Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Tagged : Ten reasons why I love my home.

I was tagged to tell you my top ten reasons why I like my home, I really liked this tag especially for the season, of showing gratitude. So hear are a few reasons why I love my home.

#1 I love my home's location. Heber city is beautiful! I love the small town atmosphere, seeing beautiful big red barns all over, having horse's within walking distance in every direction, hearing the sounds of the Heber Valley Railroad, and a donkey braying, and seeing hot air balloons nearly every morning in the summer. I also love the many trees in our yard, they are so pretty all year, even if they cause a big mess.
#2 Weird I know but I love this bathroom, the toilet is a little broken, as well as the sink, but I like the way the bathroom is decorated, and I love that this is the second bathroom in our house, after living in apartments where we only had one bathroom, two feels like a luxury.

#3 My favorite room in our whole house is Brandon's nursery. I love the furniture! I love the pictures that my sister Natalie painted for me, I love that my sister and I painted the room together (my first time painting a room) I really really love the bedding, it was pricey but I still look at it every day and love it. I love that the room is decorated in a safari theme, but it is not over done. I love how relaxing Brandon's room is. Some of our happiest memories have happened in his room.
#4 I love our backyard. I love that it came all fenced in so we could get a dog. I love that the grass always grows tall and green. I love the trees that provide shade. I love that we now have space to have a garden, which mean yummy corn on the cob! I especially love the new patio that we put in this spring to replace the ugly green house. I love that we can entertain out there, and we can eat relaxing dinners out there. I also love Jared's grill that sits on our deck, I love it because Jared will cook dinners on it and they are yummy! Before is above, UGLY, and after is below, Beautiful, especially when it is not covered in leaves!
#5 I love our bedroom. I love that we have a bathroom in the bedroom, another luxury that we did not have in apartments. I love our new king size bed! and I really love this chair that sits in the corner, it is a very cozy little place to read at night.
# 6 I love this chair as well, basically any place that I can sit and read or ponder is a favorite place, but I love this chair because it was our first furniture purchase as a couple, and because we bought it in Oregon it reminds us of our home away from home. I also love the beautiful Pendleton blanket that is VERY warm, it reminds me of some of my piano students in Oregon. I also love that this chair is right by the window so I can feel the breeze when it comes in, and this chair has a view of our little fireplace, which makes it even more cozy.
#7 This is the cozy fireplace that I love. I love how quaint it is, and I love that our couches match in color, a fun coincidence. I love that it is a gas fireplace so I can have a fire any time I want, and I do not have to clean it up.#8 I love this ceiling fan. We picked it out, (unlike many of the other lights in the house) and it was one of the first home improvement projects we completed. I love the memory of having my mom and dad (mostly my handy dad) helping us. Call me weird but I really like to look at it, I think it is pretty. I also like that it has a remote, Brandon is still fascinated with it, it keeps us cool, while keeping our gas bill down, and it is the only light in our living room, we could not do without it.
#9 I love my big wall clock and shelves. I think clocks are beautiful, (I would almost be tempted to start a collection, but where would I put them?) but I had a very specific look that I was going for, and I could not find it anywhere. Lucky for me my mom found this one and it made a great Christmas gift. I love the shelves that Jared gave me for Mothers Day, and I love the little things that we put on them. I really like to decorate them for Christmas, and I love that they fill up the large wall space.
#10 I love having space for a piano in the main room of our home. I love that I can teach piano lessons in my home, providing a little extra income while still having Brandon at home with me. I also love that this is a digital piano, I can turn it off, turn the volume down, move it easily, and I never have to tune it.

Bonus reasons for loving my house:

*It is only 1,100 +/- square feet, small by most expectations. I love that it is small, I have all the space that I need, but everything is on one floor, which means no stairs for Brandon to fall down, and I can clean it very thoroughly in one day.

*It has a large yard, I am learning how to do yard work, and I am even beginning to enjoy it.

*It has a room dedicated to our office, and hobbies.

*It has a space just for laundry.

*The kitchen is a galley kitchen, (fancy way of saying a small kitchen that looks more like a hall) it makes cooking very easy and convenient, when everything is right at your fingertips.

So now I tag; my mom, who has lived in her house for over 20 years, there must be something about it, Megan, Erin, Natalie S., and Camille, who moved into their house recently, and Holly, whose husband built their house. As well as Alana, Karie, and Kim, whose house's I have never seen and would like to see.

HAVE FUN! :)

Leaves are falling every where!

Guess what Jared and I spent Saturday doing, raking leaves, YEAH! Anyone who has been to our house can attest to the many trees that we have. I love the trees, year round, and I think it is fun to rake the leaves, but my oh my, there are way too many!, So the question then is this, how do you get rid of them all? We tried stuffing them into the garbage can, but that just wouldn't do it, so then Jared tried mowing the leaves, after the mower died twice, we gave up on that idea, although the pictures are pretty funny, I think. Then we got permission from the fire department to burn them (safely) but that would have taken days (I know I was surprised too by how long it took) so we resorted to bagging them, and we will slowly fill the garbage with a few bags each week. We were able to rake most of front yard, which filled ten bags, and our garbage can, but we have not even started the back yard. So I am wondering, with the need for alternative energy, could we somehow use leaves? I have lots! :D
Lucky us, our front yard looks like we never made an attempt to rake them up, and our trees are still covered with leaves. Oh well.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Fall Pictures

We love fall! I love Brandon's jean jacket, his aunt Jodi gave it to him.
Oooo!


We have so many leaves!
I love his happy face!
Brandon loves pumpkins, even though he calls them balls, there round right?Look mom leaves are falling, YEAH!

Bah, Yeah? I love listening to Brandon talk!


Look at those beautiful eyes, they make me melt!


Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Cutest Animal in the Petting Zoo

Jared and I planned on going to the "Boo at the Zoo" this year with Brandon, but when we got there, the lines were outrageous! So we went to plan B instead and decided to go Gardner Village. What a fun little place! We looked at many shops, and resisted buying everything we liked, and had fun looking at all of the witches and decorations, but our favorite part was the petting zoo. (I know you are all suprised). Looking at these pictures can you guess what our favorite animal was?
You guessed it, it was our little Zebra, and can you blame us for liking him the best, he is so stinking cute!!!!

Piano Recital


I am so relieved to finally have this years piano recital out of the way. I currently have 19 students so planning a recital for them was a lot of work. I am please with the way it turned out, and how everyone performed. We had a Halloween recital so all the kids got to dress up, and then we ended the recital with treats, all of which I made, and I was way over prepared (4 double batches of sugar cookies, and 1 double batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies). Thank goodness my mom and grandma came up for the recital and they were able to help, I could not have done it without them! My mom even came up to perform, I am so impressed with her for learning how to play the piano, (not many adults do, even if they want to), and for performing for the first time, Way to go MOM!!! I must not forget to mention the tremendous help I received from my husband, too often I take him for granted. Thank you Jared for helping with the set up, clean up, operating the microphone, and most importantly taking care of Brandon. I love you!

Girls Night Out

Last Friday my sister, mom, and I had a little party. We spent the evening decorating my mom's house, baking Halloween cupcakes, and playing games, but the highlight of the evening was dressing up the only boys who were invited (Brandon and Chandler) in their costumes and trying to get pictures of them, unfortunately the pictures do not do them justice. Brandon is a Zebra and Chandler is a Giraffe.

McKells Par-"Tea"

Brandon's little friend McKell turned one years old, so she had a darling little tea party. Happy Birthday McKell!!