I'm dreaming of a vacation with warm sandy beaches where we can frolic in the sun and bask in it's warmth all day.
Instead, this has been my reality for the past couple of months. Our temperature got as high as 30 degrees today, and would you believe today has been by far the warmest it has been in weeks? We have been having highs in the single digits and lows dip all the way down to the NEGATIVE teens. That kind of bitter cold physically hurts. This has been going on since the beginning of January. I'm done with looking at this out my window. You can't even see my beloved mountains! Don't get me wrong, I really do love where I live. I wouldn't move for anything. But these Utah winters can seem to go on forever.
I took this crappy picture of my backyard right before we hydroseeded for grass last summer, but it gives you kind of an idea of what my normal view is out my back door.
Please send warm wishes my way. Or a plane ticket to somewhere warm. Either works :)
You know when you fight with your siblings when you are a kid and your Mom scolds, "Someday when you are adults, you guys might be all each other's got, so get along!" Well, I don't know if your Mom said that, but mine definitely did.
I was blessed with 3 sisters that I love very much and have a unique relationship with each of them. Was it great when we were teenagers and sharing a bathroom or stealing each other's clothes? No. Is it absolutely awesome that I have built-in best friends that know me inside and out and I can share everything with? That would be a resounding yes!
One of the things I share with my sister Rebecca is a love for all things artsy and crafty.
She has such a good eye for things so I am always asking for her opinion. Whether it be clothes, makeup, or anything else. She started her own kids boutique last year called Chubby Cheek Boutique and she has been super successful. But one of her many talents is also photography, and she has been very passionate about it for a long time. She has been taking most of our family's pictures for years, so she has a lot of practice. Her pictures have feeling and heart and don't look forced which I think is difficult to do.
She has finally decided that this is a good time in her life to take her photography to the next level and turn it also in to a business, so she is running a great deal right now to expand her portfolio.
If you live in the Cache Valley, Utah area and are thinking of getting your pictures taken, now is a great time to get a great deal that won't last long!
Sooo, I have a confession. I don't know why, but it is pretty embarrassing. So here it goes... For either lack of funds or just laziness I have slept on just a plain bed frame for the past eight years! Ok, ok, so maybe it is not that embarrassing but it is little sad.
I dream of a big, beautiful, bed with a plush headboard that I'm excited to get my beauty rest in. Or lack of sleep in most cases from a cranky baby, which seems to happen as of late! Makes sense why I have looked so homely lately ;) Oh well, anyways, I really have been thinking about getting a real big-girl-bed instead of my plain old metal frame. The plan is to build and upholster my own, with the help of my much handier hubby. That is, if I can twist his arm hard enough to follow along with my plans!
So where is the best place to inspire my bed obsession? Pinterest of course!
I love the low profile and feminine curves of this beauty. I also believe you can never go wrong with tufting.
But then again I am sharing a bedroom with a man, and I'm sure he would appreciate something a bit more masculine. I love the nail head trim on this one!
This is just the beginning of my hunt for my perfect bed inspiration. Not sure where I will exactly end up so if you have any suggestions or opinions please let me know! In the meantime, you can find me spending too much time on Pinterest. haha
I'm in the process of trying to overhaul my blog's look, so if things aren't working correctly I'm sorry! I'm no computer genius so thanks for your patience!
Things have been pretty slow for me here in the blog world. That seems to happen when life is being pretty crazy. We had a wonderful Christmas!
I'm super happy that December is coming to a close though. While holidays are nice, they sure bring on the stress. So it is like breathing a sigh of relief when that last present is unwrapped.
Now, I have to throw a birthday party together quick for my little "New Year's Baby". She is not so little anymore though. I cannot believe she will be seven years old. Seriously. Crazy. I know they always say, "it happens so fast!" They meaning everyone. But time still does seem to sneak up on you.
