This is for you Aunt Cathryne---

I really didn't think my lack of blogging was missed, but I am glad to be reminded. So, things have been happening around here. Last month I was determined to get some work done around this house that I have wanted to do for some time. I had big big plans. The problem was I didn't quite know what all the details of said plans were. Enter my amazing sisters and SIL. My birthday was last month. -Holla for birthday week!- Morning of, I got a call from Kricky asking if I wanted a visitor. I was so excited and even more so when on my birthday afternoon I had a few visitors. A whole birthday party came to me. Sara was in town and Kricky and some chittlins and Mary Ann. We did a real quick outline of what should be done on my house. My kitchen and my bedroom needed a face lift. I got tired of trying to make things how "they are supposed to be" and decided to just do what makes me smile. It is my house after all. I made a deal with Lando that if he didn't have to do any of the work then I get full say in what is done. He agreed and it worked out great for us all. Mike built some stairs off our deck and brought his handy dandy wife with him. Grant was in charge of entertaining my 2 legger (which is a joy for Oliver seeing as Grant is his best best cousin friend. Seriously, they love each other!) and Mary Ann and I got to work in the kitchen. Before:

We were working so hard we didn't get much in the way of during shots, but this is what we do have...

And of course, the after:

I love my fun colored stools. Love. One of the funnest projects is not quite done in this pic. I am still getting it all put together, but I will show you anyways. It is pretty sweet.

That wall is so huge I have always had trouble decorating it so we (Mike) built this for me. Swoon. Kricky had a great idea of making one of the spots a chalkboard and that has been a huge hit. Oliver just yesterday discovered the joys of it. I will get my final touches done on this project and post that. And I promise I will try not to wait forever to do so. My good friend Jen came over to help me paint my bedroom. This really needed some life. Remember when I made that deal with Lando about me making all of the decisions? Well, I decided to paint the walls and ceiling pink. Hey, I wanted to do something that makes me smile right? Well, this does. Before:

Pretty drab, doncha think? New and improved...

It is barely pink. Just enough that I know it and I love it. But not so much that Landon can't stand it. So there you are, my April projects. Aunt Cathryne, you are welcome! :)

Oh My!!

I really did finish out my goal of a race every month last year. And I have photos to prove it, I just kinda really suck at blogging apparently. But for my November race I did the Turkey Trot in Draper with my friend Jami and her mother. Second time doing this race and it is really really fun!


My December race is a little sketchy but I am counting it. What do you think.... I had a race picked out for the first weekend in December so I could get it out of the way and not worry about it seeing as how fast the month goes by. Then my family planned a trip to the temple with all of us. And that doesn't really happen often, like this was the first time. (It is hard to get us all together.) So that race was a no go. Not a problem, I had my eye on one that sounded fun. A race against father time. It was right by my house and on New Years Eve. It started at 11:30 and you get it done before the new year. Fun right? I had a friend visiting from Texas and she was in too. Just before 11 we went to get it started. One problem, we couldn't find the start of the race. There was no time to find it and get registered in time. So, we got dropped off and we made our own start line. On your mark- Get set- GO! And we ran home. So, pretty legit right? I think so!