Home Improvements...Take 1.

We realized buying a foreclosure would be a lot more "hands-on" work than building, but we have seriously loved every minute of it.

I love having projects to work on. And it seems owning a house comes with never ending projects. (Now if only I had never ending funds for those projects.) :)

The Kitchen ... BEFORE ...

We should have taken more before pictures, but this is what our kitchen looked like before we moved in. No appliances, brown cabinets, old wobbly faucet, no blinds, very rustic chandelier ... you get the picture. (It wasn't unlivable but just not what I had envisioned our kitchen to be like.)

The Kitchen ... AFTER ...

I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. And I LOVE my fridge! I actually love all my kitchen appliances. Guess that is one good thing about there being no appliances in the home when we bought it. We were able to get all new matching ones. FABULOUS! (It is so fun to get new stuff coming from an apartment were everything was just "standard-come-with-the-apartment-crap".)

The Mudroom ... Before ... (Isn't that little nook just begging for a bench??)

The Mudroom ... After ...

The bench that Brandon made me! He put his handy-man skills to good use. (Course I did the upholstery work.) :)

Brandon's cute cousin DeAnne made the vinyl quote for us! She's a sweetheart!

I also love having the big deep farm sink in the mudroom. Never thought I need it, but it has come in so handy.

This is only Take 1 of our home improvements,... there are many more to come! (I'm still working on paint colors. For many of the rooms.)

Oh and here is Kenzington and Brooklyn's bedrooms.

Kenzington's room.



Brooklyn's room.


We are LOVING being home owners!! (If you couldn't tell already.)

Look Whooo's One!!

Kenzington! That's Whooo! I seriously can't believe that our little Kenzington is ONE!! (I know everyone says this about they're kids, but it is so true. Time seems to pass so quickly when you have a little one.)

Kenzington is starting to be quite the little chatter box. Her current favorite (and most audible) word is "OWWWL". Hence the owl themed party!

Both sides of our family were able to come to her party! We loved having everyone come. We played "Whooo knows Kenzi best?" (Trivia questions about Kenzington.)

We ate owl cupcakes.

Kenzington had her own/personal owl cake.

Kenz was a little leery of the perched owl on her tray. However, she loved licking off the chocolate!

The girls and I had fun while dad was at work coming up with owl themed decor.



Of course Kenzington's favorite toy was the one that Brooklyn and all the cousins wanted as well.

(Brooklyn and Kenzi came to a good compromise: Kenzington got to push and Brooklyn got a free ride. Exactly what they both wanted.)

Kenz was covered in chocolate after eating her cake, so Brandon did the easiest thing. Stripped her down in the sink and hosed her off. Look at those rolls! We are officially done nursing now, so I'm sure they won't be there much longer. :(

I am so glad that Kenzington is apart of our family. We love her so much and she adds such joy to our lives.

It is my favorite thing to watch Brooklyn and Kenzington interact with one another. I am so happy that they have each other. A best friend that will always be there.

A few fun facts about our sweet Kenzington:

~She has 5 teeth! 4 on bottom and 1 on top.
~She's been taking steps by herself for awhile, but officially walking on the 15th of February! (10+ steps together unassisted!)
~Favorite food is now yogurt, particularly Greek yogurt. (Yes, she has very refined tastes. Our little gourmet!)
~She has really caught on to squealing whenever Brooklyn has something she wants. She is starting to realize that it gets Brooklyn in trouble. (Mom's caught on now too, so I won't be fooled Kenz!)
~She weighs 27 pounds! (She is approximately 4 pounds away from Brooklyn!)
~She is SUPER sensitive. If you tell her no or give her an even slightly non-friendly look she will burst into tears.
~Kenzi loves to surprise anyone. Sneaking around the corner, peek-a-boo, "watch what I can do", ... anyway to get that look of surprise on your face. She just lights up when she can catch you off guard.

We are so happy that we have been blessed with such a spunky and fun little lady. We love you Miss Kenzington!! Big thanks to everyone who came to her party ... it was a Hoot! :)

We are Family!

