Weston and Erica Peterson

Petz

2012-01-27T18:53:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry but this is SO cute I can't handle it...

This dog and other dogs found here. But the dog above is the cutest by far.

Craft Saturday Plan

2012-01-26T17:04:00.000-08:00

I'm SO excited to get together with some family and friends to get our craft on.

I have a few items that I want to do on Saturday. {I'm not saying I will do them all but I do have a plan}

1. Ruffled slip covers {stool style}

I've been craving ruffles.

I was inspired by the bench slip cover featured below.

2. MMM

{Magnetize My Makeup)

I am sick of not being able to find a certain eye shadow or finding an eye shadow broken in my makeup bag. GOODBYE makeup bag. Hello magnets.

3. I am absolutely in LOVE with this heart wreath. I'm making it to go on my old window.

we'll see how mine turns out ;)

Wallpaper FREE

2012-01-25T22:47:00.000-08:00

Our master bedroom and master bathroom are wallpaper FREE!!

Bath before

Bath wallpaper FREE

Bedroom before

Bedroom wallpaper FREE

Now off to Pinterest to come up with ideas for our master retreat ;)

Work In Progress

2012-01-24T23:10:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have been to our house, you know about the nasty main bathroom. The walls were painted sky blue and had those 70s lights that hung from long chains (my iPhone took the picture below so that is why it is weird looking). A net was attached to the lights that had seashells in it... Interesting.!

Our main bath isn't exactly what we envision but we have other projects that need to get done, so this will have to do until we get around to it again. So this is a BEFORE and WORK IN PROGRESS and not a BEFORE and AFTER.

BEFORE

WORK IN PROGRESS

We painted the walls Fate {in satin} from Kwal.

{sorry for the odd angle. that was the only way to get a "bigger" picture.)

Remember this Deseret Industries (DI) mirror from here? I primed the mirror, painted it white {satin}, distressed the edges with sandpaper {with my own hands not a machine}, and stained the mirror for an "old" look with the same stain I used here. I had two rags to stain with. The first rag was a clean rag and the second the rag to dip in the stain. The rag to dip was only dipped a small amount {to control how much I put on} and I wiped on the distressed areas and especially areas that had a lot of detail. I used the clean rag to wipe of the stain. This kind of staining is something that we can't learn from anyone but ourselves. I was very uncomfortable on my first "real" project, but eventually I started to get the hang of it; it still scares me though.

I bought my chevron-print bath rug from Ross; aren't the colors FAB?

The counter is still in need of being removed. I don't plan on keeping green counters (even though they look yellow). YUCK. Not to mention the siding of the counter on the wall; it WILL be gone when it gets its second round of work in the future.

We got a NEW light. Home Depot always has a light clearance section. We got the light for a great deal. {We still need to paint around the light.}

I bought that owl {from DI} even though it had a weird opening and holes all over it. It works great as a toothbrush older.

We still need to touch-up some areas on the ceiling (look below). My advice: get a wet rag and wipe it up right when paint gets somewhere it isn't supposed to be because I said I would get back to it and never did. The paint is now dry and I have to fix it.

That cut-out area is where the old toilet paper holder was. We decided that we need to get a different holder because the old one is not functional. Westy is going to patch it up with some drywall. The fun part: I need to figure out how I am going to decorate this area.

Workin it.

2012-01-24T21:52:00.000-08:00

I went in to deep clean the master bathroom and couldn't stand the sight of the wallpaper any longer. I just started going at it. I will be COMPLETELY done with taking the wallpaper off in the master bedroom and bath tomorrow. I CAN'T wait for it to be off every surface in my house.

{who said that it was okay to put wallpaper on every wall ?!} EWW

Later we went to Home Depot and this is what Westy wore in 27 degrees:

This isn't a normal thing for him to do, but you may find Weston's brother James wearing shorts all winter.

January Fun

2012-01-21T11:46:00.000-08:00

Joel {my bro}, Brad {Jenni's husband} and Jeff {Westy's dad} all have January birthdays.

Since we live close to Brad and Joel we celebrated their birthdays.

Here are some pictures of us celebrating their birthdays at my parent's house.

"Tony" {as Grandma P calls Weston} with Ethan

Aid and Tony {Aid recently got a haircut}

I made this apron hanger for my mom. I made one of these for my sister Jenni for her birthday but the hanger was for her jewelry. If you never saw it, here is where you can look.

Westy, Brad, Joel, Ethan, Syd, and Aid

My mom told Sydney this was a bleeding pie and refused to taste it because she really believed my mom. LOL

I love this picture because of the faces in it. Aidan makes me laugh because of his fish look.

I love Aidan's underwear.

I got to see one of most favorite people in the world the other day-- KATIE! We have had so much fun with each other over the years. I really miss her and I was so happy to see her. I was also happy to meet her baby Annie. I am sad I didn't get pictures with Katie, but I got a few with Annie.

{PS my camera looks so bad not to mention it wouldn't respond fast enough to capture Annie's adorable smiles}

Gray Days

2012-01-14T22:00:00.000-08:00

I told Jenni a while ago that I wanted to paint my top cabinets white and my bottom cabinets gray when I got a house. Now that we have a house, that is exactly what I am doing. It sounded quite odd at first but now that I am seeing the idea floating around the web, I am convinced it is the stylish thing to do.

We are planning on being all done painting Monday. We decided that the old handles were not cute and kept the newly painted cabinets dated. We took the plunge and spend a meager amount of $51 for new handles. WAIT TO SEE! We looked at Walmart, Home Depot, Amazon and eBay and found the best deal on eBay. We are glad that we looked for what "we" {meaning the wife that convinced her husband} wanted for a better price. We can't wait until the handles come!

Here are some pictures of our progress with the gray paint:

I love the drawers faces.

That floor is quite ICKY but guess what?!!!!!!! We made a goal to get new floor in the kitchen and dining area by February 14th. We hope we can find a great deal to make that happen.

Owl Lady

2012-01-14T21:45:00.000-08:00

I know I am becoming the owl lady... but they are just too cute!

I bought this owl at the DI (Deseret Industries) for $3.

Before

{he was pretty ugly before, not going to lie!}

Progress (before sanding and staining)

I painted him with Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze.

I decided to try a rustic-looking owl even though the thought of trying scared me. I sanded him with a piece of sand paper and rubbed on some Ebony {Minwax wood stain}

After

Westy bought me this owl at an auction that he frequently goes to. He is made out of natural material and he even smells SO good.

I really am becoming an owl lady! -but I like it

{like Grandma P with her frogs!}

Freezer Meals

2012-01-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

We {Jenni, Heather, Debbie (aunt), Jesi (cousin), Mallory (Jesi's friend) and me} got together a few Saturdays ago to make some freezer meals.

We each did some of the preparation at home {like browning meat and assembling the easier meals} and did a little when we got together. We each chose three recipes. When the exchange was over, I had a total of 18 meals to put in our freezer! WOOT

More sneak

2012-01-04T19:58:00.000-08:00

Wait to be impressed by the final result. For me I am already impressed because I LOVE the difference already.

