STRONG

We were cleaning out the garage (those few lingering things) a few weeks ago so that Jared could park in it too. Em is such a big helper these days and was so excited to show us  that she is "Stron!!!!" 

Enjoy the Journey.

Before/House Listing Pictures.

I just found these pictures in my email, they are the pictures of our house from the listing. I'll comment below them and tell you what we've changed and then take pictures sometime soon so you can see the difference too.

The front of our house! We're on the corner so we face Southeast.

The upper window is the master bedroom, the lower right is my craft room, lower left is the laundry/bathroom.

-The changes are minimal, the red curbing bricks that are for no reason in front of the porch have been moved, our own chairs and table sit on the porch-much cuter. Next spring the door will get a fresh coat of paint and the kick plate will get one too! 

This view is roughly standing from the front door. The door that you see is the coat closet.

-A fresh coat of paint in here went a long way. The color in this picture is a peachy/flesh tone... blech. The carpet in here was replaced a week before we made the offer, this is the carpet we took throughout the entire house. They had put it in this room the stairs going downstairs (stopped at bottom) and up the stairs and in the hallway upstairs.

Standing in the dining room corner by the stairs looking back into the living room.

Standing in the living room by the coat closet looking straight ahead into the dining room. To your right is the half staircase going upstairs, and you can see part of the half staircase going downstairs.

-The flesh color is gone and that wall wrapped around the kitchen is a pale blue. The green wall is the neutral that we took throughout the entire house. 

Standing in the corner by where you go downstairs looking into the kitchen.

-The doorknob you can see before the fridge is the pantry, that wall is our neutral to the fridge, as it turns by the fridge the wall is blue. The biggest change we made in here is the kitchen cabinets. I had forgotten how terrible the kitchen looked until seeing this picture. We painted them white and it made the BIGGEST difference. We also spray painted the fridge black to match the appliances. Appliance spray paint works! $12 was well worth it and cost much less than a new fridge to make them match!

Looking from the pantry door towards the dining room/basement. It is so so nice to be able to see down where she is playing from the kitchen!

When you go up the half set of stairs you hit this room first on your left (well really the master door is before this on your right, but I'm going clockwise). This room is E's room. It got a fresh coat of white paint on walls and the ceiling.  The big wall that the bed is mostly on is now pink, and we put in an IKEA chandelier for her, her "princess light". 

This is the next room on the left, it is now a guest room. Just a plain off white color with a bed in the room. :)

The next room (at about 3 o'clock on an actual clock). "Emery's bathroom" as she calls it. This is the only tub we have. We've taken the mirrored vanity down (and made $30) and put up a mirror that I bought at a yardsale for $10, it was a HUGE change! Painting the vanity is still on our list of things to do. :)

This is the view of the master from our bathroom, the room was painted an off white ("antique white") and the wall with the pictures on it is blue and that is where our bed is. My mom and I made a window seat and this room is still coming together slowly. 

Master bath-the corner shower doesn't bug me as much as I thought it would, I actually don't have a problem with it. Painting this vanity is also on the to do list still.

Master closet, it is still a walk in, and decent sized, but our last one was the size of a bedroom so it is down-sizing for us. :)

Family room downstairs, this room was painted the neutral (autumn haze) and got new carpet-the carpet in the living room we took throughout the rest of the house.

This is off of the family room, and is now my craft room. It got new carpet was all, but it made a huge difference. This room has great lighting which is fabulous for crafting. My quilting machine BARELY fit. Like a few papers between it and the wall on each side.

The downstairs bathroom/laundry-this still needs to be painted. Eventually we'd like to put a shower in this room so the guests don't have to go all the way upstairs to shower because our main guest room is in the basement.

From this view to your right is another half set of stairs that goes into the basement. (so these stairs run under the stairs that go upstairs to the bedrooms) When you get to the bottom to your left is a big storage room, the hall then bends to the right and there is a door on your right and one straight ahead. 

Downstairs in the basement, this is now our guest room. (the door if you were to go straight through the bend in the hall) We painted the ceiling white (it was baby blue with clouds) and the walls the neutral we used in the majority of the house. This room actually had carpet in it and had been finished semi recently. It is very similar to the carpet in the rest of the house but is slightly longer. 

The door to the right. The basement didn't have carpet on the stairs or in this room (it is just laid down) so we finished it off by putting carpet in. We took the carpet from the family room and set it down in the storage room which made a big difference in there as well. This room is the exercise room. It can't technically be used as a sleeping room because you can't get out of the window currently. The window well is dug out, but then the kitchen windows (behind the table) are bay shaped and hang over the dig out as it currently is, so you'd have to be about 4" to get out. Sometime next spring we'll dig it out just so that it is done and another access out. It works perfectly as an exercise room though as it is on the smaller side. 