Speaking of, Kason turned six months old this month and with that, he has had many new and fun milestones. Also, that pesky rash has pretty much cleared up! Unfortunately, his biopsy came back inconclusive. What seemed to help was keeping his skin hydrated with a ultra sensitive skin lotion prescribed by the dermatologist, using a free and clear detergent, and a prescription ointment for dermatitis. I have got to be very careful with him because any irritation on his skin will flare up into a rash. I really appreciated all of the feedback on my last post. I tried most of the suggestions including changing my diet, and the coconut oil was also a great moisturizer!
I love this little giggler so much. He is such a cuddly sweet baby. We slowly started him on food mostly because I wanted to make sure of any allergies he might have since his skin has been so sensitive. We are having really good luck so far and he really loves sweet potatoes as you can tell with this picture.
Kason is much further ahead than my other two kids in the crawling department. This little stinker started sitting a 4 months, "army crawling" at only five months which turned into full fledged crawling less then a month later. Now as we are coming to a close on his sixth month he is pulling himself to stand! Crazy kid. You probably don't believe me huh! Good thing I made video proof.
I think I just died of cuteness.
I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and I promise to get back to more fun projects once the new year starts!
So, things have been a bit crazy now that the holidays are in full swing. I'm sure they are for everyone else too. But I will just give a quick recap of what's been going on around here for the last month! I apologize in advance for some of these pictures being poor quality! My phone camera has been way too convenient lately. Oh ya, none of this is in any order. I'm kind of all over the place today!
Kalista got the opportunity to participate in a mini cheer camp with the high school cheerleaders. Boy did she love it. She is such a girly girl so she was super excited to be able to try something like this. I just wish I would have sat on the right side so I could have seen her better!
Kalista's hair is soooo long. I'm told I am not to cut it until it is to her feet.... she loves Rapunzel. Go figure. ;)
The nice thing about having such a girly girl for a daughter is being able to try out new hairstyles on her without complaints. Dress up is her favorite! Would anyone like a tutorial on this particular style? It was super easy and turned out way cute.
Speaking of hair, I finally got my hair highlighted! I was very indecisive on what to do which is why it took me so long to finally pull the trigger. But my fake ombre hair was getting uglier by the day so I decided to play it safe with some highlights. I'm loving them!
Here was Kalista for Halloween. She was Snow White if you can't tell lol. Such a little princess.
Do you see our awesome Angry Birds and vampire teeth pumpkins? Keegan's costume absolutely cracked me up. He was Dracula, but that crazy widow's peak gave him an uncanny resemblence to Paul Ryan. Ha!
My Kason was the cutest little spider-man baby :)
We went to the annual Pumpkin Walk and had a blast! The kids were absolutely amazed at all of the different themed pumpkin scenes.
I had Kalista try to give Kason his first bottle of pumped milk this past month. Ummm... he thought it was just something fun to chew on. I guess I'm not leaving him anytime soon! That's ok, I kind of like having a monopoly on him.
This is what happened when I tried making my very first cheesecake. After all my hard work I went to pull my masterpiece out of the oven and the pie tin folded over in itself dumping cheesecakie goodness all over the bottom of the oven. I may or may not have cried. Don't judge.
On a more serious note, about a week before Halloween Kason had a mysterious rash appear on his face. This is really hard for me to write about because it has been emotionally draining.
I took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with eczema and given a hydrocortizone cream. The rash continued to spread across his face and inner thigh and diaper area and became very raw. I took him back to the doctor and was then told it looked like yeast so was given medication for that. It wasn't getting better and spreading more so a few days I later took him back into the doctor. My pediatrician was dumbfounded so he brought in a couple other doctors to see if they knew what it was. All of them had never seen a rash like this with a few other random symptoms with no relief with the medications. So he was put on four different medications including an antibiotic to see if all of them combined would get rid of the rash. Finally after three weeks of this nightmare some relief! It was actually clearing up!
Unfortunately it was short lived because right before Thanksgiving he got a bad cold that turned his nose into a faucet. This was taken on Thanksgiving and he was absolutely miserable.
