Chocolate Bundt Cake

I'm not such a fan of chocolate cake, but this is delicious!

Company

For the last few weeks, we've had Jordan's parents staying with us off and on and it's just been great. Landon, of course, loves the extra attention and can't get enough of Grandpa. First thing in the morning, he's ready to go and play out in the trailer w/ Grandpa and Grammi (and maybe pick up some cookies while he's out there too!) They have both been such a great help with Landon and in doing lots of house projects, too. We sure love having them here!

Graduation Party

Jenny and Drew both graduated this past week from BYU - Jenny with her MPA and Drew in Computer Science. We had a great celebration for them both in our back yard. It was great to get to see cousins and friends and just enjoy a beautiful Springtime evening! Here's Jordan playing hula-hoop badminton... :)

All about Food

Here's a fun site to check out for some random news about food! :)

Food in the News

And Another Fun Design...

Jordan let me design his website too! Here's a screen shot. :)

Taxes

A friend just sent me a great article on taxes by Dave Barry - you can get it here if you want a fun read. :) 

Somehow, I've actually liked doing taxes. This year, I learned some new things sine we itemized our deductions - and now I know better what receipts from every day things I need to save for next year's taxes. I'm keeping a list now of the stuff that I take to DI (tax deductible!). Also, doctor and dentist visits, perscriptions, and even glasses are deductible (really only worth keeping track of if you pay your own insurance though.) 

Before and After Pics

Here's our Home Improvement progress for the front room, dining room and kitchen so far -- these are more like 'before' and 'in between' pictures, since we still have much to do. :)

As you walk in the front door --
Projects: Removed carpet, installed laminate wood floor, took down wood paneling and dry wall, replaced dry wall, made built in shelves, texturized, patched and painted, replaced curtains, updated light switches/outlets, removed wall lights above fireplace, installed new electrical outlet, replaced door handle, lowered base boards (for new flooring) - the most time consuming of all the jobs I think!, cleaned out fireplace.

Dining room --
Projects: Also removed carpet, installed laminate wood floor, replaced curtains (not up in this picture :), replaced hanging light, painted (three times before we got the colors we wanted!!), again fixed baseboards.

Kitchen --
Projects: Painted (2 trials this time), removed pantry shelving and put in new shelves, got kitchen island, kitchen sink repair, replaced curtains, installed plexy-glass for side of stairs, updated outlets/light switches, replaced light fixtures.

It has been so fun making this home our very own, with the wonderful help of our family, too!!

FindGarrett Website Design

Jordan made this website for a friend a while ago, and just asked me to try and come up with a better design. I've been having fun playing around! :) Here's the before and after pics. 

Before --

After--

'Don't get mad, take a picture!' OR It was too quiet...

I'm sure that there must be some book out there called "It was too quiet" all about the mischief toddlers get in to! :)

Fun Times

Last week was haircutting time again -- this time Jordan and Nathan (?) helped distract him, so he did a much better job of sitting still for me. :)
Jordan was sad for a rainy day, so he decided to bring in the summer time camp-out feel to our front room with a nice play place for Landon. 
Last October, we cut down a HUGE pine tree in our back yard and have been working all winter and spring to clear all of the branches and pine needles away. We are finally almost there! Before we filled the hole in, we had a fun backyard bon fire and BBQ w/ Jordan's brother Nathan. 
Our little guy sure loves his Grandpa! (And his Grammy too!) Kathie and Winslow are in town, and came over yesterday for Conference and to celebrate Drew's birthday. Landon was just in heaven having a house full of grandparents, aunts, and uncles! And, one more car to play in (Grandpa's truck!) wasn't too bad either! 
Today is my Mom's 50th birthday - happy birthday Mom! :) Since she loves getting little gifts, we decided to get her 50 gifts for her 50th. So, I made little cards for all of the event-type gifts like a trip to the MOA, or going up to her favorite place - 'Theater in the Pines' by Sundance -- And then I spent Landon's nap time today wrapping up about 30 of the little gifts! :)

Grandparent Quilt

My sister-in-law, April, made this quilt for my in-laws as a Christmas gift. I love it (of course I love it - what Mom wouldn't love a blanket made almost entirely with pictures of their son?!) This little Landon is pretty lucky to be an only grandchild!!

A Brilliant Discovery!

"Pumie" - pumice scouring stone
So this is the very best cleaning tool I have found.  Ever since we moved into our new house, I have been trying to get the upstairs toilet clean - with not much luck. I tried pretty much every kind of cleaner I could think of, but nothing really even made a difference. Finally, I'd just decided we'd have to save up and get a new one. But, I found some site that talked about these pumice stone sticks and figured I'd give it a shot - and now, after a bit of scrubbing, we have a sparkling white toilet again! :)

Also, when we moved in, we took off the shower doors in our downstairs bathroom, which left a ton of gross million-year-old calking that would not come off for anything. Tonight while I was in the shower, I tried this out, and off came all the gross stuff at last!! Hooray for a great solution to a yucky problem! :)