This Is Us

We built the bathroom in the basement several years ago.  It leaked and we could never figure out why, so we decided to re-do it.  A couple days ago Nick took off the glass door and ripped out the old tile.  Today he started installing the new tile.  We picked a lighter glossy tile because that bathroom doesn't have a window and I thought it would help make the room brighter. It looks so good so far and I'm excited to have it finished.

  Today we got another small snowstorm.  I am so thankful for the moisture.  It is filling up our lakes and giving us the water we need.  I know that come summer we are going to be wishing we had this moisture. It's just that by this time of year I am so ready for spring weather and can't wait for lots of sunshine and warmth. Here are a couple pictures of the little snow storm we got.

  At Disneyland you can have an artist cut your silhouette out of black matte paper. They don’t draw anything. You sit down next to them and they cut your profile out of the paper with scissors. Crazy right?! My parents have one of my sister and me when we were little.  For our kids 1st birthdays we would take them to Disneyland. We got a silhouette done of each of them at a year old. We also got ones of Nick and I as adults. We have them hanging on our wall in the family room. I love them so much and I’m so happy to have gotten them done!

Day 7 of our photo challenge is Wind. Wind is a powerful element. We have created windmills to use that power. I wish we could have a windmill to power our home (it’s against the city regulations 😩). It brings in storms. It clears out smog. It carries birds. It distributes seeds. Did you know: The highest wind ever recorded was 253 mph. It was during the tropical storm, Olivia, in 1996 on Barrow Island, Australia. Crazy huh? Humans can survive blasts of 500 mph. Which is important to know because sometimes pilots need to eject from their planes at those speeds.  Happy Tuesday! I know it’s hard to tell with photos, but in these the wind is blowing very hard. If you want to see the videos, check out our Instagram! 😁

  Apricity Noun - The warmth of the sun in winter I love the sun shinning! ☀️ I love the warmth it gives, how it warms our house through the windows, and I love the light! During the day we have the thermostat set to 65°. It’s works for us because everyone but me are at work or school and I’m moving all day getting things done, so I don’t get cold. When the sun shines through and warms the house up to 70°, it’s so fun! 

  I was surprised to find out that most of the people I talked to only clean their dryer filter out every once in awhile. 😱 Did you know that every year over 3,000 house fires in the United States are caused because the lint filter was not cleaned out? It only takes a few seconds to do, and should be done either before or after each load. Ever since I can remember I have cleaned it out AFTER each load. That way when I’m all done with the laundry for the day it’s all clean for the next time. So please, get in the habit of cleaning the lint screen/filter!

  I was dreaming of spring and summer (in This Post ) then yesterday we got more winter. 😆 It’s snowed for awhile yesterday and then started up again today. I know we need it, it’s a good thing. I know it’s still winter. So I’ll do my best to enjoy winter and when Spring finally gets here, I will be that much more happy and do my best to enjoy every second! Is there anything you are looking forward to this year?

  I try to find joy in all the seasons.  I love being able to live in Utah where we get snow, rain, sun, fall colors, and the excitement of new beginnings.  I enjoy the different smell in the air that each season brings. The sun is shining today, and I am so excited for the spring.  So, I wanted to share some of our spring flowers...

  In our kitchen and entry way we had tile, and then in our living room we had replaced the gross carpet with wood/vinyl flooring.  We thought it would be nice to have it all match, since it connects.  A little bit ago Xander’s room had water leaking in and we found that the line to our fridge was leaking. We thought it was all taken care of. Then we tore up the floor. Mice had chewed through the line in the floor and it was still leaking. The wood was moldy on top. We had to replace the tubing, but we put a think plastic tube in the floor first and then put a new fridge tubing through it. That way it’s protected. We replaced the wood on the floor and also painted with a mold/mildew paint. We put the new flooring down and new molding. It looks so nice and we really like it. We wanted to replace the floor with tile, but the cheapest we could find was $3.99/sq ft and this was a little before Christmas and we didn’t want to spend that much. So we found the same vinyl floorin...

  For the last several years we have had our own New Year’s Eve party at home. They have been the best. This year I got out our serving dishes and made our food spread a little prettier. We have so much food and get so full. As a white elephant gift we got Rootbeer Pong. So we played that and had so much fun. We watched movies, and live streamed some of the celebration at The Gateway. Then at midnight the kids went outside and banged on pots and pans, yelled happy new year, and watched the neighbors fireworks. Hopefully 2021 will be a little happier than 2020!

Nick built two rooms in the basement. Along with the storage, bathroom, and shelves. Xander's room was done in 2015, and we got Brichette's done in 2017. We wanted to do something more grown-up for her, so we decided to go with a Paris theme. We painted the walls to match her bedding.  She is using my old daybed.  We bought her a night stand and matching dresser.  Nick's younger sister gave us two desks that they were getting rid of.  We changed Xander's to a dark color, and changed Brichette's to white to match the rest of her furniture in her room. My friend from high school printed of the vinyl's. I bought the wood B's from Michaels and painted them myself.

I hated how we were storing our spices. It felt so disorganized and chaotic with them all being different sizes and shapes. So  I decided to change that. I bought glass jars from a .99 and more store by our house. We bought labels and wrote the name of the spices on them. We bought the baskets from Family Dollar. Nick installed a shelf in the cabinet above the stove. It’s so nice. I can pull the baskets out... it’s all organized and the same. I love it. The little baskets have the food coloring and flavoring (vanilla, almond, etc.) in them. It’s nice because we can buy our spices in bulk or grow them and dry them ourselves (from our little urban farm!).