House

So I have been meaning to post some pictures of our new house for some time now. I posted some pictures of the house before we bought it, but they were of the previous owners things. I guess we haven't done too much with the house yet, but I have been told by a few people that I need to post some pictures on our blog. So here you go.

We have so many plans! It's all quite overwhelming to think about them all at once. We're planning on being here probably about 5-10 years. This house is really just the perfect starter home I'd say and we definitely have no regrets about buying it. Some of the things that we would like to do while we live here would be:

1. Finish remolding the master bathroom! Haha. We started this project almost first thing after we moved in and it has yet to be finished! But we've gotten pretty far. We stripped all the baseboards and doors off as well as the window frame. We stripped what we could of all the old wallpaper off and plastered the cracks and dings and evened out the walls as much as possible. Then we textured the walls and ceiling! We put a nice "knock-down" look to it. It was really lots of fun actually. We have primed the whole room and have chosen our paint, which was hard to come to an agreement on. We chose a neutral beige with a slight hint of green in it. We also got a new window for the room, but still need to install it. Last on our list is that we need to order new baseboards, crown moulding, doors and carpet. We are still trying to decide if we want to stick with the house design and do all white or if we want to do a wood. We are so close to being done, but we've hardly had any time with work and school and weddings. Hopefully we can find some time soon. It will be nice to have two rooms again!

Here's a look at the knockdown texture we did

2. Next on our to-do list is put up a backsplash in the kitchen. We've already picked out some stone that would look nice. We also are going to put up another cabinet instead of the shelves, we just need a little more space. We'd also like to texture the ceiling in here as well and put up some crown moulding.

Here's the tile that we like, any comments?

3. We are going to frame out one of our empty basement rooms to be a pantry! This will be nice, and I think it will be pretty easy to do.

4. Landscape! This summer we are hoping to do a nice makeover to the yard. It really needs it. Ryan hates these big stumps and wants to rip them out. My back just hurts thinking about it.

5. Master Bathroom! This is on my wish list. We have a small bathroom right now, and it's cute but just doesn't have a lot of storage space. There's a small addition off of the master bedroom that would be the perfect place for a bathroom. We think it would add a lot of value to the house and it was just be so nice for us too. Hopefully we can knock this one off the list in the next few years.

6. We'd like to replace all the windows eventually. We actually just bought 5 new ones for the master bedroom, bathroom, and then three downstairs. We installed the first one last week together. Ryan never ceases to amaze me. He knew exactly how to do it, just like a professional. It's so nice to have him around! Hopefully we can get the other ones in soon, depending on how much free time we have this next week.

7. We would like to repaint the house hopefully this summer if we aren't too busy. It could use a good paint job.

There are so many other projects on our minds, but these are the main ones we're thinking about now. Hopefully we can just finish the first one.

Here's some more pictures of our house for those who are interested...

V-day

First off I have to say that my husband is amazing! I woke up on Sunday morning and went to take Ember outside and on the way I saw a huge bouquet of flowers on our kitchen table! They weren't there when we went to bed the night before and Ryan was still in bed. He had gotten up in the middle of the night to put them there! I was so surprised. He is so sweet! 

Aren't They Beautiful!

We kind of bummed around all morning and then went on a nice cruise up Provo Canyon to a small town called Wallsburg. It was such a nice day, we got out and walked a little. It was really nice to get away and be able to just talk and forget about life. Later we went up to our cabin for a nice dinner with my parents, grandparents and my cousin Casey and his wife Noah. We came back home and I actually got put on call for work the next day so we stayed up a little later and watched a movie. It was a pretty laid back day, but very nice to have in the midst of all the craziness going on in our lives.

One Down, Two More to Go

Yesterday was my brother Andrew's wedding! He married a girl named Analyn who has lived down the road from us since elementary school. They were married in Salt Lake at Temple Square. It was very rainy all morning and then the sun came out right before they came out of the temple, it was perfect. It reminded me of when we were married, it rained all morning and then turned out to be such a gorgeous fall day. I guess they are pretty lucky anyways because I think most of us were expecting a snowy wedding this time of year. We had lots of family come from all over and it was really nice to see them all. They had a delicious lunch in Salt Lake after the wedding and then a beautiful reception at the Courthouse in Provo later that night. It was lots of fun meeting new people and catching up with old friends.

Next month is my other brother Matt's wedding which we are all looking forward to. He left to fly back to China this morning and we'll miss him, but he'll be back soon enough. Andrew and Analyn are leaving back to Jerusalem on Friday where they are going to live for another year or so. We will miss both of them terribly, but we are very excited for them to start their new life together.

Ryan's brother Sean is getting married this fall, I believe in August some time. We are really excited for them too. It seems like everyone we know is either getting married or having a baby! What a crazy year.

Can't Wait Til it's Done!

The last few weeks of our lives have consisted of remolding our master bedroom. We can't stand the years of globbed paint on all the walls, baseboards and doors and have decided to start from scratch. We tried to salvage the old pine baseboards and poor Ryan spent hours stripping off the paint and sanding them. They just have so many dents and dings that it would be hard to make them look nice, so we have decided to get new ones. We are thinking knotty alder would give the room a good look. We are going to texture the walls and paint them an earthy tone, probably a light beige with a green tint. We're also trying to decide on what kind of carpet to get. It's kinda hard to make all these decisions. Don't worry we aren't going to keep that nasty light, it's up for grabs if anyone wants it... Anna? I know it's your style. Jk. Anyways, it's finally feeling like we're getting somewhere. Hopefully we can put in some good time this weekend and get it finished.

Another New Year

It's been a crazy last few weeks. We celebrated Christmas up at our cabin and everyone in my family was able to make it except Andrew:( But soon we will all be together at his wedding in February. Phil, Nicole and Tori came as well as Matt and his fiance Mitra. We all had a blast spending time together and taken it easy at the cabin. Tori was so much fun to play with, she is growing up so fast! Before everyone left we all went out to Five Guys and met up with our Cousins the Carrascos, G&G Clyde and my grandpa Smith with his wife LaRae. It was so nice to have everyone together, it rarely happens.

Anna got us nerf guns for Chrsitmas, lots of fun!

Tori got what she asked for, a computer!

Tori is so dang cute, I can't take enough pictures of her

All of us at Five Guys

Nicole, Tori, Grandpa Smith, Phil

After my family left, Ryan's brother came to town with his new fiance Lindsay. They stayed with us for a few days and we had fun shopping and snowboarding. After they left Ryan and I spent a relaxing quiet New Years Eve together, it was really nice.

We spent the last week working on our master bedroom trying to strip old layers of paint off the baseboards and doors. Anyone know any secrets? It's such a mess.

Yesterday Ryan and I both started back to school at UVU. Ryan's taking a heavy load of classes working on his construction management degree. I am taking a pathophysiology class as a first step towards my bachelors degree. Not gona lie, I'm kinda nervous. I felt a little lost in class, I took physiology and microbiology about 3 years ago and I don't remember as much as I wish. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hopefully get into a good study routine. At least I only have the one class and I'm hoping my experience in the ICU will help out. Wish us luck!

This Next year is going to be busy. We have three weddings in the family and a new baby boy for Phil and Nicole. Hopefully Ryan will get this internship he is applying for at Geneva Rock and we both can continue to work on our bachelors. We have lots of projects planned for our new house, so hopefully we'll find the time for those as well.

Best of luck to everyone and a Happy New Year!

Love,

R n R