A few weeks ago, Harlee and I did a little shiplap in the entry way and we love it! This week we had a new chandelier installed and we painted the upper inlay the same light gray that is in the rest of the entry. I am in love. It looks so good. I am so grateful that I no longer have my fear of change because I could miss out on the joy that comes from updating and beautifying our home.
Christmas makes us so happy and I feel we set up the decorations earlier and earlier each year. We kind of joked about setting up Christmas today and before we knew it Joey had brought in the tree. We spent the night decorating and I could not wait to sit and enjoy the spirit that comes with these decorations. Since we know the decorations will be gone on Christmas Day, I do not feel bad for setting them up the second week in November.
Tag LOVES Ike. This morning he had Ike snuggling with him in our bed. He covered him up with a blanket and then got a blanket for himself. Seriously so cute! We love Ike and do not know what we would do without him. I have added another picture just because Ike looks so cute!
I cannot believe it has been five years since our favorite puppy was born and almost five years since he came to live with our family. We just love him so much. I seriously cannot remember life without him. He brings all of us so much joy and I am so glad that Joey talked me into getting a dog. Kind of ironic since he is the only one that does not love him as much as the rest of us. We celebrated by giving him a new toy and his favorite Harmons dog cookie. Happy Birthday Ike!
Harlee and I decided to take on a few more projects at the Childs home. We bought a few new decor items and Harlee re-decorated the shelves in the loft. We have had the same decor since the shelves were built over 10 years ago. I love how they turned out. Harlee has the best eye. Then Har and I decided to shiplap the entry way. It took a little bit longer than we had hoped but we are so happy with the outcome. It is such a nice update to our entry. Our next project is to do vertical shiplap in the theater room in the basement and paint it black. Then we want to do light wood floating shelves. Since the entry went so well we are excited to do another project together. I love that Har is so willing to work together and see the project through to the end. Harlee said "Mom, we are bad a's!" I couldn't agree more. So grateful that Mindi took the time to teach us how to do these things so we can be the ones to update our beautiful home.
Halloween is technically tomorrow night but we are celebrating tonight since tomorrow is Sunday. The kids were so excited about their own plans! Gray and Tag went trick or treating with Gray's friend Erik. Nash went trick or treating with his friends Dylan, Tracen, and Tanner. When they were done they came back to our house to hang out. Harlee went to Nicci's to hang out and Luke went out with Max. They all had such a great time and I could not wait until 8:30pm when I could stop passing out candy! Ike was exhausted from all of the barking each time the doorbell would ring.
After celebrating Halloween at school, Nash and Gray got ready for a swim meet in North Salt Lake. It was seriously the fastest swim meet. It started at 5:30pm and we were back to the car by 6:15pm. The boys did a great job! They each swam three events, and actually swam the same 3 events: 50 Back, 100 Free, and 50 Fly. On the 50 back Nash got 37:26 and Gray got 39:54- they both beat their time by quite a bit. The next even that they swam was the 100 Free. I think that this was the first time for each of them on this even. Nash got 1:08:78 and second place in his heat. Gray got 1:09:63 and first place in his heat. The last even was the 50 fly. They both beat their times: Nash- 38:81 and Gray 43:31. So proud of these boys. They are such amazing swimmers. I love watching them crush their times. We celebrated with the traditional In & Out.
Today was the Halloween Parade for Tag and Gray. Har and Nash dressed up for school. Tag was Link from Legend of Zelda, Gray recycled (bless him) his costume from last year, Nash wore a t-shirt that said "I'm fine" with a big blood stain, and Harlee was a cowgirl with Audrey and Nicci. They all looked so cute. I was also lucky to be able to help with Tag's Halloween party. I was in charge of the Halloween Bingo game. It was so fun to see Tag and his "classmates" interact and enjoy the party.
This was the first year that I did not buy seasons passes for all the kids at Cornbellys. I did buy one for Harlee since she had plans to go with all of her friends. So we chose a warm day to do one visit the Cornbellys. We had so much fun! Rode the slide, did the hayride, saw cute pigs, enjoyed the zipline, ate tons of treats. rode a few rides, and walked through the mazes. It was a perfect day! We had so much fun and since it was only one day, I didn't hate it.
Nash has been thinking about getting his patriarchal blessing for a little while now. Harlee told him of how they did a devotional at HXP b...