Kitchen

I do dislike the nasty color of the microwave. OH and the wallpaper.

Bathroom

New light

New curtain

More to come! (My arm is seriously so sore from painting)

As of Late

2012-01-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some sneak peeks to some projects we have been working on. I will break the projects down further when the projects get their own post.

The Bathroom:

The "new" guest bath mirror found at Deseret Industries (DI) for $20.

New paint color!

The Kitchen:

WHITE PAINT!! (these pics are the priming step)

Demolition.

BEFORE

AFTER

I don't care about the storage loss at all. It is a very outdated look to have those cabinets above the counter and my head is happy they are gone! Not to mention, the space looks a lot more open than before.

I am feeling motivated at the moment. I can't wait to get these projects done! :)

New Years

2012-01-02T17:26:00.000-08:00

Westy and I went and hung out with the Kenney clan (my dad's side of the family) for New Years.

We played games, ate, chatted and played some games. {I prefer to chat}

Westy, Hailey, Brandon, Chris, Amanda and Al playing games

Aidan being silly as usual.

When fireworks were going off in the valley {which Heather has a fabulous view of the whole valley}, Aid was running around saying, "LOOK LOOK at the fireworks."

Me with my uncle Al's wife Calleen and my uncle Tracy's wife Rachelle

Grandma and Tracy in the back. Heather, Amanda, Hailey, Chris, Brandon and Westy

Sydney and Westy

My cousin Thomas with his wife Jesi and new baby Greyson

Me with Jake. He hasn't been able to jump very well because of arthritis in his hips and back. When he was getting attacked and pestered by little kids at the party, he literally grabbed my leg with his feet and nails begging for me to pick him up and save him. I felt SO bad. I lifted him up and he was shaking.

My cousin Kyra (Al and Calleen's little girl). She looked so cute running around with her slippers on.

Me wearing the outfit Kelsey gave me.

Happy New Year to everyone! We are SO excited to set some goals and work hard at accomplishing them. We are excited for what this year holds.

Christmas

2011-12-29T22:20:00.000-08:00

Christmas was a wonderful day. We got some fun presents, but I really didn't care too much about the presents. Heather's friend's little sister and her family were in an accident Christmas Eve after a family Christmas party and their 18 month old baby died on Christmas. Her friend's sister and her sister's husband will both be in rehab for MANY months (12 and 6 months).

I am grateful for my family. Every moment together matters. I am grateful that Brooke comes to visit every Christmas. I am sad when we aren't all together, especially during the holidays. But I can be happy to know that we are an eternal family.

On a lighter note, every Christmas we have crepes for breakfast (which carries into lunch and dinner)

Joel

Dad

Crepe toppings

Westy

dad, mom, brooke, phil and alli

mom making crepes. she is good at it.

mom and westy

aid, jody and dad

joel, syd, mom

syd

mom holding the present I made (to hold her aprons)

Westy wearing his snap cowboy shirt

syd in the tent from me-maw and pa-pa

aid was tired

aid is silly

My parents have 16 chickens

we LOVE fresh eggs

brooke and heather

aid on papa's tractor

***I must explain the funny shirt Aid has on in the last few pictures. We couldn't find his sweater anywhere (it was a wee bit chilly out), so we had to put on some Toy Story pajamas that he got from Great-Grandma Kenney (my grandma).

I can't wait for CHRISTMAS next year! Let the countdown begin :)

Christmas is blingin'

2011-12-23T20:16:00.000-08:00

How boring is a post without pictures?! You are about to see.

My sister Brooke is ENGAGED. She got engaged on my birthday. {I know she hates this sort of thing, but I gotta keep a record of this}

We are happy she is here visiting from the east coast and happy she got the bling to show off before leaving to visit us. We can't wait for the wedding because it is going to be a destination wedding.

My Birthday

2011-12-21T00:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some fun moments from my birthday.

Weston told me to walk downstairs because my present was too heavy to carry. I literally was hoping a dog but I knew deep down that it wasn't going to be. (I love elaborating stories that come into my head. Westy was in Idaho for a day and I seriously thought he may get my a dog and lie about going to the football game... I know seriously?! of course he wouldn't skip a game.)

I saw this box.

I opened the box to this:

This is what I got instead of a "real" puppy:

(I was happy to see this in a way. It TOTALLY reminds me of China. Also, I have a little idea that this statue relates to a Pekingese, the kind of dog I want)

Me with Amber in Beijing.

Since we went to a party on my birthday, my parent's had us over Monday for dinner, dessert and games.

We were excited to come over because my parents got new carpet and did some awesome changes to their house. I should have taken more pictures. Maybe I will take some this weekend.

My mom has a killer nutcracker collection.

I had to throw this in :)

I like the Mexican nutcracker better because Westy fell in love with the Mexican people on his mission.

Instead of having traditional birthday cake, we had chocolate tortillas filled with nutella and cheesecake filling with cherries, chocolate and whipped cream on top.

My dad was reading stories to Aid and Syd and I thought I'd be funny and try to get up on the chair as well.

I had a great birthday. Thanks for all the calls, texts and Facebook messages.

Bert and Violet's

2011-12-20T23:25:00.000-08:00

Without fail, someone has a party planned on my birthday. That party isn't a birthday party for me, but a family Christmas party.

It is tradition to go Bert and Violet's the Sunday before Christmas. This year it fell on my birthday. Poor Westy and me. Our birthdays are so close to holidays that it is hard to make celebrating fun. {birthdays being so close to the holidays makes eating birthday cake and getting together not so unique. Eating good food and being together is a normal thing during the holidays}

Anyway... Here are some random pictures. Next year I will take a picture of the forever-the-same food spread with the ever-so-yummy desserts that are also never-changing.

mum and heather

Westy (yipee! I did get a picture of the punch bowl. Every year it is Cherry 7-up. I LOVE small things like that. I know I am going off on a tangent but when we go to Cafe Rio or Noodles or the Sweet Tooth Fairy, I get the same thing. I LOVE the things that I LOVE too much to try something new.)

Westy and me.

Jenni, dad, mum

gotta get a cousin picture with Zack every year at this partay

We went to Temple Square after. It was a wee bit chilly but it was worth it to see all the lights. (wearing my new white coat from Jeff and Tammy)

Kenney Family Christmas Party

2011-12-20T23:18:00.000-08:00

Since Westy was at the Potato Bowl, I went to the Kenney family Christmas party partner-less.

We played some fun games and had lots of food, but the best part was definitely the company. Thank you to Grandma Kenney for having such a wonderful party.

I asked my nephew Ethan to smile and this is what I got :I

If you look back into the picture, you will see my sister Alli and my brother Joel conversing.

poor Jake is having it rough! He was being very patient even though he was getting so much attention.

His "mom" (heather) came to the rescue.

Jenni, Pam and my mom. Pam has been friends with my mom since my parents lived in St. George {which was like over 20+ years ago}

Forgive me of my sins. I didn't edit or do anything to these photos, so red-eyes are what you will see. It fits though-- Rudolph the red-eyed Reindeer.

