Provo House Pictures

This is super delayed with all the craziness that happened at the end of summer with me breaking my toes, Scott leaving for training, remodeling the house and putting it on the market while getting ready to move overseas. BUT.....here are the pictures of our house in Provo that were used in the sale listing. So, if you never got a chance to visit our lovely historic home or didn't get a chance to see it after I stripped wallpaper for weeks and painted like there was no tomorrow (cause there really wasn't, we had a deadline) here you go!

The view from the street

The backyard/garage (it's hard to see but there are 3 fruit trees growing back there)

The Entry Way

 Living Room

Master Bedroom, just off of the living room  

 The Girl's Room (upstairs)

Bathroom (much different after being totally gutted and redone! No more pink tile and floral wallpaper)

The Kitchen

Downstairs Bedroom (we always used it as a playroom but staged it as a bedroom)

Downstairs Storage Area (the laundry area is in the other half of the open space in the basement)

 No pictures were taken of the other massive room in the basement. It was the final project that I finished the night before the house went on the market. It is twice the size of the other downstairs bedroom and we used it as a craft room/office. There is also a very large pantry in the basement that didn't get pictured along with an under the stairs storage area where Scott kept his tools.

Except for the master bedroom, every painted area in the house was painted before we put the house on the market(after much wallpaper stripping, patching, sanding etc..). Even the doors. My awesome brothers/sister-in-laws/nephews, etc... made several trips down to help sand and paint the gazillion doors in this house and hang all the pictures.  The wallpaper that did stay was cleaned and re-glued down by my father, which was definitely a labor of love (even the wallpaper on the ceiling in the kitchen). There is nothing quite like spending time with grandma to keep my kids entertained during all of this. My mother was a life saver with those two kids. My father-in-law practically lived at our house for awhile while the big stuff was getting done and had valuable expertise. It was definitely a family project. As much as I loved this house and the charm of it I don't think I am ready for another fixer upper for at least 20 years, if ever.

So, if you never were able to see our house, now you've had a bit of a virtual tour! One of these days I will get our pictures unpacked and put up and show you our house here in Germany!

Four Is Better Than Ten

Four broken bones in one foot isn't the way I had hoped to start out a week where I had planned on making some serious progress on getting our house ready to sell. Life threw me for a loop, for sure! 

After a less than graceful descent down some stairs, the ensuing trips to: the Insta-Care, the Emergency Room and a podiatrist, I finally had my foot fixed up and sent home. A week has passed and I get more x-rays tomorrow and will hopefully know more about how long healing will take.  

It's been a long week of staying off my foot and trying to rest. I always think that sitting around with nothing to do but watch movies and read books would be great but its not! I keep looking around at all the wallpaper that I want to be stripping and the walls I want to be painting and it's driving me a bit bonkers!! Asking for and accepting help is incredibly hard for me but I am very grateful for the wonderful family and friends that have brought by meals for us and checked in on me! 

My view over the last week! 

An interesting hiccup of the situation is that a month ago I signed my girls up for swim lessons that started today. Guess who is now going to the "Mommy and Me" swim lesson with Lilly in my stead for the next few weeks? What do you want to bet he's the only dad lucky enough to be there?

Don't they make a cute group? Scott has been a life saver in so many ways over the past week! Our house has never been so clean! (puts me to shame) The girls love all the extra one-on-one time with Daddy and they really thrive around him. The longer we are married the more I love and appreciate this awesome guy, he truly is my better half!

He even has the girls pick out flowers to bring home to cheer me up!

This is my first broken bone so I am curious, what bones have you broken and how long was the recovery?

The Most Inspirational Woman I Know

There are some people in life that you meet and never forget. My mom is one of those people. Her warmth and love touch everyone she meets, however brief that meeting. Her laugh is infectious and comes easily and often. Happiness just seems to follow her.

(My mom at my wedding reception)

When I was little and people would ask what I wanted to be when I grew up, I most often said I wanted to be a mom. Nurse, dancer, singer, etc... were also sprinkled in there occasionally but I always came back to being a mother. There is a very simple explanation for why I wanted to be a mom. My mother is THE BEST.

