life as of late!

I realized I haven't blogged about what we've been up to in a while. Admittedly it isn't anything too exciting- just ordinary, regular day-to-day life. Sometimes that's where the best stuff happens! The stuff I want to remember anyway.

^As much as I hate the snow, they love it! What kid doesn't though, really? 

 ^A couple weeks ago we took the girls bowling for the first time! They both really loved it. Olivia had a hard time understanding the concept of taking a turn, and they both pretty much lost interest around the 7th frame. Jillian actually got the highest score...which isn't embarrassing at all.

^I love my expression in this picture realizing Olivia is getting yet another spare. I mean they DID get to use the gator and the gutter rails, so it was somewhat of an unfair advantage...but still...getting beat by a 4 year-old doesn't do much for the ego!

 

^Jillian went to one of her good friend's birthday parties recently where they were pampered at a hair salon. She told her stylist she wanted to look like Aurora. I texted my Mom a picture and she said, "Before you know it she'll be getting ready for prom!"And then I wanted to cry. Haha! It was fun watching them get dolled over though!

 ^My friend Kristen bravely invited us to her Valentine's party with her joy-schoolers at her house. There were 18 kids altogether! Surprisingly it wasn't as crazy as you may have thought. Give kids some balloons and Sweethearts and they'll be happy no matter what.

 ^We met my cousin and her kiddos for a play date at the dinosaur museum. They moved back from Indiana a few months ago and it has been the best thing ever!! Her oldest and Jillian will both be starting kindergarten this fall so I'm glad I'll have her to call and sob to after drop off on the first day of school. ;-)

 ^Olivia is cracking me up lately. She's such a ham and is talking so much. She loves being goofy and will follow anything and everything Jillian does. She's recently figured out how to scurry up the bar stools and get onto the counter, which is basically driving us nuts.

 ^Cubby's! I went there for the first time with James for our Valentine's date and it was probably one of the best burgers I've ever had. If you've never been, get the Houdini burger. And those sweet potato fries?! Let's just say I already have plans to go back this week. 

 ^Over the weekend we had plans to take the girls to the indoor trampoline gym. We knew it would be a little crazy with Monday being a holiday, but the wait to even pay to get in was at least 30 minutes long! No thanks. So we opted for an arcade instead. Jillian had a hard time understanding how to execute an underhand throw in skee ball (and was thus a little dangerous)...but it was fun playing games together! Plus we had a delicious Dole whip!

^We went for pizza Saturday night and it was deeeelicious! Nicolitalias was a place we went to often when we were first married, but realized we hadn't been in years! Taking the kids out to eat with us for dinner is always risky...you know, melt downs, spills, general rambunctiousness..but they did pretty well. The free suckers they passed out at the cash register definitely helped. There was only one spill and it was my fault. Oops!  

^In October I started Weight Watchers! I have been working my tail off and have lost 20 pounds with 5 more to go until my goal. It has been stinkin' hard, but so worth it! I think what I love most is how much stronger I feel- physically and mentally!

February was a pretty ordinary, but pretty wonderful month! It's starting to warm up now and has made me SO excited for spring. As much as I hate winter, it makes me appreciate the other three seasons a thousand times more!!

master bedroom makeover

 

I'm finally done updating our bedroom! It took a bit longer than expected, because you know...life! 

When we moved into our place (almost) 4 years ago (four years?!), I put up the things I had from our apartment and didn't really think much about our room since I was focused on updating the main floor of the house. Once that was done, our room started to bug me more and more! Plus we'd had the same lamps since we'd been married 7 years ago- time to move on. Haha! Yes, fortunately ruffle lamp shades are no longer my thing.  

Some lovely before pictures:

 

I will never miss that wall color.

 

^Once the curtains came down (well, fell down because I didn't use drywall anchors the first time and Jillian gave them a tug and whoops! Lesson learned. Drywall anchors are actually really important). But take note of how tiny the window looks!

And now some afters:

I wanted to keep it light, airy and color neutral, as well as really punching up the textures. It's a thousand times more interesting than it was before! I think one of the biggest impacts is the DIY plank wall-she's a beaut! 

I'll link all of the sources at the bottom.

^Remember the tiny window? Tiny no more! I took down the random corner shelf that served no purpose other than to remind me how much I don't dust. I hung the curtain rods almost all the way to the ceiling and hung the curtains on the outsides of the actual window, to make it look a lot bigger than it actually is. We also took down the blinds and opted for a pull down shade, made prettier by some matchstick blinds.

 

I really wanted to get a fiddle leaf fig plant, but those are really hard to find (apparently), and had reports of being difficult to keep alive- no bueno. I found this one at Home Depot that looks somewhat similar and is hopefully a little more durable! I put rocks in the bottom to detour the kids from pulling dirt out- and if they start messing with those I have every intention of hot gluing all of the rocks together. Yep. 

The headboard was an $80 DIY project that is still working beautifully! 

The jute runner was sort of a last minute addition, but I love the way it anchors the bed and makes the bench stand out. And adds to my whole texture spiel. 

The mid-century bench was another cheap DIY! One of my favorite projects to date, actually. (And yeah I just noticed my sheet is awkwardly pinched into the mattress- oops ;-) bed wedgie!)