We had this fun game where we would stuff Queen-sized hose full of balloons that we blew up and then someone had to put on the "antlers" and put on a red nose. Uncle Chris is demonstrating.

Ryder and Harley, friends of Rudolph.

Harley, Ryder, Rachelle, Chris and Ethan, Santa's Reindeer.

cute Sydney wanted in on the fun.

"Santa" FINALLY showed up after playing charades for what seemed like hours.

I think I hurt Santa a bit.

Aidan wanted NOTHING to do with Santa, even though he is a quite easy-going guy.

I literally saw "mommy" kissing "Santa Clause" (Jayson, Mommy's son, was Santa this year at the party)

Aunt Rachelle is being her funny-fun self as usual :) We have SO much fun when we hang out.

Cousin Brandon enjoying a sit.

Aidan couldn't wait until Ginger opened his "canny" cane. (he loves "canny").

My bro Joel, me and mi padre

Dad and Joel stayed pretty much the entire time. We had SO much fun with all the family. We missed those who were at other parties ;)

Pictures In the Car

2011-12-14T00:51:00.000-08:00

I've decided that once in a while I need to post pictures that we take in the car. Car pictures are hilarious.

Car pictures capture the reality of life--well at least ours ;). Weston was so busy making sure he didn't miss the green lights that he couldn't take his eyes off them for one second to get a picture {don't worry folks, we were stopped at a red light}. I relate this to when he is watching sports. I can barely get his attention for one second when a good game is on.

My dad was like that growing up. He would be watching a Jazz game and I would walk up to him and ask a question and there would be no response and no sign that he heard me; it's like a disease. After the play was over, he would *realize* I was there and would answer my question without asking to hear my question again. funny, right?

And "look at that" : "pictures in the car" got me to recall memories that I had forgotten about growing up.

November

2011-12-13T23:04:00.000-08:00

I am supposed to be writing a paper right now but instead decided to do a little updating. Where did November go?!! Where did the last few months go? (Don't get me wrong.. I am SO thankful that time went by fast)

I went to see Breaking Dawn with my sisters Heather and Jenni and a bunch of Heather's friends and neighbors.

Heather's neighbor Desiree invited us over to have a party before the show. Many ladies showed up in wedding dresses. Some women even came in their wedding dresses. Westy and I have been married for almost 3.5 years and I can't squeeze into mine (dang thyroid).

(I am not going to lie, I was VERY disappointed in Breaking Dawn. I was extremely uncomfortable and didn't appreciate the brief nudity -if you don't believe me, I swear on my life I saw a little something- Even though the honeymoon scene was maybe 20 minutes I had the worst taste in my mouth that I almost didn't like the rest of the movie. I do not believe I will ever see that movie again. We are all allowed to have our own opinions :) )

November is a big month for birthdays in my family. Ethan turned 7, Sydney turned 5 and Westy turned 28. Here are some pictures of the combined birthday gathering:

Aunt Cindy and my mom

Grandma Harrison and Jenni

I have a fun time asking my grandma questions about her family members and where they came from. I have had multiple people ask me if my family is from Eastern Europe because apparently I look that way. My grandma's ancestors came from Amsterdam but that is the closest to Eastern Europe my family is.

Grandpa Harrison. I am grateful for his health. He has colon cancer and has gone through a lot this last year. He lost one of his sisters to a very rare type of cancer a few weeks ago. I pray for him often and hope that even though he may seem well, that may not be the case.

Aidan loves Westy. ( i love Ethan's face in this pic)

My dad and mom.

We were teasing Sydney about calling her boyfriends on the phone (Jenni gave her a cute phone) and she just starting crying!

Star Wars is a big deal these days. Ethan had a Star Wars birthday party.

Christmas Cards

2011-12-11T19:55:00.001-08:00

Thank you to my sister Jennifer for making our Christmas Card this year; she was both our photographer and card designer.

We love all the cards she made for us. The only problem was that her subjects {Westy & me} weren't very photogenic.

We ended up picking the last card even though I should have printed all of these and sent out a few different styles.

Westy's Birthday

2011-12-08T22:17:00.001-08:00

For Westy's birthday (since we were in Boise) we went to a see the play, "A Christmas Carol: Scrooge Older But Miser." After the play, we went home to have ice cream pies.

WE took some funny pics on our way there. After the first picture, Weston's dad freaked and was like where did that cop go?! lol... He thought he was getting pulled over. Sorry Jeff!

Jeff, James and Erica

Steph and Clark

Tammy & Jeff

Our nephew Caden LOVES dogs. Steph was crumpling up the wrapping paper with dogs on it and Caden started to cry. It was cute ;). Dogs are great mates. {I used to think that dogs were disgusting but then I met Chico. I thought he was the ugliest thing I had ever seen, but when I got to know him, I fell in love. My dad didn't like dogs either but we all got attached without really wanting to.}

I put on my Facebook status a few weeks ago that I needed motivation to make a cake for Westy's birthday because store bought cake is so sick. My cute friend Cecilia said this, "Friends don't let friends eat store bought cake." How cute! Weston doesn't love cake, so we decided to do ice cream pies.

In the picture: I just started throwing on raspberries and then decided last minute to do them in the shape of 28. Weston has a hard time telling people the right age {he told someone the other day he was 25...!) and many people ask how long he has been home from his mission (assuming it has been like a year). It is okay though. Westy looks younger for his age and I look older for my age.

Catchin' up.

2011-12-03T22:38:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving this year was with Westy's family. We are sad we couldn't be with my family because Jenni and I have opposite years. (she goes to my parent's when I am at Westy's parents, and then I go to my parent's when she goes to Brad's parents); how sad it is to not have everyone there for the holidays. But we sure do have a good time with our families.

Since we were getting together for Thanksgiving, we did our gift exchange then.

Steph and Clark gave Westy and James hoppity hops for their Christmas presents; they used to play with the hoppity hops at their grandma's house when they were younger.

The best part about these hopping hops was that they were political. Westy got the Democrat ball (donkey) and James got the Republican (elephant). I am not sure if Weston got the donkey for a reason ;)

For a fun Saturday activity, we went up the mountains to cut a Christmas tree for Jeff and Tammy.

Me holding my nephew Caden. He wanted his mom the whole time. I lost my touch :(. I miss the cuties that I used to nanny... :'(

Nature is a place of healing. I hope when the weather starts getting nice, we can go up, take hikes, and relax.

Clark and Weston butting their horns into each other.

My memory is all a fog, so I can't quite remember what happened in this picture. I do remember turning to my side and seeing James with his shirt off then the next minute running away as fast as he can while putting his shirt on.

I hope to blog again soon. After I write this lengthy paper!!!!

