Woohoo For Curb Appeal

We did quite a bit in the two and a half years that we lived there.  So lets start with the front.  When we first moved into our home it looked like this...

 In fact this is the picture from the MLS listing.

Here is a picture that we took on one of the many walk throughs.  As you can see the planters were overgrown with who knows what (whatever it was was stinky when it got wet) and the house lacked any sort of curb appeal.

Slowly making some progress.  We started by tearing out the growth and railroad ties.

 I love my boxwoods!

 Clean and simple with a nice pop of color.

The tree in the front yard was my favorite... Ella and I used to lay underneath this tree and play when she was a baby.

Starting to look good.

 The shutters helped a lot.

What we finished with.  There was so much more I would have loved to do if money wasn't a concern... a new door, maybe a porch, different railing, new concrete, new roof, blah, blah, blah... We did do quite a bit though... new windows (sniff, sniff, I still miss the brand new windows), house numbers, light fixture, mailbox, shutters, planters... sigh...

I Can't Believe It's Already Been Two Years

I don't think I've ever blogged here about our first home, but today seemed the perfect time to do so.  Two years ago today we moved from our first home (which we still miss) into our new or not so new anymore home.  We needed to move for many reasons, the biggest of which was that we needed more space.  The home was also fifty years old and in need of some serious love (which really just means lots of money).  We talked many, many times about doing some serious remodeling and adding a large addition, but the reality was that with our neighborhood we would never get our money back out if we needed to sell for any reason.  So when I was pregnant with Cameron we started considering the possibility of moving, but never found anything that we were happy with until one day we saw another home that would work for us,  it had the space we needed, it was in the area that we wanted to stay in, in fact it was the same neighborhood just two streets over.  So we decided to put an offer on the home a couple of days later.  Five weeks later, we sold our home and four weeks later we moved into our new home.  It was kind of a crazy time for our family to move especially since I was eight months pregnant, but, we managed to get through it.  So here is a little tour of our first home.

 Welcome to Our Home

 Living Room

 I sure miss the hardwood floors.

 Dining Room/Breakfast Nook

 Kitchen

 Upstairs Bathroom

 Miss Ella's nursery

 Master Bedroom

 Yes, I installed this closet organizer too.

 My old craft room

 The Basement

Our backyard was huge and had a lot of potential to be great.

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures of my favorite projects.

How'd I Do... April Goals

I meant to do this post yesterday, but Sunday's are sort of a crazy and exhausting day around here and I was determined to go to bed at a decent hour last night.  My kids actually slept all night too, so I got a full eight hours of uninterrupted sleep last night.  Pure heaven is all I have to say about that.  I couldn't believe how good I felt when I woke up.  Anyways, I don't know where the month of April went, but I can't believe it's already gone.  So here we go with another month down:

Homemaking-

Re-arrange rooms.  I feel like this is going to be a huge undertaking.  Here's the plan:

    Toy room becomes guest room

    Guest room becomes food storage room

    Basement living area becomes toy room

We didn't get the rooms re-arranged last month, but that's okay.  I knew it was going to be a huge project.  We did manage to get the basement living room mostly cleaned, the guest room cleaned and the food storage closet as organized as it's going to be for now.

Re-arrange front room - This room looks so much better now.  We re-arranged the furniture, added a rug (finally) and got the new desk.  Now I just need to finish off the gallery wall.

Cooking-

Try three new recipes - Creamy Bacon Fettucine, Three-Cheese Baked Spaghetti and Double Lemon Poppyseed Cake

Clean out inside freezer - It's Finally Done!!!  Let me just say there were some gross things in there.

Make three freezer meals - This definitely didn't happen.  Most days I was lucky enough to get dinner on the table.

Mothering-

Practice patience - I really tried, but oh I need some more practice.

Sign Ella up for preschool - Done!  This was really sad to do.  It made me realize how big my baby is getting.

Have an art project once a week - We didn't get a big art project done each week per se, but we got a couple of Easter projects done and the kids did lots of coloring and played with lots of play-doh.

Work on ABC's and 123's sight recognition and sounds with Ella - We'll work on this in May although she's getting pretty good already.

