Makin' Stuff

This is some crafty stuff I've been working on for the last couple of months. I made this 'grateful' board out of an old picture frame to hang in the hallway so we could work on seeing our blessings and being grateful for what we have. I know it's something I've needed work on more this year. Then I made my message board. It's beautiful. :) I also made these 'date night sticks' to help us plan and stick to a budget better while still doing fun things. Some of the activities still cost money and some just take some planning ahead but it'll give us some fun ideas. I made some that are general, with light colored sticks being free activities and the darker the color the more $$. I also made some seasonal ones to change in and out to give us some more options. I have a full list if anyone wants. I also made a Christmas decoration at a Super Saturday, and a Christmas present for my cousin. And I made about 20 soaps for my neighbor gifts this year but forgot to take a picture before I gave them all away. They look similar to this except instead of saying 'simplify' they had the first letter of everyone's last names.

Christmas/New Years

We had some pretty awesome holidays this year and our Christmas was just funny. We have lots of inside jokes so a lot of my gifts revolved around that which I loved. So don't be alarmed at the shovel-it really was funny. We went to Jenny and Preston's Christmas morning to watch their kids open gifts and it had snowed a ton that night and Brian went over in sandals and even though I tried to warn him, his pride was too big to change shoes and so he froze. And I laughed and took pictures. :) We also got new bedding from Brian's parents and I LOOOVE it!

Vegas

We've been wanting to go on an awesome trip all year but used most of our savings for it for other things that have been more important throughout the year. So when Christmas was coming we decided to go on a smaller trip for our gifts to each other and then just get some smaller things to actually open on Christmas. We've been to Vegas once before and liked it and since it was close and fairly cheap we picked that for our destination. We got roped into listening to some presentaion about time-shares which took a chunk out of one of our days but in exchange we free tickets to 2 shows, a free buffet dinner for 2 and a free $50 lunch to a Brazilian restaurant for lunch the next day! Score! And Brian got called up on stage to help with a comedy act to one of the shows we went to and got free tickets to ANOTHER show! We practically made money on the trip! Ok, that's not true but we really only paid for our hotel and one meal and a couple things from the M&M store so it was pretty awesome. We only took a picture of our hotel room and the outside of the hotel we stayed in.....it was too cold to stop and be a tourist. And don't mind our huge faces in the one picture, we were trying really hard to get the hotel in the background...it didn't work.

Halloween 2012

If you don't ever see commercials on TV this might not be very funny to you but for us, it was hilarious. This year Brian and I dressed up as insurance icons as seen on TV. I was 'Flo' from Progressive commercials and Brian was 'Mayhem' from All State commercials. If you've never seen any 'Mayhem' commercials I suggest you look some up because they are pretty funny. Plus, it didn't cost us a dime to put together so points for us. And I know the lipstick is out of control...don't judge, it's Halloween. lol

Fun Fall Stuff

Gina and AJ came down one weekend to hang out and we decided to go shooting. I had some expired foods and stuff from my 72 hr kit that we used for targets.

Painting

Well, since we got all new appliances we decided the walls needed an update as well. To be honest, the whole kitchen could be updated a little but we decided to stick with just painting for now. And good thing because it was a nightmare! Well, that's dramatic, but it wasn't fun. We picked a new neutral color to do on the walls throughout the living room and kitchen and that was all fine and easy but I wanted to do an accent wall in the kitchen and being as indecisive as I am is what really made it a 'nightmare.' Thank goodness I have a patient husband. I couldn't really ever find a color that I loved and painted, and repainted, and repainted, and repainted. Finally we just found some fabric I liked for kitchen curtains and I decided to just do a print on the wall instead of one solid color. Its definitely different but I like it...for now. :) (Don't tell Brian I said that!) My AMAZING mother-in-law made me some kitchen curtains out of the fabric I liked and they are awesome! And to give it a little different color, (and to satisfy my crazy fetish with organization and never-ending-to-do lists)I made a message board out of plywood and old picture frames.

July-October 2012

Yeah, I'm just super awesome and diligent at this blogging thing. Oh, well. It's not like we have kids, and let's face it, that's why most people blog and most people read those blogs-to look at the babies. haha We had a busy summer this year. My little brother, Jake, came and lived with us from July to the end of August when school started. He worked for my father-in-law doing menial jobs at the machine shop no one else wanted a few times a week and then we put him to work mowing our lawn once a week. Brian particularly liked that arrangement. We took a camping trip to Lagoon with Shan and Jake at the beginning of July and went to the water park and rode the rides and spent a sleepless night at the park due to a major wind storm. But it was probably one of the best Lagoon trips we've had. Brian is in the teacher's quorum and that's Jake's age group so we had teenage boys in our basement most of that time playing games and watching the Office and eating candy. It didn't bother me though, they kept to themselves and didn't break anything so I was good. :)On Saturday, the 20th, we had officially owned our home for a year! We've been so blessed with good jobs and financial security (which I completely attribute to paying our tithing!!) so we are grateful for what we have. In the last year we've gotten our house, furnishings, electronics, new appliances and other small things that all make our house a home and I'm grateful. It's been fun to make finishing touches on rooms that make it our own. Here's a little bit of our summer...! Our newest home improvement was all brand new kitchen appliances!! We really only needed a new fridge because ours was on it's last leg but while we were searching for a good deal on KSL we found someone that was selling all of their appliances for the price of one fridge! The are almost brand new and all black so Brian's dirty fingerprints won't show. :) It was too good of a deal to pass up since we would be needing a new dishwasher next anyway so we felt very lucky to have stumbled on that! I'm excited to add some new paint next and make the kitchen look brand new! My nephew, Logan turned 2 this year and is really into animals and trains so we celebrated his birthday at the Hogle Zoo. I haven't been to the zoo since I was probably 6 years old so I was excited. I remember it being much bigger then though.... The family got together this year and celebrated Grandpa Nelson's 80th birthday in Preston. We had almost everyone there so you can imagine how big the event was. It was cowboy themed, of course, and they displayed his saddles and harnesses and everyone got to say their favorite memory of Grandpa. Afterward we went to 'That Famous Preston Night Rodeo Parade' and then hung out at Aunt Becky's the rest of the weekend. Good memories. :) This is our GIANT yard sale that I did with my sisters-in-law, mother-in-law and a lady in their ward. My parents cleaned out their house and anything that was going to the DI they gave to me to sale. There was even more in the garage! We had TONS left over but Brian and I sold a lot of our stuff. Summer helped me sort and price stuff or I would never have been able to finish! We made almost $400!!! Woot!

This is how dirty Jake was after working at the machine shop. Also, this is pretty much how Brian looks everyday after work so you can pity me and the laundry I have to do. :)

We had really bad fires that surrounded us on all sides for weeks and weeks this summer. I came out after work one day and that's what the sky looked like and ash was all over everything. The big black smoke cloud was just over the hill behind our house. So grateful it never reached us.