Little Love

I cannot get enough of this little girl. She just fills my days with such joy that it literally hurts sometimes. The other day I came home from running errands and when I walked in the door she yelled "Mommy!!!" I actually grabbed at my heart and had to take a deep breath. My cousin Kylee once asked me what is the best age, and definitely, definitely I would say it is one years old. I just love everything about Lydia DeNae.













































Lydia (or Little D) LOVES my water mug. She'll pull it down from whatever counter I have it on and go to town on it. Then she will knock it over, I think on accident, who knows, leave it there to drain out until I find it later.

My favorite times with her are when Emma is in bed, the phone isn't ringing, the cleaning, dinner, and dishes are done, and she has my undivided attention. That's when she really hams it up, as shown below :)

A photo is worth a thousand words

In going through more boxes I came across these two lovely little photos. These represent the best parts of my childhood and adolescence.

Below is the moment in my life that I use to summarize my childhood. For my 7th Christmas I got a cocker spaniel puppy, that I found in a box, with a big red bow. This moment alone is a perfect representation of the wonderful childhood that my parents gave me.

This is Ryan and I, both 16, and I was beside myself in-love with him. Sure am glad it worked out that I married him, it's much more fun being married to your first love.

The Preamble to the Constitution

Our video camera has been a little difficult for me to figure out. It was completely out of commission for five months! That means I missed Lydia's first birthday, her first steps, the process of this disgusting house turned dream house...and many others I shutter to think about. Anyway, we are back on track now and have even figured out how to upload clips. I hope this works, but we'll see. Pretty much everyone who knows us has heard Emma recite the pre-amble to the Constitution. It is darling, but it was at it's peak when she was 3 and you could barely make out the words she was saying. So assuming this clip worked, this is from July, 2009. Melts my heart.

Vintage Cupcake

This post is for you Syd ;) This little store downtown Ogden has your name ALL over it. They sell vintage headbands and accessories, as well as heavenly cupcakes. Granted they're not as good as my mom's home made recipe, but they're still a cupcake nonetheless. The shop is IDEAL for a girl's evening of visiting or a mommy/daughter date, and perhaps snapping a few photos.

8 years bay-be!

Alright, sorry, but the room a day plan is not working out. Sure I could take photos and it would look like everything has come along, but I still need to touch up paint and finalize a few things. I only want to debut a room when I have nothing left to do in there, even if it can't be seen from a still photo. So, hopefully I will return to that idea by this weekend.



For now I have some day to day updates. First of all, Ryan and I just celebrated our 8 year anniversary. I remember when we had been married 3 years how long that sounded and good for us. However, now that we're 8 years in I feel like we are just barely starting our "journey." I love Ryan of course, what's not to love? But I genuinely LIKE him, and that's what makes our marriage great. I wouldn't change anything thus far in our life together and am so glad we've had so many ups, and I'm thankful for what we have learned from our downs.



Below, check out my awesome, beautiful, cape and the prettiest bouquet I've ever seen. That's all my wedding day had going, were those two things. It was a hideous time of year to get married. Oh, yeah, I will mention this now and then not again....our actual anniversary is in November, but it competes with the week of my birthday and Thanksgiving. So from now on we are celebrating our anniversary September 13th, that was the day we had our first kiss back in 1997, and we've been boyfriend/girlfriend ever since.























This picture below is to show just how long ago 8 years was. Look at Jessica!! That's Kennedy she is holding. Kylee, you look the same.

















Just kidding, Ky.


We have been LOVING the seasonal produce. Our favorite is tomatoes with fresh mozzarella cheese, but corn is what the girls love best.

















Lydia is a good little baby. Mischievous as all get out, but overall a very sweet little girl. Her signing has come to be very useful and minimizes the whining. Below she is singing "more." She can sign juice, treat, cheese, more, all done, wash hands, and sleep. She is talking earlier then Emma did so we didn't need to teach her many more signs than that. It is very helpful though that when she is whining I can ask her what she wants and she can either say it or sign it.

Emma started pre-school!! I was worried that when Ryan was between jobs she wouldn't be able to attend this year. However I have a sweet trade with her teacher that makes her tuition affordable so we don't have to pinch to let her attend.

