My Coat Hanger

Since we pulled the entryway closet out of the living room I have needed to make a coat hanger so we have somewhere to put our coats other than the back of the couch.  The cold spell last week made us pull out our coats and made me quit procrastinating and get it done.  I was so excited with the idea that I had and more excited with how it turned out.

Maple Grove General Conference Trip

We love to go to Maple Grove to listen to the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference in Oct every year.  It is so beautiful up there this time of year, and it helps us feel closer to our Heavenly Father.  It is so fun to explore after the session is over and enjoy some family time together.

I love this picture on so many levels -- The face on each person is so expressionful, and little Maddi Moo's just sums it all up!

Only in the mountains can you ride shotgun with Daddy at 6 mths old

This tree swing is a favorite pass time

Uncle Chicken on the tree swing

James wanted to swing too

Catch me if you can

It she going to fall?

 There is always beautiful scenery at Maple Grove -- Especially in the fall!!!



Do you see the deer????



A Little Bit of Fun

So now that we are "done" with the living/dining room, we have moved onto the girls room.  See we only have 2 bedrooms upstairs (a choice I will never make again) and so to get James into his own room we had to do a little re-arranging.  Richard and I are moving downstairs, the girls are moving into our old room, and James will get the girls old room.  We already painted the girls room blue when we moved in (lucky choice on our part) so it works perfect for James.  Our room on the other hand was green, a dark, dark green, so it needed a little face lift :).  I can't wait to get it all done (James "NEEDS" his own room).  Luckily there aren't any huge changes being made, and it is mostly just cosmetic.  I did tear out the wasted space above the closet to make a decorative shelf (unbeknown to Richard, who then had to tag along -- hey that is the only way I get exactly what I want).  The room has 3 closets -- well technically two; one big enough walk in closet it could be a bathroom, and one closet that looks like two from the outside, but actually connects inside.  We are going to rip out the wall and door covering the big walk in closet and make it a part of the room.  So again not to many big changes.  Richard wants to build a cool play house for the girls inside the walk in closet space and then as they get older we can take it out and it can be an area for their "homework desks".  I'm so excited about decorating the girls room and have all the colors picked out.  The base wall color will be a really light tan.  Then I will accent with a dark pink, light pink, and dark brown.  I got so excited that I finally came up with an idea for the girls dresser, which has needed to be refinished.  The dresser got me thinking up all sorts of cool ideas for decor and I can't wait to get started , so I didn't!!

I just love it!!!

Reading

Makayla is doing so good in school and I am so excited for all the new things she is learning.  They have started doing some home reading and it is fun to watch her.

Of course, Emma wants to do whatever her big sister does so she is "learning to read" too

"Inside" Our Life

The kids love to play inside anything they can fit into. . .

James just chillin in his "bed" prepared by Makayla

These Muck Tubs were one of the best purchases ever.  The kids will play for hours in them.

Makayla is always making up "beds".  This was just her latest, but it was so cute!!!

Growing Boy

James is growing so fast and doing so many firsts so quickly -- he is 5 months old already!!  We are sure enjoying his happy spirit in our home.

His first solid food.  He took to it right away and loves it.

Sitting in his highchair.  He doesn't look like he is enjoying himself at all ;)



He is now sitting up (not to sturdy, but up there just the same)



He is now also giving kisses -- so too cute!!!

We're Finished (mostly)

Well, we finally finished up what we had planned to do in the living and dining room.  I LOVE it!!!  We still have flooring to put in (when we can afford it), and a few other touch ups, but it is DONE for now :)

My beautiful accent wall -- My favorite piece in the whole room.  This wall gave me fits.  I think I painted it about 4 times.  I finally tried something that I would never usually try and woolied a really dark espresso brown over the top of the base color -- of course I think it turned out perfect.  The vinyl accent I found on ebay and loved it, so my husband suprised me with it for my birthday!!

Close up on the vinyl accent.  There is a computer desk that Richard build and did the countertop for on the right now.

 

Looking at the dining room and entry way from the Living Room



When we first painted the walls, the flu hit me halfway through.  My wonderful husband finished up the base color and did all the cutting in (I love him so much!!).  When I finally got well enough to get out of bed and went to look at the room, I almost cried.  The color was terrible -- it was ORANGE :(  Richard kept telling me that it would look better as it dried and when we got the plastic off the windows (it really was making it dark in that room).  I just couldn't live with orange walls so I took an almost white color and Woolied over the whole wall.  The finished product was perfect for me -- again I LOVED it.

This is one of my favorite changes.  We added a small wall in front of the hallway so that you couldn't see straight into the bathroom from the front door.  It will be such a fun place to decorate.  My mom gave me a small curio cabinet that fit perfect and I just love the angles in the room now.

It feels so nice to walk into my house now and know that these two rooms have our touch to them now :)  My family went in on blinds for the windows for my birthday and it is so cozy to just sit and enjoy time with my family in my new living and dining room.