Sweet, Delicious, Goodness

So for some of you who don't live around me, you need to know that I LOVE to bake. I don't profess to be that great at it, but I love it. There is always a homemade treat around my house. So this leads me to my dilemma. I need some variety! I love what I make, but I'm wanting to try some new things so I need your help. When you leave a comment (don't feel like you have to) please leave one of your favorite oh so good recipes. Doesn't have to be anything grand or fancy or any thing extreme, just addictive! Please help me out!!!

PS-This post totally goes against every thing I've been working on. For the last month and a half and I've been going to the gym and have even increased to going twice a day lately. But oh well, baking is something that I love and my family has grown to "expect" cookies or treats to always be around.

Just Randomness.....

As usual, I just have a random update.

We finished our living room last Saturday and I think it looks way awesome!!! (Especially compared to what it looked like.) Anyways, what we have done to this area is a complete makeover. We re textured the walls, painted, new carpet, resurfaced to fireplace and painted that also, and did crown molding. We want to get a new ceiling fan as well, but we just haven't found the one we want quite yet. So, all in all, it turned out pretty darn nice. I am so proud of Ray for all the work he has done. But I can't that without thanking everyone that also helped with this project. And not just in the living room, throughout the whole house. Right now I'm only posting a picture of the living room because the other rooms aren't done exactly the way I want them yet. So, here is a little nibble of the improvements we've done. This is the best I can capture the whole room. I am definitely not a photographer or have much of an interest in it either, so it is pretty amateur.

BEFORE............

AFTER!!!

I still need to decorate, but Ray and I are having debates on what to do. So, for now, it's pretty plain, but still looks good!

And as for the family, we've just been having fun. Me and the boys have been spending a lot of time outside so I bought a little swimming pool for them and it's been fun. But we've also been starting to go to the Community Center and going swimming there also. Logan has so much fun!!!

After we got out of the pool, I had wrapped Chase in his towel and he was laying down between my legs and immediately fell asleep. He looked pretty darn cute!

Another fun part of life right now is that Ray's little brother, Alan, is leaving for his mission then end of this month and so he's been in St. George visiting until he leaves. Even though he is not my biological brother, I feel as if he is my brother. I love the silly kid!!!! It's been fun because he comes quite a bit and hangs out with us. He also has been a big help because he's watched my kids for me a few times. Just want him to know that I love him and that I will miss him terrible. But at the same time, I am so proud of him for choosing to go on a mission! He will be great!

Ray is also winding down is school. He only has a week and a half of school left!!! He then will work for three weeks on the Virgin River Project. This was the same job he had last summer except that they are splitting the time between two teachers this time. So instead of working for six weeks, it's only three, but it works out ok. This gives us time to go on vacation and for Ray to have some time off, work on some house projects (hopefully re tile the kitchen and laundry room! hint, hint Ray!), and also take some endorsement classes he needs. So all in all, he will still be a very busy guy.

Oh yeah, we bought a swing set last week that should be delivered within the next week and I am so excited!!! The kids will have so much fun on it and I'm excited to play with them! It will be quite the project to put together, but that comes with the territory I guess. So, after we get it put together, I will post some pictures of that as well.

Chase is holding a hamburger toy and trying to eat it, just looks kinda funny! And the room is a mess because we were putting up the crown molding at the time, so there are tools and junk everywhere.

One night when Logan was giving Chase kisses good night, he wanted Chase to sleep in his bed too. So we just laid him there for a few minutes. They are going to be so good together when they get older!

PS- There aren't very many pictures of Logan because he is in a phase where he doesn't want to cooperate with for the camera. So therefore, it is a photoshoot of Chase!

In A While

So people have been starting to pester me about before and after pictures of the house. I've been lazy haven't taken any recent pictures and then also, things still aren't completely done and I'm dragging my feet. Now that we've moved in, I've just kind of slowed down doing home improvement projects. But I promise, I will put some pictures on soon!

I Don't Really Want To...

So we officially moved into our new house. Not that things are actually done, but we're in. There are still many boxes to unpack, painting projects to finish up, decorating, cleaning, and the list goes on and on. But with so much to do, here I find myself sitting on my bum, intentionally ignoring everything that needs to be done. The most I can make myself do right now is to write this new post, and this I don't really want to do either. But oh well, here it is, and enjoy.

