Merry Christmas!

We have had a busy December!  The kids had a couple school concerts, we've been exploring new areas, and making new and old traditions.  We went to the LDS Mesa Temple to see the lights and hear live Christmas music.

Preston is so excited for Christmas!  He just loves Santa and the magic of Christmas.  He's a first grader, which has really made me so sad for the families in Connecticut who lost a child and won't be with them for Christmas this year.

Logan is excited of course too.

Tanner still doesn't mind talking with Santa, but not too close.

The kids decorated the tree.  I think about 90% of our decorations are handmade by me or the boys.  Every year we talk about getting new decorations, but it doesn't seem to happen...maybe next year.

Preston turned 7.  I can't believe my youngest is that old now.

Tanner and Preston had school concerts.  Preston sang songs with the first grade class, so adorable.  Tanner played his sax and had a speaking part.

We are fans of The Piano Guys (if you've never seen them look them up on YouTube).  We surprised the kids with an early Christmas gift, a concert last Friday to The Piano Guys.  It was a lot of fun and entertaining.  Tanner was even able to get Jon Schmidt's autograph.  They will be performing for the big PBS fundraiser on TV, they are becoming very popular.  We were lucky to get tickets to one of their last smaller concerts before they get too big for us little people.





I'm so excited for my Christmas present that will be coming after Christmas, a new camera.  About half of the pictures I take with the camera I have now come out blurry.  Anyways, hopefully soon I will have clear quality pictures.  I can't wait.

More Kitchen Photos

Here are more photos of the whole kitchen. 

The before (above)

The peninsula is painted Sherwin Williams Tidewater, which goes beautifully with the backsplash.

I LOVE this sink.  It's large and only one drain that food can go down.  Great for kids!  I also love our new faucet, easy to use.

Our new dining table, well at least it's new to us.  I bought it off of Craigslist.  I love the pedestal legs, aren't they pretty?



Oh yes, beautiful roses in December.  It's amazing my rose bushes are still loaded with roses.  I'm still getting used to the weather here.  It feels like summer to us still, I'm not complaining I like it, but it doesn't seem like Christmas time yet.

Glass Tile Backsplash

We finally did it!  The new glass tile backsplash is done.  I ordered the glass tile online from The Home Depot, it's the arctic ice tile in the 2"x 4" size.  It comes on mesh which makes installation go quicker.  We bought a tile saw after comparing the price of renting one to buying an inexpensive one that we could take our time using and keep when we were done.  It took us about half a day to cut and install.  A couple days later I grouted.  Lastly, well I still need to seal the grout, but it shouldn't take long.

The kitchen looks modern and fresh now!

A small area between a wall and the refrigerator.

(above)

I'm happy with how it has all turned out.  Here is what it was like before, just too dark for me.  It is light and bright now!  Next, paint the cabinets.  Probably not anytime soon, I need a little break.

More Paint Colors

Here are the rest of the pictures of our main floor that we've painted.  In the picture above you can see all the three colors together.  On the left is the formal living room that I posted about earlier here, it's Sherwin Williams Silverstrand.  In the middle is the color we used for accent walls, it's Sherwin Williams Tidewater.  Then on the right is the main color throughout most of the main floor, it's Sherwin Williams Useful Gray.

The family room is painted the Useful Gray with the accent wall painted in Tidewater ( above and below).



Our kitchen peninsula is also painted in Tidewater and the rest of the wall also in Useful Gray.  You can see in the backsplash area where I didn't paint because our next project is installing the glass subway tile.



Our butcher block is also finally installed. I used Waterlox to coat the entire piece. Another big future project is painting the cabinets white, which is why the two different color woods doesn't bother me yet.

Below is an inspiration picture for our future new backsplash, I can't wait to get it all installed and be closer to having a somewhat finished kitchen.





Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

 
 Our first Halloween here in Arizona.  It was quite the party.  Since the weather is perfect for a night stroll, everyone is outside enjoying the crowds that go by.
 
Spencer was a spy.

Tanner was a ghost.  (I used dry shampoo to make his hair and face white, weird I know, but it worked)

Logan was a vampire.

Preston was a policeman.

