Mini Vacation

For Memorial weekend we went to SLC for a mini-vacation. We usually stay with Erin, Kyle and Jack but this trip we stayed at a hotel. We got a room at Little America and it was so nice. They had a great indoor/outdoor pool and it was right downtown so we were able to ride Trax to the Gateway mall.

We went to the Hogle Zoo with Uncle Dan on Friday evening and had such a good time. Some of the animals were MIA, but we loved seeing the Tigers and the Apes. The Gorilla was Brooks' favorite. He kept walking back and forth in his habitat and then stopping right in front of the glass where Brooks was standing and they would just look at each other. It was really cool. After the zoo we went to Zuppas, my all time favorite place to eat in SL. If you have never eaten there, you are seriously missing out. I want to open a chain down here, there food is awesome.




































Saturday we headed over to the Gateway mall and met the Bennetts at the Planetarium. Brooks loves seeing Jack and they had a blast running around together. Jack has nick named Brooks - Brooksie and in turn, Brooks calls Jack - Jackie. It so funny that they both decided to add the "ey" sound to the end of each others names. After the Planetarium we headed over to the fountain and let the boys get wet and run crazy. It was such a nice sunny day, unfortunately the only one while we were up there. After a three hour nap back at the Hotel (B was really worn out) we decided to ride Trax back to the Gateway for dinner and a movie. We'd been promising Brooks we would ride the train since we got there. I love the theaters up in SL, we got online and reserved our seats before we left the hotel. It makes it so much nicer that you don't have to arrive early to get a good seat. We grabed a quick bite at the food court and then walked to the theater to see Kung Fu Panda 2. It was raining pretty hard by now, and we had bought Brooks a tiger umbrella at the Zoo so he was loving it. The movie was SO cute, I want to go and see it again. I love that Brooks is at the age now where we can all enjoy the movies as a family. I love going to the theater!
















Before we headed back home on Sunday, we met the Bennetts one more time at the South Town Mall. It has a great play area for the kids downstairs and then the Dad's (good sports that they are) rode the train around the mall with the boys. Me and Erin headed over to VS while we waited. I wish we had one in SG, would someone please open one :). They were having an awesome sale and so I left the mall a happy camper. Then we ate some lunch up at the food court and Brooks and Pat rode the Carolsel. The ride home was lovely, Brooks decided he was tired enough to sleep all the way to Cedar, YAY.







































An exciting side note to this post; Brooks is officially potty trained. We used this trip as a catalyst to finally be done with the struggle. We told him about the Zoo and going to see the new Kung Fu movie and explained how we wouldn't be able to go if he was going to keep having potty accidents. This was what finally pushed him to decide to stop fighting the whole potty concept. I am happy to report that it has been a full two weeks of dry nights and no accidents. I am so proud of him. The other night he even went into the bathroom, went poop, wiped and then came out and told us to come look in the potty. These are the moments that make being a parent so fun. I love seeing him so proud of his accomplishments. And this weekend we will be making a trip to the store to get "super hero" underwear, his reward for staying clean and dry for two weeks. Yay for my big boy!

Mother's Day

We had a very relaxing day on Sunday. Pat took us to the Egg and I for breakfast and then we headed over to Snow Canyon and went for a short hike. I forgot how gorgeous it is out there. The weather was wonderful. The clouds had started to roll in and it was nice and cool. Thank goodness! I am so not ready for the heat yet. Then Brooks and I took a long nap when we got home. I usually curse myself when I am lazy like that but since it was mother's day I gave myself a break. Then we went and delivered potted flowers to the grandmas. Brooks loved presenting these to his Nana and Mimi. All and all, it was a fantastic day.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. Lots of visits with family, lots of good food, lots of fun - too much candy!!

Saturday we had a little Easter get together at my oldest Brother's in-laws house. They have a great backyard and the Easter bunny had a wonderful time hiding eggs (Thanks Aunt Raquel). It was a lot of fun watching all the kids run around collecting eggs, all 150 of them. My brother's and sister all have girls, so Brooks is always the lone male out there but he has a great time with all his cousins. We had a yummy lunch with chicken, potato salad and baked beans. Then Raquel brought out cup cakes she had made. When it was time to leave we were helping clean up and I found about 4 cupcakes laying around with only the frosting eaten. My dad later told me that Brooks kept coming into the gazebo to get another cupcake...
