PS - I feel bad with such a lousy post, so here are a few pictures to try and make up for it.

Logan and I made cupcakes today. He started eating his and it was sticking to his bugers! All of us have had this terrible cold or allergies and makes the nose run constantly!

My sister-in-law, Kathryn, got this thing called (I think) a Fresh Food Pacifier. The thing is shaped like a giant pacifier and it opens up. Inside in the green meshing you can add any kinds of fresh food and the kid can sit there and suck on it and basicall puree whatever is inside. Chase LOVES the thing! He makes a giant mess, but hey, it cleans. And I still haven't anything that he won't eat!

Sorry about seeing my leg, but I found this kind of interesting. Acutally, I document it because the last time I had a bruise was when I had knee surgery about 10 years ago. So, one day the skin on my knee was hurting when my pants rubber against so I pulled up my pants leg and I have this huge bruise on my knee. I have no idea how I got it. My actual knee never hurt, like the inside of it or anything, but I just had this bruise there. This picture doesn't really show the extent of it very well and it got worse after this. But all around the top of the knee cap was this deep black and purple bruise and then around the bottom was normal yellow and brown. The only thing I can think of when I was kneeling down cleaning in the house something happened. It's just weird because I seriously don't bruise.

Good thing I have a small husband to fit in small places! The sink in our new house had been leaking so all the boards and wall around it had molded and rotted out so Ray was tearing things out to replace it. He has turned into quite the handyman and I love seeing the way he can fix things! Way to go babe, I love you!

My parents came down to help with the house projects and my mom was ever so helpful in watching the kids while she was here. When they came, they brought their dog, Gus, and bought him a new puppy bed. Well, needless to say, I think Chase and Logan used it more that he did.

Anyways, a short post has, like always, turned into a long one. But I just have to express a never ending thank you to all of my family and friends who have helped in this house process. We had one day where we literally had an entire army here helping with things. THANK YOU!!!! But I have to say a special thanks to my family. Kathryn watched my kids (which added to 5 kids she had at once. Kassy -5, Kimmi-3, Logan-2, Kyler-9 1/2 mos, and Chase-7 mos) all day and night everyday. That alone made it possible for me to do things while Ray was at school, thanks girl, I owe you! And then we also had our awesome brother-in-law, Trevor, who was here everyday sharing his knowledge on house stuff. He put in many hours with us and nothing would have came out the way it did if he hadn't of helped! Thanks Kristi for letting us borrow your husband! I love you!!! Now, don't get me wrong, there were lots of other people who helped, but I just can't name everyone. But also another special mention goes to both of our parents who came during their spring break and helped paint and other stuff. Again, thanks EVERYONE!!! (Please don't be offended if I didn't mention your name, I'm not good at this stuff.)

Craziness!!!

Life has been truly crazy lately! We finally closed on our house last Tuesday and got the keys on Wednesday. We went in that night and got to work and quickly realized there was a lot more cleaning than we initially realized. The place was completely disgusting! But we plugged through and got everything washed and cleaned and then pulled the carpets out on Saturday. Just getting rid of the carpet made such a huge difference! The people that lived there before smoked alot and had a big dog. The problem with that scenario is that they didn't clean anything up, so the walls were black with smoke and there was animal hair covering absolutely everything. So, with the carpet clean and walls washed it felt immensely better. That night my brother-in-law came over and helped prime the living room and then texture it. It made me so excited seeing the changes and progress. I can't wait until we finally color on the walls and the new carpet in, I think it will be a nice house after it is all said and done.

Some updates on the rest of the family. Last Sunday Logan was fevered so we kept him home from church and then by the evening his fever shot up to 104! That scared us so we took him into Instacare (like 5 minutes before they closed) and by then his fever had went back down to 101. He had also thrown up earlier, so we were thinking that it was just the flu. So the doctor did a flu test (which I didn't even know you could do. I think it's kind of dumb to pay money for a flu test. All they do is tell you to rest and drink lots of fluid). Anyways, the test came back negative and so they said he just had a viral infection and there is nothing you can do. Kind of felt like a waste of money to take him in and be told that, but his fever was so high we didn't want to take a chance. Well, we just loaded him up on Ibuprofen and let him sleep and drink alot. He started to improve the next day and then on Tuesday he was all better. I'm so glad he is feeling better because it's so hard seeing your kid hurting and feeling terrible and not wanting to move, which is not my Logan. So it's nice to have him back to good health.

