christytomlinson

Don't forget!

Tonight is the big day at MM, the Idol contest is down to two and tonight is the last day to vote! So if you haven't already.. go vote for your favorite! I voted for mine! They had to do home decor projects and both of them did a great job. I have my favorite.. it was pretty cool. SUPER cute. So go VOTE!

Well I spent the weekend half relaxing, half working. Ben was out of town and at the last minute, feeling overwhelmed with all the work, and projects I had to do, I agreed to let him take Noah and Ethan with him. His sister Jenny had called and offered to help out with the kids while we was there, if he brought them.  She happened to call at a moment that I was pretty stressed out and when Ben got off the phone I was surprised at how easily I said yes! LOL. She is wonderful and I just wanted to say huge THANKS Jenny. It's been weird but nice. I think this might be the first time I have been at home and not had at least my baby here. The four oldest have been great! We just jump in the car and go places and it's not a "big to do" as my mom would say. It will be weird when they are all "older" and can do things for themselves like get dressed, get shoes on.. etc. It has been fun. They are cool kids to just 'hang" with.  Ben will be back late tonight though and I can't wait.. miss him and miss my babies. (okay so Noah and Ethan aren't babies by any means.. but we call them our babies! LOL).

My mom is here this week, watching my sisters kids and so today she is taking me out to lunch! I am excited to spend time with her. She is only a 3 hour drive away and so I have seen a lot more of her now that we have moved and I really enjoy it. I love being closer to all of my family. I think when Ben and I lived here before, we were just so young, with really young kids and also had a business that tied us to our home (we took care of five mentally ill men in our home for 8 years). So it was hard for us to get out and do things. I think it was for everyone in my family. My siblings and I are all so close in age. My mom and dad had 7 kids in 6 years, and so then, we were all young.. just starting to have kids. But now our kids are starting to get older and you can imagine how fun it is for all of us.  Well better go. For some reason the extra hour this morning is throwing my kids off and they are fighting, freaking out and just running around the house stressed, trying to figure out why the clock says one time but I am telling them something different! (okay.. so I didn't change the clocks back yesterday.. I guess I should have).

Finally, here are some pictures I took at a shoot a couple of weeks ago. This is my friend, Jenn. She is 8 months pregnant. Such a beautiful person, inside and out! I was having major trouble with my camera that day. My auto focus wasn't working.  I shoot in AV mode and had to use manual focus and it just didn't want to seem to get really focused.  I think Canons are naturally that way. Oh well. This was just for fun, so I think she will love them anyway. It was also last minute. I was visiting Nampa for the weekend and Sunday morning before we left to come back home, we decided to get a few shots of her pregnant...literally an hour before we left. So we found a black tarp in her garage, and set this up in her house. The tarp didn't work so well, it more reflected the light more than absorbed it. Kinda funny. But all in all, they turned out great. Well have a great day!

That's not supposed to happen....

I love my son, Parker. He has Asperger's Symdrome. The only reason I say that is because he is so stinking funny sometimes because he speaks so.... well just cool. He is super smart for his age (almost 10) and he talks with big words and just thinks bigger than most kids his age.. even bigger than me most times! LOL.. .  This morning he walks up the stairs and I hear from my bedroom down the hall,

"well what's this? I do believe this is a miracle! According to my calculations,  it's October, not December!  That's not supposed to happen".

So naturally I called out "Parker, what's not supposed to happen" (still layout in bed..bad mom).

He then proceeded to tell me it was snowing outside and that winter doesn't start until December (he told me the exact date, but I can't remember it..)  Then right after he finished, Braden came walking up the stairs behind him, and almost without a care, said.. "Parker... welcome to Shelley". Braden is my oldest, he is 10 almost 11, and going on 21. He is so mature for his age, and so helpful and sometimes I think almost nothing surprises him! LOL.

And it's true.. welcome to Shelley. Warm meaning, no snow, not having to wear winter coats and winter boots. Yesterday my husband took me out for my birthday (no, it's wasn't yesterday.. it's next Monday). But he took me out because he is leaving out of town and won't be back until next Tuesday. Anyhow last night as we were out and about, I was commenting on how warm it was. Only like 40 degrees out.. but warm.. no wind.. no rain or snow. I was just telling my husband yesterday, that I was excited because it might actually be WARM for Halloween. That's one of the "perks" or downfalls of living In Eastern Idaho. Most women look at as a downfall. That it gets so cold here so early , with snow in October. But most men look at as a perk, because like Ben said this morning, as he was building me a fire.. "it looks like I will be going snowmobiling a lot more this year!"  Last  year, he only went once.. but we lived in Boise, five hours to the west of us.. where if we happen to get snow.. it only lasts for a couple of hours...if we are lucky.