I Will Survive

2011-12-01T17:01:00.001-08:00

we got hit with a wind storm in the middle of the night.

we woke up to the storm getting worse. our neighbors had two trees fall on their house. (I would have taken a picture but I would feel bad)--- these winds were close to 100 mph.

campers were flipped upside down. basketball hoops flying down the road. broken trees everywhere.
battle zone on the freeway!
-semis tipped
-semis chilling
-road signs bent or in the middle of the road

I wouldn't have gone to school today but I have a concert in a little over an hour and it is a definite fail to not show up for a concert. (especially if you are a wind player and especially if you are principal, which I am both)

Driving to school was scary. I saw at least 60 semis on the sides of the freeway. They were banned from driving because so many tipped (I saw like 10 that were on their sides on the freeway but they had been taking care of semis since early this morning, so i am guessing more). Right when I hit a certain area on my route to school, I could feel so much power that I had to really slow down and focus on being safe instead of hurrying myself out of a scary situation.

Our power was off for 11hours straight. It came back on, but who knows for how long because earlier the power flipped off and on more than I can remember and eventually stayed off.

so tonight will be an adventure.

bring on the candles and bundles of blankets.

The Best Wife Award

2011-11-13T21:30:00.000-08:00

I heard on the radio the other day that a game was going down at SLCC and Jimmer was going to be playing. I thought it would be a great surprise for my man.

About a block before we got to our destination, I turned to Weston and said, "SO I have been lying to you the whole night. We are not meeting Heather to give her Jenni's key." I then handed him the confirmation paper. He looked at me so confused and didn't notice the words "NBA" or "basketball." I then said, "We are actually going to see Jimmer play some ball tonight!" He was very shocked that I thought of surprising him with something like this.

I know it isn't that big of a deal, but Westy and I went on a lot of dates to BYU basketball games. We have watched Jimmer since his first college game. I even went on a speed date with him. {he was in my ward}. The best part is that we had the longest date and he said his name and I was like, "Seriously? Do you play basketball? I go to the games all the time." He literally had the biggest smile ever when I knew who he was {this is before he was even a big shot, folks}.

Here are some pictures of our game (sorry no pictures of us. HOW BORING!) and here are some of the players that were playing in the game:

The Jazz (Paul Millsap, Ronnie Price,Devin Harris, Earl Watson, Jeremy Evans,Derrick Favors, Alec Burks,CJ Miles and Al Jefferson)

Elijah Millsap, Paul Millsap's brother

Chauncey Billups

Wesley Matthews

Stephen Curry

Jimmer Fredette (everybody loved him the most)

Enes Canter (played for a minute before getting hurt)

The picture below just makes me smile. Do you see the fellow --Wesley Matthews--stretching against the press desk? He is literally stretching on my bro-in-law Jody Genessy (he writes for the Jazz). It looked like they were chatting it up a bit.

I am glad that I could surprise Westy and give him one of his birthday presents early even if it did mean getting very sick... Westy bought me a hot dog during the game because we had no time to eat before. I felt sick before eating, but I thought maybe I just needed some food. I ate the dog and the rest of the game was miserable and the ride home. I felt sick as I was getting in bed, but I was so exhausted that I was out for like nine hours straight. BUT when I woke up I felt SO awful. I threw up the hot dog (yes it was very recognizable). Westy came home from work and took me to the doctor. I had my blood taken and did the "breath" test accompanied with the "nasty drink." {meaning I blew into a bag. had a nasty VERY sugary drink. then blew into another bag.}

My doctor hasn't gotten back to me yet, but she seemed to think that I have H. pylori, which is a fancy way of saying an ulcer -which I have had before. I will be on antibiotics for three months if that is what I have.

***My sister Jenni is probably cursing at me writing this. I had been very sick the week before and I was telling her about it. She told me to go to the doctor, but I get sick for a few days and then I am better, so I didn't call. That feels normal to me because that is the cycle my body is in.

I have been banned from eating acidic foods for the time being and have been told to eat the "brat" diet. --I was very true to the brat diet for the first few days, but I did implement some other foods {I just get so hungry!}. I am still feeling ill, but at least I am not throwing up!

Despite being sick more times than being well, I am grateful for the trials that I do not have to face. Even though I feel weak at times and don't think I can bare another day, I know that my life could be much worse. I am grateful that Heavenly Father knows what we can handle and what we can't.

F.A.L.L.

2011-11-09T21:48:00.000-08:00

I have been so excited to post about this project {that I have been waiting months to do} but then I got sick on Monday night, so I had to wait until now to post about it.

-I bought four vases from the DollarTree. My sister Jennifer so kindly cut the letters "FALL" with her Silhouette.

I transferred the vinyl onto the vases.

I had already picked out in my mind the colors that I would spray onto the glass: white, brown, yellow and turquoise.

Since it is way too cold in my garage to do any painting projects, I needed to use my basement.

I put the different vases in boxes to control where I was spraying. I know this looks too much like a science project, but it worked great!

My advice on spray painting:
(the first 2 are the most important)

DO NOT spray too close. (you will be wiping away dripping paint and feeling so sorry)

Don't get too excited and spray way too much; that also causes the paint to start dripping down the sides. {if you do this, wipe off the paint and start over but it is a mess}

My projects always end up looking better when I spread them out over a few days.

Don't spray in cold temperatures. The paint ends up doing a crackling thing.

{the pictures above and below show a small area of vinyl pulled up because it is slightly hard to see after painting)

(mind the wall, we just removed wallpaper and not-so-hot 70's mirrors.)

Fall is such a beautiful time of year. Decorating for it isn't as fun as decorating for Christmas, but I am satisfied with my growing collection of Fall/Thanksgiving decor.

Picture Perfect

2011-11-07T15:19:00.000-08:00

I found this lovely frame at DI (Deseret Industries) for $1.50.

It definitely needed a new look.

I painted it in a shade of white (the Walmart spray paint {$.96})

But then decided to use glaze because it adds some spice to the plain old white.

Here it is on my new sheets! LOVE them.

Glazing is hard because it isn't exact. I just wiped it on and resisted the urge to try to make it look uniform. When I try to make it look uniform, it always looks dumb. When in doubt wipe on, wipe off.

That beautiful photo above was taken by Angela Marie Photography. I would recommend her to anyone! She is not only a fabulous photographer but a fabulous person.

Much Needed Stress Relief

2011-11-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

I love to relieve stress by making stuff.

This weekend I got together with two of my sisters (Jenni and Heather), aunt Rachelle, cousin Hailey, Jenni's friend Michelle, and Rachelle's friend Mandy to have a craft sleepover.

I didn't get much done because I haven't been feeling well {nothing that can be transmitted}. I called my endocrinologist and she said that it wasn't my thyroid {i swear it is always my thyroid} but I will trust her and go see my other doctor.

This was my only finished project:

=I bought the wreath from the DI.
=I wrapped the wreath with fabric I used for pillow covers.
=The rosettes were from fabric I had.
=The feathers I bought from Michaels.
=The gold accent branch was from Michaels (courtesy of Michelle).
=The white fabric was also taken from pillow fabric -I tied it in a knot and then tacked down the knot {with tacks} on the back of the window so it would be easy to change out wreaths
=the window was going to be for my friend (Kaylee) but I broke the bottom half of the glass {old glass breaks SO easily} and that didn't fit with the project she was going to do, so I kept it.

Halloween

2011-11-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

What a busy week!!