A wonderful lady from Green River, Jenni Simons, took some family pictures for us. (Kenzi's birthday pictures too!...Coming soon.)


That's the good ole Green River in the background.



She took some really fun playful ones too! Kind of captures the moment of what "really" goes on when you take pictures. :)




I swear if we get one girl smiling, the other has to be pulling a silly face.

Or not looking.

I kind of LOVE them all, because even the non-lookers and silly faces capture the curiosity and fun personalities of our little girls.

By the end getting the girls to smile was a nightmare. The bribe of ice cream worked at first, but by the end Brooklyn was convinced that the ice cream would never happen.


Jenni wanted to do some fun ones of Brandon and I.

My buddy and me! Side by side "Every step of the way"!
Thanks Jenni!

Christmas Parties!

~OLSEN FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY~

On the 17th of December we met in Mt. Pleasant for the Olsen Party! The kids liked Santa. This was our first official Santa sighting of this year, and Brooklyn was so excited to see him.

Kenz had a mixed reaction. At first she liked him, but the longer we sat on his lap the more she didn't like him.

Brooklyn made off with her candy as soon as Santa gave it to her.

Santa gave Brandon some beautiful undergarments. :)

And since Brooklyn loves wearing big girl panties,... well she automatically assumed they were for her. :) And they definitely were some "BIG GIRL" panties. (She still asks to wear them sometimes.)



~THE NOGGER~

December 22nd was "THE" Nogger!! Good times were had by all in attendance. The "BIG GIRL" Panties made their second Christmas Party appearance...yes, sorry Jake those were re-gifted.

Ugly Sweaters and Crazy boys at their finest!

All girls team for Christmas Cranium.

All boys team.

Love these good friends!! It's always a party worth attending! (This year it was a sleepover! Yeah! Don't get many of those anymore.)



~AAGARD FAMILY PARTY~

Christmas Eve was a blast. Brooklyn was everywhere all at once, because there were so many fun cousins to play with, hence she would not sit for our family pic. (It's all right,... Kenz got more mommy & daddy time on her first Christmas.)

When it came to opening presents Brooklyn did show up. She and I did a little piano singing performance to get our gifts. Daddy and Kenz did some dancing and told highlights of 2011. I swear someone was playing a joke on Brooklyn and I because we opened 3 empty presents! It was pretty funny to see her reaction to nothing. She'd just go up and grab another one, like "huh, no big deal".

After a good meal and fabulous party we went back to my parents and opened our jammies. (What is a good age to stop doing the matching thing? :))

My Dad is doing so great. Finally finished with Chemo! You can see the personality and life coming back to him in this classy no-teeth pose with me.

Love my dad! After toasting to a successful year and the miracles we have seen. We then drove back to Castle Dale to have our first Christmas in our new home!!



~OUR HOUSE~

Christmas at our new house was a blast. Santa spoiled us all! Brooklyn loved all her princess stuff, dress up clothes, barbies, hot pink race track, and babies.

She really loved her and Kenzi's little color-me play house. We all (yes all four of us) played and ate stocking candy in there all morning! Kenz just wanted to be inside and look out the windows.

We all ate up our reindeer waffles. They were yummy!

We let Kenzington sleep in, as she is not the early riser that Brooklyn is. When Kenz got up she was so happy and excited to play with her ball popper, babies, blocks, puzzles, pop-up toys, and barbies. We were so enthralled with her excitement that we kind of spaced taking anymore pictures. But all in all we had an awesome Christmas!!


~BRADY FAMILY PARTY~

Christmas Evening was spent in Green River. Brooklyn and Kaylee playing on the IPAD. Such cute girls. We again got spoiled with Christmas presents.

We all went out to eat breakfast together. Grandpa is seriously so cute with all his little grand-daughters.

This little one loves to play with her Grandpa!

This years gingerbread creations!



We had so many fun parties and made so many great memories! We LOVE Christmas!