Anyhow. Sorry I have been MIA. Working like mad.. Kitting stuff for a BHG event I am going to and for my classes in Canada. Fun fun! I actually like working under pressure.  I am more productive that way.. so weird but I am. In fact I was thinking about having Ben take Ethan and Noah with him, so I could get more done.  But after really thinking about it,I decided that if my youngest two weren't here.. I would probably not get as MUCH done. Because for some reason, I work better when I know they are here, and needing me.. More done then if I am alone and have the entire time to myself. weird.. I am weird.

I also am posting a couple of pictures from the engagement shoot I took a couple of weeks ago. They are actually married. Got married the day before I took the pictures, but they are having a reception next week. We had fun.  Nissy and Tim. They are a super cute couple. Having a baby in November. It's one of my good friends, little sisters...they are young.. but seriously.. good people and Tim has the most handsome smile.

Well better get back to work. My husband is helping me back up all the boxes, and get them ready for shipping before he leaves.  Oh! and sorry I forgot to remind everyone.. but don't forget to check out the Making Memories Idol Site! and VOTE!! I have my favorite.. but I am not sharing this time :)

Some Answers for you.....

I have had a ton of e-mails with lots of question about my house, so I am going to post some of the question and answers here :)

First off though.. check out the Making Memories blog today! I did some Halloween decorations for them and they are posted on there.

Okay so onto the questions.. but first.. you should know something about me. I am CHEAP.. seriously cheap. If I find something that I love.. and just have to have it, I DON"T buy it. I go on-line and find something similar or usually the exact thing.. for just about half the price. My boss at Chatterbox, Melody Ross, had this gorgeous Duvet I fell in love with. So I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and decided it was WAY out of my price range. I think the duvet was $200 bucks and the pillows were 40 bucks each. So I went home and searched on-line and found it on two sites.. one was Overstock.com and the other was designerlinensoutlet.com. Guess how much I paid for mine? $40 bucks for the duvet and the shams were $7.50 each!  So that is the type of person I am.

Most of the furniture you see in my house was either purchased in the scratch and dent section at local furniture stores, or at second hand stores, garage sells or even the dump! LOL Some of it, my husband made for me too. Like my bed for instance.. cost us $100 bucks. Got it at Furniture Row, and it had a huge gash in it, so it was discounted from like $1200 to $100. We bought it, Ben puttied the gash, repainted it and it worked great!! Allies bedroom furniture was $15.00 for all of it. The dresser was free, found it at the dump and repainted it and bought knobs for it. The bed we found at a thrift shop for $5.00 and the crib was at garage sell for $10.00 Painted it all white.. sanded it down and there you go! :)  My entry way table, Ben built.. but the side tables to my bed, and all the tables you see in my living room old ones we found and painted or stained. My kitchen table was $25.00 bucks and Ben built the benches to go with it. Granted the big chairs don't match.. but oh well :) The mirror over my dining table was free. It was in the garbage at Pier One and my husband asked if he could have it. The Mirror part was cracked, so he took had a mirror cut to fit (which was like 10 bucks) and I he gave it to me for my birthday. Great present! :)

Anyhow.. so I am cheap and all my decorations are cheap too.. just stuff I find at wall-mart, or places like Ross, the Dollar store.. or even garage sells.  So with that in mind.. don't be alarmed when I answer some of these questions! LOL

Question:  What color of paint is your office?

Answer: Swan Sea by Behr from Home Depot

Question: Where did you get your rug?

Answer: Shopko and it's on sale this week for $65.00 bucks (for a 60"x90: rug). Target

Question: Where did you get the tall wood cabinets with drawers in your scrapbooking room?

Answer: I got them on clearance at a couple of years ago.. for like 20 bucks a piece. and I LOVE them because they hold all my MM product. I used to keep my paper in them, but moved the paper to the Karen Foster Paper Tray things.. LOVE those, because now I can see my paper and flip through it easier.

Question: What kind of tile did you use on your counter-tops

Answer: It was actually a cheap tile we found at Lowe's. It's 18" and put on a diagonal. Home depot has cool 18" tile too. I think it runs about $1.50-$2.00 a tile. The kitchen cost us about $300.00 total to tile, including the backsplash.