These are the wonderful ladies that I play with in the philharmonia ;) We had two concerts this past weekend. The concerts did me in.

I went to Gardiner Village with my BFFS Kelsey and Meg. Kelsey asked what I was going to be for Halloween and I told her what I was last year. She was on her mission and didn't see so I told her and she laughed and said that is what she was going to be. I went to my parent's house with her after we went to GV and we took a picture together.

My two nephews and niece at my parent's trunk-or-treat.

I loved this costume. The creativity kills me (that is a good thing).--if you can't tell what he is, he is a Ken doll.

Westy took a picture of me before our ward's trunk-or-treat. I don't want to take a picture of his costume (well what he was supposed to be) until I post about his birthday in a few weeks.

After our trunk-or-treat, I was not feeling well so I went to sleep at like 9:30 and woke up 12 hours later. . . The last week almost killed me!

New Look

2011-10-23T19:20:00.000-07:00

We finally painted our fireplace goldness. We used a black Krylon spray paint that is for high temperatures.

Before:

We cleaned up the gold by wiping it off with a wet rag. We didn't use sand paper, but the spray-paint does recommend to use sand paper on it before.

After:

Something so small like painting outdated fixtures can make such a big difference!

Here are a few of our Halloween decorations. Many were found at DI or at Dollartree.

This afternoon we made some almond-sugar cookies with an almond-cream cheese frosting.

Santa List

2011-10-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

Did you know that there are websites where you can put in a list of names and it will generate a Santa List for you?

We used to do the old fashioned way of putting each name on a slip of paper and then drawing. But this way is so much easier because it is a click away if we need to re-draw for some reason.

Some sites (like this site) ask for an email address for each individual, so that it can be a secret {but clearly it is hard to be a secret in smaller families}

This is the Kenney Family Santa List:

Heather BUYS FOR Weston.
Jody BUYS FOR Brooke.
Brad BUYS FOR Erica.
Jennifer BUYS FOR Heather.
Erica BUYS FOR Jody.
Weston BUYS FOR Alli.
Brooke BUYS FOR Jennifer.
Alli BUYS FOR Joel.
Joel BUYS FOR Brad.

We used this site to generate our list.

The Many Faces of Aidan

2011-10-18T10:19:00.000-07:00

I have had too many friends lose pictures of their cellphones lately. So, I decided to email all of the pictures to myself and then blog about them.

This is Aidan. He is 2.5 years old. He is my cute little nephew.

Sometimes he gets locked in his seat because he gets into trouble when no one is looking.

He got those Goldilocks from his mom.

Aidan and Westy have been pals since Aid's birth. Aid loves men more than women ;(

I brought back my nephews (Ethan, E-$, Caden) and my niece (Sydney) some pajamas from China. I was demonstrating to Aidan a kung fu move and he kind of did his own thing.

Enough said!

Aid at the hospital after he fell and cracked his head open. He had to get staples! It made me sad. I cried.

He loves baths and his cute towel. "da puppy"

It is a joke in our family to ask Aid to show his teeth. We LOVE his cute little teeth. This is him pulling a cheesy smile at Jenni's house. Aid LOVES to eat.

Aid, the terror.

FHE

2011-10-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

I really dislike neglecting my blog because I am really behind with updating! I have a lot to update ;) but that may be at another time because I am a wee bit busy with hard music and tests!

This is what we did for family night.

We decided that even though the mirrors did make the room look bigger, the 70s needed their mirrors back. (PS all these pictures are from my phone- camera is mia)

On HGTV shows they always tape their mirrors before they take them down. The tape kept the mirror pieces from flying everywhere.

I am happy to announce not only are the 70s mirrors gone, but the wallpaper in the living room is COMPLETELY gone. WOOT WOOT.

Watch the Numbers

2011-10-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

We decided when we were first married that it was important for us to save money. The best way {for us} to save money is to put it in another bank account that we don't normally use or look at.

Friday, October 7.

**I'm glad that we noticed that something was wrong.**

I had been sick Thursday night and Friday. I needed to get out of the house because I was sick of being stuck in the house. Westy had some checks that needed to be deposited at the bank, so that is where we went.

We waited for the teller to give us our receipt back after depositing some money. I was in the driver's seat, so I got the receipt back first. I looked at the numbers {I'll be honest, I usually throw those away!}. The numbers didn't really seem to match what I imagined the numbers to be. I gave the receipt to Weston and he was confused as well.

Westy got out of the car and went inside {it is his account}. After what seemed forever, I went inside to see what was up. Apparently the last time we put money in {which was a larger sum}, the teller put the money into the account of the company that Weston works for! (long story short: he is on salary but gets paid to drive out to far away destinations. those checks are put into this account). The teller that had made the mistake was there and was the person to fix it. Lucky, Weston did have the receipt of the transaction which was a few weeks earlier {remember I throw those away and I am sure I am not the only one!}. I am not sure if the receipt made a difference, but I am grateful we had the proof.

Moral of the story: keep receipts. pay attention to the numbers. banks are run by humans and humans make mistakes. ~~trust no one.~~

What We Did Today

2011-10-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

We weeded the front yard:

Before:

After:

We went to Home Depot to get some Martha Stewart exterior paint to paint our shutters from a weirdish blue to black {the paint is on sale $18/ gallon}

We painted 6/10 shutters. We would have had all of them done if we had a ladder! We hope to borrow from our next door neighbor on Monday, so we can finish our shutters.

Notice the BYU flag? Westy's parents gave it to him last weekend.

Also, those blue shutters will not be like that again! I am SO happy.

I am grateful to have family members that know a lot about gardening. Grandpa T's wife Nada gave me some great pointers when she was over last weekend. She said that the plants I have in my front yard {pictured below} can be trimmed right down. The plants were quite overgrown and I am glad to know that I can trim them when they go crazy and they grow back a little more contained.

I got the fun glow-in-the-dark eyes and the BOO! sign from Tai Pan Trading. Thanks Kelsey for the gift card!

Craft Sleepover

2011-10-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we had a fun craft sleepover.

Those in attendance:

Me
My mom

Heather

Jenni

Aunt Rachelle

Cousin Hailey

Kelsey, my friend

Lauren, my friend

Sarah, H's friend

Aunt Calleen

Linda, Calleen's mom

We crafted in the late night hours on the first night and woke up early on the next day to start the crafting fun again.

We are going to do another soon because it was TOO much fun.

Here are some pictures:

Me and Kelsey

It has been very hard to find skirts/dresses that are modest. We decided instead of giving up, we would add lace at the bottom of a slip to extend the length.

Kelsey

Kelsey sewing on her lace.

Kelsey modeling her almost finished product.
I have seemed to delete the pictures of my slip. I will have to take some and put them on!

I have always wanted a cute long pillow on my bed or couch but the size of the pillow I bought at Walmart was a wee bit too long. I cut it down and then sewed the edges which formed 2 pillows.

I bought this skirt at DI (Deseret Industries) and decided it would be a good practice piece. I cut off about seven inches on the bottom. (I forgot to do a before pic!)

Kelsey is sewing a cute bedspread that was Anthropologie inspired. Here is a tutorial.

