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Below is a picture of our dining room and part of the living room. The entire downstairs was green (along with part of the upstairs), and green is one of my favorite colors. However, this green changed every time we saw it, and the previous owners didn’t do a great job at painting. There were splotches on the walls that didn’t get enough coats, and there was green paint on parts of the white trim and ceiling.

We decided to get rid of the green downstairs. I think it took us a whole day to tape everything, and 2 or so days to paint 2 coats.

Andy and I decided we wanted a more neutral color, so we went with Porcelain Skin. It really lighted up the downstairs, which makes it feel more open. It was way too dark before. I felt like I was in a cave.

Here is what our kitchen looks like now:

We had to buy the fridge and microwave. I also used a lot of the jars left over from our wedding.

Below is our dining room. Don’t you love the table for two!!! It fit perfectly in my small apartment. It works fine for us now, but someday we will upgrade to a table that can fit a few more. We also now have drapes and decorations on the walls. The dark wine drapes help keep the sunlight out. I went for 2 months with sliding glass windows wide open and no privacy.

We put my old couch and ottomans in the downstairs living room. We still want to get to chairs to put across from the couch, so we could actually have enough seats for people that drop by (like home teachers and visiting teachers). Those chairs will have to wait for now.

Here are some photos of us and our families:

This is one more view of our dining room.

Then we took pictures with everyone and then my family. Unfortunately the Bayless family had to leave to go get the luncheon ready, so we took pictures with them at the reception. I’m very grateful for my friends and family who were able to come from far away in order to be here for my special day.

l see some people squinting.

Can you see all the little girls squinting?

Then everyone besides Myntillae (my friend/photographer), Andy, and I left. We went and had our pictures taken all around the temple. I loved how they turned out. There was a little bit of wind to work around, but we liked how it kept us cool.

Many people helped me look amazing for this day. My mom made my wedding dress while she was in Washington and I was in Utah. We sent a few samples back and forth for me to try on with my mother-in-laws help, but I wasn’t prepared for it to fit me exactly right when I first tried it on. My mom came down a few days early, and we thought we would probably have to do a few adjustments. Thankfully my mom is amazing, and my dress fit just right.

My mom also arranged my bouquet, along wi

th all the other flowers. I think my sister helped with the table arrangements.

My sister-in-law, Shanda (my brother Brian’s wife), made my jewelry. I just sent her a picture of some that I liked, but I did not expect her to make it exactly like the picture. It was all so beautiful.

One of my best friends, Kate, made my veil and did my hair. It looked lovely!

I wore my sister, Trisha’s, wedding dress slip.

I bought my shoes at Ross and did my own make up.

My husband, Andy, had my engagement ring and wedding ring specially designed and made for me. Yes, my husband is amazing.

I love how my dress looks in this picture!

Then we went to our luncheon, which my mother-in-law, Lindsey, did with the help of some of her ward members and friends. It was at the Veteran’s Hall in Lindon. After we ate, we went and took some more pictures at my in-laws house because they have a pretty backyard.

We finally got our pictures taken with the Bayless’s!

Lindsey also did most of the food for the wedding reception. She made a lot of food….little sandwiches, cookies, and much more. She had more friends helping during the reception.

My mom did the chocolate covered strawberries and vegetables. Others helped make the strawberries, too. My friend Tami taught my sister, Trisha, Aunt Mary, and my step-mom, Darlene, how to do the tuxedo look on the strawberries. Grandma Clift washed and dried all of the strawberries.

The reception was held in the backyard of our new house. It was a beautiful evening. So many people helped get this ready. My in-laws, Jon and Lindsey, were the design team. Jon had been working on our backyard for a couple months to get it looking just right. Lindsey planted tons of flowers in pots and bought tons of decorations. My mom brought tons of decorations down with her. We borrowed tables and other decorations from friends and family. My parents, Andy’s parents, other family members, and friends helped set up. Here is a picture during the reception.

Here is a picture from before. We did our line by the arches, and had people wait in line by the shepherds crooks. The cake was under the tent because it needed shade so it didn’t melt.

Then we did the normal reception things…cut and ate the cake, drank some pink lemonade, danced, threw the bouquet, and then left in the midst of bubbles.

Trisha bought our cake, but had Andy and I design it of course. We got it from utahcakes.com. It was delicious and beautiful

Then we left for our honeymoon in Midway for 2 days and then Yellowstone for 2 days. My dad and step-mom, Darlene, provided us with timeshares there.

We are so grateful for all the help we got from our family and friends. It really turned out to be a beautiful wedding. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. It was amazing to see how many people were involved in our day. I felt very loved.

Everyone always tells you how stressful the wedding day is, but I was not stressed at all! However, our parents may have been a little stressed because they were busy making sure everything went just right. I just know that my wedding day was the best day ever! It was nice not to be nervous or stressed. I was surprised how fast the reception went. Time flies when you’re having fun.

Everything felt just right and normal all day. It was like it was meant to be!

