Turning 30

My 30th birthday was amazing! David worked from home and I got breakfast in bed. Then I had lunch with Trish and did some much needed shopping all by myself.  David wrapped my presents all by himself and I was trying to get some quiet time in my bedroom that afternoon, but David kept telling me to come upstairs to look at different things. I was a little suspicious, but I kept going with it. Finally around 5:00 that night and about the 4th time he had me come upstairs to look at something I look outside and see Sherrie, Giselle and Lincoln in the driveway.  They weren’t supposed to be there until Halloween, but they surprised me and got there on my birthday instead. It was a great surprise. We had some dinner and cake that night and David tried to start a fire with all the candles.   I am okay with turning 30. I figure that with 4 kids I have done pretty good for being 30. It just gets better each year!

Halloween 2014

We all love Halloween in our house! This year was especially fun! We went and let the kids pick out pumpkins from a pumpkin patch near our house. They loved it! The kids have also decided that the like coloring or painting their pumpkins instead of carving them, which is amazing for us because we aren’t carving 4 different pumpkins.   David’s work had a family Halloween Trick or Treating, so we got to take the kids to his work and they went trick or treating around the office.  David and his B.F.F. at work, Matt Barlocker (David calls his Barlocker) had a great time decorating their area and dressing up as witches…I didn’t know if I should be proud or worried of his excitement for dressing like a witch! They did an amazing job decorating, but unfortunately the candy they bought had ants all in it, so the candy was a little scarce.    David and Maggie also had their Halloween parade at school that we got to go and watch. It’s fun to see all the kid’s different costumes. On Halloween night we had everyone come to our house and then we headed out to the neighborhood a couple streets away. The houses in that neighborhood are much closer together and so we can get a lot more houses in a lot less time.  David and I were Sheldon and Amy from Big Bang Theory. The weather for this Halloween could not have been better. It was still pretty warm and I think we were out for about 2 hours or more with all the kids. Elizabeth went to about 2 or 3 houses for candy and then after that she figured she could just watch and still get candy without all the running! Lincoln, our little nephew who is the same age as Elizabeth had different ideas though. That kid ran the entire night and never slowed down! He loved going from house to  house and we were all trying to keep up with him. It was hilarious! The kids got quite a bit of candy and we all had a good time and we’re thankful for the amazing weather that night! Gotta love Halloween!!

Parker’s T-ball

Parker played t-ball this past fall and really enjoyed it.  He was so cute to watch too! David, Maggie and Lizzy would find ways to entertain themselves. Maggie liked taking pictures of everyone and the 3 of them all loved playing by a big tree. It was pretty cute.  The weather stayed almost perfect the whole time.  It was just 4 weeks with 2 games a week, which is perfect! Parker would get a little turned around sometimes after hitting the ball, but he would figure it out and get to those bases.  He loved to throw the ball. They all took turns throwing the ball and he really enjoyed his turn.  It is always fun to have the extra curricular activities.

So many New Things

 

So David and I have been married over 10 years now and our furniture has been through 4 kids and too many moves to count over the years. I have been wanting a new couch for a while now, but couldn’t find one that both David and I liked.  But finally this past August we went and found a great couch that we absolutely love and for an amazing price, which makes it even better! It was way bigger than we thought it was at the store. When they delivered it, I went downstairs an was shocked at the size of it!! It is perfect for family and all the visitors we have.  I couldn’t be happier about it.

From a 10 year old completely too worn out couch, to a brand new HUGE super comfy couch.

Last year was an expensive year for us.  We started out the year of 2014 starting to save for the Hawaii trip we wanted to take for our 10 year anniversary.  In February I started really getting serious about it and looking at possible dates for us to go. That same week that I started looking at Hawaii stuff our water heater went out. YIKES! That was a nice chunk of change for us. Thank goodness for emergency funds!! After that was done we started saving up again for our trip and I think in March I began looking again at plans for it and no lie, that same week our van broke down. The water pump and some other very expensive and needed part died that week and another few thousand dollars later we decide 2 things. One, that it was time to sell our van and two that maybe we should postpone our Hawaiian getaway.  I kept feeling like this wasn’t the year to go, but who turns down a trip to Hawaii?! So I told David that I didn’t feel like we should go to Hawaii and he told me he had been having the same thoughts, but didn’t want to say anything and make me feel guilty.  For whatever reason we just were not meant to go to Hawaii this year!

We bought a new van this past year. A 2011 Dodge Caravan and I love it so much!! It is roomy and beautiful,  it has been an amazing van so far and I am so grateful we got it and somehow were blessed to pay cash for it!

