Darling Noel

This one- who recently just turned 16 i might add, will be joining us for a good chunk of her Christmas break this year.  Can I just say our house is full of excitement over her arrival??!!!

tristans first day skiing!

This was the year! Tristan was finally old enough to venture out on the ski slopes so we decided that for Christmas we would get new ski gear. Neither Jonathan or I had much left from our college skiing days and most of our gear was very outdated. Elijiah having his dad get him a ski pass yearly was up every winter and it was time for us to join him. The coolest thing is that Khory and my mother connected to make custom ski harnesses for kids. When we were teaching Elijiah there wasnt much on the market that worked and thus an idea was born. The harness is great as it allows for the adult to be as close as needed, but also control movement left or right.

The whole time we were preparing to go Tristan was complaining that he didnt want to ski( um he didnt even know what it was) but once we got him all set up and he could see the other kids doing it he was ready to go. That is until we started...he just assumed that it would be cake. He wasnt prepared for keeping his skis straight, or "pizza" toes, or that his legs would hurt etc LOL. We did fall a couple of times, but after several

Tries with the rope tow he was getting it down. Unfortunately he didnt last long. We wanted to make his ski time fun and so when he was done-he was done!! The reward after a "long" day of skiing was hot cocoa, cheetos and a gatorade. During this whole time Elijiah would make runs up the mountain and ski by us...next time we go we are ready to take on the chairlift and mountain.

I am actually really excited- Alta has free skiing after 3 pm and Im sure we will do that this year- no use wasting money when we can ski for an hour or two without cost. It was a beautiful time to be out in nature doing something our whole family can enjoy. FABULOUS!!!

35

Thanksgiving brought with it my 35th birthday...cant believe it!! Jonathan rocked the house with a surprise day date- lunch, twilight, and a pretty cool gift.  thanks honey!!  the actual day however gets a bit lost with the holiday and my sweet mother wanted to make me a bday cake...however only HALF a cake as there were tons of goodies and pies! LOL. 

(on another note- our friend bought Tristan this awesome shirtcape.  its quite cool.  you have a built in cape to be any super hero you want to be! ) fun eh?

Engaged in some good work

With my mothers bday approaching...the best gift is spending some time together.  Its a rare occassion that we see eachother sans husbands, kids...so taking a night and being engaged in some good work...was much needed.

I felt uplifted, and peaceful as we spent time in the Draper Temple.

Thanks Mom.

                                                                          (source: mikehendriksen.org)

a little fun!

Our  work holiday party was in Midway this year...between the pics, the food, entertainment..it was a good time.

Ongoing look at projects around our home

This is the entry way of our home...
This picture was taken at the front door essentially.  We have done a lot of work to the entryway as we replaced the hanging light and painted...the ceiling is at least 20 feet tall so changing out the light and painting was no easy feat...This is the "after"....

Lets take a look at the before....this is just after we installed the new chandelier lighting for the entryway and the picture is taken at the top of the stairs in the hallway near the bedrooms...

Jonathan was a brave soul when he changed out the lighting...we always wanted to paint the entryway and staircase but was put off by how we could do the scaffolding safely...however we put several ladders together and he shimmied his way across to get the old light down, and the new light up...and in the process dinged the wall pretty bad so we were faced with having to paint anyway.

He did an incredible job as I really love our hallway and staircase now.....the pictures and collection of frames we have really makes a statement and is filled with all our favorite family pictures....

Dining room, Kitchen, Formal sitting area, and Entryway =Check.

Next up -finish Family Room and Guest bath(what I mean is gut the bathroom and redo it all-FUN!!)

Kitchen is done!

Kitchen remodel is complete. Im really excited about the changes...it took almost 4 months but its done.  Lets take a look at the before:

Lovely oak cabinets, white stained formica countertops, brass lighting, white walls, missing and unmatched not working appliances, old sink and broken faucet....

After: Refinished cabinets, grey quartz countertops, white mosaic tile backsplash, new hardware, lights, paint, appliances, new stainless sink and faucet...

Another before shot:

After---so pretty!

Its quite amazing the transformation of space and how the kitchen was my biggest dislike of the house, and now I love it.  Thanks to the amazing hubby for again sticking with all of my demands and his hard work! Love you honey!