Question: How long did it take you guys to do your house remodel

Answer: 6 weeks (and counting.. we just got all the new doors on, and hardware). WHICH by the way.. got all my knobs and door handles on ebay.. for cheap! They are egg shapes oiled rubbed bronze and they cost me 9 bucks a piece.. that is CHEAP!

So that's it! If there are anymore.. let me know :) I bought all my lighting on-line too.. and all our knobs for our kitchen cabinets. I also got all of our faucets and stuff on-line too (on ebay) . Ebay has some GREAT home stores.. that always sell stuff and the shipping is cheap. I mean if you are buying a lot.. you pay like $8 bucks for the first item and everything else is usually free to ship. So that's seriously good!

Well that's it! I got a HUGE response from people in the area wanting to do a local class... so I will send out an e-mail tonight to get more info from everyone :) This is going to BE SO FUN!!

hugs-

HERE WE GO!!!!

FINALLY!! The big day is here! LOL.. I feel like I am posting pictures of a new born baby..

okay.. but a couple of orders of business before we get to the house photos.

First: Class Kits: Those of you who e-mailed me over the last 2 months about ordering class kits for the following classes: Calendar Class, Ribbon Book Class, Pocket Book Class, and The Family Layout class.. these will be shipping sometime next week. I should be getting all of the product in this week, getting it kitted and out by the end of next. Still waiting on the Doodle genies for the Oodles of Doodles class, so those will ship mid November. E-mail me if you aren't sure what you ordered.. or need my address etc.

Second: Local Classes: I have had several e-mail lately about people wondering if I would be teaching here locally, the classes I have posted on-line. I got to thinking it might be fun to have a Saturday class day.. or even a Friday night class here at my house sometime in the next couple of months. So if you live in the Idaho Falls/Pocetello area (or if you live in SCL and want to drive up.. it's about 2 hours). E-mail me. I will see how much interest there is, and then send out an e-mail to all of those that are interested. There are a couple of local stores here in the area.. so we can maybe even plan a crop there on a Friday night if we want to make it a Friday night, all day Saturday thing. Or we can just do a couple of classes here and there on a night during the week. Give me some ideas of things you might want to do :)

Okay! Onto the house :)
I will give a quick update and then just post pictures.. the before.. and the after. .so here we go:

Basically we gutted the house down to sheet rock and even in some parts had to re-sheet rock. We did all of the work, okay when I say we.. I really mean Ben.. BUT I CAN say that I helped tile the kitchen back-splash!! yeah! :) And we have Ben's parents here for a week helping out and also a shout out to Ben's friend Devin, who helped lay hardwood floor! THANK YOU!  We replaced all the light fixtures ( i kept the one in Allie's room and the master bedroom.. they were kind cool and vintage).. we replaced the floors (Ben installed the hardwood and tile).  We put hardwood throughout the kitchen, hallways, entry, dining room and my office. It's a dark walnut vintage hand-scraped floor. I love it, interesting with kids and dust but love it just the same. It just gives our house a warm feeling. We tiled the bathrooms and laundry room floors. We also tiled the bathroom tubs and our kitchen counter-tops and back-splash (remember the 18" tile on the kitchen counter-tops. LOVE THEM. You can cut directly on them, no cutting board needed and you can lay hot dishes directly on them.. no hot pads). We put in all new cabinets EXCEPT for the kitchen. Those are the original cabinets.. we just painted them, distressed them and then lacquered them. We did them in black because I have always wanted black distressed cabinets and I since we couldn't afford to replace the kitchen cabinets, Ben finally let me paint them :). We put in all new windows and doors except for the front door and the sliding glass door which we will replace next year when we add on a dining room. We redid the fireplace upstairs. It was white brick and we covered it in Ledge-stone. Ben cut and installed molding around all the doors, windows and baseboards. He also made wainscot in allies room. (He is freaking talented I tell you!).. He also re-textured all the walls, it's called skipped trowel. Love it. And I think that's it! We put in all new appliances, tubs, and toilets and bathroom counter-tops and cabinets.

The only left to do is finish the other 1100 square feet in the basement. We are putting in 3 more bedrooms, a storage room, a small office for Ben and a bathroom for the boys downstairs.