On Mother’s day 2014 I told David I would love a new faucet and shower head for our downstairs bathroom.  As with all home improvements it snowballed into us redoing the whole bath and tile surrounding it as well as a new toilet.  It took about 2 months to finish this terrible project where I was forced to share a bathroom with all the kids in the upstairs bathroom. The $50 project quickly turned into a lot more than that within a matter of days! I have hated that bathroom since the day we moved in. The tile was not kept up with very well and no matter how much I scrubbed and cleaned them, they still looked dirty. So I spent a day with joy knocking out every single tile in there.  That is when we found mold and had to replace the walls as well! That was fun! It was such a painful process, but the end result has been awesome. I got a new tub and toilet that I love. The tub looks clean and can actually stay clean unlike the other one. It was not something that we planned on doing this year, but that’s how life goes!! And I am so glad to have it too and thankful that David has the skills to make-over our bathroom.

From this mess to…

THIS!!

David did an amazing job on the bathroom and not one day have I missed that gross tub or nasty tiles!!

In August of 2014 the day before school started for the kids I was doing loads of laundry, when all of a sudden my dryer stopped working!! Luckily I had finished the kids laundry, but unluckily I had not finished all the laundry and had a load or two of wet clothes! It was terrible. Our washer and dryer were never that great and they were 10 years old and I was totally wanting new ones anyway. I was sad about the timing, but so excited to say good-bye to our old washer and dryer and hello to some very pretty and so much faster ones! I have on average about 10 loads of laundry in a week and with the old set it would take about an hour and a half to dry a load. It was terrible! With the new washer and dryer it dries the clothes on average in about 45 minutes!!! It really has been life changing  having a good working washer and dryer and I don’t hate laundry nearly as much as I used to. 

Another thing that was done in our house was our mattress.  We have had it for 10 years, like everything else, and it was a horrible mattress. Somehow 10 years ago a horrible sales lady talked us into getting a firm mattress. We hated it ever since and this year we finally couldn’t take it anymore and went shopping for a new one.  We fell for the lie that memory foam was the way to go and so much more comfy and good for back problems than regular mattresses. So in August we bought a very nice memory foam mattress.  After a month we hated it. Everyone told us it took a couple of weeks to break it in and to be comfy, but it didn’t and so we went and exchanged it for an extra plush super comfy new mattress. My nights have been much better since getting this awesome mattress!

We also bought a new lawn mower this year.  We haven’t had one in about 2 or 3 years, because we had some teenagers mowing it for us. David has bad allergies and I had babies all over the place for so long that I couldn’t devote that much time to our poor yard, so we just went with the boys for those years, but this year since I didn’t have a baby and I wasn’t pregnant I was more than happy to get back into mowing the lawn. I really don’t mind doing it. I put on some music and get a nice hour and a half work out.  We also had a lawn company come and fertilize our yard this year and it looked amazing! Totally worth the money to get it treated. 

In November David and I were going to Las Vegas for our anniversary. The Sunday before the week we were leaving I came home from church to find all of my food in my freezer was thawing right before my eyes.  Our refrigerator was broken!! It was terrible! Again, I had kind of been wanting a new fridge, but not right before a vacation! So the next day we found  an awesome fridge on KSL for a great deal and then turned around and sold our fridge for $100~can I just tell you how much I love KSL Classifieds and I don’t know what I would do, if we ever do move to another state without the convenience of selling things online locally! I’ve been wanting to switch from white appliances to black for a while now and I guess we are on our way now!

David’s old 2004 Honda Civic had to have quite a bit of work done on it this year too.  It was due for a major tune up and David still loves that little car, so we put some money towards that this past year as well. 

I also took on painting the whole house. It has been beige in all the main rooms for a while now and I just could never decide on a color that I just loved until this past year.  I found a grey that I loved called Manhattan Mist. So I painted the kitchen, upstairs living room, hallways, girl’s room, our master bedroom,and bathroom downstairs. It feels so much better. It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do for a house! This is the after. I forgot to get a before.

David also started finishing up the laundry room and adding drywall to it.  It looks so much better! Pictures will have to come later, because I haven’t had time to take any and it is a disaster in there right now, post Christmas!

David’s company moved buildings and David helped a lot with the move. He was at the new building a lot before they actually moved over helping them set up all the internet and whatever other stuff they needed! The old company had some counters and shelves there and David’s company didn’t want them, so they were going to throw them out. David being the saver he is, called me and asked if we could use some counters! I said yes of course! So for free we were able to get a work space for David for the garage and a work space for me in the laundry room. I have been wanting a counter in there for years and it finally happened and I love it! I made it my little crafting area and love it so much more than I thought I would in the laundry room!

I think that is it for big purchases for 2014. It was a busy and expensive year and thank goodness we didn’t try to add a trip to Hawaii to that! When it rains, it pours and hopefully the rainy season is over for us for big purchases for 2015! We are blessed that David has a great job and that we are able to handle little surprises in our life. So very blessed.