Beautiful Twin Falls

 

Braided Bread

A lesson on making braided bread. Each month the girls do a report on a specific country and then we would find a yummy recipe from that country and make it. Some months it turned out great! But other times...not so much! Today's bread was delicious!

 

My Grandparents Home

This was my grandpa and grandma Newman's house when I was growing up. They lived up in the mountains of Star Valley Wyoming. I loved visiting them and their home. They had acres of land all around them to hike and explore. To ride snow mobiles and sled down hills. It was like kid paradise! And it really was filled with so many great memories with me and my siblings and cousins. We used to sled down the hill next to my grandparents house and it was so fun! I remember peeing my pants one time as I laughed so hard! Another time we went on a hike behind their home and ran into a moose! We saw Elk, deer and all sorts of wildlife on those hikes. In the summer time we would take my grandparents RV and boat and drive south a few hours and go boating at Bear Lake. So many special memories!

One of my cousins bought their home when my grandmother got too sick and they had to relocate somewhere closer for her to get assistance. My grandpa stayed by her side until she passed away and then he moved to Mount Pleasant, Utah. My cousin Amber posted on Facebook one day that it had burned down. I was so sad to hear this. I am glad she and her family are safe but what a loss it was. But I wanted to show a before picture because it really was such a special place to me and I believe everyone else too.

 

Our Home

Just two random pictures of our home. We love how it turned out for the most part. There are a few things we would change but it's been such a great place to raise our kids. So many amazing, fun and also tough memories in this home that I wanted the girls to remember how blessed we all are. 

 

Bathroom Makeover!

    Our guest bathroom was...cough, horrible. Just plain nasty. Ryan says, "No it wasn't."  I beg to differ. It was outdated, cheap and just so not my style at all...or anymore. So another coronavirus project began. This time is was my idea. Maybe that's why he wasn't too thrilled! haha. 

    So many many hours, tears, disagreements, laughters and 2,500 whopping dollars later, we changed our bathroom's entire look.  We painted walls, floors, did a stencil on the floor, hung ship lap on one wall, sanded wood, cut wood, stained wood, changed out the mirror, light fixture, vanity, sink, faucet, curtains, rugs, show curtain and decor. It took about 12 days! It was a way bigger project than I thought it was goin got be. But I absolutely love it!! 

 

Another Home Project- Kitchen Blacksplash

Before and After!

 I wasn't completely happy with how my kitchen turned out. I wanted a more bright look. But we didn't want to spend a lot of money changing counter tops or backsplash. So I looked up how to paint the backsplash and went right to work! I love how it turned out and it's much brighter now in the kitchen.

 

First Corona Virus Home Project

Ryan had this great idea of added wainscoting around our whole upstairs as we had left over wood. I thought he had gone mad, because he hates projects! But this one he jumped on and spear headed. He measured, cut and nailed everything up and then the kids and I came behind him and painted three coats of paint and then I did all the caulking. It turned out great and just added a lot to our walls. 

 

Shiplap Wall Project

Every year we do a few projects to our house to add richness, value and beauty! I wanted to shiplap walls for a long time and decided this was the year. I knew exactly what walls I wanted to do and we went to work making it happen! I love the way they turned out and it adds so much character to our house. Thanks babe for all your hard work helping me do this project! You're a champ!!

Our Yard!

Here are some pictures of the process we went through to get our yard in.  It was a LONG process and there were a lot of very tough moments along the way, but now that it's in, we are so happy with it!

The kids, smiling.  Right before we put them to work.  Not alot of smiles after that...

Ed Jolly, a friend from the ward, and his wife and daughter gave us a good bid on our sprinkler system.  They installed it over about a month period.  It was hard because our ground was so dense and rocky, but we finally got it all done. 

We had an idea on how we wanted our back yard fire pit and patio to look.  We hired 3 mennonite brothers who worked their butts off and put in the pavers and basically made our yard amazing in just 3-4 days. 

The grass just starting to grow.  We had killed off the weeds about 3-4 times before we were finally able to plant grass. The weeds at times seemed insurmountable, but in the end, we won the war. 

Jim Crandall and his wife Juline came out with his excavator and dug out trampoline hole in about 1/2 hour.  It would have taken us about a week by ourselves.  Sean and I created a trampoline liner that prevented the dirt from refilling under the tramp and then we all put the trampoline in and refilled the hole around it. We worked Sean like a mule. 

Christy had a great idea to put up some stained shutters around the front windows of our house. It completed the look we were going for. 

Our piles of dirt waiting to be raked out.  The wind would pick up sometimes and blow our dirt all over the neighborhood.  We would cry as we watched all that money we spent for dirt fly away. 

Us enjoying our fire pit for the first time!