I can't get over how much bigger it looks!! And I'm really glad I decided to do white paint instead of some of those blues I was playing around with...

 It was so much fun to find and add all of the elements I wanted to in this room- I'm sort of sad it's all finished! All of the rooms in our house are pretty much done. I'm still dabbling with the playroom and James won't let me touch his office, so we're basically there. :-p

Next up is a furniture refinishing project- love those!

 Sources:

Captains mirrors: Hobby Lobby

Lamps: Ikea

Night stands: Ikea

Headboard: DIY

Bench: DIY

Curtains: Ikea

Matchstick blinds: Lowe's 

Runner: Ikea

Yellow & leather pillow: Target

Monogrammed pillow: So Vintage Chic 

Alarm Clock: Target

Plant basket: Hobby Lobby

Square photos: Parabo prints  

"Prayers come true" sign: Salty Bison

james' graduation party

In December James FINISHED his MBA program at The George Washington University! Yes, all of the applause. And yes, that is in Washington, DC, but yes we live in Utah. They started their distance learning online program option the year James started so that was a huge YAY! Technology is awesome. It was especially spiffy because James' Dad also graduated with his MBA from GW. Queue nostalgia. 

 

Lemme take a minute to totally brag on my guy: Not only does he work 60 hours a week (with commute time), but he helps every night with dinner, getting the kids bathed, and putting them to bed. After that he would go down and work on homework until 11 or 12am, then get up at 4am the next day to do it all over again. He also finished the program 6 months ahead of schedule while maintaining an A-B average! He. Is. A. Stud. A very tired stud. ;-) 

But now we can celebrate because it's DONE! Commencement is held only once a year in May, so we'll be traveling back for the official ceremonies then. We wanted to celebrate with our friends and family here, so I threw a little shindig!

Soda is one of our favorite things! Is that terrible? Especially Sodalicious style with delicious Torani flavor add-ins and a shot of half and half! I made the poster with some of our favorite flavor combinations (which is conveniently now up in my Etsy shop). ;-)

I think my favorite part was the tin buckets on each table filled with caramel corn! Another one of James' favorite things...anything popcorn!

I'm not even sure how much sugar the girls had last night...but I know it was a lot! Once their little friends got there they ran around and had a blast.

 

We're so grateful to live near so many family members and have such great friends. Thank you for all of your support over the last two and a half years!

girls' weekend!

You know those times when every conversation you have with your friends is complaining about something? Or...your kids? Not that we don't love them to pieces of course, but sometimes (okay, a lot of the time), being a Mom is HARD. Relentless, even. I was reminded of this tonight in the car when Olivia and I had this conversation:

Olivia: "Mom!"

Me: "Yes?"

Olivia: "Moooom!"

Me: "What?"

Olivia: "Moooooooooom!"

Repeat x27. 

Sometimes it feels like I'm stuck in a loop of dirty laundry and food smashed into places it where food shouldn't even be. You know? 

Thus- a girls' weekend. We actually started planning one back in September, but trying to coordinate 5 schedules for a free weekend resulted in a date in January. At least it gave us something to look forward to after coming down from the holiday high!  We opted for a staycation of sorts and stayed in downtown Salt Lake.

We started with shopping and seeing a movie in a super cool theater with huge leather recliner seats! I will totally drive 45 minutes from our house to that theater JUST for those seats.

 The next day Meg joined us and we treated ourselves to pedicures...

 Then feasted on super delicious house made churros and drinking chocolate from La Barba.

The hotel we stayed in, The Peery Hotel, was apparently haunted! We didn't have any weird experiences...but we were probably way too loud to notice anyway. ;-) 

 Sooo muucchh fooooood. But there's always room for Ruby Snap cookies! Are you seeing a trend? We ate a LOT. ;-)

On Saturday, we lost Jenn to a sick hubby and picked up the other Jen! We did some more shopping and had the best stuffed french toast in the world at Eva's Bakery downtown.

We ended the day with another movie before heading home! It was sooo nice to be able to go shopping without rushing through a store to avoid meltdowns, have unlimited girl talk, and be on our own schedule doing what we wanted, when we wanted to do it! Perfectly restorative. I already can't wait for next year!!!

 

ice castles

Tonight we explored the ice castles in Midway! It was like a real life Frozen experience (as in, you were freezing the whole time...it was THREE degrees outside...and they even have a photo op with Anna and Elsa!). Well worth the numb toes though- I've never seen anything like that in my life! If you're within driving distance of Midway, put it on your winter bucket list. 

I meant to bring my real camera, but forgot...sooooo here we have some sub-par iPhone pictures. :-D (Check out their site for really cool, non-blurry pictures!)

 They grow 10,000 icicles DAILY and add them to the structure using water to freeze it to the structure as they build onto it. 

 My Mom made a quick trip out! We were happy to have her (though I think she's quite happy to return to Florida weather). 

If you're planning to visit, here are some tips:

-Wear all the clothes. All the layers. (Especially socks!)

-Take hand warmer packs for your hands, and put them in your boots!

-Buy hot chocolate when you first get there and drink it while you're walking around.

But seriously, GO!! SO STINKIN' COOL!