A garden story

We moved to Orem in 2011. In our rental, there was a beautiful garden! Everything was all ready to go, so we took advantage of it!

It was so much fun! And we got lots out of it!

These pictures are from our first harvest. During our 2nd year living there, we decided to plant turnips, just to see if they would grow. They, in fact, did grow. We were so happy with our turnips! Then Chris tried to make turnip soup. It was awful. After the first bite, we both decided that turnips were definitely not something we would try ever again.
So, in our minds, this gardening thing was no big deal! If you just plant things and water them, they grow, and then you harvest and eat and it's fabulous!
Then we moved to Idaho Falls, and were very sad to find that our yard had a lot of shade during the day, making it difficult to plant a garden. I tried doing a window sill garden for my herbs. It didn't work that well. But then, the city of Idaho Falls came to our door and said that we needed to have our apple trees trimmed in order to make way for the power line. I asked them to trim really far, because I hated that apple tree. I'm not sure if it was one apple tree or two, but at any rate, it had two trunks and looked terrible. They asked if they should remove it. So, low and behold, part of our yard now gets sun!!

Chris took a day off of school to make us a garden.

And Chris and his helpers made this:

And then we started planting! We thought that it would be fabulous like our last garden in Orem. However, we had a water problem last year. This happened basically because we have no experience in actually making a garden, and my parents were on their mission in Cincinnati, so they couldn't help. Thus, we were on our own!

However, the "expert" has helped (A TON!!) and, after I worked for about 7 hours this past weekend, along with some boys down the street (because of this) and now our garden now looks like this:

I never thought I would be so excited about dirt! Yay! So my dad will come help with our finishing touches next week, and we will plant! Davis is very excited and really really wants to plant cherry tomatoes, because he thinks it's so fun to eat them off the vine! I can't disagree with that!
Anyway, I have learned that, although gardening is hard an tiring, it is a lot of fun, especially when you have kids to do it with you. I also think it's a wonderful thing to teach kids how to do! We're excited for our harvest!

Bedroom remodel

I decided that with some of my birthday and Christmas money, I was going to redo our bedroom! It's been a fun project.

Before:

After:

I (meaning we) got new curtains, painted an accent wall blue, and moved the desk upstairs that was in the basement. It was a fun project! We really love our new bedroom!

Little girl's nursery

Well, less than two weeks until due date!  I finally have the finishing touches done on Reagan's nursery!

 This was a little project that I have had in mind for quite a while. . . probably since we found out that she is a girl!

Things that are different about this pregnancy than my last:

• Weight--I was much heavier starting the last pregnancy, so I gained more weight too.  On this one, I have not been as heavy, which is a very good thing.
• Jumpier legs--leg jumping has tormented me a lot during this pregnancy!
• Feeling the baby--because my placenta has been placed differently, I have felt her a lot more and a lot sooner than I felt Davis

Things I hope are different with this baby:

• Breastfeeding--I hope I am successfully able to breastfeed Reagan.
• Calmness--I feel like I am a lot better equipped with understanding of how babies work, and will be able to be a lot more calm with this one.
• Swaddling--It seems like a good idea.  Davis did not like the idea.  But I think I will be much more of an "assertive swaddler" with her.

We are pretty excited to have a new baby at our house!

Remodel done!!

Wahoo!  We (meaning Chris) finished the remodel!  We love this room most of all in our house!

Our fancy camera is in the shop, so here are the photos we could come up with . . . .

 The best part--the closet!!

We still have a few touch-ups to do, and some decorating, but IT IS DONE!!  WA-HOO!!

We will love this room even more when Reagan arrives!

Remodel phase8

Have not posted this in a while!  But here we are!  I am not sure exactly what phase 7 was, so I will move onto phase 8:

TRIM!!  YAY!!

Chris did the trim on the closet twice.  Because it looked bad the first time!

It is amazing how much better this place looks with trim!

Remodel phase 5/6

Phase 5 and 6 are kind of together, because we got in a "rusch."  A little over a week ago, Chris decided that we WERE going to be getting carpet and moving our furniture into the bonus room before his parents come tomorrow.  So, here is how it looks so far:

The painting on the walls:

 And in the closet.  Done by me.  First actual painting job where I have lifted the brush.  Good it started with the closet!  Not TOO shabby!:

 Chris's awesome tiling job.  It fit just right!:

 And . . . this morning . . . the carpet layers came!!

So now, we need to put the furniture in tonight, and then put on trim and put shelves and doors on the closet, and we are DONE!
We have learned several things while doing this project.  Some of them are:

• Doing a project like this takes more time, energy, and money than you can project.
• We got more DUST and DIRT in our house than we ever thought possible
• Chris, who I thought was not very handy, is actually an INCREDIBLE handyman!  He can do anything, honestly!
• Having the right tools is a very necessary part of the project.  For instance, we got a texture gun from Home Depot that saved our lives.  My dad also loaned us a saw, and we got a power sander and a nail gun from guys in our ward.  These tools shaved WEEKS, maybe even MONTHS off of the project!
• Youtube is a great resource.  It taught Chris how to do a lot of things in the project!
• Having crazy, hair-brained ideas like, "Hey, let's make a closet," or, "Hey, let's put tile by the door," is a good thing.  
• Taking the paneling off at the beginning was the best idea ever!!

It went from looking like this:

To looking like this:

Remodel phase 4

Well, the bonus room is coming right along.  This week, we are FINISHING the painting and tile so that the carpet can be put in on Monday!  Wa-hoo!  That way, it will be finished enough to have furniture when Chris's parents come to visit.  Here are the walls, completely taped, mudded, and sanded.  Next step, texturing and painting!

 We found the original carpet behind the heater.  It looks like this.  Lovely.

 We also found some stickers behind the heater on the opposite wall.  The date on them in 1979, and they are still sticky!

Remodel phase 3

Chris spent basically all weekend finishing mudding and sanding, and FRAMING THE CLOSET!!  We are super excited!

Thanks to wonderful family and friends in the ward, we currently have a rotating saw, nail gun, and power sander on loan!  We are grateful for friends and their help!