So here we go :) Excuse the mess in some places.. still unpacking.. and some of it's not decorated yet either.. but getting there! :)

OH and before I forget! This is advertisement for Ben! LOL.. right now, we are waiting on our house in Nampa to sell so he can start building houses.(which means we are also making two house payments).. So in the meantime, he would love to do remodel jobs in the area.. if any of you are interested in getting a bid.. let me know! He would love to come take a look. (oh.. if Ben only knew.. he would kill me)

So here we go.. if I have a before I will post it first :)

Before Kitchen:

After Kitchen:

Dining Room:

Entry Way:

Living Room:

BEFORE:

Living Room After:

Allie's Bedroom: (and Noah and don't mind the mess on her dresser.. those go on the walls..:))

Family Room:

Before:

After (sorry not decorated yet)..

Master Bedroom:

Tile in bathroom:

My Office:

Before:

After: (I have a ton of pictures in black and white frames to put up, some Making Memories wall organizational stuff and some Making Memories wall text to say: Do what Matters Most... but that will have to be done later this week :))  Also.. thanks to Ben for making my office furniture.. LOVE YOU!

 

and the rug that inspired my wall color for my office. LOVE IT!

Well that's it! now everyone is invited over for a party :)

hugs...

I think I got lost in my house...

Sorry haven't updated house pictures yet.. I am having so much fun unpacking (really.. I think something must be wrong with me, because I am having FUN unpacking...hum...).

Okay so this morning I have a few assignments for MM and BHG I have to get done, and then this afternoon Ethan, Noah and I are making mini Halloween cupcakes as a surprise for the "older" kids to eat when they get home from school. It was Ethan's idea. Friday we were grocery shopping and there was an end cap that had a display with all sorts of baking goodies to make Halloween treats with! He insisted we stop and get some "tings" to make "teets" with for "allie, peston, braden and Parker"... So cute I tell you! We invited over his cousin, Kia (that's a boy) to help.. I am feeling so domestic! My mom would be so proud! LOL ( I am NOT a good baker and ONLY because I get in too big of a hurry and make small, minor mistakes...)

Once I made a batch of brownies, FROM THE BOX... and couldn't figure out why they were still runny after 25 minutes of baking. Realized I had forgotten the eggs so I thought.. well I just add them now.. and so I cracked some eggs directly into the hot brownies.  The heat from the brownies, cooked the eggs instantly and so I thought.. hum.. I can just mix those in... and then put it back in the oven. Within five minutes the brownies were cooked and my kids never knew the difference! Braden makes better brownies than me.. and from scratch! (He gets it from Ben.. Ben is an excellent cook!)

yeah.. that's my life.. I made cookies once and thought it meant 3 CUPS of butter (it was 3 cubes of butter).. and of course.. i couldn't figure out why the cookies were falling apart and so flat! My roommates at college laughed at me and said.. just stick to TV dinner..

oh well.. So anyhow.. I promise either today or tomorrow sometime I will take some pictures and update my blog!  I know my family and friends are patiently waiting to see them! LOL.. my mom called last night and wondered.. so I promise soon! :)

OH!! and this is an update just in.. don't forget to vote for your favorite Making Memories IDOL!! It ends tonight (this round) and the votes I heard are SOOO close!! SO GO VOTE!!! :)

hugs!

Almost there... and the MM IDOL Contest!!

So HUGE thanks to everyone who came to help unload the 4 truck loads of STUFF! Holy crap.. seriously.. lots of stuff. Family came (Ben's parents even traveled all the way from Nampa and are spending the week here helping out), friends came (Ben closest buddies both drove 600 miles to come help out) and even all the young men from our church came.. there was about 12 or so of them and for the most part they carried in all of our stuff last night. My sister, Tia was so great, she came today and helped me unpack my kitchen, bedroom and living room. She also helped me decorate. I had a lot more "decorating space" in my last house  because I had space above my cabinets, and plant shelves here and there.. and this house doesn't have plant shelves.  So it was fun mixing up all the different things I had to create new looks.  I will take pictures later this week when things settled down and share them all with you.
By the way.. the kitchen backsplash and counter tops turned out AMAZING.. oh.. so in love.

