April Catch up

Once we got back from our trip it was back to reality and lately that reality is crazy!

and FYI, lots of blah, blah, blahing below, so read at your own risk! I warned you. 

April is the best month ever. 

Its my birthday month. And my husband was so sweet and helped the kids celebrate with me all month. 

I have to say it feels crazy that I can no longer say I'm 30, yikes 31? I am IN my 30's now.

What the? really? WOW! 

My hubby took me out to dinner, shopping for a few things, and a movie.

 We have lived in our current home for 3 1/2 years. Its a 1979 rambler(isn't that the best year of homes ever built? NOT!) with 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a col-de-sac corner lot.

 It had orange and maroon carpet, a wheel chair ramp in the front, orange walls, and this lovely frosted window. They had put in new corian counter tops in the kitchen and crown molding and some new paint throughout the house and that's about it.

We saw the potential, it felt like home, and I have always love this neighborhood, great views, great friends, and with great schools!

So far we have redone the front porch, painted all the walls, painted part of the outside of the house, redone some landscaping, put in new carpet, new tile in bathrooms, and updated some bathrooms. We still need to finish the basement, re-due the kitchen, which for now will consist of painting the cabinets, and more.

 This was the view from inside our living room.

We bought the house in the winter and I thought it was just frost due to the cold but once it started to warm up I realized it wasn't going away.  So this last month due to a great tax return and a great neighbor who gets windows and installs them, he hooked us up and we replaced it!

 Walla, a beautiful new window! 

This window is right by our front porch and this room is our family/tv room, so its a little open to the public now if the curtains are open but its so nice!

 However I do miss the privacy it gave us.  (we were told the gas inside the two pane window broke and thats what caused the foggy look).

Oh and you've seen many pictures with this lovely  7 foot by 5 foot mirror. Well its bugged me ever since we moved in so we finally took it down and sold it on ksl.

 Here's the wall in progress. 

This is the wall I would love to knock out one day and open up the kitchen but for now, we have patched it up and painted it.  

I want to make it a gallery wall but I haven't done it yet, I'm not really sure where to start but thanks to pinterest I have a few ideas.

People ask me all the time if I miss the mirror? I do when I want to see if my shoes look good with my outfit and I also miss how bright and open it made the room feel, but over all I am very happy its gone!

 I actually found myself walking out to the wall a few times trying to look at my outfit for a few days forgetting it was gone.

 Just a cute picture of my baby Finn (can I call him that anymore since he's gonna be 2 on Sunday?).

 Griffin has also started to play really well by himself. I found him down stairs alone playing blocks he loves to build, but gets frustrated easily when he can't get them "stuck" he says.

I rearranged ruby's room around and I love it so much more!

Now all I need to do is finish the curtains I am making for her window. Below is a sneak peak. 

Thanks to pinterest yet again, I took 2 $5 flat sheets from walmart and tons of ruffles later we have a curtain!

  Here's a shot of the other side of her room.  I need to find some cute handles for her desk for the missing ones. I am hoping to find some clear, glass type ones.
I bought her desk and dresser set for $40 at a yard sale, I loved the curvy lines and they were in excellent shape, just some light blue/turquoise paint and they looked good as new! I also spray painted her chair bright pink. She loves it!

 My Hudson, I feel I rarely blog about him because he's at school all day and so busy with his activities. I told myself I would not become a mom that put her kids in everything, but well, Hudson loves doing everything and until he knows what he likes or what he's good at why not let him try right? soccer, track, baseball, basketball, piano, yup all that! luckily its not all at once, bad thing? He's pretty good at it all. I'm sure in the next year or two we will start to see what he can focus on. ya crazy right?

And did I mention he's turning 8 next month? My baby 8! WOW!

So yup, Life is still crazy around here. And there's more...

My husband is in the process of selling his business, so its back to job hunting. The last 3 1/2 years have been hard on our family and his company. The loss of Harrison and the economy going through the crapper put a tole on his business.

Its sad to see this chapter of our lives come to an end. Its been 9 years of his business supporting our family and for most of them providing us with more than we could have asked for.
I'm so proud of him!
Most companies fail in the first 3 years, my husbands grew something like 300% every year for 6 years! And to receive Entrepreneur of the year was such an accomplishment and showed how hard he really worked and he did it all by himself!

The "job" he got at the first of the year that we were celebrating when we took a mini trip to SLC,
came to an end in April.
I should have explained the job more, but well I didn't want to bore you all with the details.
Basically, a large company was starting up a new side company and wanted Trent to head it up. Trent did an amazing job but the company its self wasn't ready for my amazing husband and how fast he could grow it, so it didn't work out. They couldn't handle the work load and they weren't prepared to pay him what he was worth. stupid huh? 

Isn't that why they hired him?

So the last few months have been stressful. Luckily he has adjunct teaching jobs with Stevens Heneger College and WSU, and with his MBA, killer resume, awards and owning a business we hope to have a new, "real" job soon. It may not be in Utah, which stresses me(and my mom) out, but we have faith the Lord will lead us where we need to go. I just hope he does sooner than later. 

 I feel our family has had a crazy 3 1/2 years, but it could always be worse.
 I have my three beautiful healthy babies, a wonderful husband, a roof over my head and we're all healthy. 

We're holding strong and know that it takes patience and faith and even though its hard, we are a happy close family and hope there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Its truly amazing how hard times make you stronger. Although I feel weak at times and feel like I'm drowning, I see glimpses of the Lords hand in my life, the little tender mercies.

 I truly am blessed.