My cute cousin Jesi wanted my sister Jennifer to cut a vinyl mustache to go on a blue canvas that would hang up in her baby's room. Jenni's Silhouette was struggling to cut it, so it took about 4 different cuttings before it looked good. The first three mustaches went on our nephew Ethan's door; he was so excited to put them on there! (too bad I don't have a pic of all three on there)

I decided to spice this P {P for Peterson} up with some Lima beans and yellow Krylon spray paint.

**I have a better picture of this with my Halloween stuff that I will be putting up later this week.

The yellow pillow in this picture is made from the long pillow I bought at Walmart. The fabric on it was bought at Joann's in the clearance area--it is outside fabric. The fabric on the smaller pillow is from Hobby Lobby.

This music pillow is made from the larger pillow was well.

I bought a shirt at DI a little bit ago that was in need of some tailoring. We call it the "Michael Jackson" shirt because of the decorative shoulders.

The picture below is a before picture because I was showing that the shirt actually makes me look bigger because it doesn't fit properly.

This coming week, I will be posting some pictures showing how much better the MJ shirt looks.

Favorite Posts.

2011-10-05T00:14:00.000-07:00

I have been writing a paper for about 5 hours now; it is due tomorrow (or should I say today?!) at 7:30am. I needed a little break, so I read a post on a blog that my friend recommended. I hope if you haven't read it you will :)

Conference Weekend.

2011-10-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here's what we were up to this weekend:

1. We went to the BYU v. USU game.

Hollywood (Chris)--works with Westy, Westy and me.

tammy, erica and erica. I love how we are both wearing our alumni shirts. Erica's is a lot cooler though.

2. Sprinklers all day Saturday.

(we had them in our backyard but not in our front)

Grandpa T out working hard.

F. Jeff and James working it.

Tammy, F. Jeff and James.

Special thanks to Tammy, F. Jeff, James, Nada and Grandpa T for helping us put in our sprinklers and weeding. We could not have done it without you :)

3. After the second session at the Conference Center, we went to Grandpa and Nada's.

We had a great time at Grandpa T and Nada's for dinner and then dessert for cousin Kiersten's birthday at Dean and Colleen's.

What a great weekend !!!

2011-09-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

I posted about the project I made for my sister Jenni a little while ago.

Today,she sent me a picture text of this:

She cut off the edges of the board in order for it to fit in between the molding.

It looks AdOrAbLe!

2011-09-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

I loved this jar when it was crystal clear on top and gold on the bottom, but since it was cracked on top, I decided I would try and spray this puppy to spice it up. (This jar was found at DI)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I could use this in my Halloween decor or for the Q-tips.

Addition to the family.

2011-09-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

I love owls. Who doesn't? I am still kicking myself for those times when owls at the D.I. (Deseret Industries)were plentiful and I passed them by like it was water. Now, they are extremely hard to come by.

With that said, I found an owl at the Provo DI a few weeks ago. Since I usually go to paint most things white, I decided to paint this guy black:

Make sure you clean whatever you are going to spray with a rag or clorox wipe. Let it dry completely before spraying.

The cheap brand of black spray paint (at Walmart) is actually pretty good.

That makes my owl collection at 4.

These two are "unedited."

I hope to find more owls because they are cool.

Ripping Down.

2011-09-13T22:04:00.000-07:00

When we first started taking down wallpaper, it wasn't too hard. All we would do is wet the glue with WATER (because we had already ripped off the wallpaper) and then scrape it off (with a putty knife). We were very hopeful that the whole house would be that way, but it hasn't been so far!

We have been using the chemical "DIF" to get the glue off, but some sections of the walls are being ultra stubborn and the chemical doesn't do anything to help that.

We then went and got a paper scraper. Of course, we have had the same luck with that--except our drywall is now torn up in some areas.

When we find the right method for taking down our {stubborn, nasty, 1970s} wallpaper, I will let you know!

We scraped for a few hours on Friday and Saturday. Our house was such a mess on Saturday from working both days. Thank goodness my husband cleaned Saturday (while I was gone) because the Relief Society presidency decided to pop in by surprise on Sunday...

I {almost} had an anxiety attack.

Knobs.

2011-09-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

My sister Jennifer has been talking about having something to hang her necklaces on. She would send me links daily of cute ideas.

Little did she know that she gave me a great idea for her birthday present!

I did feel bad when I gave it to her because what I really wanted to do didn't happen because of how busy I have been the last few weeks. I wanted to put a cute chevron pattern on the front.

I bought this board at the DI. When we bought it, the board said "Dance to live. Live to dance" in vinyl. Westy loves picking at things, so the words were off before we got home! I painted the board because it was black when we bought it. Jenni is {inta} white.

One good thing to go from a dark color to a light color is that after I was done roughing up the edges, I didn't need to stain; the black from underneath came through. Perfect.

The board came with the hangin' gear on back, so that was an added plus. Westy drilled grooves (sp?) on the back so that the nut (sp?) and the nails were not sticking out and scratching whatever it is hanged on.

The door knobs had extra long nails (of course), so we marked with a permanent marker where the nails need to be cut off. We used a hand saw to cut them. After we cut the knobs, we used a file to smooth down the metal.

Here is the hunk himself.

I didn't have anywhere to really hang this puppy up to show how cute it would be on a wall with lots of necklaces. My mom asked me to make her one of these to hang her aprons on.

As for the knobs, I bought them from Hobby Lobby. I went to Michaels, Tai Pan and HB and HB has the best selection by far.

**If you are confused, the picture above is me! The other day, my nephew Aidan kept telling me to take Jenni's glasses off. {she wears glasses most of the time. I only wear them when I really want to see--- hence if you see me somewhere and I don't say hi or act like I don't recognize you, I probably can't see you!}

We're Going To the Chapel and We're..

2011-09-05T22:59:00.000-07:00

We love weddings!

We went to the wedding of Taylor (Weston's cousin) and Megan this weekend, and we had a BLAST!

We went to the wedding ceremony at the temple on Friday. We walked in and apparently Weston's recommend expired August 31st! We thought he had gained another year because last summer it was washed and he had to go in and get another one, but they put the same date when it was issued. Poor Westy had to stay outside.

The funny part about that is everyone thought Weston couldn't go inside because of his blue shirt. {which we had to purchase at the one and only Walmart --the only store around-- because we had forgotten his clothes at home!}. Westy got teased just a bit for his shirt. But it is okay because he kept asking why the heck it was okay to have a gold zipper on dress pants {which he will probably never wear again}.

Cousin Jacqi, Grandma P, and cousin Sara

Grandma P and Jacqi

Cousin Chris showing what a spicy personality he has ;)

We love our Grandma P.

My face says it all. Grandma P was rocking some wedge shoes and she kept saying "apples. peaches. plums..." to get us to smile for the picture, but I ended up with a really dumb face!

Westy and me. I am the luckiest girl alive because I married to an amazing person.

The large Peterson clan. They have twelve kids and six of the twelve are married. That means that they have six additional daughters (Marites, Erin, Jana, April, Courtney and Megan).

