Travel: Our Trip to San Francisco

We had so much fun in California. Rob has an amazing family and I feel so blessed to be a part of them. It was so wonderful to see everyone. Many of which have kids close to my kids ages so its so fun to see them play and interact together. One of my favorite things about Rob's family is that they LOVE to eat, and they eat good! Wow! There are some incredible cooks in that family. I just can't stop eating, and they keep insisting you eat! Ahh. Such a vicious cycle for someone (me) on a diet :). But we had a blast! Even with such a beautiful park with tons of fun toys our kids favorite thing was chasing the pigeons. Playing with the girls

Triplets at the Park

Lately we have really tried to go on outings that we all enjoy, so for our Friday night date night we went to the center street park in Provo. We often go to parks but we like to vary it up a bit and go to different parks, ones that we haven't gone to before. We had a blast and we all had fun! Our girls loved the swings, but there were only two for small children (bummer) so we put two girls together and it worked out perfect. They loved it!

Wonderful News!

I'm excited to announce that I will be featured in Fine Garden Magazine!!! Fine Gardening is one of my favorite garden magazines and I'm so so very grateful for this opportunity. I will be in the Sept/October Issue. I completed in a design competition/challenge and my design was selected! Here is the design I guess its a "sneek preview" hehe! Here is the "Before" Picture.

Luck of the Draw

For years Rob and I have gone to various parties (work related and other) and have put our name in the hat in hopes of winning a new TV, trip to Hawaii, blue ray DVD player or other exciting prizes. Every year we are again disappointed after getting our hopes up and still not winning. Now at any "prize lotteries" we go with almost a sure knowledge that we aren't going to win anything so as not to get our hopes up and then let down again in disappointment. It's to the point that we barely pay attention anymore because we are positive winning just won't happen. We often joke that we are always "unlucky" at these lottery/prize games. After all the odds of winning one of 30 prizes at a work party of 120 employees are much much higher than winning a sweepstakes of 1:1000,000 chance. At last years annual work party it occurred to me that we are probably the most lucky couple there, we had spontaneous triplets! Having spontaneous triplets is about 1:90,000 chance (according to my doctor), very rare! With the chances of winning such a "lottery" so low we were extremely fortunate and blessed. I don't mind if I never win a single TV, DVD player, or Hawaii trip again because I feel my "win" was by far the best of all.

18 Month Pictures

These pictures were a lot of work to get, after taking 50 pictures this one sort of turned out. The rest of the pictures had at least one of the triplets refusing to cooperate. I take that back, usually it was consistently the same girl refusing to be a team player (little blondie).

Landscape Design

Spring is here! My phone is ringing away with callers interested in a landscape design. Here is a rough draft of one that I am working on. I love the dry creek bed as well as the splash pad for kids. Then of course the firepit for adults. This yard will be so much fun for the everyone.

Our Son

We got some balloons when we were shopping for carpet at RC Willey, he loves playing with balloons and since his sisters weren't too excited about them he got all hang onto all three.

Bathroom Remodel

After about two months of dust, tools, demolishion and all the other inconveniences of remodeling we have officially finished our bathroom remodel. Here is what it looked like after we tore out the flooring. Originally we were going to leave the vanity (just put on a new counter top sand down and repaint) and the tub but we decided against that and we're both so glad we did. Rob's hair during demolishion, the dust in the bathroom was so thick (ugh!) We removed everything down to the studs. There were two layers of tile, I guess the last time the bathroom was retiled they just put the new tile overtop the old (joy!). Rob took down at least 2 inches of debris, bucket after bucket. The shower head was quite low and the faucet handle was the two separate faucets and I really wanted a joint handle because I could never get the water temperature just right, so we hired a plumber to make all those adjustments for us. Yep the dry wall next to the tub was all rotted and just crumbled when we touched it so we tore out till we felt it no longer had water damage and patched and replaced it. The toilet had a tiny leak that over time had rotted the subfloor, another "surprise" we found as the project progressed. This is the color of the old flooring, black with little specks in it. The old tile underneath was pink with a black tile border and black flooring (pictured here). The tile we could see was a cream colored tile with pink flecks (really unattractive). Oh and the walls were painted this green (with pink tile, black floor and green walls, somebody had a creative flare!). After removing all the debris. I filled in a hole with quick set (tile motar) to make it even once again. After installing the hardibacker board we put this "tape" over all the cracks or anything uneven. Then we put down a sealer (Redguard). We put down a coat let it dry and then put down another coat. The red guard was bright pink in the bucket but once applied and dried it turned red. Here is the "ding" Rob put in the old tub which necessitated its removal and replacement. Here is the new faucets and fixtures, its so nice having the hot and cold water controls joint. Here is the new vanity we bought. Its much smaller than the last one (one sink instead of two) and the bathroom feels so much bigger now - which is nice it was really cramped before. The tile we used was called "Canyon Expresso" and we purchased it at Lowes. We installed a bronze faucet to go with the colors throughout the bathroom. I love it, I love how the whole project turned out! I feel like I'm at a really nice hotel or spa. Its such a nice feeling.

Boy Baby Shower

I was able to host a baby shower for a dear friend who was having a baby boy. It had to be somewhat simple because with 18 month triplets and a 3 year old I don't have a lot of time to devote to food and decorations. But I felt it turned out wonderful! For dessert I made Cake Pops (best tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DfL6B6Vpus), magic bars, and fruit tarts, watergate salad, veggie tray and easter eggs. I have a punch fountain that does an excellent job of sprucing up any party.

Vintage Relief Society Enrichment

For the ward relief society enrichment birthday party we were asked to go with a "Family History" theme. It was really fun to decorate for. We asked sisters to bring pictures and family heirlooms to use as decorations. One sister allowed us to use matching frames for each table and we put old black and white pictures of relatives in each frame. We bought 10 white plastic tablecloths at the dollar store ($10) and 3 yards of burlap ($11) at Hobby Lobby. The burlap we cut into 8 squares 24"x 24" there was enough for the 7 round tables we put up and even one for the dessert table. Although there was a variety of different decorations the burlap and the black and white photos tied it all together. One sister donated LED candles that were used for a wedding reception and we put three candles at each table, we turned just one set of the gym lights on (there are four sets). So the low lights with the candles worked out beautifully. The highlight of the evening was having Sister Baird (Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley Sister) come share about her family history. Sister Baird even brought her sister and what a hoot! The two of them had me laughing off my chair. They were wonderful and their story was wonderful. I will never forget the feelings I felt hearing them speak.

Bringing Down the Tree

So I took Liberty in the Kitchen today to feed her lunch, I left Lexy and Lily roaming in the livingroom within the gated area. I heard a loud “thump!” and ran back to the living room to see this:

And Lexy proclaiming "ought Oh!"

Poor Christmas Tree :(.

Survived Five Days without Rob

Thats right Rob went to Chicago for five days and I was all by myself with the four kids, well at least until I went to my parents for Sunday dinner and then just decided to stay for three days (hehe) It was nice. It was like a vacation because I had help while there. I was even able to sew Christmas stockings. The goal is to sew four one for each child. Here is a picture of the Stockings i made.

In Honor of My Grandpa

My grandfather was a great man. He loved his family and he loved his grandchildren. Grandpa was a legend, he could tell the best cowboy stories ever! He was a man of faith and a man of God. He taught me so much he worked very very hard his whole life. He will be missed, but never forgotten.