Creating-

Sew nursery curtains - Big Fat Fail!

Sew matching skirts for my girls - One of these days when I have free time to sew something other than a straight line, I'll attempt this.

Financing-

Finally get our new desk - Yay, it looks so good!  Pictures coming soon.

Figure out the cost of shelving in the food storage room - I need to do this so I know how much to plan on, but this project won't be happening for another few months anyways, so no rush.

Enriching-

Read a book - Fail

Go to the gym twice a week - Fail

Catch up on my magazine reading - I got started, but never finished.

So there's the month of April.  For being such a busy month, I was able to get quite a bit done.  May isn't going to be any better though, so I'm going to keep my list short and sweet.

April's Goals:

Homemaking-

Start re-arranging rooms

Hang frames for gallery wall in reading room

Cooking-

Try three new recipes

Start working on gathering recipes for family cookbook

Mothering-

Work on ABC's and 123's sight and sound recognition with Ella and Cameron

Practice Patience (you can never have too much patience)

Creating-

Host a baby shower

Financing-

Stay in budget

Enriching-

Finish catching up on my magazine pile

Blog twice a week

Great Fashion Advice

With the big wedding tomorrow... Will and Kate of course... I thought I would share with you my love of Kate's style.  Her style is classic and timeless without being stuffy and she always looks so put-together.  I love that a good pair of jeans seems to be an essential in her closet (being a jeans and t-shirt kinda girl myself).  I also love love love the tailored trench coats.  Anyways, here are some of my favorite outfits from the soon to be princess.

 Love the button up shirts... they've always been a fave of mine, but lets just say they don't work so well when you're a nursing mom :)

 Love the layered look

 And the riding boots... I really need to find a cute pair of riding boots and jeans to go with

 Agh, that belt and dark jean and blazer with a simple white t-shirt (also a favorite of mine)

Jeans, white t-shirt and a cardi with a cute bag... what more do you need

Oh yes, the sunglasses... Anyone that knows me knows that I have a love for sunglasses and I don't go anywhere without them

 Cute skirts and sweaters seem to be a staple as well

 I love these dresses, especially the pink polka dot one

 Nice, but comfy

 Aw, the trench coats... I'm convinced I need to add a few to my wardrobe now along with more scarves

 Love the pink

 Perfect shade of grey

 I love all the navy blue she wears

I love the fact that she knows what she likes and she knows what looks good on her.  One thing I noticed while perusing pictures of her was that she is consistent with her style, such as that plunging v-neck that seems to be a signature look of hers or the white layering t-shirt or the jeans with riding boots and a cardi or blazer of some sort.  She knows what is flattering on her and she goes with it rather than forcing a style that's less than flattering.  I like that.  I look forward to seeing more of her fashion picks as we get to know more of Kate.

Gallery Walls

A couple weekends ago we did some re-arranging of our front room/reading room which freed up a large amount of wall space.  When we moved into our home a couple of years ago we put a large bookshelf against a large wall, mostly because I was intimidated by the large vaulted wall (we moved from a small 1950's rambler that didn't have high ceilings or a lot of wall space).  Of course, I'm much more comfortable in my ability to decorate our homes spaces now and I think it would be great to add a gallery wall to showcase pictures from our various travels.  We've already done this in our stairwell and on one of our living room walls (on a much smaller scale).  I've been thrilled with how they turned out and I'm excited to tackle the wall in our front room/reading room.

Our stairwell (I actually tackled this project a year ago and I thought I posted these pics, but then realized I didn't)

 The view from our kitchen

A small display in our living room... these pictures really need to be updated.

Here is our blank slate...

 Here are my "research" findings

(Pottery Barn)

 (Pottery Barn)

 (Pottery Barn)

(Young House Love)

Let's Do A Review

A few weeks ago I got an email from Deseret Book about reviewing a few products for them.  I of course jumped at the opportunity since I love love love getting stuff from them.  When we got back from San Francisco I was pretty excited to find a package waiting for me with a couple of great things.  So you wanna see what they sent me?  Okay, I promise it's good.  

