Music Room Makeover

Before

After

The tall parlor chairs help balance the height from the cabinet on the other side of the room, and also befriend the once lonely piano.  My favorite part is that we're all drawn to play the piano more since it's in the heart of this whole great room.

I didn't expect this to be Wade's new favorite reading nook, but this is where you can find him almost every night now. It's been a delight.

PS) I heart my blue curtains sooo much.

Entryway Makeover

Before

I fell in love with this home from the moment I first stepped in the door over a year ago. After signing papers as official new owners and moving in just 6 weeks before baby Matthew was due last spring, I told Wade any changes we make would be months after we settled in.  My friend, Linon, inspired me and has worked tirelessly by my side to help me personalize our home to really make it ours.   With her 40 years of interior decorating experience, I am learning so much about proportion, color tone, and the true feeling of a room. The dark tan wall, dark red wall, baby blue walls, and black couch weren't all flowing together with my decor. I even had bought a red bench off of ksl.com last year to try to make it work, but there was still too much confusion.

I'm so excited to reveal these before and after shots over the next few posts.

After
Bright, Warm, Inviting.
I just love it!

 

 

Entryway coming up

Entryway going down
It was bare before, so a touch of color with the painting, green and blue frames, green mirror, green painted stairway, and plant make me smile every time I see it.

First Few Weeks Here

The first few weeks in our new neighborhood, Emily and Jonny spent hours at a time riding bikes together. Going from a busy street in our old neighborhood to a quiet street here, they were thrilled to be able to ride their bikes more (without mommy freaking out). One particular day after Jonny crashed on his bike, I saw him limping home with help from his older sister. They didn't know I saw them, but it was one of the most tender moments and  just made me smile. Some people thought we were crazy having these two so close together, but they really are the best of friends, always looking out for one another.

I'm thankful Wade put in the time and effort to make our house a home so quickly by working with me to unpack, hang photos, clocks, mirrors, and other decor. We invited some of his family and mine over for a Memorial Day BBQ 2 weeks after we moved to motivate us to unpack and get settled quicker. It worked! We were super efficient knowing company was coming. :)

 At the BBQ, my nephews found these beautiful green eggs in the top of our cherry tree.

 Jason always makes my kids laugh.

 The kids helped Jeff and Wade set up the soccer net after the BBQ.

 Emily and I love baking together in our matching Strawberry Shortcake aprons.

 My kids were giddy about their first lemonade sale of the summer! It happened to be on the last day of school, so it was especially successful because all those thirsty teens out of school didn't have homework, practices, or lessons, so they just came and hung out and had cup after cup of lemonade and lots of our homemade chocolate chip cookies.

PS) How do you not love our cute neighbor Cecily, in her swimsuit, anxious for the sale to be over so they can all go swimming together? Such a great neighborhood!

Blog Updates

I just finished 4 blog posts on my daily gratitude blog here to finish out a full year journaling gratitude thoughts. Now I can print it and always remember how it helped me overcome my Postpartum Depression  during such a dark time and CHOOSE to be happy instead. :) Now, I'll post to our family blog regularly. Since I've made this blog public, feel free to add it to your google reader or blog roll so you know when I've updated.

Happy Tuesday! 

Our New Home

Here are some photos of our new home in Kaysville. Since I made my blog public again, I won't show the front of the house, but here's a glance at the inside of the house. It's a split level house with a floor plan similar to my Aunt Anne's for any of you that have been in her house except 10 years ago, the owners knocked down the kitchen wall to open it up more. After you walk in the front door and go up 8 steps, here's the great room. We love the open space! It's been perfect for our Love and Logic Parenting classes as well as parties with friends and family.

Kitchen...with my own pantry at last!
I've been dying for a pantry, and apparently so have my kids because they're always getting snacks out of it. ;)

Dining Area

 

Living Room

Music Area

Master Bedroom

Wade and I made a tufted head board for our Master Bed that I'll post some pics of later. I'll also post the pics of the other bedrooms once we get new paint up in the next month.

Upstairs Bathroom

Family Room

The kids are loving our new 8 foot monster sack! They run, run, run, and then jump onto it every chance they get. Then we roll it in the middle of the room so we can all sit on it together (yes, all 6 of us fit on it) to watch movies on the projector screen.

Back patio

This picture makes me so happy especially since right now, our backyard has 2-3 feet of snow. Our home and neighborhood is everything we were hoping to find. We may never move. :)

Hello 2013...nice to meet you!

We're back! After a whole year of daily gratitude posts on dailysunshineforyou.blogspot.com, we moved into our first home, welcomed baby Matthew into our family, and took 7 months off from blogging. It will take several posts to catch up so I may just post Christmas, go forward from there, and finish catching up later. After feeling my time sucked away from facebook, I deleted my account 2 weeks ago (for a few months or forever...who knows? I'm genuinely enjoying the break from it right now.) When I do have some down time, I've read a few of your blogs and have been reminded how much more I enjoy it than facebook.  This blog is my family journal, which I print into a book for us to enjoy for years to come.  So I'm stoked to be back and blogging!

just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

What's better than going swimming in the winter? Okay, maybe swimming in the summer, but we sure love the indoor Holladay Lions Pool anytime of the year! We met up with friends and went swimming there a few times this winter. Since we're hoping to move to the Holladay area soon, we especially enjoy driving through that beautiful little town on our way to the pool.