After a nice afternoon nap, we headed to Pat's mom's house for another BBQ. Some really good friends of ours were in town and we were also celebrating my 30th birthday. I'm not sure how 30 snuck up on me so quickly. I have accomplished a lot of things in the last few years and feel like I've survived my share of hardships as well. So I'm excited for my thirties, hopefully they will be a little less erratic then my twenties were. Of course I did not take many pictures Saturday night, but thank goodness I had such a good helper when it came time to blow out all those candles

Sunday we had a visit from the Easter bunny and Brooks got a much desired cape and mask, and some superhero toys. He's really been into the super hero thing lately. So Sunday afternoon he ran around in his underwear and cape, why is that kind of stuff so damn cute?

Then we headed to Mimi's house once more to have another egg hunt. Erin, Jack and Mary came down for the holiday and Brooks was so excited to see Jack. He was also very excited to add to his candy collection. Some of which will be undergoing a disappearing act. Erin also announced this weekend that they are having another baby! We are so excited to have another cousin and looking forward to being able to cuddle a little one again :)



































Easter this year was a lot of fun, and now I just have to get through the last week of the semester and survive finals and it will be summer!! I haven't been this excited for summer since May of 99. Happy Easter everyone!

Brooks' Room

When we bought Brooks' baby furniture, we chose the set we did because the crib could be used as a headboard and foot board for a full size bed. Which at the time we thought was really savy, so we didn't have to buy another bed... Well as it turns out, a full size bed just takes up too much dang room. So we listed all the baby furniture for sale and went in search of a twin bed. We got this cute little blue one at Sell it again Sams. It was perfect because most of the decor in Brooks' bedroom is brown and blue, so I didn't have to change up the color scheme too much. Here are a few before pictures...























See how crammed his room was before, he didn't really have any room to play .... here are the after photos. I'm still not completely done, I need to find some fabric for the curtains and I'm on the hunt for a cute quote in vinyl lettering to put next to the tree where the wall is bare.




















Not sure why these came out kind of cloudy... but where the bookshelf and lion are is where the full size bed use to be and then where his bed is now is the wall his dresser use to be on.


















I am very proud of this little tree... I painted this and it turned out so perfect!

Here are some simple little deco ideas that I used to save a little money as well,














I had some blue fabric that I used to line the back of a black bookshelf we already had to make it part of the room a little more.






















For all of these pictures (it's hard to tell on the family ones) I used scrapbook paper that had the same blue and brown tones that went with other things in the room and place the pictures on top to make them a little more colorful. Then with the three pictures above his bed, I actually painted these silhouettes right onto the glass, with the scrapbook paper placed in the frame... they turned out great!




I'm working on another blog about DIY decorating ideas that are inexpensive and easy... stay tuned :)

New Family Pictures

We recently had some new family pictures taken by a very talented photographer. It was really fun and I love the pictures we got. Here are just a few....

Click HERE to view Aidee Jae Photography. Amberly is wonderful to work with and her pictures are beautiful.

Catch up

I've been meaning to write about several things for a while now... so I'm going sum up some of the ones I've been thinking about...

Pat and I decided to be very productive this summer so we've had some fun projects going on.
First, Pat built us a nice little deck area for our backyard, which is all rock... It's nice to have a little area to put some chairs and enjoy the weather that has been steadily cooling off...


















Then we decided to make an old wood door into a headboard for our King size bed... that has sadly been without one since we bought it about 2 yrs ago. It turned out so great! I love it so much, and we painted our two nightstands to match. Now we are on the lookout for a low 6 drawer dresser.


























We made (and I mean Pat) this cute magnetic chalk board for Brooks. Now he has a nice little area in our dining room for his puzzles, coloring books, and now a chalk board where we can work on numbers and colors.

















Future projects.... We are trying to sell the current furniture we have in Brooks' room and buy a twin bed for him so he'll have a little more room for toys and such. Pat is currently working on a toy box, that he started when Brooks was a year old. I am planning on refinishing my cedar chest so we can put it at the end of our bed. I'll post some pictures as we complete these ones.

School Pictures by Aidee Jae Photography

Recent photos taken of Brooks. Love them all, Amberly you did such a good job!