I was a slacker this year on costumes.  We waited until the last minute to look for things to go with their costume.  We didn't find much, so we mostly just used what we had.  They all still got plenty of candy!

Happy Birthday to Logan today too!  He is now 9 years old.  He's a great kid; responsible, self-motivated, and just a sweet boy!

New Paint Colors

 We have almost finished painting the entire main floor of the house after eight gallons of paint.  We rented scaffolding so we could paint the high ceiling entry and install a foyer light.  Let me just say getting on the very top of the scaffolding was very scary.  I made Jason do all the painting up there, I only had to get up there to help him put it together.  I don't recommend it to anyone who is afraid of heights, I didn't think I was until getting up there. 

Most of the walls in the house are brown.  We are now in the desert and all the houses are brown on the outside, I don't know why it has to look like a desert in the inside too.  I chose three different colors for the main floor.  In this post I will show one color that I chose for the formal living room and dining room.  Picking out colors was quite the challenge.  I wanted to do it right the first time.  Colors always look different than what I had imagined once on the walls, but overall it has been a huge improvement. 

(Before)

I chose Silverstrand by Sherwin Williams.  It is a blue gray color, which looks more blue than I expected, I thought it had a slight green tint to it, but I don't see the green anymore.  I do like it, it's a nice color.  By the way, the nice people at Sherwin Williams told me that they were going to have a 40% off sale on paint, so I waited for the sale.  I will ask next time I need more paint when they will have a sale.

I wish my camera was better at capturing the color better.

I will be posting about the other colors soon.

A Brighter Kitchen

If you know me well, you know I like a light and bright house.  The kitchen in our new home felt a little bit like a dungeon, well maybe not that bad, but it did feel dark to me.  The countertops and backsplash were a black granite tile, that seemed really hard to keep looking clean.  I always have had light colored countertops and realized that I've always been happy with them, even though they had been laminate.  We decided to replace these countertops with Quartz Silestone in Blanco City.  Because quartz can get a bit pricey, I chose the lightest color option in the least expensive group.  We bought them and had them installed by Home Depot.  They had a 10% off special, plus by signing up for a credit card I got another 10% off.  I think we got a great deal. 

After the old countertops and backsplash had been removed, it felt brighter already.

I love the new countertops!  They feel clean, bright, and modern.  We just did the 2cm thickness, which was the base price.  I was a little worried they would be too thin, but it seems normal to me and doesn't bother me at all.

After shopping for a new sink, I found one that works perfect for us.  It's a silgranit one bowl sink.  We have a garbage disposal in the one and only drain, no more food stuck in the wrong drain.  I think this is going to be great with kids.  So far I love it!!!

We could have done an undermount sink, but it wasn't that important to me, at least not for $250.

We have our glass tile backsplash ready to install and our island butcher block still needs to be cut and finished before installing.  I will be posting more pictures soon, we've been painting the house, repainting the brown walls with more updated colors.

Aqua Glass Floor Lamp

 Our living room doesn't have any lights at all.  I was on a mission to find a floor lamp to get started with the lighting in there.  I remembered seeing a floor lamp at Pier 1 Imports that I liked.  So I went to the store and saw "it", and it was more beautiful than I had remembered.  But, there was one problem, the price.  I couldn't pay $200, even though I really wanted it.  After I wiped the drool off my chin I roamed around a little dreaming of how perfect it would be in my living room.  The sales guy there asked if I needed any help, I asked if they were going to have a lamp sale anytime soon.  He didn't know, and asked which lamp I liked.  I told him which one and he said he had one in the back not in perfect condition that he could sell discounted.  I got excited and wanted to see it.  The top glass ball was missing and the part the lamp shade attaches to was loose and we couldn't figure out how to tighten it and the discount was getting greater.  It also didn't have the original lampshade, but said I could pick out one of their extra ones they had in the back.  To make a long story short, by time I got to the checkout, I paid $50! 

It was so cool walking out of the store with the lamp I thought I would never have.  Anyways, after about 15 minutes of messing around with the lamp, I had it tightened up and working just fine.  I love the lampshade too, it's silvery.  I love a great deal!