A trip down memory lane

As I sit here today I find myself thinking about the good ol' days.  Could it be that my class reunion is this Saturday and it forces me to remember how old I really am?  Or could it be that my second daughter is a senior this year and is looking toward college in less than a year?  Whatever it is, it has caused me to take a trip down memory lane.

What I have accomplished since graduating from High School?

1.    I have a wonderful husband who works hard to provide for us.
2.    I have four beautiful children
3.    I have one very handsome little grandson.
4.    I have a roof over my head and food on the table.
5.    I have been able to travel to Mexico, New York, Hawaii and muliple other states.
6.    I went to Disneyland for the first (and so far the last) time in my
       life.
7.    I have lived in three different states.
8.    I have a calling at church that I love- the nursery- who doesn't love going to church and being
       able to play?
9.    I have bought (along with the bank) three houses.
10.  I have great examples in my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews.

I love my life and wouldn't change a thing.

A new bulletin board

As I've mentioned before, I went thrift store shopping while on vacation.  This will be the first of my makeovers that I found there.

These are the items I started with:

When I first picked up the blue picture frame, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I wanted to turn it into a bulletin board. But not just your everyday bulletin board. I wanted to be able to use clips instead of magnets and twine instead of metal.

Here is the before:

This frame had a nice price tag of $1.50 - just call me the last of big time spenders.



After removing the picture inside (which was just a piece of paper with cardboard backing) and the birdhouse on the front, I gave it a couple coats of black paint.  Once more I turned to my Cricut machine for the vinyl lettering and turned this once donated picture into this:



This frame now has a new home in Sierra's bedroom - hence the Paris theme.

Total cost  - $ 1.50 and little bit of time.  Everything else I already had on hand.

Thanks for looking

Alexis' Thrift Store Treasure

As you know, I LOVE thrift store shopping.  Well, unfortunately I have passed on that passion to my daughter and my niece.  While on vacation, we took a little trip to the thrift store a.k.a. Deseret Industries.  That place is so much better than Goodwill near my house.  Anyway, we came up with a challenge, we had to find something UGLY and turn it into something a little (or alot) more beautiful.    Lindsey found a hideous picture frame and some hanging thing (no idea). Watch her blog for her projects coming soon.

The things I found will also be coming soon.  I still have a few small details to work out. 

Alexis found someone's old treasure box and decided that she could do something with it.
We bought it and gave it a new home with us.  Here is what she started out with:

It needed alot of TLC so we took the lid off and gave it a bit of sanding:

Time to give it that new look.  Alexis picked out a lime green paint, painted it and then put it back together.  We decided that the outside needed something so we found a great tutorial on how to make ribbon flowers (sorry, I have no idea where we found it).  Added some vinyl lettering, a couple buttons and a cute little handle at the top - and ta-da she now has a "new" treasure box.

Cost:
box - $1.50
ribbon - $1.00
paint - left over from a previous project
handle - free (already had it) check it out, it's an old spool that we painted
vinyl lettering - free (already had - I love my cricut)
buttons - free (found in button jar)

New Treasure box - Priceless

Stay tuned for more Thrift store challenges - we have several

Vacation is over - part 3

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Bartholomew



We were so excited to be able to spend this special day with my nephew and his cute new bride.  When we planned our vacation this was not on the calendar, but it just worked out that they picked a day that we were going to be in Utah to be married.  We are glad they did. 

It started out being a beautiful day but unfortunately it didn't end that way.  By the time they came out of the temple, the rain was down pouring.  Of course it didn't quit until most everyone had left.

Here are a few random pictures while we waited for the Bride and Groom to come out of the temple:

Grandpa A and the kids

The Grandsons minus two

Some of Grandpa A's granddaughters

Thanks for sharing my vacation with me.  We did do one other thing that is always fun....Thrift Store shopping.  Stay tuned for our thrift store challenge.

Vacation is over - part 2

One of the things that is always on our "to do" list when heading to Utah  is to go see Great-Grandma Wright.  What a joy she is - and ever so cute.  I know I talk about her every year but she is just so darn special I can't help it.  She turned 93 in March and is still pretty spry for her age.  In just the last year she has had to start using a walker and has gotten hearing aids.  Not bad for someone in her 90's.  She keeps very active at the assisted living place where she lives.  She has lots of friends there and goes to aerobics almost every day.  We all absolutely love and adore her.

We love you Grandma !!!

Vacation is over - part 1

Well, we didn't get everything on our "to do" list done while on vacation at my Dad's.  The only thing we didn't get time for was riding the horse.  Well, maybe next year.  We did get in lots of bike riding if that counts.

We arrived at my dad's house on July 1st after a 10 hour drive. On Saturday most of the cousins went to the Manti Temple and performed baptisms.  Between them all they were able to do 65 names.

Annie and Alexis rode their bikes in the big Mt. Pleasant parade on the 4th of July.  They decked out their bikes all patriotic and even made it the whole length of the parade route and back.

We got to have Kaden for a few days so of course we had to spoil him and help celebrate his 3rd birthday. 

There was lots of food eaten, lots of visiting done and plenty of goofing off during the week we were in Utah.

We even had our very own Princess for the day --

The kids all enjoyed the fireworks at the park on the night of the 4th.

Stay tuned for the rest of the weeks activites.