Chase is still doing good and growing like crazy. And Ray has been very busy with school, HOSA club, and house stuff. He had a State HOSA comepetition in Layton Thursday and Friday and took 5 kids. The competition was good and kids behaved good for him, but it was hard for him to be gone knowing that there was so much house stuff that needed to be done. But other that that, everything is going good and we're just trucking right along!!!

To Feed?.... Or Not To Feed?...

Nothing major has happened the last little bit. We're still just waiting for our loan to go through on the house. Last week we had the house inspection done and everything came back good, well, except the guy couldn't get the furnace to turn on. He said that it's trying to light but there's no gas getting to it. He said that all we need to do is have the lines purged and that it's nothing major. But other than that, everything is good! I'm not a patient person and this waiting stuff for the loan is killing me!!! I just want to get in there and get going on the projects!

As far as the kids go, Logan and Chase are doing really well. Chase thinks that Logan is the coolest thing since sliced bread. He just sits and watches Logan all day and laughs hysterically at him, it's actually quite entertaining. I can't wait until Chase is a little more mobile and can play with Logan. Oh yeah, that reminds me, Chase is rolling over now!!! YEAH!!! He can only roll from his back to his stomach, but I'm so excited! But just this morning I took Chase to the pediatrician and he is doing really good, contrary to what WIC said last week. WIC tried telling me that he was too fat and too short and that I'm overfeeding him! Talk about tick me off! Ray told me to ignore what WIC says and to just go by what the doctor says. Anyways, I let WIC get to my head and so I started cutting out some of his feedings like they told me to and now for the result he is no longer sleeping through the night and I'm not happy about it. So when I took him to the doctor this morning for his 6 month check up they said not to believe WIC and that he just fine and to go back to what I was doing before. Talk about relief because I'm not a happy person when I don't get my sleep. But as for Chase, he weighs 19.4 pounds (75%) and for his height he is 26 1/4" (50%). So take that WIC, he is just fine!!! I would quit going there, but I can't afford the formula without it. So I should be thankful that I'm able to participate in the program.

But other than that, things are relatively low key and boring around here. We're just having fun picking out carpet and paint and planning what we want to do everywhere on the house!!

We Got a House! (Lots of pictures!)

So, there are some you that have read on my Facebook that we bought a house the other day. We got an awesome deal on it. It's an older house and it definitely needs some cleaning and fixing, but we're not scared. Immediately it needs new carpet and paint, but hopefully, thanks to our President's stimuls package, we should be able to get the $8,000 tax credit, making it possible for these projects. We should hopefully be able to close mid-March. I'm so excited to be in a house and can't wait to get started!!! We took some pictures of what it looks like and just remember that it is going to be a work in progress. (Sorry, there's actually ALOT more pictures than I originally thought.) Here's the whole guided tour, minus two of the bedrooms, they all kind of looked alike so I skipped them.


The front of the house, we sit on a corner lot.


You walk in the front door and this is the living room. And yes, the carpet is gross.


Here is another angle of the living room and there one of the entrances into the kitchen and dining room.


Dining room and pation door.


The kitchen from the dining room and the entrance to the half bathroom and the laundry room.

The half bath and laundry room.

The hallway from the living room.

The first bedroom from the hallway.

The gorgeous bathroom.

This is the side yard and there's actually a door from the master bedroom. That is where I'm standing for this pic. It has a pretty big side yard.

This part of the back yard from the patio door.

Part of the patio. This is a covered section of it.

The other half of the back yard. This part needs some work but totally perfect all in all for the boys.

Also, we decided last week that we wanted to something fun with the boys but not spend any money. So we pushed all of the furniture out of the way and set up a little tent in the living room and put the air mattress in it and watched a movie. Logan thought it was just the coolest thing. It was so much that I want to start a weekly tradition of doing something like that. Here are a few pictures of the boys hanging out in the tent.

These are just a couple of snap shots I've taken of the boys in the last week. Our weather has been so nice and we've spent alot of time outside!