If you were to look my name up in the dictionary the word stubborn just might be listed as the definition. Despite this my mother has always loved me and showed me unconditional love, even though I didn't always see it or appreciate it. The definition after her name would be love, joy and patience.

(mother's weekend my first year of college)

My mom's brain is overflowing with knowledge. When she wants to know something, she learns it. She knows a little bit about just about everything and more about the things she really cares about and she has the memory of an elephant, she never forgets! Not only does she know things but she possesses the ability to explain things on different levels. She gauges her response to each persons understanding and maturity and is a magnificent teacher.

As the youngest of seven I spent quite a bit of one-on-one time with my mom and leaned on her and learned from her in so many ways (definitely a mommy's girl). She taught me how to bake, and sew among other things and now she teaches those things to my girls.

I don't think she has ever killed a plant in her life, she has the greenest thumb you'll ever see and willingly shares that knowledge and love.

My parents instilled in me a love of reading, and every time my kids are with my mom they are begging her to read to them and she happily obliges, mush to their delight.

She is committed to serving others and finds joy in giving.  She serves everyone around her, with a smile. When each of my babies has been born she has come down and taken care of us all! I couldn't have done it without her love and support and gentle way of teaching me what I need to know to be a good mom.

There are some people in life who seem to always find joy in something.  My mother is one of those people. I am so blessed to have her as my mother and the grandmother to my children. She inspires me to not compare myself to others but to just be myself as a wife and mother and reassures me that that is more than enough. I love you mom!

Easter Fun

This year our Easter Celebrations had a new addition. Adult Easter Egg Hunts. Who knew they were a thing?

The Sunday before Easter my girls wore their Easter Dresses to church, they've been dying to wear them for weeks! 

They were so excited!!

About half way through the week before Easter a friend in another state posted a photo of she and her husband at an adult Easter egg hunt. My mind was blown!! I immediately started googling to see if there were any in my area. Happily, I found one. 

Sorry for the dark selfie, but we were super excited and antsy to start our Easter Egg hunt!! 

We had to pay a small fee to get in and each person could only grab one Easter Egg (there was a lot of candy loose on the ground), but if you were lucky enough to get one of the eggs, the rewards were good.  

Scott had egg number 2 and redeemed it for the cooler which had the corresponding number and I was egg 19 and got the air mattress. (The cute photo bombers did not come with the prizes)

Scott's sister was gracious enough to watch our girls so we could have a fun night out. We ended up taking the, uuhhh... scenic route to our destination, since I was the one driving, which made us a bit behind schedule.  Don't say anything, I am not always the best navigator... Our date night still went incredibly well and was a nice chance for us to talk and just be together. And the Easter Egg Hunt was pretty exhilarating on it's own!

Easter Sunday my parents and two of my clan of brothers and their families came over for dinner and an Easter egg hunt (the hunt was for the kids, not adults!! I ate enough candy while filling the eggs to make our whole block sick of chocolate.) My brother Andy brought a bubble machine, which really intrigued Lilly. She was more excited about that than the Easter egg hunt!

Being able to spend time with my family on Easter Sunday was the perfect ending to Easter week. 

Valentines in Bryce Canyon

A month ago I entered yet another giveaway, this one by Maverick Adventure Getaways, not expecting to win. Imagine my surprise when I won an overnight stay at a hotel, dinner and tickets to a concert! The giveaway didn't specify where the overnight stay was, just that it was over Valentine's weekend, so I was a little surprised to discover it was four hours away! I had never been to Bryce Canyon, but I had seen the beautiful pictures, so it was a happy surprise.

After dropping off our girls, who practically threw them themselves out of the car to spend the night at Grandpa and Grandma's, we headed down to Ruby's Inn at Bryce Canyon. We were so excited to be there and start exploring and doing that we didn't even take a picture of the Inn, which was beautiful. It's a HUGE place with a log cabin feel, it's own grocery store, post office, restaurant and beautiful swimming pool, among other things. We found this picture, which shows early visitors to Bryce Canyon, while waiting to get seated in the restaurant, and it made me grateful I had air conditioning and a comfy ride on our way down there.

It isn't often that I see a sign translated into multiple languages, without Spanish being one of them. Judging by the conversations ebbing and flowing around us in the restaurant and other areas of the hotel, people from all over the world were staying there that weekend.