OKAY! So I also wanted to tell you.. to Check out the MAKING MEMORIES IDOL contest! It is HUGE and everyone votes to pick the winner!!!.. make sure you vote for you favorite.. so they don't get voted off.. I have to admit.. I am a HUGE HUGE fan of Mindy Bush.. oh my gosh, talk about TALENTED.. and I was so sad to see her go this week.   I have never met her but it's my "dream". She is my Idol! I haven't even spoken to her ( I stole this picture from the Making Memories blog.. don't tell anyone!) LOL She eve has six kids just like ME! Does anyone know if she has a blog?  If so e-mail me!! I think I might get the courage up to send her a "I am a huge fan" e-mail... So anyhow, I didn't vote. (shame on me.. but I have an excuse.. I was moving for the last week).. so I didn't vote and see what happens! LOL..
Don't get me wrong.. every single one of the finalist are SOOO freakin talented.. seriously.. talented.. I will be HONORED to be in a book with any of them.. I wish we could just take all five of them.

Okay.. gotta go. I am here at my dad's house checking in.. no Internet yet and my scrap space isn't set up yet. Gotta go get back to work! (unpacking)..

Night all!

move in day!!

Today is move in day!

I have so much to tell you about this weekend.. but it will have to wait until later in the week. Today we are moving in.. Carpet came yesterday, tile is all done, most of the lights are up and the house is starting to look like a home! This weekend was crazy with our trip to Nampa. There was packing, cleaning, moving, more packing, visiting friends, visiting family,visiting past co-workers,  two dates, a BSU football game and even three photo shoots (an engagement, pregnancy and senior photo shoot.. and YES I am crazy).. all in 3 1/2 days.. More on all of that later..

gotta go unpack the 4 truck loads (and two suburban loads) full of our stuff.. fun fun!

In the home stretch!

we are SOO close to being done with the house. Ben put down tile all day yesterday and today. We have tile in the bathrooms, around the tubs, laundry room and on the kitchen counter-tops and backsplash.

Our lighting also came today! Soo exciting. He installed my under-counter lighting in our kitchen. looks so nice. So we are leaving early in the morning for Boise/Nampa. When we moved here 6 weeks ago, we only brought each kid's dresser. We left everything else in our house to "stage" it and mainly because we didn't have a place for it here. So now we are spending the last few days of spud harvest vacation and going to get the rest of our thing.. well just about everything! LOL.. and officially MOVE BACK to eastern Idaho. I am super excited but sad at the same time. I really enjoyed Boise. It's a great place but just doesn't feel right to be there. I am going to miss Ben's family , who mostly live in the surrounding areas of Boise, and also our closest friends, Liz and Kevin and Jen and Buck. ALso ben's sister Jenny who took care of my kids while I worked at Chatterbox.. SHE ROCKS.. miss her already. But getting our stuff just makes it more official and makes me emotional all over again. I cried for days before we moved here.. seriously.. I would just break down and cry. You all remember.. you read my blog. I am also going to stop in at the Chatterbox office and see everyone. They moved their offices to Nampa which is like 5 minutes from my house (nice timing).. where as before I was like 45 minutes away. So I am going to stop by and pick up some product and see all of my good buddies. or as JQ would put it HEYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

Sorry no pictures tonight. I have been frantically finishing some new MM assignments today. Got them done though! yeah! So no time to take pictures today and now it's too dark.. But when we get back.... it's move in day! Carpet goes in Monday and then Monday night.. yeah baby!! We will still have lights to put up and a few things to finish.. but Ben said he's not waiting! LOL.. I just love that house.. when I am there I feel like home and there is a warm feeling there. A good one. It has a good soul.
Well better head to bed.. got a long day/weekend ahead. Hey, if anyone lives in the nampa area and wants to come help pack kitchen stuff and home decor stuff.. call me! LOL.. only kidding.. I am not that mean.. but seriously.. call me :)

hugs to all. night.

Spiderman...hardwood...and color

reToday is my son, Ethan's fourth birthday! He is number 5 in our family of six kids and the most independent child we had at his age. LOVE this little guy! We had a party for him on Saturday while my mom was here visiting and he got a spiderman suit for his birthday.  (He LOVES spiderman with a passion. So much that the clothes he wears on a daily basis have to have to be all red, all blue, or a combination of both with white. ) So he has a lot of blue and red striped shirts! I also got him a new bedspread that is blue, red and white striped with some spiderman sheets. He wore that suit all weekend and today I finally convinced him to let me wash it, which of course he resisted. But we got it off him and now he's wearing a red shirt with blue shorts. Too funny.  I took some pictures of him wearing his suit playing this weekend.

