Master bathroom

We have been working on decorating the master bathroom.We have so much blue around the house that I knew I wanted some other color. One of my favorite colors is green. I am in love with mint green right now, so we decided to use that. I first found my towels (long story short) at Target. They are called mint ash or something like that. They are a gray mint green, but I still like them.

While researching some ideas of what we could hang on our walls, I found this awesome decorative tile art at The House of Smiths blog. Since I love to copy other people, that's what I did! ;)

She has all the info on her blog, so I didn't do any kind of a tutorial here. But we bought a big piece of wood at Lowe's and had it cut to the size we wanted (29" by 29"). We decided to use 4 tiles instead of 6 like they used. The wood tiles are from World Market.

I already had some gray paint, so after sanding the wood down, I primed it with that. Then I used some mint green paint over that. I distressed the wood after that.

We used command strips to hang the tiles on the board and then mounted the whole thing to the wall.

I found the little topiary at Rod Works and I made the monogram, printed it on card stock and framed it. I just googled "how to make a monogram" and found a free tutorial using Microsoft word on someone's blog.

I found this canvas print at TJ Maxx with several colors in it to go here. The basket is from Home Goods.

I found this rug at Target for $9 on clearance. I had been looking and looking and took back several rugs before I found this one. I really like the pattern and the color was just what I wanted. I used the color of this rug when choosing the green to paint the wood. Clearance at Target is one of the things in life that makes me happiest, and this was no exception! Ha.

That's it! I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

Couldn't Be Helped

As I've gotten older, I have found that it's true. I am turning into my mom! Good thing she is a great lady! I was reminded about this yesterday as I got an email from Pottery Barn Kids saying that their Thanksgiving was now marked up to 60% off.

My mom is all about decorating and holidays and it has definitely rubbed off on me. After seeing the email I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be cute to have little thanksgiving plates for the kids? They would love them!" And let's be honest, I would love them too :)

So off we went downtown.

 Check out the cute plates I found! I wanted to have a set, so I grabbed 4, one of each design.

I thought the little sayings and the pictures were so cute.

They are normally priced $6 each, but they were on sale for $2.99 each. Aren't they adorable?

When I saw the matching cups, I needed them too, so I grabbed one of each to match each plate. And now I have a complete little set! I said no to the bowls because I'm so strong ;) ha! 

They still have more, so hurry in if you want some too!

Just for fun, here's my cute boy. We have this booster sitting by the basket in the background and Jackson loves to pull it out, grab a book, sit down and read. Melts my heart!

Thanksgiving Season

For the this week I thought the kids would enjoy making a thankful tree. The kids really enjoyed thinking of things to put on the leaves. When Molly went upstairs after we had written a few down, she came down half dressed saying she needed to add one. "We need to write God and Heavenly Father!" It was so cute. She was really thinking about it :)

I bought a donut pan a few months back and have never used it. I finally decided we should make some pumpkin donuts. They were pretty good! Justin isn't a huge pumpkin fan, but even he thought they were pretty good. They had cinnamon sugar on the top, so how can anyone resist that?!

I'm so excited that I get to decorate a mantle! I thought I had lots of decorations (and for the average person I have a ton probably) but I didn't have much to put here. While in Park City for the girls weekend, we walked into Michael's who had all of their fall stuff 80% off! I love a good sale.

 I grabbed a bunch of different sized pumpkins and gourds in different colors. I bought most of them for $1-$2. They were normally priced about $6 or $7 and up!

 My mom found me this cute wagon at DI a couple years ago I think.

At a different Michael's, they had these cute scalloped frames for $2 last week! Total score. I bought 2 and would have bought more if I could think of more places for them! This printable can be found at the blog eighteen25.

I also got these fake flowers to put in a vase I already had.

Justin bought me flowers for my birthday one year and they came in this cute red fall pot. I've just held onto it and thought it would be perfect to add into the mix. Of course I've had my candles and candlesticks forever...or since we got married I should say ;)

I paid around $20 for everything on the mantle, including the flowers in the vase. Not too bad!

Here is what I have on my little sofa table. This is stuff I already had.

My mom found these cute pilgrim figurines a few years ago at this really small, cute shop called Randee and Company in Holladay. I've been looking for some indians to go with them, but am still working on it.

I know, I have 2 wheel barrows. But aren't they just cute? I found this at Rod Works many moons ago.

 Here's where I am working :) I need to get some greenery to come out of this pot. (Another DI find by my mom...the personal shopper thing is awesome. But now that I'm not in her house it might not be as great as it once was ;) )

You can also see the little chair to the left. I had a cute little turkey that that Molly knocked over and broke a few days ago :( so now I need to replace it with something else.

This is in my entry way. The banner is also at the eighteen25 blog. I just printed it out onto card stock and hung it with some ribbon I had.

I'm sure you've seen this. I made it several years ago and had it framed while I was at BYU. I love to cross stitch!

This is another gift from my mom this year. This cute little owl named Sebastian. I think she said she found them a year ago at a boutique.

