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. I feel like we are on the home stretch now!

Siding!!

The siding started going up on our house about a week ago and I LOVE it. Brandon called me one afternoon and told me I better go over and see the house because they started putting the siding on. I was SO SCARED! My heart was racing as a made the 20 minute drive over. What if I didn't like it? To late to change it now. When we picked the colors we were looking at a tiny little sample. What if it didn't look good on a large scale??? When I pulled around the corner and saw it for the first time it was instant love. What a RELIEF! I can't wait for them to finish the front of the house. Now, hopefully I like the everything we've picked on the inside of the house as much as I like the outside!

A bit of Heaven on Earth

We just got back from an AMAZING week out at the Shuswap and it was hard to leave and come home. The weather Gods were smiling down on us and it was gorgeous all week. They must have known that this was the onlyvacation Brandon was going to have this year and decided to be nice to him. I am posting tons of pictures but believe it or not, I did weed through most of them. So, here is a glimpse of how life at the cabin goes...

There were plenty of sea-doo rides and tube rides

Luke learned to trust someone else enough to jump off the dock as well as trust himself enough to swim alone.
Bryson learned to surf... no big deal.

I like the next three pictures because they show Luke's progress over the week. At first he wouldn't even get on this boogie board. But Brandon worked with him and eventually got him to do this:Which turned into this:And eventually this: I wish we had a better picture of him getting pulled behind the boat by himself. I had just let go here, but he got towed around all over the place without any help at all.

Bryson with his daily peach on the beach. I love being able to feed my kids outside. And then toss them in the lake to clean them of when they are done.Driving lessons.
A little time for reflection and self-contemplation. I'm pretty sure he's thinking about work.

And of course, the best part is playing with cousins.

Funny story with this last picture. Luke was playing in the water near the shore while a few of us were sitting on the dock reading. All of a sudden he says" I caught a minnow! Mommy! I caught a minnow!" And he wasn't kidding. He caught a minnow, which you can see in his hand if you look closely. It was dead by the time he got it to me, so I'm pretty sure it was dead before he picked it up. But he was excited none-the-less.

All framed!

We are headed to Waterton today for the long weekend, but I wanted to post this before we go. The porch went on this week and it really tied everything together. I LOVE my house. So far. We had to pick our exterior colors this weekand I might have a hernia now. I am excited about what we picked, but it was a TOUGH decision. I didn't get much sleep the last couple of days. I almost wish that I had a builder telling me I had four options to pick from... Almost.

The colors should look similar to this house, except our roof will be black and probably some darker stone.Maybe closer to this, minus the cedar shakes.

Hopefully it looks as good on the house as it does in my mind. Shingles go on Tuesday! Can't wait!!

Jamwiches and skid marks

So Luke said two REALLY cute things today that made me laugh and I need to write them down before I forget. We were at the grocery store today right around lunch time and looking at all that food was making him hungry (we also happened to pass the marshmallow section which just about killed him). He kept saying he was so hungry so I told him when we got home I would make him a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Once we got home I was busy unloading the groceries and he said, “Mom, can I have my jamwich now?”

After lunch I made him lie down and have a nap because he’s been tired all day, which of coarse he was resisting. He was coming up with any excuse he could think of to not take a nap, but the one that got me is when he said, “Mommy, I have a skid mark, I need to get it off”! (I’ve been trying to teach him to wipe lately so that he doesn’t get skid marks) Never a dull moment with a toddler in the house.

Signs of summer

I've noticed that since I started my blog back in 2008 my number of posts have decreased each year. So, I am determined to do more posts in 2011 than I did in 2010. It's july and I'm on the track if I can keep it up.

Anyhoo... July has been fabulous so far. We are LOVING the heat. It was 35 degrees the other day (95 for you americans) and I ALMOST complained about it. But then I remembered how long and horrible winter can be.

This month started with my participating in my first triathlon with my sister! I have to admit I was so nervous before it started. It's something I've always wanted to do, but been afraid of for some reason. Well, I LOVED it. It's a lot more prep work than a foot race where all you have to do is lace up your shoes, but it was worth it and I'm glad I did it.

We were lucky enough the next week to spend a few days out at the cabin. Brandon had to stay home and work but we are going out again in August so I don't feel as bad.
Would it be a trip to the cabin if we didn't have ichiban for lunch at some point? Ichiban always seems to taste better out there for some reason. Luke is apparently REALLY enjoying it here.

I just can't get enough of this toothy grin. And since being home we've enjoyed some gorgeous days out at the pond. We are finally starting to enjoy some fresh peas from my garden (if you can call it that). Is there anything that says summer more than fresh garden peas?

Bryson apparently was getting more than just peas in his mouth.

Have you ever seen eyes so blue? I have a really GOOD life.