Cheaper by the dozen.

Aunts Leslie, Lucille, (Grandma P), Karen and Lori. I absolutely love his aunts. They are such amazing people. Each one of them has made me feel welcome to the family.

James, Weston, Grandma P and F. Jeff.

The newly married couple. I really enjoyed their ceremony. I always enjoy going to ceremonies in the temple because it feels so good that people are getting sealed for eternity. I learned so much during this sealing, even more than I usually do because the sealer taught us more about why we go to the temple. Those things truly wipe away the dust and grime of every day life and replace it with cleanliness and order.

I didn't get too many pictures at the reception because I talked to everyone. They had a few jars with different props on sticks and place to stand to get pictures. Tammy and I just had to get a pic for the blog.

Cousins R.J., Jordan, and Mark.

They just make me laugh so hard. I told them that it was too bad the bride and groom were standing in the line still because we could get a picture with the pink backdrop, but they just walked up and stood there for a pic.

Congrats Megan and Taylor!

$5 Side Table

2011-09-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

I found this puppy at Deseret Industries (DI) for $5. We decided to clean this up and use it as Weston's bedside table.

We used a sponge sander to clean this up a bit. We didn't want to use a palm sander because we only wanted to rough it up a little.

We decided to use the same handle for the side table until we decide what we are doing in our room and then we will switch it out.

I am not a good painter, but my husband knows a little bit about it and gave me some great tips. The biggest tip he gave me is to always do long strokes {pull the paint brush all the way across as far as you can}. I know that may be common knowledge for some people, but I just don't think about those things sometimes. I love learning new things.

My hunk is fun to paint with.

The desk is good for now, but I am not done with it. I am planning on painting a design on top.

p.s. It took a lot longer than we thought to paint this! Painting it was a lot of work but totally worth it!

Everything connects.

2011-08-31T09:53:00.000-07:00

Decorating is hard work. Many decisions have to be made. We can't decorate until we know basic things: what color our walls will be painted and what color our floor will be.
Those are HARD decisions to make.

We could stay neutral and decorate with the colors, but I want color on the walls. But the hard decision with color is that what if we don't like it in a year? Painting is inexpensive but it does take time (and arm strength)!

With those questions not answered yet, I have started coming up with ideas on decorating. I have always wanted to do a gallery wall.

Here is the start of my gallery wall. Oh and please forget about the colors because I have not decided on them, of course ;).

My friends and most of my family know that I have a hard time making up my mind about certain things. I can't even decide if I want the frames/mirrors to be a relatively small area or I want the whole wall full.

(Courtesy of my phone)

P.S. Don't you love the blue carpet?!

Yet another present...

2011-08-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if my mom has layed eyes on this blog, but I am going to go out there and say she hasn't. Therefore, I can and will give a view into the present that I made for her birthday, September 3.

Haven't I made enough wreaths?! I think not..

I bought this wreath at the DI. Why do I have a towel under that wreath? Not because it is a nasty wreath but because the burlap was so itchy and was sticking to my bedspread. Don't put burlap on anything you wear or anything you sleep in, okay?!

I guess I could have made it elsewhere but I feel tired 24/7 --from something other than not getting enough sleep (AKA an auto-immune disease that has a mind of its own)-- so I am often practicing, reading or doing homework in bed. I love my bed.

I bought 2 yards of burlap at Walmart, and I still have plenty! I hadn't worked with that medium before, so I wanted to make sure I didn't have to go back. I glued each time I wrapped around to make sure it stayed good and snug.

The mcnasty wreath is not covered with the beautiful burlap.

Please plan where and what design you will do. I am not a patient person... take it from an impatient person and don't just start gluing away. I ran into problems because it just didn't look as dazzling as I would have hoped.

Planning is key. I usually just go with the flow, but of course, that gets me into loads of trouble.

Some of you have asked how to make rosettes, so I am going to attempt to show you how I do things. --I am warning you that I am disorganized and I definitely don't do things in a glamorous way.

Take a pen and draw a swirly. the upper picture is the start of the bottom picture.

Continue around. Experiment on this. you will find what you need to do to make them bigger or smaller, etc.

Cut it out of the felt piece-- only because it is easier working with less-- Cut on the black line. --I use pen, but I am sure other people use something like a fabric marker. I am just too lazy to go buy a fabric marker.

Cut along the line.

What you don't want black showing?! In my insanity, I don't try another method-- use of pen and not fabric marker. I go back after cutting and clean up the edges to rid it of the black pen because it will be seen it when it is rolled up. The bottom black pen marks will not be seen because it will be inside the little roll.

Start rolling from the inside to the outside. Just go for it. Wrap the thing around itself. Don't worry about it being perfect because we all get better the more we do it. Make sure to glue at least every time around.

I know this is such a cheesy picture with my quail, but my husband always tells me that the quail are his favorite of all my spray paint projects.

Courtesy of my phone: It is hard to see the white rosettes in the other pictures, so here ya go!

I hope my mother enjoys it. All I have to do now is find a cute ribbon to hang the wreath with.

Olympic Park

2011-08-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

We went to Olympic Park to go down the zip-line for a fun date with Steph & clark and James & Erica. After, we went to eat at Ruby Tuesday and then walked around the Tangers Mall.

My hunk taking a pic of us. {this was prior to a much needed haircut}

James and Erica: James was a little disappointed with the zip-line because he was going to so.... SLOW! Erica zipped right past him.

With the camera of mine, I was lucky to get the shot of Erica above!

Steph had the lead on Clark until right at the end.

The scariest part of the whole zip-line was the end. Smacking into the {I don't even know what to call it} things that slow you down, made a HUGE noise and jerked you in a way that almost gives you a whiplash.

Steph and Clark. We loved hanging out with them. We kept thinking how we missed hanging out with them!

You can't leave without having a picture in a bobsled. My husband loves these things.

We had SO much fun hanging out with fam. Thanks guys!

"Weed" been busy.

2011-08-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

“Weed” been feeling pressure from how kept up our neighbors’ yards are to get ours up to par. Since our house was a foreclosure, the bank didn't keep up with watering the grass and weeds.

I did post about Westy weeding other areas of the yard, but this part of the yard is the REAL beast. It took us 3.5 hours to weed it yesterday. I wonder how long it would have taken one person to do it?!

I look so happy but little did I know how long it would take and how sore I would be! --that weed is taller than me btw!

Sorry for not showing a before picture. But you probably get the point of how bad it really was.

Courtesy of my phone: a big pile of weeds whose lives ended.

The finished project! YAY. Now to get started on the backyard?! I am still deciding if I should get rid of those iris plants; I am not a fan, but they do take up space. We are planing on laying grass down in the dirt area because it is easier to mow than to keep up a huge side garden.

We didn't necessarily love the weeding, but we accomplished something and it felt really good to get out and actually be proactive and not lazy.

Felt Rosette Wreath

2011-08-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

I have been a little productive lately! I love creating stuff for our home and for others. It is a great way to let out stress! If you don't have something to relieve your stress, find something quick because it is easy to explode.

