Counter tops

Two years ago when we moved cabinets around to make room for the dishwasher and stove, we then ended up with an island. Since then we've just been living with a melamine board as our temporary counter top over the island and it's worked out surprisingly well and still doesn't look too terrible. 

We finally moved ahead on getting new counter tops for the kitchen and kids bathroom. We didn't do our other bathroom because theoretically, we are tearing that bathroom out at some point. 

I spent alot of January looking up counter top places and eventually had 6 quotes done up.

 These are pictures of how everything looked before...

 After we moved cabinets around, we had cabinets sticking past the original countertops, so we put a strip of board over the top.

The seams in the laminate had been exposed to water and were warped

 One of the first things we had to do was install some supports for the new countertop going on the island since we were planning on a 15" overhang.

I really didn't want corbels, so I had researched online and found these steel support beams and Cary installed them. 

I ended up going with a place out of Cedar City to get the counter tops from and we had an install date for last Wednesday, on Monday he wanted to change it to Tuesday, which would have been nice, but Cary was in SLC and I didn't feel comfortable trying to move out old counter tops and undoing plumbing. ☺ 

We stuck with Wednesday.

Cary got back on Tuesday night and then Wednesday morning after getting kids off to school, we started removing old sinks and counter tops.

There was a lot of rot underneath the sink

and then we were surprised to find that a strip of sheetrock was cut out behind the back splash. This was a problem since I had specifically NOT ordered the typical 3-4" backsplash in the kitchen. We are going to eventually do a tile backsplash, but I was planning on just being able to paint down to the counter top. 

Not happening now. ☺

Yay! Hyrum and his helper arrived and started the install.

I think since the counter top in the kitchen was already white, there really wasn't a huge change as far as things look, but both sinks were upgraded to under mount and and now the faucets will be easier to clean around so I'm excited about that part.

My dream counter top would be white quartz and while I think we are too practical to ever pay for quartz, when looking at solid surface samples there was a new white color that had some sparkle, which is one of the things I like about quartz, and I knew right away that it was what I wanted! 

Even if you have in your mind an idea of what you want it's hard to commit to something you're going to have to live with for a long time!

A back splash for the kitchen just got moved to the top of the list. 

Britton Turns Five!

Britton is one of my "littles", how can he be five?!

Having your two youngest kids birthdays within days of each other is not a good idea as far as emotions go. They are the babies and here they are turning three and five. 

Crazy.

Britton starts kindergarten in the fall, and he's ready. Now that he's five he keeps asking if he gets to ride the bus and go to school with Ella.

This boy has so much exuberance for life, and is genuinely a happy guy. 

When given gifts he is so thankful and shows it! All gifts are "The BEST GIFT ever!!!"

He does not know how to sit still, but that's okay.

He's definitely a "rough and tumble" boy, but still has his sweet side.

Definitely has a sense of humor already and I love see it come out. 

He's very independent in a lot of areas, and that will be very helpful when he starts school.

Some of his favorite things are books, playing ball, riding his bike, playing the Wii, flying his toys, and tormenting his sisters. ☺  

So I tried getting out of doing two birthday parties, since they didn't want to combine parties. EskDale high school has combined forces with West Desert high school to have a boys basketball team, the season is almost over and so we thought the kids would have fun going to a game. The problem being that the gym is an hour north on a dirt road and we're spoiled. ☺ But Christian and Caleb  (and a few other EskDale students) are on the team, so we planned to go to the game on Britton's birthday.

Side note: On our way driving to Partoun, I realized it's been 20+ years since I'd been to the West Desert high school last. Whoa! 

I've been up to the Warm Springs area in the past year, but haven't ventured north of that since a basketball game in 1995. ☺

Aidan and Britton saw some friends there and went to hang out with them.

Clara wasn't sure what to make of the cheerleaders and the noise. 

Christian broke his foot the day before this game so he obviously couldn't play, and I wasn't able to get a picture of Caleb because I waited too long to remember to pull my camera out.

The kids had a blast, and of course, their favorite part was after the game when they could all run around the court chasing after the basketballs.

We did still end up having a little birthday party for Britton with family, because he requested one with chocolate chip cookies and green frosting. I told him that was disgusting, so he asked for chocolate chip cookies and brownies. 

Upholstery Project

The constant struggle between being a minimalist and being practical. 