That cold somehow agitated the rash and it reared its ugly head all over again. I was finally referred to a dermatologist. We went to the dermatologist today and he also had not seen a rash like this and so he scraped it. Kason didn't like it. He looked at it under a microscope and still wasn't sure exactly as to what it was. So the next step was to biopsy. He got the biopsy on a spot in his inner thigh, then he stitched him up. It was physically painful for me to see this happen to my sweet baby. Luckily he said it doesn't look dangerous but the symptoms are just very atypical so he was hoping to get a better idea on a diagnosis and treatment. In the meantime he is on a antifungal cream because it showed some characteristics of something fungal. Here is saying some prayers and crossing some fingers!
On a happier note, Kason has really grown and learned so many new things this last month despite him being miserable a lot of the time.
(This was taken right before the rash started.)
Kason weighs over 17 pounds now and learned how to roll over. He has turned into a tummy sleeper! He has also been sitting up unassisted for a month now. The craziest thing of all is that he is trying to crawl! I couldn't believe it! He is only 5 months old! What the heck?! I looked in my other kids' baby books and they were 7 and 8 months before they started crawling. Looks like I'm going to have to baby proof early! When he started to get up on his hands and knees I grabbed my phone and shot this video. Sorry it's sideways, I can't figure out how to change it!
Sorry this post was so long! I really should post more often. Has anyone else experienced a crazy illness in your kid that not even the doctors know what is going on? It is so scary. On a lighter note, have you ever had an experience like my cheesecake disaster? That was a total bummer.
While it is true that I love buffet restaurants, that is not what I'm talking about today. Instead, I'm speaking of the furniture variety. Even more specifically, antique or vintage buffet tables or aka sideboards.
I am fortunately lucky to have been given one! About three years ago my Grandpa asked me if I would like his buffet table that had been sitting out in his shed for who knows how long. He told me that when he bought his home over fifty years ago that it was left upstairs by the previous owners. From what I understood, it was old when he acquired it. So I have no idea how old this piece of furniture really is.
I believe it is definitely showing its age though. It's dinged, scratched up, but solidly built. I'm hoping to transform this into something more like this.
I'm so excited but not sure when I will get to this project. I've got to finish 5,642 other projects that I have started and not finished. Am I the only one that does this??!!
It seems like having Ombre hair is all the rage now. With celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, and Jessica Biel sporting the gradient hairstyle. However as you can probably tell, this is no dye job. In fact it is the lack of a dye job. This is what happens when I go 6+ months without dying/high-lighting my hair.
And as much as I wish this was a good look on me because of the zero upkeep... it think it looks like ugly re-growth. I just can't pull it off like those beautiful Hollywood starlets.
Soooo... right now I am contemplating what I actually want to do to my hair. Should I just do high-lights like I have been doing for the past couple of years? Or should I bleach it out like I had in this picture circa. 2009?
Or, there is always the option of going to the dark side like I did in 2008.
Although according to my husband the dark is a no-go because it just didn't "look like me". This is about the only picture of it dark that I have because I just never felt like putting on makeup or getting ready when it was brown. Being pregnant with Keegan and feeling 'blah' all the time probably had a lot to do with it. But, I have to agree with him that it just didn't feel like me.
So, what's a girl to do? My sister Rebecca thinks I should chop it up to my collar bone. But the thought of cutting my hair scares the crap out of me! I have had long hair since 6th grade when I cut it up to my chin. Believe me, it wasn't pretty. I won't even provide photographic proof because of how horrible I looked. haha
I could use some feedback on what to do because as you can see, I'm totally lost. I'm not sure if I want to do something subtle or drastic. Anyways, enough of my ramblings. I guess I'll go scour Pinterest and see if I can find the perfect cut and color!
My girl LOVES pink. Although I think that is normal for about any little girl. Heck, when I was a kid I was obsessed with the color too. Just take a listen at one of my favorite songs from when I was about 10.
