Belle Breeley

Breeley was invited to a princess birthday party and Belle was going to be there.

We thought it would be fun if she arrived in a carriage. Unfortunately, I was the horse.
We did her hair in curls, and put some glitter on her cheeks.

She felt so beautiful!

She even wore her Belle princess heels!

She really wanted to be Belle since that was the princess that was coming to the party. Breeley doesn't have a Belle dress, so she asked her cute cousin Skyler if she could borrow her dress! (Thanks Sky!!!)

Breeley had a fabulous time at the party. She was so excited to tell us all about Belle. It was so fun to see her be so excited about the princess. I love it way too much.

Who says....

The first brownie has to be from the corner?

Not Breeley!

South Carolina!

Adam has been spending a lot of time in South Carolina for work. While he was there, I flew out there for a long weekend to spend time with Adam and see the sights. I flew into Columbia (where he has been working) on a Thursday evening and we drove straight to Charleston. We stayed the first night there and spent friday seeing the sights. Charleston is absolutely amazing. We are in love with every inch of it. We took a ton of photo's and now that I am home, I wish I had four times more. I wish I would have taken a photo of every single inch of it!

I love the ivy growing on the stairs on this home. Amazing!
I love brick. There was so much old brick on the houses. The colors and patterns are beautiful.

Look at that ivy!

This is the door for the above garage. It led you into their courtyard.

This is a window sill in one of the alleys. I only took one picture of it. What was I thinking??

We love the ocean. This is right in front of Battery Park.

Right in front of our hotel was a marina. We walked down there and they had these rocking chairs for you to sit on. It was so peaceful and relaxing. The best part about it was Adam and I were together.

This is a house that is now a bed and breakfast. I would have loved to stay here.

Can you believe these flowers? They are so intricate and amazing.

Can you see the ivy growing on the bottom part of this house? It is perfect.

This is the staircase of the above house. I am in love.

The rocking chairs. We could have spent the entire day just relaxing on those chairs.

Our trip was so much fun. We spent the first night in Charleston South Carolina. The second night in North Carolina, the third night in Virginia and the last night in Columbia South Carolina. We drove up to Virginia to see Kenny, Jenny and the boys. It was so fun to spend time with them.

Have I mentioned I love South Carolina.

Every part of me wants to move there.

I mean every... single... part... of... me...! Sigh...

Come back for pictures of North Carolina and Virginia and a funny story about a quarter...

Birdy birdy in the garage...

When Abell left for school friday morning, he left the garage door open. A couple of robins decided that our garage door opener was prime real estate and laid claim! One worked very hard at building a nest pretty much all day. While the other looked on while perched here and there.
So guess what we did?

We hurried and got all the boys ready for school, and then sat quietly on the stairs watching the birds work.

Then when we decided we might be too happy and loud and might scare them away. The kids all decided to watch from the front window.

It was pretty fun to watch the robin make the nest. We even had decided that we would try and make our garage as comfortable as possible for them, hoping they would stay. (dealing with the mess and hassle of it, so we could watch the process of the baby birds.) But for some reason after some heartfelt prayers from the robins, they decided our garage was not the best spot to pick. It was fun while it lasted though.

(BTW, we did have three extra kids for the night!)

The big unveil, minus any and all frills.

It's kinda hard to see the color in this picture, but the blue is there.
This picture is easier to see it. Don't you love the FAMILY pictures. They were my souvenir from Charlseton, South Carolina. (Man I love that place and I really really want to move there!) I am so excited to find frames to put them in!

Enamelware blue

Can you see the glorious white ceiling? Yup, I painted them all by myself!

This is probably the best example of the blue. You can see the white wall I painted above the plant shelf. I had to crawl along the 18 inch wide plant shelf to get the wall painted. NOT MUCH FUN!

This is the green in the front room. I really like it a lot!

The blue dining area. There will be wainscoting here shortly.

Well, the house painting is about 75 percent done. I have all the big areas done. I still need to go through and repaint the trim, caulk, hang wangscotting, hang lots of moulding, paint the laundry room, two bathrooms, master bedroom, one more bedroom and my closet. Yup... that will do....

Oh, and shop for fun, cottage/beach house/vintage decorations.

Good Times.

And to the blogs I read that said finding bamboo shades was really easy and really inexpensive. I have one word for you..... LIARS!

Excuses Excuses Excuses

I seriously can't believe it has been nearly a month since my last post.

I don't even know where to start to explain what in the heck we have been up to except....

Adam is traveling for work ALL THE TIME!!!

Kids in school.

Hagen's soccer four nights a week.

Yard work.

Adam gone.

Me trying to decide what color to paint the house.

Me trying to find the time to paint the house.

Deciding on Friday to have a yard sale on Saturday (thanks for talking me into it Julianne).

Emptying our entire storage room into the game room to find junk to sell at said yard sale.

Needing to put non junk (well, really still is junk, I just don't want to sell it) back into said storage room. ON THE SHELVES NOT ON THE FLOOR!

Going on a super fun trip to the south to visit missing husband.

Coming off a total high after being with missing husband.

Prep work for painting house.

Renting scaffolding for painting the ceiling. (Yes, I did say ceiling.) And also for painting the super high vaulted walls.

Scaffolding not fitting into Excursion (Even though they said it would).

Having to rent a trailer for scaffolding (Gee, they had it right there ready for me! Hhhmmm)

Towing trailer (with rented scaffolding) for the first time ever. SSCCAAARRRYYY

Unloading very heavy scaffolding.

Setting up scaffolding. (Thanks Julianne)

Renting too much scaffolding.

Returning extra scaffolding with trailer. (Thanks for the refund!)

Getting all set up to paint the ceiling.

Hearing song on radio that missing husband sang in the car during one of the long drives.

Having a total melt down.

Downloading song onto iPod.

Getting the courage to CLIMB ON THE SCAFFOLDING!!!

Getting the courage to STAND on the scaffolding.

Getting the courage to STAND on the scaffolding while painting ABOVE MY HEAD!

Turning up the iPod really loud so I don't hear the noises from the scaffolding I am standing on.

Touching my head to the wet paint SEVEN TIMES.

Combing through my wet hair with a fine tooth comb trying to get paint out of it.

Now on to the second coat of paint.

Not as nervous to be on the scaffolding.

Moving it around better.

Only touching my head in the wet paint THREE times on the second coat.

Still have to comb it out with a fine tooth comb.

Not daring to flat iron my hair in case there is paint I can't see.

Getting up the courage to paint my kitchen, great room, hallway and entryway "Enamelware".

Asking missing husband if I am crazy to paint my house blue?

Him calling me back to tell me he just saw a commercial with a blue painted house and it looked great.

Missing missing husband too much.

Not a very good excuse for not blogging, but it's the best I could come up with.

Wish me luck!

**I left my camera with missing husband so he could take some pics of some really cool brick I saw before I left to come home. But I will post pictures as soon as I can.

***And yes, I know there are people I can hire to do this type of labor. But where would the fun be in that?

Addison's best decision ever!

Addison made a great decision!

He decided to get baptized!
He met with the bishop.

Practice makes perfect!

To celebrate, brand new scriptures that has his very own name!

Addison's baptism was one of the most spiritual meetings I have ever attended. Sister Hernandez and Sister Abney gave amazing talks and Abell and Hagen said great prayers.

It truely was an amazing day and I am so proud of him.

He was so excited and is so happy to have the Holy Ghost!