Little Man.

Well the time has come for baby number two. 

We found out March 15th that we were expecting. And we had our first appointment March 28th. I was about 8 weeks along at the first appointment. I realized I was pregnant because I was so tired. Literally the first 12ish weeks I slept constantly. I am one of the lucky ones who doesn't get any sort of morning sickness but I don't function for the first little bit at all. 

Most mornings Charli fended for herself and played while I laid on the couch or in our bed. She was really good and Disney Junior was my saving grace most days. 

In April we had our next appointment on my birthday. That was probably the best gift to see a little ultrasound. We didn't find out the gender that time but everything was looking great and I was starting to finally feel more like myself again. April is a crazy month for us with our birthdays and anniversary. We spent our anniversary in Park City and enjoyed a relaxing stay while Charli hung out at Nana's house. For my birthday Kelly took me to the one place he knows that makes me happy the Apple store. I got a new Series 3 Apple Watch. My other one was so slow and the battery was starting to lack. We hurried and grabbed a pizza at Papa Murphy's and rushed home to watch the Utah Jazz in the playoffs. If you didn't know that Papa Murphy's has pizza's for $4.25 on my birthday then now you know. Kelly's birthday was on Saturday he spent most of the day doing a tractor job and when he got home we gave him his birthday gift of GoPro mounts and Utah Jazz Donavon Mitchell shirt. We also went out with my family on Friday to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate my dad's birthday and mine. Charli wore my old school Utah Jazz "Malone" Jersey. It was pretty dang cute.

Also we told Kelly's family on Easter that we were expecting. It was pretty funny to see some of their reactions. We had finished the easter egg hunt at Grandma Smith's and had the kids get ready for a picture when Kelly's sister read Charli's shirt "World's Best Sister"... You can imagine everyone was pretty happy. My family found out earlier because I had received a text saying my appointment was the next day and Marci happened to have my phone at the time. She put two and two together real fast even though I tried to say it was a pap smear. :)

The end of May finally came and we were finding out what baby was exactly. I had been hoping for another girl only because we already have a wardrobe that fills the brim of our crawl space from Ms. Charli. And the due date is literally the same week Charli was born. So all the seasons would work for years to come. Well, the doctor looked and said "That's a boy"... Kelly tried to contain himself but you could tell he really wanted to jump off his chair. I was a little shocked and it took me a while to believe it. I just was holding out for a little girl. I also was thinking that this pregnancy so far had been so much like Charli's was that I didn't really think it could be a boy. 

We told both of our families around memorial weekend that it was a boy. They were super excited and it was fun to see their reactions to the confetti poppers. 

But then around 18 weeks things kind of changed. I realized this kid sits extremely low, I started to get sciatic nerve pain in my left hip and could definitely tell that I could eat a cheeseburger every day where with Charli I never really wanted anything to do with meat. 

June came and that appointment went great and it was still definitely a boy. We may or may not have a picture to prove that one. We also traveled down to New Mexico for Kelly's Grandpa's funeral. I didn't do to bad on the road trip. A few stops and I made it just fine. It was a good time and luckily it was cooler weather while we were there compared to their normal 100+ degrees. 

We were finally HALFWAY! July's appointment was the 3D ultrasound where they look at everything a little more detailed to see that things look good. We got some good shots of him especially of him flexing his little arm. The ultrasound tech asked me a lot of questions about my delivery with Charli and I mentioned that her umbilical cord was super short. She made sure to check the cord and seemed to think it was plenty long. Everything looked great and in August we will be doing the lovely Glucose drink. 

I definitely have shown quicker with this pregnancy than with Charli. Which I expected that to happen. I couldn't handle anything to do with milk especially sippy cups that is the one thing that would make me about puke. Luckily Kelly pitched in and washed all those out for me. I am obsessed with my pregnancy pillow and seems like everyone else in the family thinks they can cuddle with it. I  still get up at least once in the middle of the night to go potty especially if I drink something to late. Also Zantac is my best friend... that heartburn has been something else. Before I started taking it I would almost feel like I was choking when I would swallow my food. I still have Tums every once in awhile as well. 

The best thing that has happened is our boat. I love just floating in my life jacket it takes so much pressure off me and is the most relaxing thing. Its what will get me through the summer for sure. Oh and all the Outshine Popsicles and Zeppes runs. 

November 13th is only 16 weeks away... Crazy how fast time is flying by. I'm hoping to get induced so we can maybe have the chance of not having two birthday's in the same week... hahaha it's just what we like to do I guess.

Under The Sea! -Halloween 2017-

"...Come in, Come in my child.. We musn't lurk in doorways. It's rude.. one might question your upbringing.."

Some may think its crazy but I really start thinking about Halloween costumes months in advanced. I knew for the last couple years I wanted to do Ursula. I started to look around for a killer costume but could never find one that fit what I had in mind.