This is Molly's trapezoid turkey. Isn't he the cutest? I love it. This is the folder her teacher showed us at SEP conferences the other night. Her teacher told us that this shows what Molly is like--meticulous in everything she does. I didn't really think about it, but she is right. Molly wants everything to be straight and perfect and right where it goes.

She is doing well in school. She is always on task and can anticipate what's coming next in the schedule. She is making lots of friends and she loves kindergarten. She has mastered most of the things she is supposed to this year, except for a few that she will keep working on for the rest of the year. It was a fun experience. Justin and I were both able to go. We had a neighbor watch the other kids.

My brother Ryan and his family came into town yesterday and tonight we are having a dinner together. Kind of a pre-thanksgiving dinner since we are on the off year for the Galbraith side. We are excited to see them! I made pumpkin cheesecake for the event. I hope it turned out! It's in the fridge right now. This is the first time I've made cheesecake. I had to borrow a pan, but as far as I can tell I followed the directions! The recipe is here if you are interested from Our Best Bites.

Enjoy your weekend!

Adjusting

We have been in our new house for about a month and a half now. We are still enjoying the house and getting to know more and more about our neighbors and the area.

Molly jumped right into kindergarten. She was assigned morning kindergarten and her teacher is Mrs. Stark. She doesn't love it when people ask who her teacher is because she has a hard time saying her r's, so it comes out Mrs. Stock instead of Mrs. Stark. She's a bit embarrassed, so now she will usually have me say it.

She really enjoys school and has been learning a lot. She is learning lots of new sight words, like in, on, like, it, etc. We try to push her to write down words on her own instead of spelling everything out for her. But she seems to be a bit of a perfectionist, so she wants to know the right way and gets frustrated if we have her sound out every letter for too long ;) But she is doing a great job and we can tell she is doing better and better all the time.

She has made lots of new friends. There are several little boys on the street in kindergarten, but they go in the afternoon. There are a few girls in 1st grade that she is friends with, so she usually has to wait until they are home in the afternoon to play. We have some neighbors kitty corner behind us with 2 twin boys in first grade. They have a younger brother who is 3 and my girls love to play outside in the dirt with them. They also have a trampoline, which is a huge help for us since we don't have grass yet. 

Lately she has been very sensitive! Her response is often crying to any stressful situation or something not going her way. We are struggling with this a bit since she's the oldest, but we realize that 1. we are in a new place and everything for her has changed which is difficult and 2. I was super sensitive when I was young, so it's not hard to see where it comes from. She is still an excellent sister and helper and super thoughtful. Tonight we have her SEP conference with her teacher.

Ali has just been rolling with everything. She hasn't seen too phased by anything and enjoys playing with any kids who will play with her. I have her on the waiting list for a preschool in the neighborhood for next year. What I really want/need to do is do a better job of a little mommy n me type preschool. I just need to take the time and do it! 

Unfortunately she has had many accidents since moving :( I potty trained her not this past summer, but the summer before. Ahhh. It is going to be the death of me. She would have an accident every once in a great while before we moved, but it has happened on many occasions lately. Including today. Each time we put her in a cold bath, which obviously isn't severe enough of a consequence because it keeps happening!! Today I took her kitty away and I said I will give it back to her tomorrow. She usually has it with her, but not always. But at night we will see how she feels without it! That's when she makes sure to have it with her. 

We've pretty much made it through her "particular" phase where we never knew if we were doing something that she had to do (flush the toilet, pick something up, put something on a certain way, etc. etc!) Every now and again something will pop up, but she gets over it much more quickly and easily. She can be a real snuggly, sweet girl at times and we love that.

Jackson is just the sweetest boy ever. We have loved, loved, loved having a boy! He is 17 months (18 at the end of the month!) and is just starting to say words. In the past week we have heard him start to repeat words we say to him. It is so fun. He will say please, thank you, love you, get down, etc. He understands usually when we ask him to do things. He is just happy all the time. He is adjusting to one nap right now. Sometimes he still will take 2, but that is pretty few and far between lately. He LOVES to read books. He picks up a book and will bring it to me or Justin and want to read it. He does this all day. It is the cutest thing ever. My girls never did it. He just loves books. He isn't into TV at all, unless he sees an animal he likes. He loves dogs. He gets super excited to see them. He loves my broom and mop and gets them out of the closet several times a day. 

Justin is doing great. He is enjoying his job and has figured out how each partner likes things for the most part. They pair him up on his cases with one of the 3 partners and then he works with each one to finish. It has been an adjustment working this way and he would really love to have more mentoring involved, but for now he has figured out how they want things done. The commute for hi is really quick, about 15-20 minutes, so that is also nice. He leaves between 8 and 8:30 am and gets home around 6 pm, so it's really great hours as well. 

He has helped with many projects, lately our garage storage racks that hang from the ceiling. He also has put up half of our Christmas lights. He isn't too happy about doing them, but me and the kids are :) Our neighbor across the street puts them up for a living, so he gave Justin all his tips, which was really nice. So they look fantastic! He had a boys night last weekend and went and saw Thor with his brothers and my brother Todd as well.

