Home Improvement

We have been doing some home improvements this last week. We decided to go with the laminate flooring and I think it has turned out beautifully. I now officially have to sweep and vaccum my front room every day since it does show dust and shoe marks alot easier, but I am really happy how it turned out. It makes our house look completely different and newer. We also finally for the first time in our marriage got some media shelving to organize our DVD's so we don't have to dig through an annoying basket. Here are some before and after pictures, I had one other picture of the "new" look but my computer ate it and threw it in some unknown file somewhere so if I find it I'll post it or maybe I'll just take another one. (also my house was not always this cluttered this is what it looked like when we were moving in)

we now have curtains also, but that is the picture that the computer ate...
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BORING!!!! I love our old purple couch we used to have and our flower power chair...yuck!

So we took the laminate all the way down the hallway...(sorry they are kind of crooked pictures, we have very odd angles in our house :)

Our new shelves!!! Which I antiqued and painted thank you very much

Blog

My previous post I said I wished I could show you how amazing that family was and I thought duh I can it's an open blog, so if you would like to read their touching story and probably cry a little their blog is www.patrickandashley.blogspot.com, it is a very sad, but amazing story and their daughter is adorable!

Soul Searching

So a friend of mine in our ward had a friend from Idaho lose her little 19 month old girl the other day. My friend was trying to gather donations while the family was at Primary Children's and she had their blog link so I was able to follow their blog for about 5 days until the little girl finally passed on Friday. This family really affected me in so many ways. I wish I could show you all how these parents were, they are about Derek and my age and this was their only child, but they showed such a strong faith during such a difficult time. The day she passed the mom made a post before and after it happened. Before she told how the spirit was so strong while her little girl was going back and forth between worlds, and after she said how her testimony had been strengthened from the small miracles that had occured because of this experience. Her daughter's story touched many, she had close to 300 comments on her blog, most from complete strangers. The mom explained how someone's marriage had been saved, and how someone was brought to the gospel due to the faith of them and their family. I got really emotional during this even though I have never met them in my life. Their daughter was born three days after Linnea so I could picture what their daughter may have been like, and it broke my heart to think of ever parting from such an innocent person. However, it also caused me to really think about myself and how I should treat my family. Have you ever noticed how we treat our family members different than we treat others? I'm trying to take the time to breathe before I get upset at Linnea throwing everything everwhere or not wanting to go to bed, or throwing a fit. I know there are parents out there who would kill to have the time out moments, the tempertantrums, and all the precious moments with their little ones again if they could on this earth. I realized I need to strengthen my testimony on eternal families and the sealing power, hearing this story in general truly makes me want to cherish family moments since this life is such a short time in the grand scheme of things, I would hate to have someone I cherish (friend or family) go without knowing that I loved them or I would hate to be left behind with regrets! I know it may be strange that a baby girl I never met could have such an impact, but she did. And hopefully I can keep this new motivation and enjoy every moment we have as a family on this earth so that we will have one heck of an eternity!!!!!

I am Lame and I know it!!!

Ok...we had another fun shopping trip at Smith's I'm sorry but I get so excited when we save money I have to share it I find it really fun when we watch an actual savings account grow!! So here is what we bought
10) propel waters
10) Gatorade
6) yoplait yogurt
8) spaghettios
2) instant potatoes
2) rice sides
2) multipacks of scotch brite scrubbers
2) dove deodorant
1) box of Advil Liqui-gels
2) Loreal Kids shampoo
3) bars of irish spring body soap
1) vitamin water

Grand total- (again) $27.00!!!!!
I know the potatoes and rice aren't the healthiest choices, but I guess I was just thinking food storage wise. I love propel and Derek loves gatorade to take to work and if you buy 10 it's only $.49 so pretty good deal!!! I only used 4 coupons and the rest was just deal watching...super fun!! I know it's kind of sad that this is the most exciting post I have, but it's my blog and I'll post what I want I guess :)

Opinions...

So Derek and I have flooring issues. Our carpet isn't cute, it's actually really spotty and gross and we've had it prof. cleaned twice in the last year we've lived here. So we have been deciding between maybe getting some laminate floors in our front room and hallway and then re-carpet the bedrooms before we move. I just talked with a carpet cleaning company for a long time and they told us that the life of our particular carpet is set to last about 4-5 years...10 years later it is the same original carpet that has survived tons of traffic and pets and you can tell it is dying. So they said they could come clean it, but it'll probably come back in a few months so no permanent spot removal...hmmm. I would love some opinions on whether you would like laminate floors, you know we're thinking of re-sale, or if you would prefer the whole house carpet? I love carpet, but it's out of the price range at the moment so we'd have to endure until we were moving, but I also love the look of wood (even if it's fake)...so opinions opinions please!!!

I'm A Big Girl Now!!!!

Well a few weeks ago we decided it was time to get rid of our rickety crib that was recalled and move Linnea to a "big bed" we found a brand new frame at garage sale for $3.00 and bought the mattress and box spring this weekend. My mom let me use one of my old bed spreads and can I tell you that Linnea has loved her bed she could hardley wait to sit on it while we were setting it up!!! Very good choice!!! It is so weird that my baby girl isn't so baby anymore :(

Playing with Gracie and Dad on her new bed

She has a very green room :) (o and ignore the blanket hanging over her window, I've been too cheap to buy curtains and it saves me since she goes to bed at 7:30 and for nap time...)

Princess Party

Linnea was invited to her first "friend" party on Thursday, her friend Rory turned 2 and had a princess themed birthday. It was alot of fun I think for Linnea. The girls were given tiara's, wands, rings, and they put eyeshadow on her (i didn't really like that) and the boys were given a sword, shield, and crown. It was cute. I dressed her up in the tutu that my sister-in-law made her for christmas, so she was a Christmas Princess in July, but whatever. They played games, hit a pinata??? I don't know if that is right, and ate cake and ice cream. I thouht it was fun to get her all dressed up personally :)

Playing Pin the heart on the necklace

Hanging out with the Birthday Girl

Linnea giving a little curtsy