.Easter 2014

Easter came and Easter went. Ours was so awesome… we had a few surprises this year too.

Snow was the first surprise! We got loads of it just before Easter weekend, and then it became so warm the next day that it melted away fast. Funny how that sometimes happens here at this time of year.

Our whole family had another humongous surprise when Tara and Tom showed up from Hawaii out of no where. Tom finally took a job here in Alberta! They moved back in the blink of an eye… we really did not see this coming, but we are so excited to see them way more!

↓↓↓Can you tell how thrilled they are to be away from Hawaii? haha↓↓↓

On Saturday Morning we got together for a delicious brunch as a family… We seriously love these people so much.

↓↓↓Ames woke up from his nap with some lovely bed head and a big surprise! Time for his first Easter egg hunt!!↓↓↓

↓↓↓This photo is from his subsequent sugar high↓↓↓

↓↓↓Then Ames was surprised again with some fun gifts from his Grandma and Grandpa↓↓↓

↓↓↓And we watched one of my favorite old cartoons while we all dyed eggs↓↓↓

*****

On Sunday morning we left early for Stake Conference, it was a great Easter Sunday meeting to go to. When we got home, Ames had a long Easter nap and then woke up to another surprise. A trail of eggs… (this is now his favorite thing in the world)

↓↓↓The Easter Bunny is so awesome… this basket was filled with all of Ames’ favorite things (books, play dough, cars, animals, bunnies and dinosaurs)↓↓↓

Then we headed down to visit the family again for a yummy Easter dinner. Yum.

↓↓↓Had lots of fun on our walk to the park too. Ames is obsessed with rocks↓↓↓

.gusa gram

I'm gonna go ahead and get you guys (mostly) caught up on our lives in one little post, k? It's been too long since I've posted anything… it's getting scary to think about all the things I've missed.

By the way (fingers crossed), I seem to be feeling a little better lately… and hopefully it will just go up from here?

here we go:

↓↓↓Ames loves looking for little rocks when we're outside. He gives them names (like Nemo or Baby) and can hold about 200 at a time in his fists//I finally got to the end of this darn Candy Crush game… they made more levels shortly thereafter…↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Ames' passport came, it's awesome. I can't wait to fly to Utah soon!//We visited our friend Russ's work when we were in Calgary↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓More from the factory//Ames and baby Bonnie holding hands↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Aaron's text to his Mom//Ames keepin' it real around the house↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Josh got his mission call! We are all so excited for him. Leaving June 18th//He's going to Cebu, Philippines↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Air's Mom came and helped me make a bunch of freezer meals since Air and I have both been so sick lately. So nice//Ames enjoys swinging, even when its freezing cold and windy outside↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Poor Amesy has been really sick this month with a cold and lots of fevers… glad its finally ending//We got a deep fryer. Air had fun making yummy Krispy Kreme doughnuts on Conference weekend↓↓↓

 

↓↓↓Ames can drive//We got a huge dump of snow right before Easter weekend… Boo!↓↓↓

 

*****

And some videos!

↓↓↓Playing at an indoor playground called Kidz Quarterz. We like going there in the winter. Ames is working on his coordination↓↓↓

↓↓↓Playing silly games with Daddy every night... these two are awesome together↓↓↓


↓↓↓Ames really can talk so well these days it's incredible... he was distracted in this video, but he is a talking machine. We know we're really lucky because he never has those frustrating moments most babies get when they can't tell you what they want. He can always tell us what he wants↓↓↓


↓↓↓Ames likes to get creative with his food lately↓↓↓


↓↓↓Just a normal day, filming ma legs↓↓↓

.project seven: main bathroom

Here it is. The main bathroom of our house in all of its possession day glory. Very peach and very gross. The sink/countertop was cracking and splitting ↓↓↓

the walls had wallpaper under the paint ↓↓↓

The peach bathtub was stained and scratched up ↓↓↓

but we lived with it like this for over a year, although we did replace the toilet… too bad it was so hard to reach the flushing buttons underneath that counter top haha ↓↓↓

We finally started demolishing it in July of 2013. First went the huge mirror and countertop ↓↓↓

Then the vanity and toilet ↓↓↓

Then the tile and drywall around the tub ↓↓↓

  

and then the tub! IN ONE PIECE! Aaron is amazing ↓↓↓

 

He replaced all of the plumbing. And changed the poly butylene lines to pex ↓↓↓

Then we installed new wet rock and a brand new, beautiful soaker tub ↓↓↓

 

Now my problem was the fact that all the edges of the ceiling texture had been pulled off with the old drywall ↓↓↓

I had to search for a solution myself since we weren’t willing to pay someone to come again. I found this stuff ↓↓↓

So I took a big sponge and worked a lot of magic…. a lot! ↓↓↓

It wasn’t perfect… but with some elbow grease and a lot of time I made it work and blend together.

Here it is after I painted the whole ceiling (also after Aaron installed a nice new pot light) ↓↓↓

And then I painted the walls ↓↓↓

We cut out the spots with wallpaper and put new drywall patches in (now you can’t tell there used to be wallpaper under there, thank goodness) ↓↓↓

Floors were next. We used the same awesome laminate tiles we put in our kitchen. We love this stuff ↓↓↓

 

Finally we could start tiling the bathtub at the end of July ↓↓↓

 

And we finally installed the new vanity/countertop in August ↓↓↓

And once we finally finished grouting, the bathroom was almost done! Just missing a mirror over the vanity ↓↓↓

 

Air actually cut the big old mirror down to the size we wanted and he built a frame himself ↓↓↓

then I painted it white ↓↓↓

…AAAAAAND HERE IT IS! DONE. DONE. DONE. ↓↓↓

This whole project took us about 3 and a half months from start to finish… we think that’s pretty good considering how sick Air is... and the fact that we did the whole thing ourselves. haha Also there are still a few things I need to hang on the walls… but close enough.

It was a lot of work, but we love how it turned out.

Thanks for looking

*****

list of some products:

bathtub – Mirolin from Home Depot

tile – ceramic with grass texture from Lowes

shower curtain – Target

yellow towels and rug – Target

floors - Allure linoleum tiles from Home Depot

toilet – Costco

vanity and counter top – Lowes

faucet – Home Depot (Price Pfister)

clock – Target

Any questions?