We've lived in this house for 2 years, and for most of that time, we just had the sectional couch, tv stand, and a couple of baskets holding the kids toys. Not that we are actually anywhere near being true minimalists, Cary and I do like a more clean look, but at some point you have to realize there are 6 people that live in this house and we all have "stuff" and need a place to sit. Last year in April I was on the look out for seating and found two chairs on KSL classifieds.

 They are beautiful.

 I got them for a really good deal because they needed to be reupholstered (dirty and worn material) and I've always wanted to try that, but they had the lines I was going for, and the lady I bought them from had let me know they had wood legs. Perfect. 

Cary brought them out in his truck and had to stop at Home Depot and apparently a lady stopped him in the parking lot and wanted to buy the chairs from him right there! He thought I was crazy for buying them in the first place so he seriously considered her offer. ;)

Now our living room looks all cluttery but a lot more functional. (and I can't believe how different it looks already from this photo)

Cary helped me rip all the old upholstery off and then I was on my own. My original plan was to do white leather, and I didn't get very far before we decided that was a bad idea. 

So I tried a gray velvet material...which I like, but now everything in my living room is gray. Bah.

I finished the first chair about a month later, in May and then I had all the fabric cut out and organized for the second chair and even started ripping off some of the old upholstery and I'm guessing that was around the time my grandpa died and I lost all steam for this project. 

The partially torn apart chair sat in our office for months, and all my fabric pieces got thrown around the room and disorganized! 

I don't normally do New Year's resolutions, but I made one about getting this chair done so we could get it out of the office! 

It is done! 

I'm definitely no professional, but I think they look okay for chairs that get beat up by 4 children everyday.

The kids really like the chairs and are pretty hard on them...kind of like everything else in the house it's making me wonder if I should have stuck with the leather....☺

I'm just happy to not have that project hanging over my head (and taking up space in the office) anymore!

Birthday Girl! Clara turns three!

 Cary and I never really did much for Valentine's Day, but now that we've got a child with a birthday on that day, it really got put on the back burner for us! Between Valentine's for school, Clara's birthday, and then Britton's birthday 5 days later, my brain is maxed out. ☺

I didn't plan it this way, but having both of my "younger" kids birthday's 5 days apart is wreaking havoc on my emotional state. The fact that Clara turned 3 and Britton is turning 5 is killing me! They are my babies, how did they get to be so grown up?! 

Clara is still our sweet child, and she still likes to cuddle and give hugs. 

She is starting to let us know that she is becoming an independent 3 yr old and can do everything on her own. ;)

Clara likes everyone, but Uncle Kenneth is currently one of her favorite people right now, because he lets her go to his house and watch her shows for as long as she likes. ☺

Clara is showing some signs of being organized (OCD?) ;) She notices when things are different or out of place. It's quite hilarious, most of the time...

I'm glad this happened with my last child because I would have not liked to have expected this from my other kids, but once we transitioned Clara to her crib, she's been a really good sleeper and pretty much at 7:30 she was standing in front of her crib asking to go to bed. I was a little worried about transitioning her to her big bed a few months ago that we would then have to battle her to stay in bed (like we did all the other kids,  especially Ella!) but now Clara just climbs in her bed by herself at 7:30, asks that we tuck her in and turn off the light and she goes to sleep. It's awesome! ♥

Like I said, glad she's the last and I didn't have that expectation of the other 3, because I would have been sorely disappointed! ;)

Aidan, Ella, and Britton adore Clara, and Aidan and Ella insist on babying her, giving her whatever she wants, and talking baby talk to her, especially Aidan and I'm trying to discourage that. (I'm starting to see that the youngest is spoiled not only because of the parents!!!)  Britton is close enough in age that he's either loving on her or antagonizing her, unfortunately for him, he's taught her well on how to defend herself. 

Sharon took these two photos on the Saturday before Clara's birthday.

I try to keep the birthday parties simple for now, while I can, 

so we just had a pizza party for the immediate family but even then it's still close to 30 people. ☺

Thankfully, I had help with getting the party ready.

 Clara is really into Frozen (the movie)/ Elsa even though I don't think she's even ever seen it all the way through, but she wanted a purple Frozen party. Cary and the kids made the cupcakes, I made the frosting, and then Cary, Jenna, Kara, and Ella decorated them.

 Trying to blow out the candle with Ella's help...

with a lift from dad, she was able to get it done. 

The kids are incredibly blessed/ lucky to have such generous loving family and Clara made out on Elsa loot (how does everyone know she likes Elsa?!) ;) We're so thankful for everyone that was able to show up and celebrate this girl's day!