One Last Trip to Alaska

Last Christmas my dad gifted Tyler and my brothers another fishing trip to Alaska. Tyler was so excited to be able to go again. They left early on Saturday morning. I took them to the airport and they were off. They went salmon and halibut fishing again with Kenai Jim. Jim would take them out for guiding fishing during the morning/ afternoon and then at night they would fish by the river. They got a lot of fish again and we are all excited to have yummy fish dinner. 

Thanks to my dad for really spoiling all of the boys. I think they have so much fun and make so  many memories together. 

My mom stayed at our house while my dad and brothers were gone. I was so glad we could spend some time with my mom making memories with her while we still can. It was a hard week emotionally to see how much my mom is declining, but I am so glad we got to do so many fun things with her. 

We went swimming, to Lagoon, to a movie, to Classic skating, and of course out to eat. It really felt like a vacation of our own. 

We introduced my mom to Crave cookies and also made a panookie. 

It was a fun way to spend our last week before the kids went back to school. 

A Little House Tour

 Hey, remember how we pretty much finished remodeling our house back in January, but remember how our couches were supposed to take 4-9 months to finish? Well back in May our couches were finally delivered, but we were so busy and I didn't have time to hang up decorations. Then remember how our decorations were finally up, but I didn't have time to clean our house, so I couldn't snap any pictures? Well we finally had day where I could clean our house so I could take pictures of our remodel. Let's start with the piano room.

Walking into the house you can see our amazing piano room. Just for a refresher, here's a before picture: 

And the after. I love, love, love the way this room turned out. I was so scared about this light I picked out. I was worried it was too unique and wouldn't fit our classic decorating style, but I really think it compliments our piano with out distracting too much. I also love our chairs and bookcase. 

Then moving into our living room... here's a little before picture: 

And the after!!

One thing is for sure, our old railing was so bad! I hated the yellow wood color, but now that it's white I love, love, love it!!! Our couches are perfect for the room and now we all can sit on the couch to watch t.v. Tyler added the mantle on the fireplace and it just makes the room look so complete. And we also got new carpet throughout the house. I like the color of our carpet, but the carpet shows foot marks, which kind of bugs me. Luckily I took these pictures after freshly vacuuming the carpet, so it looks great. 

Onto the kitchen. The only picture I could find with just our kitchen was from 2016 before we had a back splash, but you get the idea. 

Here's the after. These pictures don't do our kitchen justice. I probably should have taken these pictures during the day because the natural sunlight just makes our kitchen look even better. We got all new appliances and a new dining room light. Tyler added can lights and new hardware to the cabinets and the painters stained our cabinets a little bit darker to make it all pop again. 

Moving from the kitchen into our half bath. Nothing too new here, but Tyler added the frame around our mirror and we put up a few new pictures. 

I don't know if I ever showed a after picture of our laundry room. 

I really love the extra room with the washer and dryer. It makes mornings so much smoother when the kids are all in there trying to get their backpacks for school. 

The only other change is our master bedroom. At the last minute, Tyler added can lights to our bedroom and it might be my favorite part of our bedroom. 

I'm still looking for a new bed spread to change things up a little bit, but I can't find anything I like quite yet. 

Well I think that's about it for our remodel. Thanks for reading our little house update. I think it will be so fun to look back on this in 20 years to see how our house has changed. 

The Heat Is On

One thing is for sure, this month has been SO hot!! Here's a few things we have been up to this month:

Head bands is more fun with your siblings. 

Just chillin with our favorite puppy. Look at the cute little tongue... on Bella, not Tyler. 

Hot summer days are meant for the pool. We love swimming at the West Jordan pool. 

We have also made good use of our Lagoon season passes. 

Makayla's friend Chloe even came with us one day. 

Summer nights are also made for Panookies. I think we need to get another skillet because the kids act like they have never seen a cookie before when it comes out of the oven. They all scarf it down as fast as they can. 

This picture makes me laugh and also makes me so sad at the same time. Brynnli loves playing with Devri and they have so much fun dressing up and putting on shows, but Devri's family is going to be moving in the next few months. Our neighborhood doesn't have a lot of kids, and now we are losing a cute little friend for Brynnli to play with. 

We have another bird's nest in our backyard with 3 cute little baby birds. 

The kids wanted to have a lemonade stand again this year. They set it up all by themselves and made an amazing $60. I think we have some entrepreneurs in our future. 

The kids' favorite babysitter from when they were little, Suzanna Smart, got married so we went to the reception. They had a photo booth with props that the kids had so much fun with. 

We celebrated my dad's 76th birthday this year. 

I had to go to girls camp this year (which I was not very happy with, but whatevs). Luckily Daddy took care of everything and the kids had fun while I was gone. 

Caden has basketball practice near a park, so while he is at practice we spend our nights playing in the playground. 

And watch the amazing sunsets. 

I just love when these two cuties get along. They have so much fun dressing up. 

Hey, that looks like another panookie. Maybe we should call this the summer of panookies. 

We went to Tammy and Bruce's house for Bruce's birthday and the kids got to do sparklers and watch the fireworks. 

Tyler snapped this picture.. it's kind of hard to see, but Caden and Brynnli have their arms around each other as they watch the fireworks. Might be one of my favorite moments ever. 

If there's ice cream around, you can probably find Tyler. Oh, there he is. :)

I hate to even say the words, but we have started the dreaded back to school shopping. We were at Target and Makayla found this. We all thought the little girl on the packaging looked exactly like Brynnli. Maybe she has a twin out there somewhere?

Who loves Menchies? These three. Ok, Brynnli just loves the candy. 

It has been a few years since we have seen my favorite Kenny Chesney in concert. Stupid covid ruined live concerts, but guess what? Concerts are back. We loved Kenny and sang to every song. 

He's so hot! Tyler is too. 

Now that takes talent!

Remember how Makayla still loves Harry Potter? This year Makayla made the funnest cupcakes. She put an M & M inside each one that corresponded with the color of each of the 4 houses in Harry Potter. She decorated them and then we all got to choose a cupcake. What ever color was inside was the house we were in.

Caden was Slytherin, Makayla was Hufflepuff, and Brynnli was Ravenclaw. 

We are having so much fun this summer and don't want it to end.