Who needs toys...

...when you have a pantry!!

Seattle Area Trip

(I say "area" because we were all over the Seattle area!)

Friday, March 6th: My mom, Celeste, and I flew out of SLC to Seattle, WA to surprise my Grandma for her 80th birthday. When we arrived, my Aunt Diana and cousin Jenn came and picked us up from the airport. From there, we went to a cute little Victorian house/restaurant and waited for my Grandma and Aunt Karla to arrive. When they got there, my mom and I got up to say hi to Grandma. She was so surprised she started screaming. It was great!

Saturday, March 7th: Everyone met up at the Mongolian Grill and had a nice dinner. There, my Uncle Brian showed up and gave Grandma surprise #2!

Sunday, March 8th: (Grandma's actual birthday) We surprised her by all showing up to attend church with her. Her ward is really small and I think we doubled their attendance that Sunday. We also all got together at Aunt Diana's house for cake and dinner.

Monday, March 9th: My good friend and cousin, Jenn, and I went shopping and then the ladies met up at the restaurant my cousin is a chef at and had lunch. It's a cute little soup/sandwich place in downtown Tacoma.

Tuesday, March 10th: My mom, Celeste, and I flew back into SLC and drove back home with lots of slick roads and a chain law over South Pass. But we're safely home and had a great trip. :)

(Note: the picture captions are on top of the pictures)

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma!

All of my Grandma's children were there except for one, Aunt Sharon. So here are 5 out of the 6 siblings. Back L-R: Donna (my mom), Aunt Sandi, Uncle Brian, Aunt Diana, Aunt Karla, and Grandma Ingalls in the chair.

And this is everyone! This included the fiances, girlfriends, and everyone that gathered for the celebration.

I was so excited to get a 4 generation picture!

Here is Jenn, her daughter Ashlee, Aunt Diana (Jenn's mom) with my mom, Celeste, and I all with Grandma.

Celeste and Ashlee played great together.

Ashlee loved to give Celeste hugs and gave her tons! Ashlee is exactly 5 months older than Celeste.

More Hugs
Playing under the table. I loved this picture because if you notice, my 22 year old cousin David is also under the table playing, too!

While we were there, I couldn't resist taking advantage of the green they have and had to do a little photo shoot with Celeste. (We defiantly don't have green this time of year!) This was on Monday and we woke up to snow that morning. Luckily in the spot I wanted to take pictures at, the snow melted during the day. However, it was a little chilly out so we had to hurry!

Celeste LOVES the cold air and gets so excited when we go outside!

(If you noticed, the grass was cold on her feet so she kept lifting them up. The grass was very wet!)

On a more serious note...

She saw a bird!

We had such a great time with family and miss them already! Thank you bunches and bunches Jenks for your hospitality. We also hope you had a fantastic birthday, Grandma! It was great seeing everyone. We love you all!

Kitchen Remodel

We have started the kitchen remodel. Painting is finished! This weekend we will start tearing out the floor and putting down concrete backer board. Then the following weekend we will be tiling. It'll be so nice when it's all finished!
(I apologize, these pictures were taken while we had everything torn apart so nothing is in it's place...it's messy!)

Before:

During:

After:

I love how it turned out! We are eventually going to get stainless steel appliances (one at a time) and I think it'll look super nice. We are also going to replace the handles an on cupboards. I'll keep you updated on pictures when we're doing the floors.

Coming Soon: Pictures from Celeste and my trip to Seattle, WA. We just returned home last night and I'm anxious to share the pictures. However, it's my bed time now. I'll shoot for tomorrow!

Rock Star

A couple weekends ago we got together with some of our friends to eat dinner and play games. The boys enjoyed playing Wii Rock Star. They really do look like "Rock Stars," don't they?

Mark

Ryan

Josh, Taylor, and Ryan

Brandon

Thanks Fowlers for the fun night!

Update

I appologize I've been aweful at updating my blog! I will try to be better. :)

Celeste turns 10 months today! I can't believe it! I tried to take her 9 month pictures a couple weeks ago. Since she's become mobile, it's MUCH harder to get a good picture. Here are a few, even though they aren't great pictures of her.

Yesterday Celeste had the flu. She is acting like she feels much better today, so I tried to take a few more pictures this morning. (Same outfit, I know!)

Maybe the day after the flu bug wasn't the best idea! We'll try again another day!

Our other news is we're repainting and putting in a new floor in our kitchen/dining room. That's today's project so stay tuned for some before, during, and after pictures!

New Niece

My sister and brother-in-law, Kara and Drew Bott, welcomed their little girl into the world on Wednesday, February 18, 2009. Elsie Bott was born at 7:37 pm weighing 6 lbs 12 ounces and 18 1/2 inches long. She's a cutie!

Congratulations Drew and Kara! We're excited for you.

9 Months Later...

Celeste has stuff on her walls!!

Yes, it's embarrassing that it took me 9 months and there's still one more thing I still need to do I just have to find someone with a router or buy one myself.

I copied these letter blocks out of a catalog. My sweet husband made them for me and I painted them. I think they turned out pretty cute.If you remember, we painted these teal stripes on about the bottom third of the wall and are accenting in pink. (If we have a boy next, we'll accent in a "boy color.") You can kind of see the bedding my mom made us. It has a bed skirt, quilt, and valances to match. Thanks Mom! We have had it since before Celeste was born.

In this corner, there is a decoration my friend, Jena, gave to me (thanks Jena!) and a picture of Christ.

I made this clock at Jena's house a while ago to match Celeste's room.

(This picture makes it look like the walls are blue and the valance is green, but they really do match!)

The walls are still a little plain, but not near as bad anymore! The only thing left is a board with vinyl words that say, "I Am a Child of God."