I've been doing well. I feel like we were running around like crazy that first month and now things are slowing down a bit. But I probably did that to myself. I love to decorate and I wanted it all up and looking good, so I think I went a bit overboard. Now most everything is complete and I just have a few things here and there to finish up. But it will never be done because we have new seasons all the time, which I love. I love to change up the decorations. 

I got called into the Relief Society presidency as the secretary a couple of weeks after we moved in. My neighbor is the president. I have enjoyed it so far and really, it's the best calling! I assign prayers for RS each week and take care of the rolls. I attend meetings, but I don't have to teach! Score. Honestly, the first time I ever taught RS was 2 months ago in my last ward. I've been in YWs a lot or other callings, but that has never come my way. This ward is so different with a really small RS since our ward got new boundaries the day after we moved in. They are allowing for growth near us, so I think we lost about 40 sisters with the new change. Our ward is spread thin with callings, so we only have about 15-20 women in RS each week and most of them have a baby with them. Totally different from my previous ward!

Justin was called as the Ward Mission Leader. This is a calling he's never had, but he has totally gone full steam ahead and had meetings with the missionaries (the full time sisters in our ward/stake) as well as the ward missionaries who have recently been called. 

We have come to understand that our street gets together a lot and is sometimes called the party street. We are excited about making new friends and forming relationships with people similar to us and in the same life boat :) Everyone has been super nice and we are working really hard on getting to know our neighbors and ward members so we are more "in the know". 

While I thought I would really miss my mom and all of her help, I think I have just been so busy that I haven't had time to think about that. It has been so nice to be in our own home. I have to take all of my kids out at times, but it's really not too bad. I have also been able to make friends who have been nice enough to watch my kids for the few times that I've needed. 

I got a great recommendation on someone to do my hair and she did such a great job I was surprised! Usually there is an adjustment but she was fantastic and I have been really pleased. I've also been trying to find new doctors/dentists that our insurance covers so that's been super fun (I'm sure you can hear my sarcasm). 

Everyone is happy and well and we are liking this new adjustment in our lives! 

Family pictures

We had family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. We went to Fotofly in Draper. We were really happy with the experience and the pictures. 

Girls Weekend

Last weekend my sister Natalie and I went up to Park City for a little stay over. My mom met us up there. We had no kids and no real agenda. It was a nice little break!

We got to the outlets at about 4:45 and met my mom. We checked out a few stores and then we ate at Red Rock for dinner. Yummy. We all liked what we got. After dinner we headed over to TJ Maxx which was near by. We stayed there until closing time at 9:30. We checked in at our hotel (we were using my parents time share at the Marriott Mountainside), got situated and then Nat and I went and sat in the hot tub (my mom passed) for a bit and then we headed to bed.

Saturday morning Natalie and I hit the gym at the hotel for a bit, then we got ready and ate at Kneaders for breakfast. Who doesn't love their french toast? So delicious! Then my mom headed home at that point and Natalie and I went back over to the outlets to a few stores we didn't hit before. We had Zupa's for lunch, hit a nearby little nail place for some pedicures and then we decided to hit Salt Lake! We hit Nordstrom Rack on the way to City Creek. We shopped around City Creek for a while and then we went to Rio Grande Cafe for dinner (a favorite of Nat's in-laws). We had some yummy food and then we headed back to our homes! We stopped for some Nielsen's ice cream on the way.

It was a lot of fun! Thanks to my parents for letting us use it and to our hubbies for watching our kiddos! It is so nice to just be yourself for a bit, even for only a day. Til next time! Hopefully Emily and Becky can come! And maybe a bit warmer weather?! :) Although the weather was beautiful. We had sun and it was pretty warm, I think in the 50s? Pretty good for Park City in November!

Halloween

We had a lot of fun for Halloween. Molly was a fancy kitty and Ali was a 50's girl with a poodle skirt.

In the day we went to Justin's firm for some fun. They trick or treated around the office first. Then we had pizza. They had coloring pages, you could draw on mini pumpkins with sharpies and they even had a toy for each kid to pick. Oh and they had the Charlie Brown Halloween movie playing in the conference room as well while you were eating. Everyone in the office was dressed up and they even had prizes.

I was a robber and Jackson was my money bag. Easiest costumes ever!

Justin was Justin Bieber!

After we left his work we headed straight over to the neighbor's for their Halloween party. It was decorated so cute.

We had a few fire pits where people congregated to eat.

It was potluck. We brought soups, rolls, appetizers and had a few desserts. It was really fun and a great way for us to meet a few more neighbors on our street.

For my birthday this year, my mom had my Boo Kitty quilt quilted for me! I had it almost finished last year. I just needed to sew one border on. She told me if I finished it she would quilt it. That's all I needed to finish!

Here's a close up. My mom bought the panels for this several years ago and bought enough for her daughters to all make a quilt. This was way before any of us were into it. If you can see, it was quilted in a spider web pattern.

Here's my happy jack. I had to hang him up.

My mom made each of the girls this pillow. I love the cute fabric!

I took the girls trick or treating while Justin and Jackson headed back to our house to hand out candy. A few houses down, Ali tripped and fell onto her hand that was burned 2 weeks before. She decided to be done! So we took her home and Molly and I continued on. We caught up to some neighbors and friends of hers, so that was fun.