Family Pictures

A few weeks ago we had our friend Brian Mickelson take our family pictures for us. He has done them twice before and have never been disappointed. This year was no exception.  Here is a link to his blog if you are interested in someone who does a great job in the Tremonton area.

These are a few of my favorites (as you can tell I had a hard time deciding):

Halloween

When it comes to Halloween we tend to be a pretty random family. Usually my kid's costumes are determined by what was on clearance after Halloween the year before, I wear whatever I have laying around, and Shad makes an elaborate costume in hopes of big reactions from all his friends. This year was pretty close to that. The only difference was that I had to help Shad with his costume and make a costume to match because we went to an adult costume party and he wanted to win the best costume prize.

Shad and I were Sampson and Delilah (Shad's idea), Haken was a tiger, and Jack was a bee.

The festivities actually started on the Thursday before Halloween. Haken was able to dress up for preschool that day and then at the end I met his class at the corn maze in Elwood and we found our way through together. Sadly I didn't get pictures of his class together in their costumes. I hope that his teacher did and gives us a copy.

Can't you just tell that Haken is thrilled to be standing by this scary man?

Next was Friday night. We went to a couples costume party at our friend's the Hardy's. We had quite the variety of costumes there. Here are pictures of the couples.

Sampson and Delilah

The Hardy's who threw the party (I think Caleb just had the party so he could show some skin..)

The Hardy's actually won for best costume when we voted, but since it was their house they took the next best.
The border patrol won.

This was my vote. I thought it was very cleaver. I definitely won't have thought of that myself...nor would Shad have worn it.

Most of the festivities were on the actual Halloween day. Our ward didn't do a trunk-or-treat this year due to stake conference and Halloween being on a Monday so Shad took Haken around to some houses to do some "real" trick-or-treating. I don't think he will ask daddy to take him again because he went to all of his friends houses and talked to each one for 10 minutes. Needless to say, Haken didn't get as much candy as he would have liked.

Getting ready to become a tiger. Haken held so still. He was so excited to get his face painted.

This is when I am really glad that I have a husband who is an artist. Sure makes it easier on me!

The finished product. Amazing.

Showing off his Tiger growl

Lovin' that leaf

His little stinger was my favorite part. It waddled back and forth when he crawled. So cute!

We also caught the end of 8th ward trunk-or-treat so we could have someone take our picture and so that Shad could show off his costume of course!

One room at a time...

We have lived in our house for 5 years already. I really can't believe it has been that long. When we moved in our house was a blank canvas with white walls and mocha trim. Since then we have gone room-by-room, as the budget allows, doing what we can to make it "ours."

Last May we decided it was time to finish our laundry/bathroom downstairs. It got kind of old having to run up 2 flights of stairs to get to the bathroom all the time. Especially with our guest room being downstairs. I always felt so bad for those that stayed with us.

It was supposed to be a super easy project (as all projects are) and cost around $1500. Instead it lasted 2 months and cost around $2300. We finished it hours before all of Shad's family came to visit during the 4th of July weekend. I'm surprised the paint was even dry!

This was definitely a learning experience for both of us. I learned that you have to be prepared to compromise, most anything can be found on youtube, and that you need to be really good at keeping your mouth shut while your husband works. Construction is hard on any marriage but especially when you do the work yourself. I have to admit, I seriously doubted Shad's abilities going into this, but I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. It's not perfect, but it is pretty close and he learned SO much during the whole process. He did the entire thing himself with the help of some expert advice from a few family members and friends (including all of the many borrowed tools). My husband is now an electrician, a plumber, a tiler, a painter, a framer, a sheet rocker, and a mudder/taper, just to name a few. This really was a great project for him to learn how to do so many things.

It was a difficult room to arrange since we had to work around the laundry. I insisted on having the washer and dryer in a closet because they are so ugly and I wanted it to feel more like a bathroom than a laundry room since I only use them once a week. It is tight (meaning the washer and dryer BARELY fit out the doors) but it works. It was also tight because Shad insisted on having a walk-in shower. However, the fact that he showers in it every morning made the fight over it legit. I think he has a love affair with that shower after all the work he put into it.

So without further adieu... the pictures that I have been promising for months...

Your first view of the bathroom from the door. You can't tell in the pictures but Shad textured ALL of the walls and did a dang good job! It also hid a lot of the learning mistakes along the way :)

The hallway to the shower/toilet/sink

The hallway from the other direction (the door in this picture leads to our crawl space.)

Laundry doors shut

Laundry doors open (still need a rod for my hanging laundry)

The entrance to Shad's shower (that's right, no door! It wraps around)

The huge shower head that Shad loves so much.

The slate tile floor in the shower. Shad fought very hard for this. It was an added expense, but I'm very glad we did it because it really adds a lot to the bathroom.

The vanity. We scored big on the solid surface countertop. It was a remnant that worked perfectly with our space. We had to have it offset for the plumbing. It only cost us $65 from a granite place here in town. We also found a light fixture to match the existing ones in our house. Turns out it was discontinued and we got the last one.

The toilet "nook."

Linen nook complete with interesting magazines for your reading pleasure.

These are the posters that I have hanging on the walls. I had to post them because they are one of my favorite parts of the bathroom. They are actual ads ripped out of a 1952 "Ladies Home Journal." I got them as a wedding present and saved them just for this purpose. I love them! You can't see all of the funny things they say, you will just have to take my word that they are hilarious! I can't believe people used to think this way about women! I'm still looking for more vintage knick-nacks to match.

So that is the bathroom in a nutshell. I hope you got a feel for what it would feel like to really walk through it. We still have the guest room to finish. I think we will have to wait a few years to recover from finishing the bathroom first.

Since moving in we have also worked hard on decorating other rooms, but not anything like we did in the bathroom. Painting is a much easier process than construction. I am adding pictures of the boys rooms that we have done in the last two years, requested by my sis-in-law Aubrey.