Mabel turned 2!

Mabel has been such a shining star in our family. It feels like yesterday that we sat the kids down in our front room and asked them if they wanted another baby in the family. The answer was a unanimous and enthusiastic YES!!!! We made the decision and celebrated by going to Village Inn for dinner! Noah, Presley, and Charlie got to participate in the ultra sound and watched my belly grow and grow. Charlie cried when he found out it wasn't going to be a baby brother!! This year he has continually told Mabel that he is glad that she is who she is. He just loves watching over her. Mabel is not only an awesome gal, but she brings out the awesome in all of us!

At this point in Mabel's life she is doing so many cute things. She has been learning so much this summer. She says tons of words and is saying a few 2 word sentences like "Thank you", "Please Mom", "Love you", etc. Her response to a lot of questions is a cheerful "Okay" instead of yes. Mabel is super into stuffed animals ansd baby dolls. She loves to load as many toys as possible in her arms. Mabel loves to pretend she is sleeping and giggles when you "fall for it".

Mabel is a big milk drinker and loves her ba ba! She naps and sleeps super well in her crib. She is our most scheduled child! When Mabel runs around, her head is super sweaty. She is the baldest of our babies and we are waiting on pins and needles waiting for that whispy hair to come in!

Mabel is the perfect book end to our family, we just adore her to pieces!

Provo House BEFORE and AFTER

Now that we are exactly one week away from moving, I thought I'd share the before and afters of our Provo home! This was our first home purchase and we lived here for just under three years. We made it our own and felt comfortable, peaceful and so happy here. We brought home a baby, got jobs and job promotions, became a primary president and bishopric member, had a child get baptized and one get the preisthood, had another child start kindergarten and enter the realm of public schools... So many awesome memories. We will always cherish this place. We fixed it up and we were able to put it under contract after being on the market for five days. We could not have done it without the help of Josh's family, my dad and Ruth, and Josh's grandpa! Thanks a million!

Exterior BEFORE:

We took out some bushes that were getting out of control, added curbing and added a new maple tree. We also ditched the decorative fountain thingy and added succulents lavender and other fun plants. We replaced the garage door as well.

Front Living Room: 

This is the same room looking the other direction. We changed the window treatments in the whole house to plantation shutters, we pulled up carpet to place engineered hardwood, we painted the upper portion of the walls "Revere Pewter" by Benjamin Morre (we had Behr make it at Home Depot), we added picture boxes under the chair rail and painted all mouldings, trim and the ceiling bright white. We also changed out the light. 

Half Bath (pardon the nose picker-ha ha!):

We replaced the flooring with the hardwood, replaced the vanity with a pedestal sink. We added a cupboard above the toilet, added beadboard and painted it white and changed out the lighting. We also used Revere Pewter in this room.

Dining Room:

We wanted to use this as a functioning dining room so we kept it simple and added a table ;) We changed out the light, repainted and changed the windows and floors. Total transformation!

One of my Faves- The Kitchen:

We did a lot of work here! We changed out the appliances to stainless steal, we painted the cupboards "Asphalt Grey", We put in recessed lighting and removed the fluorescent lighting. We added two pendant lights, we added hardware to the cupboards and added a white subway tile back splash with a light grey grout. We added beadboard around the bar and we replaced the countertops with Corian adnd got a new sink and faucet. We also removed one cupboard and made open shelving.

Family Room (note the octagon cut out in the ceiling):

For this room I had big plans to revamp the fireplace. We will leave that to the next owners. We did fill in the octogan in the ceiling and added recessed lighting, wechanged the flooring, the ceiling fan, and the window treatments.

Upstairs Bath:

We ran out of time and didn't remodel the upstairs bathrooms. We added our colorful stuff to make it ours, though :)

Presley and Mabel's Room:

For this room we added crown moulding, painted the celing and mouldings bright white, and the walls a light blue color called "Iceberg" by Behr.

The Boys Room:

We added crown moulding and painted. The wall color here is "Grey Cashmere" by Benjamin Moore. I actually took one of their bed spreads in to color match the grey stripes. New carpet was next on the list, but we decided to bag it.

Master Bedroom:

We painted, changed the fan, and changed the window coverings. 

For our yard we removed the retaining wall and all the bushes. We added dark bark and curbing.