The door with the black thing on the bottom goes to the kitchen, the door on the right goes into the garage. Where you can see the trash can Jared and his dad have built a shed which has already proved to be worth the money as we can both park in the garage and it makes a big difference in Jared's mornings. 

I'll get some better pictures of the backyard as well as updated ones so you can see the difference soon!

Enjoy the Journey.

A New House.

The first time going into "OUR HOME". We were so excited and have loved it so much!

I don't know if I mentioned-E had Hand, Foot & Mouth (for the 3rd time) the first of the 2 weeks we were painting/projecting/ moving so I did all I could to keep her busy and get done what I could. 

Sometimes it included no shirt. (side note the extra wood pieces awkwardly on the wall around the seat have been removed and a window seat has now taken their place. SOOO much better.)

And Emery took up the hobby of photography when Jared's parents came to help us paint (they were for sure put to use!). 

Enjoy the Journey.

Moving

We MOVED! We bought our first home and moved in August. These are random cell phone pictures that I sent to my mom along the way. I'll try to post better before and after pictures soon!

Cleaning hall/baseboards. It's amazing, even though this is an area I cleaned weekly when you do a deep clean so much more comes off!

The Cream color is what we painted over the flesh color.

Kitchen before!

Again the cream over the green.

Living room (cream is what I painted). The first day I got SOOOOO much painting done. E had hand, foot and mouth the first week we moved-(we moved/did projects over a 2 week period the last of August.) I had to paint what she wouldn't/couldn't touch so I got creative!

Lunch. She loves a burger.

Master (antique white over green on 3 walls, one blue)

Master

The living room and hallway/stairs upstairs as well as stairs going down (but not family room) carpet was all replaced a week before we made the offer on the house. We found out what the carpet was and put it throughout the rest of the house. Jared and Adam ripped the carpet out and then a neighbor (by the townhomes) came and laid the new carpet. It's amazing how much better it looks!

Downstairs the carpet wasn't laid on the stairs or in the (what we call) exercise room, but we laid it there. We did have child labor while we were doing projects. She's quite the helper these days!

Previously a white fridge! I highly recommend the $3 a can appliance paint! $12 and this fridge looks so much better and matches the rest of the appliances.

When you only move .5 a mile it is so much easier to not fully pack/unpack. I got pretty creative and felt like a genius with some ideas! (side note... I've never taken clothes off hangers to move... it's so much easier not to I think!)

This light was just a circle bulb light and we found this one for $5 at a yard sale. It's amazing how much of a difference the little things make!

Getting packed!

Unpacking!

Taking things off the walls-I try to do this very last because it makes everything seem so sterile.

What was left/our last loads of what we moved. 

Jared's parents came down the weekend in between the weeks we moved. They left his dad's new truck and Granpa Fielding's snowmobile trailer. It was so nice to be able to take larger loads and to not have to rent a truck. Every time we went we took two cars and loaded them to the very brim! We also took basically everything from both of our parent's homes which was quite the task. Now we've been going through it and dejunking. It feels good to be responsible for all of our stuff, but it is also an overwhelming task somedays. Every time I take something out to the garage/Jared's car to get rid of it feels so lovely. I don't know why de-junking feels so good to me but it does! 

Enjoy the Journey.

The Young Family

Dan and Gretchen and their kids moved to Michigan at the start of June. We went to dinner with them before they left and had a great time! Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures. :( 

We're so happy for them and their new adventure but miss them like crazy!

Emery only wanted Emma!

Enjoy the Journey.

Three Years

I have no idea where the last three years went. I'm so happy that I made the decision to marry my best friend, it is the best one I have made. Jared is there by my side NO. MATTER.WHAT. He truly is my better half and makes me want to be a better person every single day.

Here are a few of the life changing events from the last three years. I'm so glad I got to go through them with him.

A trip to San Fran. and a move from Rexburg to Lehi.

My completion of student teaching and being officially done with college.

First anniversary, we were both sick in bed and 7 months pregnant.

June 11, 2012 Emery Kate was born.

First "holiday season" as a family of 3.

Second anniversary.

Jared's Graduation from BYU

First "real" job.

The girlie's first birthday!

A move back to Lehi.

Granma's funeral.

Christmas 2013

March 2014

 I'm so thankful for the memories that we make together everyday and his support in all that I do. I'm thankful that we don't have to ever say "goodbye" again. I'm most of all thankful for the decision we made to get married in the temple and that he is mine for eternity. I'm truly blessed.

Enjoy the Journey.