The first thing was this amazing CD.  

Now you know from my post a couple of weeks ago that Josh Wright has some seriously unbelievable talent.  Of course the rest of his music was just as good as 'La Campenella'.  He even has one of my favorites, Clair de Lune.  I love that he takes classical music and blends them with Sunday hymns to create an absolutely gorgeous musical arrangement.  Now if only he would create some musical arrangements for Canon in D and the Moonlight Sonata, I'd totally be in love {just kidding honey... I love you!}.  Anyways, I highly recommend this CD if you're wanting some beautiful piano music with a unique arrangement.  This has actually become my favorite for Sunday mornings.  It has a nice calming effect which is much needed at our house on Sundays.  If you're interested in learning more about Josh Wright feel free to visit his website Josh Wright Piano.  Also, if you want you can purchase the CD from Deseret Book.  

So the other item I was really excited about was Hilary Weeks new book and CD 'Bedtime and Naptime... and Bedtime and Naptime'.  

This is a wonderful book that celebrates motherhood and reminds you how important mothers roles are while adding a little humor to help you get through those less than perfect days.  I find that if we are having a rough day at our house I put this CD on to help me remember to laugh.  It helps me to remember the "simple joys" of being a mother and to enjoy this time with my munchkins while they are little, cause they're growing up so fast.  It's a great little reminder.  Here are a few clips from You Tube that are fun...

Again, if you're interested you can get this book/CD from Deseret Book.

{4} Months

Ashlynn is four months old now and the older she gets the more she starts looking like her siblings.  I had a few free minutes tonight so I started looking through old baby pics of Ella and Cameron when they were four months.  Kinda funny how our children look like triplets. :)  Pretty cute I think!

Ella - {4} months

Cameron - {4} months

Ashlynn - {4} months

How'd I Do... March Goals

March was an incredibly busy month, so not a whole lot of "extra stuff" got done.  But, I did manage to get a few things done.  So here we go with March's goals:

Homemaking-
Decorate the toy room - The plan for the toy room has changed and we're going to be doing some re-arranging of rooms, sooo the toy room decorating is on hold until rooms have been re-arranged.
Finish decorating the munchkins room - Almost done.
Tweak a few things in the living room - There was absolutely no time this month to even make a trip to IKEA.

Cooking-
Clean out the freezer - I got the outside freezer clean, but not the inside.
Prepare three different freezer meals - Meatloaf, Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Taco Meat
Try three new recipes - Gorgonzola Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Grain and Nut Whole Wheat Pancakes, Creamy Italian Chicken and Orzo Skillet

Mothering-
Take some time for myself each week to go and do something I want to do - Hit and miss... this last month was really busy.
Practice Patience
Go on a walk once a week - When the weather permitted we made it out.

Creating-
Sew something - Not one single thing was sewn last month.
Alter one piece of clothing in my closet
Sew curtains for nursery

Financing-
Get our new desk - How pathetic that we haven't even had time to go and pick up the desk.  It's already picked out even... we just have to go pay for it.

Enriching-
Blog once a week - I did really good this month.  I didn't blog while we were away in San Francisco, but  I think I more than made up for it with my San Fran posts.
Read a book - Haha... I actually got to read a book this month.  Of course it ended up not being a very good book, but I actually got to read again.
Spend some time with my hubby - We've been really busy this last month, but it was so nice to spend some time together in San Francisco.

Let's move onto April's goals:

Homemaking-
Re-arrange rooms.  I feel like this is going to be a huge undertaking.  Here's the plan:
    Toy room becomes guest room
    Guest room becomes food storage room
    Basement living area becomes toy room
Re-arrange front room

Cooking-
Try three new recipes
Clean out inside freezer
Make three freezer meals

Mothering-
Practice patience
Sign Ella up for preschool
Have an art project once a week
Work on ABC's and 123's sight recognition and sounds with Ella

Creating-
Sew nursery curtains
Sew matching skirts for my girls

Financing-
Finally get our new desk
Figure out the cost of shelving in the food storage room

Enriching-
Read a book
Go to the gym twice a week
Catch up on my magazine reading