Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Catching Up!

Be prepared for a long post and a lot of pictures, enjoy!

I've been terrible at keeping up on my blog lately but we have been insanely busy. Chris and I are still remodeling our home. . .Which is taking longer than expected, but will be worth it. The basement will be ready in a couple weeks to rent out. I wasn't going to post any pictures until I had complete before and afters, but I just can't wait. Here are some before pictures of the bushes we got rid of.and after. . .The roots from the bushes ripped up the yard a bit, and we had to plant grass to fill in the gaps so it's not totally finished, but you get the idea. We also took out part of the fence on the south end of the house. That also torn up the grass a bit, but we really wanted to get rid of it. You can also see along the fence tall dead grass and weeds growing from our neighbors. . .next year we are going to put in a white vinyl fence in that blocks our yard from theirs so we don't have that problem:)My beautiful flower beds. . .

Here are some before and during the process pictures of the downstairs bathroom. . .



Chris + blow torch = a scared wife. Just kidding, but if you can't tell from the pictures Chris was having a great time playing with fire!

Here is the bathroom gutted. . .We still have some finish work to do and we're putting shelves on the north side of the shower for a linen closet, but here's the afters of the almost final project!!!



The downstairs kitchen is the farthest from being done but here is a before and after. It is a mess and there is sawdust everywhere but you get the main idea. We also still have to put a couple more coats of white on the walls. We bought cupboards and refurbished them. They now have an antiqued brown look, it will be so cute with the baseboards and counter top we are putting in! The sink will go in the corner with a dishwasher next to it and we still have to hang our top cupboards, and put in the fridge and stove.

Also this last month Chris got a phone call from a friend that works for T-Mobile who wanted to offer him an assistant manager position at the store on Riverdale Road. Of course we couldn't turn it down, it's less hours and more money! Thanks again Bobby!

The month of July started out with parades and fireworks for the 4Th. I went to the big parade in Riverdale with Alan, my father-in-law, Nicole, my sister-in-law, and her family. My brother-in-law Taylor was in the parade, and it was so fun to be with my little niece and nephew. Here are some fun pictures from the parade.
Marty and CameronAlan and KatelynMe and NicoleThe loot, Cameron half way through decided he was done and wanted to eat his candy;)TaylorChris had to work most of the day but after his shift was over we went to a BBQ with Chris's dad's family.
Cameron and KathyTaylor and BradenFunny pictures of us eating food, we look like dorks:)
Me and Chris, I have the cutest husband!A few weeks ago we celebrated Kathy and Heidi's birthdays. Heidi's birthday is just one day before Kathy's so we had a party for both of them with lots of cake and ice cream!
Last week was full of fun because my brother-in-law Casey and his fiance Heidi got married!!! It all started on Tuesday when Heidi took her endowments out at the Salt Lake Temple. It was a live session, which was a really neat experience because I had never been to one before. After the session we were all starving so we headed over to the Cheesecake factory. The next day was spent mostly at Alan and Kathy's putting flowers and decorations together, cutting hair, and eating lots of pizza. Thanks guys! We went to bed late of course, and my morning the day of the wedding started at 4:30. I had to get myself ready before going to do the bride's hair. It was so fun to do Heidi's hair and spend part of the morning with her. They got married in the Draper temple. The ceremony was beautiful and we are so proud of them. After that we headed to Braza Grill for the luncheon(Braza Grill is the same type of a restaurant as Rodizio Grill). They had their reception in a friends backyard and everything turn out very well. Here is a picture of each of them, i'll have to post more when I get copies from my brother-in-law.
Just this last weekend we went up to my partents on Saturday and went in to dinner with the family. We ate at Juniper Take-Out. They have an amazing turkey steak sandwhich combo meal, yum! And some more fun news, my baby brother got ordained an Elder!!!! Which means he is not a baby anymore but to me he will always be my baby brother. He turns 19 in October and is getting ready to send in his mission pictures. We are so excited for him and very proud of his accomplishments. I'm mad though because I didn't have my camera at his ordination.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Jealous. . .Anyone?!?!

