Saturday

Today has already been a great day! And it's only 10:30!!

We woke up early and Jeron took the 3 older boys to setup for our ward party this morning.

I ran to a nearby park and got my "bountiful basket". It was awesome. Only $15 for all of this!

& this....

At the ward party we had breakfast and a water fight.

Lots of fun for the kids...

...except for poor Jakey

(his poor feet are still hurting from the other day when he fell

and scraped his face, knees, and tops of his feet).

Baby Grant

I haven't blogged forever. Forgive me....

But just look at these sweet pictures Cousin Rachel took of Grant.

The hardest part will be choosing just one to put on his baby announcement. Also, his blessing day will be the 22nd for anyone who can come!

Hope I win!

Trainer Momma is giving away a $50 gift card. Hope I win. I will buy--- school supplies, and maybe a fun throw pillow for the guest room. :)

One....one.... havin' fun!

Baby Jakers is 1 year old today! Hooray! What a handsome little man he is.

He has 6 teeth

He can stand but no walking yet

He crawls everywhere and is into EVERYTHING

He is always pretty happy

and we LOVE HIM!

Boys Bedroom- Dresser "After" Pics

Well, I promised pictures... didn't this turn out great!?! Well worth it.

Thanks, Jolyn!

Jolyn,

I had so much fun hanging out today and doing Vinyl!

It turned out awesome! Thanks for making the trek!
Love, Ann

Boys Bedroom

We've had fun decorating the boys room,

using what we have on hand, and finding some good deals here and there.

For a long time, I've wanted to make a "missionary wall", with a big world map and pictures of all of our missionaries in our family. I thought the boy's room would be the perfect spot for this. And so today, with the help of Jolyn, we busted out the vinyl and created our own little version.

Large map of the World- $5, Deseret Industries Thrift Store.

(One day I'd like to repaint the gold frame navy or black with metal paint. )

Jolyn and I couldn't stop at just one with the vinyl, though!
We made some perfect artwork for our little Star-Wars themed room.

Vinyl, $5.

And on to other accessories....

I found these navy curtains on clearance at Target ($10).
The silver curtain rod (free) was from our other house.

We bought this vintage looking Star Wars poster at K-Mart ($6), Frame Target ($12, clearance).

And we repainted the boy's bunkbed with the same paint that had on hand from when we painted the dressor. (Pics still to come)

And later we found a funky grey-shag rug sealed the deal.
Target, $90.

And Hyrum couldn't live without this Master Yoda plush toy/pillow, so we got that too.

We splurged.

Target, $20.

And another splurge, bedding,

Pottery Barn $240 for 4 pillowcases and 2 duvet covers.

I know, I know. Pricey.

But the print was worth the price. It was just what we wanted!
Two of the pillowcases were shipped, but the other bedding is on back-order so we'll have to wait a few weeks to see the final product!

Total: $388.00

Remaining in our budget:

$500-$93(dresser & paint)=$407

$407-$388 (bedding, curtains, art, accessories)=$19

Whew, we're getting close!

Bread day!

Hyrum and I decided to make Wednesday our baking day, and we made 3 types of bread. Challah, Whole Wheat, and French. Here are our results!

Challah Bread

(Almost) 5 Stars!

This bread was easy (we used the bread machine to mix it), tasty, and so pretty! Only problem, I overcooked it so the crust was a little to crispy. Overall, great!

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

4 Stars!

This recipe also was an easy- mixed up in the mixer. But the bottom stuck to the breadpan a little, even with sufficient greasing. (Hmm....? I have never had luck with Whole Wheat bread.) It stays together nice when cut, and tastes great.

French Bread

3 Stars!

Looks pretty, tastes good, but this recipe was TOO MUCH WORK! (Mix, let rise, mix let rise, mix, let rise, refrigerate 24 hours, let rise, bake. ) Wow. A day's worth of work for 2 small baguettes? Never again.

Boys Bedroom- Dresser "Before" Pics

Ever since we've moved, the boys have needed a dresser.

I headed down to Salvation Army to see what they had. What I was looking for: a well made, wood dresser that I could potentially refinish to match the room.

Once there, I found a yellowy-green smaller sized, 4-drawer dresser with funky handle-pulls that was well made, but $90!!! Yikes- too much.

But after going home and looking around more, I still liked it. So I returned and .... I asked if they could lower the price. And they said yes. While it still was a small splurge at $60, I can tell from the craftmanship that it will last.

I had to nail/glue one of the drawer brackets, but aside from that it was ready to be refinished.

Dresser~ $60 (Salvation Army)

Grey-blue paint~ $13 (Lowes)

New hardware (drawer pulls)~ $2.50 X 8=$20 (Lowes)

=$93.00 Dresser

A little more than I had hoped....

But, wait till you see the after pics! :)

Boys Bedroom- Inspiration

We have been redecorating the boys room, a-la "Star Wars". I was inspired by the new PBK Star Wars line.

Inspiration Room

I am trying to redecorate their bedroom just like this, but on a budget.

The projects-

repaint bunkbed, new curtains & rod, bedding

artwork, new dresser, rug, lamps, shelving

The colors: navy, grey, and grey-blue

Budget: $500.

Guest room, before pictures:

Now that the kitchen and bedrooms are semi-set up, I really want to work on our guest room so we can get it ready for friends who want to come over!

It is a disaster zone right now!!!

For the guest room, we've finally decided to get a daybed with a pop-out trundle, so that we can have room for guests, as well as keeping the room open for other activities~ crafts, office stuff, etc.

Let me tell you, it is hard to find a cute daybed... they aren't always the nicest household furnishing. But I was happy because I just found this daybed on Craigslist for $250 and it includes a cute bookshelf.

Rain!!!

Well, happy day today~ Jeron's work was cancelled due to "Rainy Day Schedule"!!! And thank goodness, too, because we needed him to take Thomas to school in Uncle David's 4WD Truck, due to the rain last night.

We are literally living on a lakeside property this morning!!!

Oh, fun. Our neighbors George and Mary told us that they hate the rain, because all it means is mud. But we still are lovin' it! What a great day!!!