After our awesome, and free, meal at the hotel restaurant, we headed over to the concert across the street. The tickets were for a Ty Herndon concert. It was in a much smaller building than I had expected, a place where they do dinner theater, which made it more personal and super fun!

Ty Herndon gave a great performance, and I would go to another of his concerts in a heartbeat!

The next morning, after an invigorating swim in the pool, we headed to Bryce Canyon. 

Bryce Canyon was inspiring. Such a huge expanse of red rocks in odd, beautiful shapes stretching across the horizon!

 We had a wonderful, super romantic weekend! Who knew that without kids around I could sleep through the night?

It was great to spend time with the love of my life and just get time to focus on us.  I have an awesome hubby who was ready to drop everything with 2 days notice to spend the weekend with me! We love exploring new places together and this was a great chance for us to relax together. Thanks Maverick Adventure Getaways for the weekend away!!

Fairy Tea Party

The most beautiful fairy at the Fairy Tea Party

Every Spring our local library has a Fairy Tea Party. We decided to take Abby this year, as she is old enough, and we thought she would enjoy it. Scott waited in line for a couple hours early on a Saturday morning to get the tickets and we are so grateful!

The library transforms a ballroom into a little girls fairy dream. 

The library director played the part of the Fairy King with a court of fairies. Ballerinas performed excerpts from Sleeping Beauty and everything was magical. (It kind of made me wish I was a little girl again) Abby loved watching the ballerinas dance right in front of her! (Scott picked a great table!)  All the little fairies in attendance promenade and get to meet the Fairy King. 

 Abby got a purple wand at her place setting and really loves it. Lilly inherited my blue wand when we got home and she has developed similar adoration of her wand. 

After the tea party the fairies could walk through a room filled with the cutest, tiny fairy houses and at the end, trade in their magic coin for a book. The library director says the purpose of this fairy tea is to help little ones develop their imagination and be able to envision the things they read in books, which I think is pretty awesome. This was Abby's favorite part, as you can see from her face....

This girl is a wonderful addition to our lives. She has the best giggles, smiles and hugs. She is so caring, she looks out for others all the time, and wants everyone to be happy. I love this girl so much!

Five Years and Still Going Strong!

This past week was our fifth wedding anniversary! Yay! It almost seems surreal that so much time has passed. I didn't really believe people when they said it would fly by, but it has. It reminds me of the mission; there were many days that would drag on endlessly, but then before I knew it we  reached the end of a month, or the end of a transfer (6 weeks). 

For this anniversary I was a bit stumped on what to get Scott to show him how much I love and appreciate him. Then I happened across a post on pinterest about doing anniversary gifts by the hour and I knew that was perfect. There were a handful of small things that Scott had mentioned needing/wanting that would fit this idea. 

The basic idea is that they get to open something every hour for 12 hours. I timed Scott's gifts to be opened at 5 minutes after the hour since it was our 5th anniversary. Corny, I know!

For about 2 weeks I picked up little things as I came across them and managed to get most of his gifts during normal shopping trips with my kiddos. 

The gifts were mostly small things and I tried to come up with clever/funny sayings to go with them. 

A few examples: 

• The first gift was a small package of grill wipes from Home Depot and a package of his favorite sour candies. 
• The fourth gift was a can of Tire Slime to fix a flat tire (see tag below). 
• The big gift was Chromecast paired with some swedish fish. (see tag below)

We had a lot of fun opening Scott's presents and he even laughed at my corny jokes and word plays. If you would like more specifics of the small gifts I used for this idea, email me!

Scott was in charge of everything about this anniversary and he surprised me by taking me to spend the night at Little America in SLC where we spent the first night of our honeymoon five years ago. It was a wonderful surprise and I was overwhelmed with the memories that flooded me as we walked into the hotel lobby. After checking in we headed down to the lobby for some late night desserts and saw a couple checking in who had obviously just come from their wedding reception and it made me smile. 

I have the most amazing husband in the whole world. He is so perfect for me. No one understands me in quite the same way, encourages and loves me or picks me up when I fall quite like he does. I love you Scott and I'm still over the moon excited that you want to spend forever with me!