I've been meaning to post this picture for awhile, so here it is!
I now also have some updated pictures of our house that I will post soon!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Taylor Swift

I'm very behind on my posting... About about month ago we had a chance to attend the Taylor Swift concert. Chris was selected as the top customer service rep for the northern region stores, which includes Utah and stores in Idaho, Wyoming, and I think Montana too. The sales reps had no idea that the managers were conducting the little contest. Anyway for being the top rep they gave him tickets and VIP passes to the concert! We had to be there two hours early and went on a tour with Taylor's mom before the concert started. She took everyone around to show us what goes on everyday, we also got a tour of her bus that she just designed this last spring. It was super nice and had hand scrapped hard wood floors, I was jealous (of the floors, not of having to live in a bus). Anyway, we went with Chris's brother and his fiance Heidi. I'll post some pictures now but the shot we had taken when we met Taylor is not on my camera so I have to scan it in, I'll post it later. I'm so proud of Chris, he is such a great person and has such a outgoing and caring personality.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Happy Birthday Christopher!!!

Chris had his 27Th birthday on the 23rd of May. I love celebrating birthdays and I have such a wonderful husband! When Chris and I first started dating he told me all about how his family loves celebrating holidays and have quite a few family traditions. He told me that birthdays are not as extreme as their other holidays they celebrate. So, of course I was thinking they were no big deal. Boy was I wrong. They hang up a birthday banner and generally the cake, decorations and wrapping paper all match. In fact, the first birthday we celebrated for Katelyn when I was around Chris's sister Nicole made a candy land cake. She also hand painted a large banner that said Happy Birthday Katelyn in red, pink, and white stripes. Her second birthday was princess and she had a princess cake with princess banners and Nicole made a small castle out of cardboard that she painted.....So you could image the bar that had been set, at least that was my initial feeling. Chris's first birthday when we were dating was when he turned 25. We had been hanging out upstairs a couple days before that at his parents house when his mom one afternoon was cleaning and found a character cake pan. It was Ninja turtle and Chris said that's all he wanted for his 25Th birthday. We all thought it was a joke, but after all was said and done and the birthday was over Chris kept mentioning how he felt bad he didn't get his cake, and of course his mom felt bad too! Last year Chris and I lived out in Miami which made it really hard to have a big celebration, so I decided to go all out this year and make a really big deal of it. If you haven't guessed it already, yes, I decided to surprise Chris with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle birthday. Nicole kindly offered her house for the cake decorating, and her expertise. Thanks again Nicole! We had to celebrate on Sunday so I started everything on Saturday. Decorating these character cakes takes a few hours and it was my first time EVER, which takes longer!. After many hours, of holding my breath, praying that it would turn out okay, and hoping that it would look half decent, I ended up with this as the result...



I love how it turned out and I found that I do enjoy decorating cakes. I also stumbled upon a few finds and got some Ninja Turtle decorations. Due to the fact that our house is still under construction, and his parents house was on the tail end of their remodel, Marty and Nicole offered to host at their house. We had his all his favorites, BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, fruit with a dip, and homemade root beer. Thanks everyone for helping me put it together, I couldn't have done it with out you! My family came down and everyone had so much fun. Chris said he was very surprised, which was good because I am terrible at secrets, and he like that I made it a big deal for him. Enjoy the pictures!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Catching Up!

It's been awhile and I have lots to write about. A few weeks ago I had my break in between semesters! Although it was nice to have some time off it was full of accomplishing my list of things I wanted to get done. One Saturday I spent all day doctoring up our yard and flower beds. Here are some pictures:
Before

and after

I never thought I would say this but I love doing yard work. It's rewarding to look at the end result when finished. My flowers are starting to bloom, but earlier than expected from what the bulbs said. The white flowers are not coming up yet so I'm getting nervous that it will look weird!