Winter has come a calling...

Quite literally!

My brother made this man and then rang the door bell, he's so funny!

It has been snowing like crazy in Utah and it is beautiful! It has been so fun to sit in a cozy house, playing games iwth family and eating lots of good food while watching the snow fall outside. This is what Christmas vacation is all about!

Some of the highlights:

Making Gingerbread houses, yum!

Quinn's was particularly inventive:

Got some great gifts...

Can you say happy boys? or what?

When Chase opened his gift from grandma he said, "Its just what I wanted!!" He had never seen it before in his life. It's great when whatever you get is exactly what you wanted.

Played with all the big cousins:

And have a ball sleeping in the same bed every night, such sweeties!

For my friends in the snowy North.

I snapped these photos as we lounged outside yesterday

It's December and my boys aren't wearing any shirts

Which is fine because it isn't even cold here!

My toesies enjoyed the weather very much

And eating juicy strawberries helped us feel very posh

It was lovely to sit back, enjoy the feel of the mid70 degree air and watch my funny boys...

(Mark, he gets his ribs from you!)

This is Jack's "Spider Man" shot

Looks more like a "Crazy man" shot to me.

THIS is why people live in Arizona!

House transformations

My sisters were talking the other day and one of them mentioned my change to white picture frames and the other couldn't picture it. So she emailed and asked that I post a few pics of my recent projects and my house so she can picture it. Honestly ladies, you should just come see it in person!

Here's the coffee table before:

And after! Including new rug and throw pillows:

The old entertainment center

Picked up this treasure at an antique store in town

(are all of you Tuconians aware that there are great antique stores in Tucson? There are!)

Painted:

Antiqued:

I love how the antiquing makes all the details pop out!

And in the house, complete with "family" sign I also painted:

p.s. is it too early for Christmas decorations? I didn't think so, my house is all decked out!

The chairs have had a few transformations

Here is the first change in 2008:

Now in 2010, love these fabrics! And no, they are not practical but who cares?

They make me happy when I look at them:)

(also, pre treated the fabric with stain guard and they wipe off pretty well!)

My kitchen wall. This used to have one picture on it.

I painted all the frames, many of them I already had so it didn't cost much!

(My christmas things are in there so its not completely how it looks normally but you get the idea)

Another wall of pics.

I love the oval frames and the round framed mirror was a great find at Goodwill!

No before pic of this little gem but it was brown/ugly.

Now it is my adorable end table!

My favorite compliment from anyone thus far was my friend who said, "I saw that before you painted it and I honestly thought it was way ugly and it looks great now!" She didn't have the vision!

This wall is still under construction. Tracy is making me a fat white frame for my timp pic for Christmas, can't wait!! And I have a cool framed scripture to go where the Christmas sleds are now. The little thing on the right is my collection of antique finds at the local stores.

Oh, and my garage during the chaos.

I knew somehow I was going to organize it to fit our new van when it came.....

And here it is: the Swagger Wagon! The boys think it is so cool, even cooler than Daddys truck! Probably just because it is newer,

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

My painting ideas came from www.allthingsthrifty.com Check it out.

A Musical Meeting with Ellen

My cousin was on Ellen!! She is famous. I love Ali, she is such a fun loving person. Way to go Ali!

Mission San Xavier

We took a little morning trip to this mission that was build in 1783 by some friars from Spain. As we were there and learning about the history of it I realized 1783 was a really long time ago...who knew anyone but the Indians were here then?

It is totally in the middle of no where.

I love the white of the building against the deep blue sky.

The whole place was abandoned at one point and wild animals were living inside. They did major restoration on the whole thing.

They are just cute.

Deep in the labyrinth.

The Indians come to set up little eateries in the stalls on the mission grounds. There were about 7 or 8 stalls and all of them had the exact same menu. Fry bread, fry bread with sugar, fry bread with cinnamon, fry bread with meat, fry bread with honey. It was hard to choose who to buy from when they all look exactly the same and they are all eying you to see where you are going to spend your money. We chose the people who had two cute little kids:

I thought Jack and Chase looked cute playing under the table with these little Indian kids. Seeing them made me thankful that Quinn has a good job.

Have I mentioned...

That my awesome mom is coming in 2 weeks and that we have tickets to go see:

So You Think You Can Dance Live on Tour!!

I can't wait!

Halloween

We were the bat family for halloween. I wanted to do Batman and Robin for the boys but who wants to be robin?

Of course this pic is a little lame because you can't see Quinn's camo backed bat on his shirt and you cant see the boys awesome bat capes!

Chase particularly enjoyed the sugar feas!t

Carving pumpkins is really fun! Why did i not remember how fun it is?

The Man Hike

Quinn and a couple buddies from the ward decided to hike/camp MT. Wrightson, a mountain you can see from our house. It was a warm day and they didn't anticipate any bad weather. Well they returned home today triumphant and a very tired. They survived "hurricane force winds", pelting rain and hail, freezing temps and a very steep and little used trail. It was a mini epic and just what a man needs every now and then.

My favorite quotes from the retelling:

"I should have brought a jacket."

"Paul didn't bring a tent, just a tarp."

And last but best of all:

"We were talking around the campfire when Costco came up which naturally led to diapers and before we knew it, here we were...3 guys on the top of a mountain talking about which diapers we prefer."

A Date

I went on a real date with my awesome husband wednesday night. We did just about our two favorite things, mountain biking and eating. We weren't able to start until almost 5:30 so it was a race against the darkness. It was a bit hot when we got going but as soon as the sun went down it was perfect. The air was soft and warm and we caught glimpses of the amazing desert sunset at every turn. I wish the picture did it justice.
I love dates! I wish we were those people who did them every week. Quinn is so nice and fun to be with, especially when he isn't playing daddy and I love just being myself and having a break from my mommy side. Quinn opened doors, carried all the water, stopped to give me drinks, loaded/unloaded my bike and warned me of the sand traps and cactus. What a gentleman:)



Also, I got up early this morning to bike by myself before Quinn left on his Man Hike (more details and pics to come, hopefully) This little friend jumped up from the desert floor and wanted to hitch a ride!
I was seriously crusing along at a good clip when my tire flipped this cactus up and into my leg. I stopped as quickly as possible and gingerly unclipped my foot from the pedal. I was so glad I thought to grab my phone and snap a pic before the delicate (or not so) extracting procedure. I tell ya, the desert is beautiful but extremely sharp, thorny, rocky, hot and unforgiving!

My Boys

Have I mentioned lately that I love being a mom?

How could I not with these two guys hanging on me day in and day out?They seriously make me laugh...And they make me happy when I am sad.
Quinn was telling the biker dude from the previous post that he is an AF Pilot. He then turned to me and asked what I do.
"I have the best job in the world.
I hang out with those two all day and let Quinn make all the money." It really is the best job in the world and I am starting to realise that I won't be employed in this capacity forever. Better enjoy it now...I plan to.