New Hobby

For Christmas, Mitch got me some different cake decorating books along with some new pans and such. Over the last couple of months I have been experimenting and having fun making cakes and cupcakes for other people. I don't really like making them for us because it is just too much cake for three people plus I don't really like cake all that much so it usually ends up in the garbage. This was the first cake we made for a neighbor boy for his fourth birthday. It was very bright and bold and we haven't used the same frosting recipe since because it was really hard to smooth out.

These were little chocolate cupcakes that I frosted and put chocolate covered marshmellows on top to make it look like a box of chocolates. They turned out really cute.

This was another cake we made for a neighbor for his birthday. He really likes to garden so when I found this in my book, I couldn't wait to make it. Isn't that so fun? Each of those vegetables was hand-sculped and it turned out better than I thought it would.

I have a couple other cakes I am wanting to try out so if anyone is ever in the mood for cake, just let me know!

St. George/ My Birthday

Hooray for sunshine and being able to play at the park!!!!! To bad we had to drive all the way to St. George to get some (and it only lasted one day) but at least we were able to spend time playing and visiting with family!

Sadly, Saturday and Sunday were pretty rainy days but Addy still wanted to play outside and so Isaac was her good little buddy who took her in and out all day :)

Because it was so rainy, we had to get a little creative inside so we taught the kids how to Indian leg wrestle! It was great fun to watch and even Addy had to have her turn. Later we went and saw 'The Tourist" and got some ice cream.

The best part of the whole trip was just letting Addy play and be crazy with her cousins. She doesn't see these boys very often but I have a feeling they are going to be TROUBLE as they get older! Because they sure do know how to have fun and be silly :)

Over the weekend, I also celebrated my birthday. Mitch took me to the outlets and I found some really cute stuff for Addy but only one shirt for myself and really the only reason I bought it was because it was only 7 dollars. Luckily on the way back up to Idaho we stopped at my parents and my mom, sister and I went shopping and I found several other cute things!!!

Anyways this was the cake Mitch and the kids made me. It almost made us late for church.

Don't worry I made a good wish this year so we shall just have to wait and see if it comes true!!

My cute little family! They are so great, thanks for making it a special day :)

Before and Nows

For the past little while, I've(we've) been going through the house and doing a lot of junking and reorganizing. Well in this process, I came across an old memory card so I put it in my camera and found all these pictures of what our house looked like when we first bought it. It was pure excitement because a couple of years ago I was looking for these pictures and could not find them anywhere. I was super bummed because we have put quite a bit of work into making this house our own and I wanted to be able to see the differences. So hooray!!! now I can and of course I have to share so here are a few of the rooms in our house.

Our Living Room:

BEFORE

NOW

Although it is hard to tell, we repainted everything; walls, ceiling and trim. Then updated the ceiling fan. I didn't call this picture an after picture because I still have some things I want to do such as curtains/drapes for my bay windows, and that rectangular mirror I want to replace it with two circular mirrors (one big and one small) to fit with the design of my pillow. So these are what I call my now pictures!

Our Kitchen:

BEFORE

NOW

This has for sure been the biggest change. We took out the cabinets hanging above the bar and replaced it with the single one on the wall. Repainted everything. Replaced the hardware on the cabinets and the light fixture above the sink. Put in new appliances (including the microwave) and a new sink and faucet. Oh and we got new blinds! Like I said this was were we did the most updating but I just LOVE it because it just feels brighter and cleaner!!

Our Dining Room:

BEFORE

NOW

This room was probably the first to be painted because I really did not enjoy the mustard yellow color. It just wasn't for me. We also changed the light fixture and put in new face plates on all the outlets (we did this through the whole house because lots of them were covered in old paint) and changed the door knobs and hinges from gold to silver. And thanks to our flood, we got new tile which was another great improvement!

Our Bedroom:

BEFORE

NOW

It was really hard to get a good picture of our room because of the layout so I just took a couple pictures of my newly purchased early birthday presents from IKEA!! I just love my vase and twigs for some reason they just make me happy. We had an old night stand that used to be what held our fish tank...yes I hated it but it worked for awhile. Now I have these cute shelves on both sides of the bed. You can also see our gray walls and if you look in the mirror on the first picture you can see how the paint color changes at the top of the wall and our ceiling fan that is a must in the summer because the room gets so hot! All that I want to update in this room is the carpet but that probably won't ever happen.

That is all for now. Maybe one day I will show pictures of our basement but right not it is too dirty to take pictures of it!!