What?! It’s the 4th of July already?! Less than two months until my Gooshie goes to Kindergarten? AHHH! … Anyway, we love the 4th of July! This year was especially enjoyable for many reasons, some of which I will now share with you. We are right in the middle of the busy season for James’ business and he has been so busy! This is awesome, but it means he is gone a lot, so on the 4th of July he got to spend the entire day with us, which was so nice. We have had a tradition for the last few years of going to the hot air balloon launch in Provo then to breakfast at the park, so we carried on the tradition this year. Waking up at 5:45 on James’ first day off in months seemed insane, but we did it anyway (we made up for it later with the entire family taking a three hour nap). Because of weather conditions, the balloons didn’t get to actually fly, just like last year. The kids had fun seeing a few of the balloons filling up, but were kind of grumpy and hungry. James and I decided that next year we’ll skip the balloons, sleep in, and head straight for breakfast. We went to the Scera park in Orem this year and had doughnuts and breakfast burritos, we don’t mess around. It was a cloudy day too, so it wasn’t too hot to play on the playground for awhile. Miles still likes to swing in the “baby” swings at the park but one of them was wrapped around so the swing was really high up. James put him in there anyway. We had to flip the swing upside down and slide him out head first to get him down. After the park we went to get some bbq supplies and fireworks. This year Utah legalized aerials, which I thought was the dumbest idea ever, until James bought some and I saw how awesome they are! We let off a few but there were so many going off all around us, we had a great firework show from our front porch. I was a little surprised that our neighborhood didn’t burn to the ground though, there were seriously so many! That’s a lot of hard earned money us Americans burned up! Anyway, we had a relaxing day at home then grilled up burgers, brats, and hotdogs for dinner, just like the founding father’s would have wanted. I also made a flag cake with strawberries and blueberries, so yummy! It was Savanna’s idea to put the strawberries in a curvy line to make it look like the flag was waving. This year was the first time since we have been married that we spent the 4th at home. Every single year we have been at the in-laws and it was so fun to stay home! The kids were in their own environment, I didn’t have to worry about them making messes or breaking things, there was no fighting to wrestle them into the car at the end of the night, we made our own dinner so we knew we would like it, and we got to see how much Spanish Forkites love fire! Family get together’s are fun of course, but I think it was nice to be able to be alone together and spend some quality time with each other and our kids. At the end of the night Savanna said, “I don’t want the 4th of July to be over, this was the best day ever!” I agree.

It has been almost two years since James quit his job to work for himself full time, and more than a year since he moved out of the garage and into his own shop. I can’t believe how fast the time has gone by! From when I first met James he had wanted to have his own business and work for himself. There always seemed to be a reason to stay at his job, buying a house, babies coming, etc, etc. Finally we decided that there would probably always be a reason to not go out on his own, so we better just do it. So, when I was 6 months pregnant with our unplanned Avery, he left his job and never looked back. Not only have these first two years been profitable enough to keep the bills paid and food on the table, but the business has grown by leaps and bounds. So many opportunities have come his way, and James has stayed busy, busy. I am so grateful for a husband who can provide for his family. James has always been the hardest worker I have ever known. When we first started dating, I thought it was so weird that on Saturdays instead of wanting to hang out with me all day enjoying the day off work, he wanted to piddle around the garage and work on “projects”. This piddling and project working taught him the skills he now uses to fully provide for a family of five. Wow. Since Savanna was born I have never had to work. We both felt that the only people who should be raising our kids should be us, and James has worked hard to make sure that I can be home with our children. We are right in the middle of the busy time for James, he has never been this busy! It is a good thing to be busy of course, but I know James is tired and stressed so I just wanted him to know how much I appreciate how hard he works for us. I am so proud of him and the successful business he has built, I am grateful for the work that he gets and the home, cars, food, and all the things you need to live that we have been blessed with. I do have a very good life, a cushy life. I mean, it’s 3:00 in the afternoon and I am blogging while my kids nap, pretty cake. I LOVE YOU JAMES!

Look what we got from our garden!

We kicked off the summer with a wedding! James’ younger brother, Andy, was married to Melissa on June 4th in the Draper Temple. They had a beautiful wedding! I just loved the color scheme she picked out and was so happy to get new matching dresses for the girls and a nice tie for Miles! They were married in the morning then had a nice luncheon afterward and a reception that night at their new house in Lindon. Needless to say it was a long day, but my kids actually handled it better than I was expecting! Savanna was especially cute, she loved running around with her cousins all dressed up, and Miles loved the buffet at the reception. Even Avery was enjoying herself, she (thankfully!) was able to take naps at Nana’s house between the festivities which helped a lot. It has been awhile since I had been to a wedding so, even though it was a busy crazy day, I had fun. Melissa is awesome and we get along great, it’s fun to have a new sis-in-law! Congratulations Andy and Melissa! p.s. LOVE Miles’ face in the second picture.

Savanna took swimming lessons this year! Last summer we went swimming a lot, a certain sister-in-law was taking a break from employment so I had help at the pool and we were there a bunch. Savanna and Miles both wore the inflatable arm “floaties” in the pool and could handle themselves pretty well, and they loved being in the water. Well, one day we ended up going to a pool near my sister-laws-house, and they didn’t allow any floatation devices. It made me very nervous, but we were already there so we got in the water. Savanna and Miles immediately sank to the bottom of the pool. I panicked and pulled them up. They both looked bewildered as could be. I hovered over them trying to teach them how to swim without the floaties. After 20 or so extremely stressful minutes we gave up and went home. That experience taught me a big lesson, my kids need to learn to swim for real, duh. So this year Savanna took lessons and Miles will be old enough next year. At first Savanna was a little cautious in the water and when she tried to swim she mostly flailed around splashing everyone, but I could definitely see her improving as the lessons went on. After the first day she said “I can swim without floaties now mom”… okay. She did well though, back floats, bobs, all that fun stuff, and best part was the huge grin she was sporting the entire time. I was very pleased when she passed level one, on to level two next year! I am going to try to take her to the pool without the other kids a few times so we can work on the things she learned. Hopefully she can at least stay afloat and not sink like a ton of bricks.

Andy and Melissa were sealed in the Draper Ut temple a couple weeks back now. I got some nice pictures from their reception that evening and promised to share them here.

So here we go.