Laundry Space

I'll get back to updating our lives later....but *spoiler alert* one of the big things that happened in September was us closing on the condo we've lived in for the past year. *HAPPY DANCE* (more info about that later.)

Seriously, this is the best thing to happen and I'm SO HAPPY about it. :D With ownership comes the want to really make the place MINE. So....I created a list and picked a project to start....and then my husband informed me that while he doesn't care what project we do, he really does think it should be one that will give us more storage space or something. So...we compromised. I wanted a fun project, he wanted practical we combined them and decided to tackle the....Laundry Space.

Here's our laundry room back at the first of November:

It was, quite literally, a disaster. We collect juice/pop bottles and use them for water storage and they were getting out of hand. We finally took some time and filled them up and put them away. I was left with this:

A little bit better, but still, not ideal. Also, notice all that unused space above the shelf? Yeah, I wasn't digging that. Enter: Pinterest. Gotta love Pinterest. My mom sent me a pin of a really fun laundry room that someone else did. So, I copied them. http://ext.homedepot.com/community/blog/laundry-room-makeover-easy-and-inexpensive/


However, I didn't like their black crates because of the lighting of my space. SO....I went with a fun bright blue. I gave y'all a sneak peek on Instagram a few weeks ago:

It was a HUGE pain to paint these suckers, but they turned out nice so I'm happy.

Pretty, no? While I was off teaching Saturday morning, my sweet husband took down the hideous, long shelf from the laundry room.

THEN came the installing. Not knowing where studs might be in our wall, and not wanting (at this time) to get a stud finder...we decided to use liquid nails in combo with a hammer and nail. In retrospect I would have rented a nail gun from Home Depot. Those suckers were a pain to nail to the wall!

We did have to stop just about half way for two reasons: 1) we ran out of liquid nails. We had to get some more before finishing and 2) I had to shower and get ready for our stake conference sessions that night.

However, we spend a little bit of time finishing them up on Sunday so that the dryer could go back into the closet before our FHE activity we're hosting tonight. :) They look fantastic!

I do want to add some fun printables or something to brighten up the shelves, and I have other things that are going to get moved around to be in these crates. OH! We also decided that some small brackets would be a good idea to give us just a little bit more support. :) There's some wall patching that needs to be done....and I'm seriously considering doing something like this:

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or maybe this:

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to hide the hideousness of the cords for the washer. Seriously, why can't they put them so that they'll be lower than the height of the washer? Sigh. Also, I think I might try to move the laundry are light to being inside the closet and what not. Maybe. Not sure about that yet. Overall, I am very happy with our first (of many!!) DIY projects. :D

And just in case you missed it my new lovely laundry space that makes me oh so happy:

The rest of August

August seems like so long ago and yet it also feels like yesterday. Funny how that works.

Anywho, August was a fun month. After getting back from Yellowstone we did some fun, random things and basically enjoyed life. :)

 We had Lindy for a random weekend and went up to visit Allan's mom. She show Lindy this fun stuff that she could play with and blow into bubbles, etc. She had a blast with it.

  

Pictures from our garden. I was not the best gardener this year. We got on little cucumber and a few tomatoes before the plants died....mostly because Daelynn was the one watering them and she moved to go to BYU-I in September....so yeah. :D I'm really not the best porch gardener as much as I've tried.

We had a pool party as a going away party for some of our friend in the ward. I love all these people. This is Allan doing an eagle jump off the diving board. :)

We got to help out in the Church's peach orchard by picking peaches. These peaches were HUGE! And they smelled SO GOOD. It was fun to get to help out and spend a few hours in the morning picking peaches for people in need.

 

Lindy's visa didn't come through and she ended up not leaving at the beginning of August like we thought she would. This was great for us because it meant we got to spend more time with her doing fun things. One thing we did was take her dancing with us. She was convinced we were "going to a ball," and she just HAD to wear her "ball gown." Of course she chose to wear her Cinderella dress. She was so cute and everyone loved getting to see her. It was fun. :)

That's pretty much the month of August in a nutshell for us. It felt like a really busy month - and yet it was a lot of fun too. :)

Family Vacation: Yellowstone National Park

This year we planned and executed a family vacation with Allan's immediate family to Yellowstone National Park. We had a lot of fun camping and exploring. Behold, some pictures:

One morning we had doughnuts/fried scones. :D They were so delicious.

Old Faithful!

In front of the sign. Proof we went!

some wildlife we saw - Elk.

Us in front of a pool.

A buffalo we saw just taking a walk on the street as we drove to a geyser

Castle Rock Geyser. One of our favorite parts.

We took the long way home and saw the Grand Tetons

Proof Daelynn came with us. ;) Her in front of a geyser. :D

We LOVED going to Yellowstone. It was so beautiful and perfect weather. I love camping and I'm looking forward to going camping again next year. :D

July Adventures

July brought us the peak of the summer. Lindy was still in town so we were able to fit in some fun adventures with her. Also, Daelynn lived with us for the summer so she was around for our fun adventures too.

Here's a quick recap of the summer things:

4th of July! North Ogden celebrates Cherry Days. We made fun firework t-shirts and enjoyed fireworks and good food. :)

Lindy in front of a tire of a plane at the Air Show

Here all of us are in a plane at the Air Show

Lindy's ready to fly the plane!

The Air show @ Hill Air Force Base

Lindy and Allan at dinner one night when we played

One of our date night boxes from Unbox Love : We were given chalk and the challenge to leave words of love all around!

Delta Rae in concert. These guys put on the most amazing concert! It was incredible!!

Allan and I at the Delta Rae concert

Daelynn and I at the local Farmer's Market

Allan and I at the Scera shell to see Les Miserables. it was INCREDIBLE!!!

Ward Cleanup Day at a historic house in downtown Ogden. Here the men are trying to lift a tree stump into the trailer.

Lindy helping out at our Ward Cleanup Day.

We went to a family reunion for Allan's Mom's side of the family: the Rincon's. It was fun to see so many cousins that we don't normally get to see. Lindy was just excited to play with her cousins. :D

There you go. Our very busy and intense July - but it was SO MUCH FUN!!! I love summer.

Adventures with Lindy

*note: I know I'm behind. So, I'm going to do some monthly recaps to get caught up and then I'm going to TRY and be better at blogging consistently. We'll see how well it goes.... ;)

The month of June brought one of Lindy's scheduled visits to Utah. With family in town we planned SO MANY FUN things. I really don't know how we packed so much fun into a few days, but we did it. :D Here are some of the fun things we did:

Participlay at the Children's Treehouse Museum

Children's Treehouse Museum

Tractor rides with Grandpa Gary

Splash Pad with Daddy!

Car rides with cousins

Train Museum with Daddy and Grandpa Mac

Trying exotic Dragon Fruit

Getting to meet and hold new cousin Rusha

Bean Museum with cousins!

Bean Museum with Grandpa Mac and cousins.

Picnic with cousins and Aunts!

So there's just a taste of all the fun things we did with family and Lindy. It definitely started out a fun summer of adventures. :D