Emma goes with one of her life long friends Lily. I know she's only 4, so a lifelong friend doesn't sound like much, but I think she will be one of two friends who Emma will actually stay friends with from birth to death....okay, maybe not death, but at least until marriage. Cause we all know how marriage makes or breaks your friendships. Anyway, Lily and Emma love school and Holly and I love sharing the car pool :)

This little guy, oh don't worry. He's just one of many that I kill each day. Honestly, truly, they haunt my dreams at night. EVERY night I dream about spiders. Ryan stuck his hand down this sprinkler valve, something he has done a dozen times. Well the other day when he did it we saw something move so he poked at it with a stick, sure enough, a black widow. I guess you could say I was glad he was okay, I mean I was, really. However, it would have been a little bit nice for me if he went to the ER so I could be justified in my fear and upset of the spider species.

I guess Emma grabbed my camera and went to town taking some photos. I got a kick out of seeing what she thought was interesting. This photo of Lydia is not something I do often, letting her sit on the counter, I was right there making cupcakes, but not sure where I was when she took this photo.

This pretty little photo Emma took of her doughnut, the photo captures nicely that yes, it is fly season. Nice. Luckily I threw it away, and that was without even knowing a fly had got it's fill too.

Another Emma photo. However, all the photos on this post were taken with my little hand held digital and the quality is junk. So I edited this to look extra funky, just to add some artistic style to this post.

I made Ryan peach cupcake for our anniversary and took them down to his work for him and his co-workers. They were a hit and it made his day. I also took them over to some of the neighbors who we adore. Nothing like peach cupcakes to win loyal friends.

My mom came out tonight and watched the girls so we could go out and celebrate our anniversary. We went to T-Roadhouse and then saw Night and Day which was cute. We didn't talk about the kids or money. It has hard, but can be done. We had a great, long over due date. I meant to have someone take our photo, but no dice. So at the end of the date Ryan just took it for us. Wow. Long update. Good for you if you're still reading this.

Guest Bath

So this room is nothing spectacular, but I did promise myself I would do a room a day, and since I need more time on some of the other rooms I thought I would just use this little bathroom as my debut for the day.

King Benjamin Tower

As far as I'm concerned nobody creates magic like my parents do. They are unbeatable in making family traditions and continuing to teach us what life is truly about. I'm so thankful for their constant FHE learning opportunities that come more than just on Monday nights. They know how to combine, family, fun and eternal perspective all into the same activity. This is their latest creation....the King Benjamin Tower. It is still a little bit unfinished, but it pretty much speaks for its self and it is what a little kid's dreams are made of, and that goes for me too!

Emma's room

This room had the worst of the cat urine, I wouldn't be surprised if you could smell what I was talking about just by looking at these photos.

The door on the right is to the hallway, the door on the left is to her closet. I bought the dresser at the D.I. and gave it a makeover and Ryan made the little cupboard on top years ago, we're only just now finding a perfect place for it. (blogger is being dumb and won't let my words match up. These words belong with the photos at the bottom of this post)

Rainy day project

This green ladder is a project waiting to be finished. So as it sits in the corner of the play room I figured I might as well give it a go as a photo prop. Now I'm torn whether I should leave it as a prop or turn it into my book shelf. Hmm, hmm, hmmm.

Debut a day

I have decided to show our progress with one room a day, this will keep me working during these lazy, rainy days. I'm sure nobody cares much to see my home room by room (except for Kylee) but this is more to keep me focused than anything. I hope I can keep it up. They won't go in any special order, just whatever I have completely finished first :)


I am sooooooo mad at myself for not having better before photos. Some rooms are better than others though. Below is the before of our front entry room.
















There was a tile border around the room that was just odd. Bundy and his friend Ryan tore that out in a flash. The hideous light fixture and curtains had to go. Bundy SCRUBBED the walls of their cat urine, then he had to put oil base primer on every wall in the house. He also repainted the cielings, added new baseboards, scrubbed the blinds down like only he knows how, had the windows cleaned, and put up a fresh coat of paint, oh and new carpet pad and carpet of course :)

I love how open this front room is and I love the colors. The dark brown was a big gamble, but we both really like it. We've already had our Bishopric and relief society presidency over, so I sure am glad we had somewhere for them to sit!