I also took some pictures of the house today. I am warning you some of them are blurry. My camera had a malfunction during my sisters photo shoot on Sunday night. The focus just stopped working. I tried a new lens thinking it might be that lens, but no.. it is the camera. So I have to use my manual focus, which I am not used to. I do use my AV setting, (I have a digital rebel). But even with contacts, I have a hard time seeing if things are in focus or not. So sorry about the poor pictures. The first ones are of the kitchen, with the new wood floor. Ben was up until 1:00 last night working on it. In-fact I went over around 12:00 (when I got done with my work) to help him.  I cut the wood on his chop saw, while he nailed away. That was fun. My first time using a chop saw.. kinda like a paper cutter.. but a little more frightening! LOL. The next pictures are of the before and after of the fireplace. The fireplace was originally white. Ben went over it with Cultured Ledge-stone. LOVE it. He is going to build a new mantel. A wood one. There is a picture of the before and after of the main bathroom as well.  Of course the tile floor isn't done yet. Ben's doing that tonight. I also took a picture of the 18" tile we are putting on the kitchen countertops. We used something similar in our house in Nampa and I loved it. I wanted granite.. but too expensive for this house. I love tile though, you can cut right on it, lay hot things directly on it( no hot pad needed) and for me, it's easy to clean. Ben makes the grout lines pretty small, so it's easier to clean and with 18" tiles, your working surface is pretty big. The last picture is of my office.... and guess what color it is... it's not green( though most of you said I should do it green).. I decided to go bold.. and I am so glad I did.. the color is so calming! The picture is a little bright, the color is actually has more gray in it.. not so aqua. Someone asked me if my husband is the one who did the molding around the windows.. yes.. He's a wonderful carpenter.. so lucky I tell you!
Well that's the update! gotta get back to work. My dad is taking the kids to the Zoo, so I need to take advantage of the alone time and get some work done!

Really quick... or not so quick

Here are a couple of updates on the house. I actually took more pictures but I accidentally erased them today. So I only have a couple. I will go over and retake pictures of the fireplace and living room and master bath and the wood floor tomorrow!! Sorry for erasing those, I had to clear my card because I was taking my sister, Tia's family pictures tonight. They turned out so great! I will post some at the end. So here is a couple of house updates...

First is a picture of our master bedroom, that is our brown color.. kinda boring i know :) The second and third pictures are of Allie's bedroom. I LOVE what Ben did to this room. He added the wainscot and then painted the top pink.  I said no to pink but Allie is a daddy's girl and so Ben talked me into it. It's pink for SURE! LOL.. but with all the white, it's okay. We picked out a quilt on Overstock.com (seriously cheap stuff and GREAT stuff)..  I have bought most of my bedding from that store and furniture too. Only $2.95 shipping and their quality is great! (posted a picture of the quilt too). The next picture of the house is of my scrapbooking room. A while back I posted a poll on what color I should paint my room.. do you remember?  Well you get a sneak peak, Ben hadn't quite finished painting it when I took the picture.  Oh and the last picture is of the new doors we got for the house. They are called Santa Fe style.. love em. Okay, so that wasn't nice.. but I don't want to show you my scrapbook room just yet. He finished painting it yesterday, and so I wanted to wait until I could get the entire room... for the full effect. I LOVE it. My family was down this weekend.. or up this weekend and my sisters all loved it, so I guess it must have been a good choice.

Had a good weekend too by the way. Friday night I had a crop at my house with just my family and a really good friend from Goshen, Lori (hi Lori!). She was a trooper, it was more like Lori scrapbooking and me talking with my family. But I did get stuff done after everyone left and Lori was great, hung out until almost 1:00 (or later I think). She was working on this seriously CUTE mini book for the ScrapCoop, which is a store she works at. She needs to teach it as a class. Seriously.. creative. When she gets it done, I will see if I can take pictures of it and post it here. It will inspire all of you to make one too!

Another great thing from this weekend was listening to Conference. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Better known as Mormon, or LDS. Twice a year we have conference which is broadcast on TV, radio and satellite all over the world to millions of people. For 4 hours on Saturday and again on Sunday, we get the privilege of listening to inspired men and women of God.  I love listening to it, because I get inspired to set goals to be a better person. To serve others more, to be a better mom.. a better friend and wife and sister, etc. Today was specially great. The last few talks just moved me... it's just so refreshing and motivating. Even if you aren't LDS, the talks are great motivational jump starts to be better at life. Anyhow, after my family left, I went to IF to take pictures of my sister, Tia's family.  Here are a couple of those. Cute family and I had fun. We were there for about an hour and half and her kids were amazing! Mine wouldn't have lasted 2 seconds. I will take more pictures of the house tomorrow and post them. Night all.