Now it is going to be stuck in your head all day! haha! I had this song on replay all the time and just was obsessed with the CD all together. Why doesn't Barbie make music anymore? Anyways, back to the point of this post. Here is the before before before.
Hey, we started out with pink insulation walls!
Drywall up!
The actual white walls before
After
You have got to have some room jewelry!
It's not an in-your-face pink. More like a soft, subdued, light and airy pink. I love it! So does Kalista :) The color is called Satin Sheets and I think I bought it at Lowes. I was so excited to paint something pink, that I bought the paint quite a few months before we even moved in.
Here are our process pictures.
First I layed down plastic to protect our new carpet, then I taped off all of the trim and ceiling with Frog Tape... I love this stuff, no bleed through at all! Then removed the outlet covers and light switch plates.
Then we painted, and painted, and painted some more until it was all covered! The kids even got in on the action too.
She loves it!
Now that the painting is done, I have a whole laundry list of what still needs to be done in this room.
Build/upholster a bed
Accessorize and get artwork to put on the walls
Paint the dresser and get new knobs
Get a nightstand second hand and update it with paint
Put curtains up
Get new bedding
But that will take time with a budget. So it will be some time before this room is all done. That's ok, because as of right now this room is the only one that is even painted in the house. I have a few other before and after projects that I have really got to take the time and post. Here is a preview of one I will post soon!
I love candid pictures. You know, the ones that show you real life. Not staged what-so-ever. Like this one.
Big sister lifting up baby brother while pulling up his shirt and no pants, on an un-made bed next to a messy nightstand with little brother asleep in the background. :)
Yep, this is real life. My life specifically. Even though things aren't perfect all the time, I'm so grateful for all of my blessings. Most days I can't believe I have THREE kids. It is kind of mind blowing thinking about having the opportunity to bring these beautiful little spirits into the world. The miracle of life is just that. Miraculous!
When I was a little girl and dreamt about what life was going to be like when I grew up I had this picturesque view of the perfect husband, perfect kids, and perfect house. I wanted that more than anything. I came from a broken home and poverty. Moved so many times I can't remember (12 schools in 12 years). Then at 17, got pregnant by my high school boyfriend. That could in most cases be the recipe for a disastrous unstable life. But I have the firm belief that life is full of choices that take you on whichever path YOU choose. Although there are definitely unforeseen detours and road blocks that are completely out of your control, life is mostly what you make of it. Luckily, my high school boyfriend turned out to be my husband, soul mate, eternal companion, other half, my true love. Eveyday I'm grateful for that. It has allowed me to have the family I dreamed of having. My version of the perfect family. Struggles, highs, and lows we are in this together. With enough hard work, dedication, and good attitude you can turn a bad situation into a good one.
What I dreamed of having when I grew up was a staged picture of perfection. What I have come to find out is that real life is so much better. Flaws and all. What I have also learned is that the trials that I went through growing up has shaped me in to the person that I am today. I can recognize and be grateful for everything I have in my life because I know what it is like to not have it.
I got home from school shopping today to find one of my peaches on the ground below the miniature tree. I was more excited than I should be for peaches, but this was one of the reasons I was so excited to have a home of my own- to be able to grow some of my own food! The peach tree was all that got planted this year but I have bigger plans for next year. I'm excited to put the "Garrden" in the Garr. den. of. love. blog! haha I never said comedy was one of my strong suits. ;)
The tree only yielded 4 peaches, but I was glad it produced anything at all this year since we just planted it only 3 months ago. I've already eaten one and it was DELICIOUS. Nothing like a sun-ripened homegrown peach!
That wasn't all that ripened and fell off... errr out lately.
Kalista lost her first tooth! And if you can't tell, she was crying right before this picture was taken. Having Mom yank your tooth out hurts! But as soon as it was out, she was soooo excited to show everyone! It is kind of a bittersweet moment for me. I remember getting so excited 6 years ago seeing that little tooth break through her gums. How time flies. I guess my baby is growing up!
