Ta Da...

Finished product! I've been eyeing that dark red color for a while but i couldn't decide what to do with it. I didn't want to paint a whole room that color because that would be pretty intense. A few weeks ago i saw a commercial about doing designs with paint by taping off a section and painting them different colors. Not rocket science i know but i had never thought to do it before. I decided that that would be the perfect way to use my red and not have it be overpowering. We decided to use the same gray we used in our bedroom because it looks nice and isn't too dark, and also because we had an extra gallon of it from when we painted the bedroom. Anyway, i really like how it turned out and i think the stripe is fun. We were actually surprised at how easy it was to take the tape off around the stripe without it tearing any paint off. Everything worked out great. And after a couple trips to Bed Bath and Beyond and Kohls we have so lovely matching black/gray accessories. We are ready for our guests!!!

Teaser...

Ray Ray

Ray Ray has grown fond of cuddling up in blankets. He'll get all wrapped up in them and then enjoy the good life. We've come home a couple times to him completely tangled in his blanket in his crate. He chews holes in that blanket so it's actually kind of scary when one of the holes is super tight around his neck and he can't move. Maybe he'll learn his lesson. Probably not.

Moab

Raft for the Cure brought us down to Moab again this year. (If you're in Utah and like outdoorsy stuff you should totally check this out next year!) We got a big group of friends together, camped, rafted and ate great food. I found these huge marshmallows at the store and couldn't pass them up. Colossal S'mores.

Chilling at the after party the night after rafting was over. The shirts were orange this year!!! Orange!!!!!!

Our friends rock.


Love Birds.

How can you not love someplace this beautiful?!

Love you Moab!!! See you next year!

The floor!!! Epic project...

Right after i took this picture ray ray got on the stairs and puked. He eats everything and has a weak stomach so he pukes pretty often and we were excited for the new floor because it would be easier to clean his puke (the least of many reasons). But he just wouldn't puke on our new floor. Silly little dog. But i digress...

Here is our new floor!!! We've been looking forward to replacing the old floor (old bleach stained carpet that was in the living room and the dining room. i know who puts carpet in a dining room!) since we bought our house last October. And over the past couple of days it has finally happened! David, his dad, and Brad put in a couple extremely long days and nights (they were up until 4am Saturday, slept a few hours, worked all day Saturday until the sun was rising this morning they are such troopers!) working on the floor. They were so great to take part of their holiday weekend to help us out with this!!! And the floor looks fantastic! I love it already. It makes our lovely house just a little bit lovelier.

We got a new throw rug to go under the coffee table i refinished recently (bought it at DI for $10 and refinished it to look like that, it was a very fun project.) I think everything looks great together.

The other benefit about having friends and family help with projects over a holiday weekend, other than the extra day off work so you can recover from the project, is that you have a great excuse to invite tons of people over for a BBQ and show off your new finished project. And that is what we'll be doing the rest of this lovely 4th of July evening!

Pool at Murray Park

We watched Alice yesterday while Carolyn and Erik help grandma clean her house. After getting some great ideas from my co-workers about fun, inexpensive things to do with a 2.5 year old we decided to go to Murray Park and play in their awesome pool! It was a great idea!

The pool was super warm and had a huge shallow kids area that Alice could just walk around and play in. They had those mushroom waterfall things and she had fun going in those. She had fun getting rides on our back and "swimming" to us. The pool also had this awesome water slide. Alice loved it. She wanted to go on it over and over. The only drawback was that while you're waiting in line at the top the wind makes you feel pretty cold but it wasn't so bad once you got your turn on the slide.

Uncle David and Alice right after the slide. Aren't they so cute!

This was during the hourly pool check time. They have everyone get out of the pool for 10 minutes once an hour so that parents can change kids swim diapers, apply more sunscreen or eat a snack. Alice didn't like these pool checks very much because that meant she had to get out of the pool. She especially didn't like it when it was our turn to go down the slide next and then we didn't get too because it was pool check time. When we were walking down the stairs she was crying and saying "go up not down." But after pool check and a few crackers she was ready to play again and go down the slides a few more times before we left.

She was so tired after playing in the pool for a couple hours that she passed out just about right when we had her strapped into the car seat. The half hour ride home nap was the only nap she got but she wasn't too cranky in spite of it. After that we went home and ate and then we went over to Brad and Amy's. David and Brad and Dave went to pick up our new bed frame we bought off KSL (thanks guys) and Amy and i watch the kids and watched a sappy 90's chic flick, "Only You" and a weird 80's movie, "The Boy Who Could Fly." Then when the guys got back we had an awesome BBQ and Carolyn and Erik met up with us. It was a very fun day. Very tiring, way to go all you parents of toddlers, but very fun!

While we were at Brad and Amy's Alice wanted to hold baby Pepper. She was in love with baby Pepper. She love to feel her hair and gave her kisses on her cheeks. She'll be such a good big sister to Baby Jack in a few months!

His one true love...

Our puppy loves the outside. I was in the kitchen doing something on Saturday and David was upstairs. I hadn't seen or heard ray ray in a while, which is usually a bad thing, so i went to check on him. This is what i saw. Him gazing lovingly at the outdoors. He's so cute and sweet. he loves to go on walks and wants to go with us everywhere we go.

This is his "puppy dog" face. "Please can i go outside? A walk?"