I tried to give up on the idea at one point because I knew it would be a crazy amount of work. Then, the ideas started to come. Then the costume was in the works. I seriously started this costume the beginning of September.

It became my second child! No joke. If you don't believe me ask those that had to be around me. My mom was so annoyed by me and Kelly was ready to kick me out because it took up the kitchen, the garage, all our conversations & all of his money.

When the costume began I was looking everywhere for ideas and tutorials. I found a few but not really a step by step guide. I think that was the funnest part about this costume! It wasn't something I could just follow a tutorial on. I had to come up with how I was going to do it!

A trip to Joann's later and I had the fabric. I was so excited to finally have it even though I had no clue how I was going to make it into six tentacles. A serious HUGE THANK YOU to my sister in law Krystal for her help in helping me cut the fabric & then surging it together for me! I couldn't have done it without her. No joke!

One side of the tentacle is a transparent sequin fabric and the other side is a mermaid scale purple fabric. Each tentacle is 5 feet long. So 30 feet total of tentacles will be the end product.

After all six tentacles were sewn the next guessing game happened. I needed to be able to have the tentacles keep a unique shape. It needed to be realistic. I sat and played with wire for days and finally with the help of my right hand girl Krystal we decided to have the wire braced in the tentacles so it would stay in place! 

Each tentacle had about 8-10 braces glued into the inside that would hold the wire in place. I ended up adding a middle wire down the middle of each tentacle to hold it on a center point. 

Wiring.
Once the tentacles had all of the braces glued it was time for wire. I used 20 gauge wire, it was sturdy but easy to bend and shape. I would cut 2 10 feet lengths and feed them through the braces. This took up a lot of time to feed each tentacle through. Then the center wire that I talked about was about 4.5 feet in length as well.

The stuffing: 

This was something that came to me in the middle of the night. No joke laying in bed thinking about this costume. I kept looking at ways to stuff this sucker. Quitting batting would be expensive, heavy for the final product & lumpy. Foam would be expensive and hard to get in the tentacles. I then thought PACKAGING PEANUTS! 

I instantly googled the cost of packaging peanuts at 2 am. I wasn't really thrilled about the cost because I knew I would probably need quite a bit of peanuts. Hello I'm filling 30 feet of tentacles. 

So I jumped onto KSL in hopes someone who had just moved would have some didn't need them anymore. 

I found some!!! I had Kelly pick them up after work, I was on cloud nine when he brought home my 6 bags of packaging peanuts! But then I realized they were white & green. That wasn't going to work. I need them black so when it was dark outside you wouldn't notice them through the transparent fabric. 

Literally 12 spray paint cans later I had all the packaging peanuts spray painted. I also had a killer headache and an aching pointer finger but I didn't care I was that much closer to stuffing these bad boys!

Seriously I spent a solid week spraying peanuts during nap time! 

You may be wondering why did you do a transparent fabric.. Who spray paints packaging peanuts? 

Well I'm crazy and couldn't just have normal tentacles I needed LIGHTS! I ended up finding battery powered lights online at the dollar store & at Walmart. That is why I needed black peanuts & transparent fabric because my costume was going to glow in the dark. 

Once the tentacles were filled to the brim with black peanuts they were able to get the crowning glory of the lights being added. One light strand is a 5 foot LED purple rope light & the other was a 6 foot LED purple light strand that could switch from blinking, fading and a solid light.

At the top of the tentacles I made another brace so the wiring of the battery packs would hold in place while I was walking.

Each tentacle is powered by 5 batteries.

The next problem was how were these tentacles going to work on a costume? This was something that took much of my thoughts. I was high maintenance when it came to this part of the costume. 

What it had to be:

It had to be transportable

Easy to take on and off

Able to walk in easily

Literally I spent one whole night talking about what this had to be like. I kept talking about a hoop so it would twist when I walk but it would be easier to hook the tentacles too as well. I wasn't sure it would work at all. When Kelly and I started thinking about it we came up with the idea of using some of the gas plastic pipe that they use at his work. He got me some from the dumpster the next day at work. We had to experiment with the size a ton.

The picture below was when it was at it's biggest size of 2.5 feet. It then got cut down to 14" being the final and perfect size. 

And I may have goofed off a few times throughout the project...

We then were able to take the excess wire that was poking out of the tentacles and wrap them onto the hoop. Kelly helped me drill holes through the pipe so we could wire the battery packs onto the hoop as well. This made it so it was easy to turn the lights on and off. 

I wasn't kidding when I said these things took up our life for a solid month.

The next issue came... I had to come up with a way that I could have these on and off of me within seconds. There was no way that I would be able to drive with 30 feet of tentacles on me nor could I even ride in a vehicle with these on. 

My first idea was to glue ribbon in different places on the hoop to lift the hoop off the ground so it would hang about 6" off the ground so about mid calf. I would then take the ends of that ribbon and pin them to a maxi skirt so when I was done wearing the costume I could just slide the maxi skirt off and the tentacles would be hooked and ready to transport. 