We had a wonderful, leisurely weekend while the girls played at their grandparents house. They got to spend time with Scott's parents and his aunt who happened to be in town and I got to sleep in, use the bathroom ALL BY MYSELF(who knew that was possible anymore?), and eat my food without little fingers in my plate! 

Happy anniversary Scott!

I included a few flashback pictures of our wedding day! As you can tell, I had a hard time deciding which ones to include....

B-29 Superfortress

A week ago, the only B29 Superfortress with active flying status came to SLC and so OF COURSE I had to surprise Scott and take us all up to see it. It was incredible (and much bigger than it looks in the picture).

There are some moments in life where you get close to an object and can almost feel the life that was lived and lost in it and the stories that were made there seep into your bones and your emotions. This plane represents the thousands (3,970 to be exact) of B-29s that were built during WW2 and that were used to fight for us. Being so close to history made me a bit teary when I thought of all the men that put their lives on the line, and many that lost their lives, after climbing into a plane just like that one, for the purpose of saving others lives and bringing peace to a war torn world.

While driving up to see the Bomber we found out that Scott's grandfather helped build some of the B-29's in WW2. Knowing that made the day extra special, since I didn't have the opportunity to meet him and our children won't either.

Now that I've been sappy enough for one day I'll tell about standing in line for an hour an a half in hundred degree weather with a 3 year old and a 1 year old at lunch time.... enough said.

My bangs were definitely wind blown but wind in a desert, on top of the tarmac at an airport is HOT wind. We couldn't keep Lilly confined to the stroller so we let her run free, which for her meant pushing around the stroller, which was fine with me, as long as she was happy!  

You can see that Abby was super reluctant to get close to the big wheels. She told me that she didn't want to get run over! (At least we know that some of the things I tell her about why we don't run across people's driveways is sinking in....

After a l.o.n.g. wait in the sun we were finally able to go "inside" the plane. It felt like we were stepping back in time. I feel bad for the tour guides sitting inside the plane, wilting, because the temperature skyrocketed once you were inside!

 

It was pretty crazy to realize that a B-29 just like this one is the plane that dropped the atomic bombs. Looking at the technology that seems so archaic, but was cutting edge then, it almost doesn't seem possible.

Despite the heat and the cranky children it was a wonderful experience and I would definitely recommend going to see the Superfortress if it makes a stop near you. 

Many thanks to the Commemorative Air Force for making this plane and it's history available to the public.

Easter

I haven't done a lot for Easter in the past but this year I decided, very last minute, to kick it up a notch. Abby is getting old enough to really enjoy it and Lilly is also old enough to enjoy some parts of it, mainly the candy and new little toys to play with.

So, after inviting over the family that lives close by (aka in the same state) I took the girls on a shopping trip to Winco (love that store) for supplies and I mentally prepared myself to make Easter dinner for the first time. In the four and a half years we have been married, we have always had Easter dinner at someone else's house. For some reason I have always been intimidated by cooking a ham. Feel free to laugh.... I know it's illogical, especially since I can cook a whole chicken and de-bone it, no problem.

We ended up trying out two new recipes and they were delicious! We had Baked bone-in-ham with dipping sauce, Funeral Potatoes, jello salad, rolls and chocolate Easter cupcakes. Everything turned out beautifully!

Dinner was followed by an Easter egg hunt in the backyard to compensate for the Easter egg hunt that I took the girls too at BYU on Saturday that was a total bust. Even the teenage boys had a good time!

The best part of the day was being able to spend time with family! My parents came, one of my many brothers and his wife and three teenage sons, and a sister-in-law and her daughter all came(we were sad that my brother, her husband, had to work and couldn't come with them, but happy that they came).  Abby was so excited to see everyone, it was like Christmas for her. Lilly was initially terrified with all these people that she isn't super familiar with but eventually she warmed up to them.

Waiting until after church to take pictures makes a for some cranky little girls who won't hold still.

Adorable Lilly

Lilly is stylin' her necklace for the Easter egg hunt

Abby getting some help from her Uncle, cousin, and grandma to reach the egg hidden on the roof of the garage.

 Abby is having a blast!