I have decided to be more thoughtful in gifts this year, so I have made many of the gifts. This cute wreath was for a birthday present. It was thoughtful because it took quite a bit of time, but I enjoyed every minute!

I completely was an airhead and forgot to show what the wreath looked like before.

I consulted my sis, Jenni, on what colors to do and we figured yellow and gray/grey would be too cute to resist.

I was completely out of this world when making this because I completely forgot to take a picture of the final result. The picture below was taken on my phone (sent to my sister for her opinion like I always do), so luckily I can document it at least to this point:

I was *almost tempted to keep it for myself, but I love making stuff for other people ;).

Graduation

2011-08-24T22:24:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to catch up on these days! Let's start with graduation.

James, Weston's bro, and I graduated the same day.

Here are the two trouble makers

My sister H's Family. I totally LOVE this picture. Aidan loves to be a drama king sometimes lol.

My little brother is so cute huh?! Thanks for coming GULL!

Me and Tammy

Steph, me and Grandpa *He doesn't realize he is in this pic lol...

Grandma Harrison, me, Cindy and Uncle Phil. Thanks for coming ;). LOVE you guys! I am so thankful they came; it means a lot.

me and my man. He looks like he just came out of Harry Potter. I am not sure what is up with my stiffness!

A pic of me and the famous Grandma "P"

Again. Me with my Prince Charming.

My parents

Me at my parent's house before going to graduation. (this is at 6:45am!)

James with Grandma P

Jeff, Tammy, James and Grandma P.

Thank you so much for everyone who came! WE had so much fun at the graduation barbecue after that we had at my parent's house. I am not sure what was going on in my mind because I completely forgot to take pictures!

I know that I have said this before, but I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ helping me through this degree. I can't even explain all that They have done for me. I do realize my dependence on both of Them in every aspect of my life.
I struggled a lot and it is okay. I know that for some people college was easy. I am sad to say this, but most of my college years were the worst time in my life. I struggled all of it with health problems {half without knowing what was wrong}. I am grateful for Grandma Kenney listening to me several times a week; she knew exactly what to say. But truly, only one person knows exactly what I went through (besides God of course) and that is Westy. I am so grateful for him. He told me I could do it. AND I did!

Put your shoulder to the wheel and push along...

1st day

2011-08-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

I am totally not wanting to neglect my blog. :'( . I love writing on my blog, but what has been keeping me from my blog is the fact that the internet company that was supposed to install apparently can't because the neighbor's trees are blocking the signal... WOWzers. So we are waiting for the Comcast hook-up Westy ordered to come in the mail. After that, I will upload all of the projects that I have started and completed in my absence.

Today is my first day of school. I guess some keep getting confused about this. I am a graduate student now. I am not longer a student at BYU, but I am alumni. I am now a student at the school up north. and no, I will not be wearing red.

2011-08-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

I swear I should have started Pinterest. Okay... What I really mean is that I used to email myself the links to all of the many different pictures and sites that I fell in love with. With Pinterest, now I am able to keep it organized in ONE place.

I recommend it.

My Pinterest:

EricadeeP

Graduation

2011-08-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Picture: Jennifer Jensen, sister

Invite: Heather Genessy, sister

Doing Stuff Around the House

2011-08-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

The two main things that we did at our house this weekend: ripping wallpaper off and weeding.

Wallpaper:

It hasn't been too hard to rip off surprisingly. Last night, Westy got a patch of the wall wet and the wallpaper glue came right off. We hope it all comes down that easy because we want to start painting away!

 (mind the mess)

 I am having too much fun.

Weeding:

Westy felt some pressure from how good our neighbor's yards look, so he got to work. I had a mountain high mound of homework, so Westy did most of the weeding. He actually enjoyed it ;)

We are totally enjoying being home-owners.

Crooks

2011-07-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

Last night...

A cop knocks on our door. I was in the "master bedroom" reading for the class that shall not be named. I heard Weston talking to the cop. This is how it went down:

-"What are you doing here?" -asked the cop. Weston explained that we had just bought the house.

-A neighbor saw suspicious activity going on (did they not see us moving in or the For Sale sign go down? I am very amazed that unloading boxes is considered suspicious.)

- He asked to see Weston's ID. He then asked what are you doing down here from Idaho? He explained where we had been living before and that we had been going to school.

-The cop leaves.

-Weston comes in our bedroom and says that was weird. Then he informs me that he did notice a white car with "old folks" in it drive past twice.

-WOW people. You have nothing better to do. I sure hope our neighbors don't think we are criminals since the cops had to stop by on the first night we slept in our own house.

Moving

2011-07-23T21:43:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness we most definitely won't be moving for a while! Today almost killed us!

This morning, I went and bought waters (24) and Krispy Kremes (2 dozen---pricey) for those who would help us move. As we got closer to the moving time (9 am), only my sister Jennifer had shown up to help. We hoped that the Elders Quorum would come and help because Westy had announced at church last week that we needed some help with furniture,etc. We got to the point where all that was left to be carried to the trailer was furniture. The problem was that only three people had been moving stuff... (Westy, me and Jennifer).

I was almost in tears because we couldn't haul down the furniture without another male. --I seriously almost lost it. 4 hours of sleep hehe :)** -- I got on the phone with my 16-year-old brother and begged for his help. He had his phone off for the past few days (or so he claims) and he hadn't seen that we were moving. As soon as I got off the phone..... my brother-in-law Jody had come to our rescue!! We weren't expecting him to come to our apartment to help because he was going to help us unload at our house. THANK YOU Jody for coming. wow.

(** I swear the last couple times we have moved, I have had everything packed with at least a week to spare. This time I have been so swamped with school that I did not have time to do anything.)

Oh and for the record, the Elders Quorum never showed up... not one person.

We bid Jenni farewell because she had definitely done her share with the moving and then we headed up towards our house. When we arrived at the house, Jody, Westy and I were SO hungry. {Kelli and Josh (our cousins) came from Logan to help us unload.} I decided to go get all of us Subway. I swear I was only gone 20 minutes and I came back to an unloaded trailer and 2 cars!!!!!! Our sweet next door neighbor had rounded up some men from our "new" ward and they had been so willing to serve.

Thank you: Jenni, Ironman Jody, Kelli & Josh and of course, the Elders Quorum from our "new" ward.

Moving isn't fun. No one enjoys it. I will make sure that next time someone needs help moving I will be there and I won't complain about it either. I was really upset earlier because we really needed male help because the BULK of the furniture is mighty heavy, but everything worked out great. So why did I waste my time being upset?!

Here are some unappealing photos (meaning the dirtiness, not the cute figure in the picture) ;)

BOX TIP: So you noticed the Little Debbie box? Westy and I got all of our boxes from Honks out in the dumpsters. Every time we went, we scored. --We used the liquor store last time, but they were gone every time we went this time around. Also, the boxes are small and awkwardly shaped.

I won this Lil Wayne poster at the Flute Studio Christmas party. Jenni and I hung it up in hope that Jody and Weston would notice it lol. (Of course they did!)

Packed to the brim.

Done and Done.