Messy Business

Our home remodeling adventure has definitely been an experience. Just last night we found out that the patio door we ordered 2 weeks ago (might I add that we were told on Sat. would be here on Tuesday) will not be arriving b/c Lowe's doesn't sale them anymore.
What??????? Funny this wasn't mentioned earlier.....like after we had initially ordered it and paid for it or at least sometime SOON after.

Needless to say, customer service will be receiving a call from a not so happy pregnant woman who spends WAY to much time and money in their store.

Enough angry ranting, now to the happenings as of late:


We have been prepping our house for carpet to be installed very soon. I will not say when it will be installed b/c I don't want to jinx us. Seems that we have run into some obstacles over the past few days, so I'll just be positive and say "soon we will have new unsmelly carpet".

To do so, we have:


- Emptied Bedrooms (into living room and dining room)


- Scraped the Popcorn Ceiling


-Applied Mud and Tape if needed...and Sanded


- Textured/Texturing



- Received MUDDY feet

We have completed two rooms with new texture, just two more to go. Hopefully, the last two bedrooms will be ready for paint tomorrow...as I have rounded up a posse of ladies to help me paint them.

Here's being Optimistic throughout all the obstacles that lay around us.


(staged...Amanda was not injured while shooting this photo)

More pics to hopefully come, so stay tuned.

Girls Camp 2010

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend young women's camp this year as a leader with the stake camp committee.

The campsite was located in south NM and was absolutely breathtaking.

The theme was "Happily Ever After, A Princess Retreat".

(My campsite was up this trail)

A total of 5 days I was there. Might I add that I Thankfully did not get sick with a bug that others had gotten.

While there, I not only got to know some really great ladies, but I also learned how to cut a tomato properly, how to strip iceberg lettuce properly and that there are GIANT Giant Marshmallows that exist.

On venue day, I gave a class called Charm School. There I gave a quick talk about taking care of our bodies and then the YCL's and other leaders gave the girls manicures. It turned out Great!

(Three Blind Mice)

Each Ward and the Stake put on skits that had there theme tied into it. They were super entertaining, everyone did a great job.

We picked Cinderella as our main theme and not to be biased or anything but it was pretty HILL-ARE-EE-US. As you can see from the picture the lady sitting in the chair (Janessa) couldn't keep from laughing for very long. I too was laughing constantly.





The last day early in the morning (6:00am)everyone hiked to the lake lodge which was high up in the mountain and overlooked the lake with tall trees all around.
It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!
At this place we had our testimony meeting. We began with songs and of course prayer and during the songs I could really feel the spirit.


It was a very nice break from being around my two boys ;)
I hadn't laughed so hard in a very long time.
I had the very best time and was so grateful for the opportunity to be there and for Ryan's support in my decision to go and let me not forget the two wonderful babysitters (Jeni & Tina) that watched after Keedan while Ryan was at work.

Air Force Command Retreat to Sacramento, NM

We traveled to Sacremento, NM for an Air Force retreat this past weekend.

Went Fly Fishing, sadly with no luck. People were feeding the fish dog food earlier in the day, so we tried attaching a piece of dog food to our fly but they still didn't bite.

Keedan absolutely loved the OUTDOORS. He threw some serious fits when we were indoors and even managed to open our room door multiple times to run outside. We had to baracade the door with a chair and heavy bag.

We also played a bit of paintball. I was nervous at first, but manned up and did some divin' in the woods with a non-lethal weapon. J/K no diving but definitely some shootin'.

Ryan in sniper mode.

Ryan in running mode.

Ryan in "I got hit in the face and the paint leaked threw my helmet" mode.

On our way up the hill to eat some fabulous grub!

We were part of the Blue Team...hence the blue bandanna's .

We had a great time and enjoyed our free time away from Keedan as well as our time with him.

Good Times, Good Times :)

New Floors

So, we have new tile in three areas of the house....The Pantry, The Entryway & The Laundry Room. Wow it is so much nicer to have new tile.
This upcoming week, we are getting our Kitchen done.

This exquisite pink and grey marble above is getting hacked out and I can't wait!

Above is the pantry with old vinyl.

This is the entryway after the old tile was pulled up.

Entry way with new tile (before the grout was placed).

Now for the Laundry Room.

Because we had to remove the washer & dryer from their area to get the floor put in...I took advantage of the opportunity to make it a bit more complete.

I scraped the popcorn ceiling, painted the walls green & cut and installed new baseboards so that I can have my washer & dryer hooked up again very soon (the mounds of clothes are getting steep).

Ta da....almost complete. We still need some texture on the ceiling, the baseboards to be caulked and painted a second time and the shelf painted in a cream color.

At least the bottom part is almost ready for me to install the washer and dryer again.

HaPpY EaStEr

We had a wonderful Easter/Conference Weekend!

First Off Conference was so uplifting and filled our home with such a strong spirit that I really didn't want it to end.

Leading up to this weekend, on Monday night for our FHE we read about the last week of Christ's Life. It was great to think about his last days on earth for an entire week. I think that helped prepare me to be open to the messages given at conference with more thanksgiving and appreciation for all that Christ has done for not only me but for everyone.

For our FHE activity we made "Monster Eggs". Keedan really enjoyed it and we really enjoyed watching him.

Thursday night we headed over to our church for an Easter Egg hunt.



Keedan didn't quite understand what to do for the first couple minutes but once he did figure it out he didn't want to stop putting eggs in his basket.

Saturday Keedan and I went to the Clovis Zoo for an Easter egg hunt and boy was it a dissapointment. Keedan only got to pick up one egg b/c the masses of children and parents were almost trampling. I spotted my friend Camille and we went over to chat with her for a bit. Sitting beside her was a boy around 5 who after hearing me say that Keedan only got one egg, placed two of his eggs into Keedan's basket. What a SWEETY! I'm still impressed with his unselfishness.

As we were leaving, I realized that we got to check out the zoo for free, so the time spent there wasn't a total waste of time. We had a good time and while it's small it's nice for a small town zoo.

Sunday morning, Keedan awoke to find what "The Easter Bunny" had brought him.



He enjoyed finding hidden eggs and knew exactly what to do with them this time!

Vincent Van Gogh In Training

Keedan is in love with watercolors. Almost every night, he goes into the kitchen and says "Paint".

It's really cute how much he gets into his work.

We snapped a couple pics of him but didn't get his concentration pose with his tongue sticking out.

Nonetheless in some of the pics you can see his seriousness and his happiness.

Keedan's Second Birthday

Hip Hip HooRay! Keedan is now officially a 2 year old. We celebrated by having homemade pizza and a chocolate cake for Keedan. It was very low key just Keedan, Ryan, Myself & Astro. We'll probably do a fun little party for him next year.



He ended up falling asleep before we could sing him Happy Birthday so we saved the cake for the next night.


So stop thinking that I made that cake above in the picture b/c I did not (I didn't take a pic of the K's cake). I wasn't feeling up to playing with my cake decorating tools so I went the quick route and just made a two layer chocolate cake. To make it somewhat fancy I put some marshmallow creme in-between the two layers and lets just say that that decision was not the best. I think I let my sweet tooth get in the way of that decision.






It was nice to enjoy the day with him and remember his birth to appreciate the hardships he has faced. He's a very STRONG little fella and we are so grateful to have him in our family!



These extra pics are of Keedan getting BUZZED by Ryan in January. Poor little guy had a runny nose at the time. He was suprisingly calm during the entire process.