The Fruits of our Labor

By a stroke of luck (and some awesome planning by Jonathon), our first garden has been an absolute success! We are so thrilled with what it has produced so far. When I was younger, I never really appreciated our garden. Mom mostly took care of it. I had to occasionally weed it, but other than that, it was just normal for our family. Now that we have our own, I am practically giddy when Jonathon brings in the produce every day. It is so exciting to see something that we have put time and effort into actually work and provide for our family.  Jonathon commented yesterday that he really understands the parables about the "sower" and "planting a seed" a lot better now. It is a lot of work, but the rewards make it all worth it. 

Last month, our lettuce and spinach was amazing. We had a fresh salad from the garden nearly every day. For breakfast every morning, I would make my berry and spinach smoothies (which are delish!). It has gotten too hot for them now, but we are planning on doing a fall crop of spinach too.

In the last few weeks, the sugar snap peas have been perfect for eating. We get a big bowl full every other day. I blanch them and then freeze them in quart size bags to use later. My very favorite way to eat them is in Thai chicken stir fry (from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook). We had it last week, and I am so excited to be able to have it throughout the year with the remaining peas.

Surprisingly, the raspberries that we transplanted from my parents last fall are actually producing well too. We thought that it would take another year, so we definitely got lucky. This week, we also dug some red potatoes, picked our first two zuchinis, found some red tomatoes, and are anxiously awaiting the beans. We feel totally spoiled and LOVE every single minute of it.

This is what Jonathon brought in for dinner one night. I loved how colorful everything was.

We picked all of our cherries this week (with some help from Mom H.) and Jonathon made a yummy cherry cobbler with them. We have plenty more to make another one... if he's up for it!

*On one last note... we did have a major failure. Our carrots are terrible. We aren't sure what happened, but they are totally deformed. We transplanted them from seedlings started at the store, which could be a reason. I have also heard that carrots need sandy soil so they can grow long and straight, so maybe that is the problem. Anybody know what is going on? 

Before and After: Room 5

There are more rooms in the house, but they aren't finished or aren't changed drastically. These will be the last before and after pictures, and then I will get on with my blogging.

Room 5 (Living Room)

Before: This room had the same white walls and dirty blue carpet as the rest of the house. The entry way had a small half-moon shaped piece of linoleum that we decided to replace.

After: We painted the walls and the carpet is new. I still love the window-seat regardless of the colors. We put laminate floors in the entryway and created a nice path to the front closet. I still want to find an area rug for in front of the couches, but I have been to every store in the area and can't find one that matches the room and that I like. That will have to come later...

The awesome big-screen TV was Jonathon's graduation gift from my family.
It replaced the 13 inch we have had for the last 6 years. What a HUGE difference.

These leather/faux leather couches were from ksl.com. The picture makes them look black, but they are actually a very lovely forrest green. I searched and searched until I came across this awesome deal. They are in great condition and were only $275 for the set. We love them!

The entry way with the new floors. 

Before and After: Rooms 3 and 4

Room 3 (Boys' Room)

Before: It was painted blue, but it was kind of a girly blue, so we darkened it a bit so it would match all of our previous decorations.

After: New carpet, darker blue walls (it's hard to tell from the flash in the picture, but it is a lot darker than before), and of course, some CARS decorations

Room 4 (Master Bedroom)

Before: Same blue carpet and white walls as the rest of the house

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

After: We painted the walls a mint green (hard to tell from the pictures, but I LOVE the color)

Before and After: Rooms 1 and 2

I wanted to post some before and after pictures of our house from when we moved in versus how it looks now. I don't claim to be a great decorator, and we still have a long way to go, but I wanted to record how far we have come and how grateful we are for a house that now feels like our home.

Room 1 (Kitchen)

Before: Notice the bright purple wall and matching countertop... I like purple, but wow, that was hard to look at (it was worse in person). The linoleum floor was also torn and coming up in spots, so it needed some desperate work.

Dining Area

Kitchen Area

After: We painted over that purple wall (it took 3 coats), and it really made the purple countertops more bearable. We also installed laminate floors in the kitchen. It was hard work, but it is one of our favorite changes.

New and Improved Dining Area

Kitchen Area minus the purple wall

Room 2 (Playroom)

Before: This room was used as a preschool, and I do not know if I have ever seen nastier carpet than this. It was coming up off the floor, had masking tape stuck to it, and had red fingernail polish stains in several areas. In one corner, there was another random piece of carpet duct taped to the original carpet. Plus, there were crayon and marker scribbles all over the walls. Yikes!

After: I love that our boys have a place to play. We really wanted to make it fun, inviting, and educational. I love how it turned out. The new carpet and paint made all the difference in the world.

The whole room view 

The TV area

What can I say... I love maps!
Hopefully my boys will love Geography as much as I do.

*Thank goodness for the $5000 carpet and paint allowance from the seller so that we could make all of these changes on our small budget.

Grandpa and Grandma C. came to Town

My mom and dad came down for the weekend. For 3 days, we worked hard, played hard, and laughed hard. What a great few days we had together. Here is our weekend in pictures:

We (re)planted 20 raspberry starts from my mom's garden. Hopefully, next year they will start producing yummy berries.

Dad and Jonathon spent many hours rebuilding our broken gate. 

Grandpa built the boys an awesome new sandbox

They took advantage of the sandbox bright and early the next morning (in their pajamas, nonetheless).

Uncle Ben took Christian bowling. Christian is doing his "happy dance" after knocking down some pins.

Grandpa, Jonathon, and Christian got to go to the BYU homecoming football game against SDSU. The Cougars won, and the boys came home happy!

Activities not pictured included:

*Cleaning the Garage (now we can actually put the car in it)

*Shopping and Decorating help from Mom

*Playing Scrabble, Scotland Yard, and Settlers of Catan

*Wedding Reception for my cousin Mark and his new wife, Samantha
(This included seeing about 50 cousins, and Aunts, and Uncles that I haven't seen in several years.... so FUN!)

Home Improvement

We have been busy, busy, busy since moving. It seems the home improvement projects never end. Here's what we have been up to:

-painted the entire house

-got new carpet (technically, we didn't do this one)

-installed laminate floors in kitchen and entry

-changed door knobs

-installed child safety locks on doors

-rehung bi-fold pantry doors

-rerouted outside drain pipe

-re-caulked kitchen sink

-re-caulked shower

-fixed dishwasher wiring

-turned over dirt in weed patch, um... flower bed

-installed new knobs on closet doors

-in the process of bringing back to life nearly-dead grass

- installed new handle on sliding glass door

(Pictured: Dad H. and Aaron helping install laminate floors and Tiffany taping walls for a second coat of paint. Jonathon's family has spent hours and hours helping us. We couldn't have done it without them.)

Still to do:

-rototill spot for garden

-fix broken gate

-replant area of grass (maybe next spring...)

-reroute dryer vent (who puts the vent in the garage?)

-sand and repaint deck

-paint fence

-get new window screens

-Build sandbox

A lesson in Home Improvement:

*Last week we learned a valuable lesson. While doing home improvement projects with children in the house, it is important to put the vents back on immediately. Andrew loved the "hole" in the floor and threw two small balls down it. They rolled about 12 feet back, stopping just short of the heater opening. Using some creative means (i.e. a mirror, flashlight, empty paper towel roll, and vacuum hose) and an hour of our time, we finally got them out. We were pretty proud of our efforts, as evidenced by this picture of Jonathon :)