After realizing that the tentacles were much heavier we came up with an idea of a using a belt. This belt had multiple holes in it so it was easy to attach the ends of ribbons to the belt. Also this belt was able to hold the weight of these tentacles as well. The belt could easily be hidden under my sequin dress since it sat right under my bra &  the belt was still easy to get on and off. 

....I thought we had it all figured out till I started to walk. 

The tentacles would flip on their side, lay on top of the each other.. it was hot mess. That was when we got some heavy duty fishing line and went to town on tying them so they would hold each other up without much tipping when I would walk. I also had a string on the tentacles that were closest to me tied onto my wrists so I could move them like a puppet making it look more whimsy and octopus like. 

PS. Ursula isn't really an octopus she's more of a squid. Disney couldn't afford to do two more tentacles and they didn't really know how to do an animation with that many as well. Hence why she only has six. 

Once the fishing line was done the finishing touches became so relaxing. If you notice on an Octopus how they have those little suckers on their tentacles. I knew I needed some to complete the look of the whole thing. So... that's when I went to the dollar store (I practically lived their the month of September) to find some felt pads. (The little circles that you put on the bottom of chairs so they don't scratch your floors...) ...Of course they don't make white ones so a couple late nights of painting a solid amount of them white and I was able to stick them on the back side. These not only would finish the tentacles but I knew it would help take the brunt of the walking as well.

Ursula's Beauty Routine:

...well lets just say it isn't easy.

I copied a link to my Instagram where you can see the full time-lapse of this hour transformation in just one minute! 

I used Elmer's Washable Glue Stick to glue my eyebrows down. 

I really loved using the Urban Decay Electric Pallette & Jaclyn Hill's Pallette from Morphe.

For the body makeup I used Mehron Paradise AQ in purple &white. I got them both from Amazon.

To see a time-lapse of me doing the makeup check out my Instagram post of it here

The other thing that was fun about this costume is playing with the size. 

You are probably thinking what are you talking about. But because Ursula is quite a big octopus. I have a "fat suit"... wanna see the difference. 

This first picture is me without the fat suit

Me with the fat suit on... now I look pregnant because it doesn't necessarily stay in place very well when you are walking but I have sure enjoyed my fat suit.

Also the best part was when we were trick or treating it kept me super warm!

All the Amazon.. 

Ursula's sequin black dress is from Amazon. This is the exact dress

Ursula's stunning platinum wig 

(The wig came with a asymmetrical cut to it so I simply trimmed the sides to match & sprayed the crap out of it with Got2B Glued Hairspray & bobby pins. I let the bobby pins sit in it overnight to help hold the shape.)

Purple Mehron AQ paint: http://amzn.to/2lFNTMx

White Mehraon AQ paint: http://amzn.to/2gUo8TA

Fat suit: http://amzn.to/2gU8Myj

King Triton's Staff.

This was something that I wanted to do but wasn't quite sure how. One day I was looking at a bunch of halloween accessories and stumbled upon this devil pitchfork. I grabbed it and stuck it my cart thinking somehow I'll make this work! On my way home I did a little happy dance. I grabbed my gold spray paint and within 5 minutes this thing was now a perfect accessory for my costume. Let alone the whole pitchfork was $1. 

Urusla Earrings & Necklace:

I seriously did all the searches in the world to find the necklace and earrings for Ursula. I ended up finding a necklace online and got it for $6. The earrings weren't so easy but when I went to Joann's I found a bag of shells.. I bought it. I dug through the bag and found the perfect match of shells that would work for earrings. I was going over to Krystal's house that night and we ended up painting & glittering them.. she even had the earring hooks for me as well. Seriously she saved me so many times with this costume! 

Trunk or Treat at our ward was filled with all the sea creatures!

Va Va Voom!

We have owned our home for six years and throughout those six years it has been so rewarding, fun & challenging. I have been so blessed with a husband who puts up with the crazy redesign ideas I have. After begging and begging he finally will buckle down and start on the giant wish board I had for this house. Kelly is a such a stud!

But through all the projects we have taken on with this house I think there is one thing I always forget  and that is forgetting how much time projects take! And once you start one project you easily come up with another one to add to the to-do list. Total snowball effect.

In December 2015 till early March of 2016 we tore apart our kitchen and remodeled it. Now I look at it and say "its the best thing we ever did"... But back then Kelly & I said "what did we get ourselves into, we have to put it back together at this point." As we were working late, late hours on that project I'm pretty sure one of us came out of the bathroom and said you know "it would be cool to update our bathrooms too"... the spark was lit.

So as we did the granite in the kitchen we also had the bathrooms installed with granite & did the new plumbing fixtures as well because we said that way in a year we can do the bathrooms. We also had been in Lowe's at that time and saw some clearance bathroom light fixtures and bought them for when we did finally do the bathrooms.

Here we are a year later, February 2017!
With two fully gutted bathrooms.

I have to also let you know that Kelly & I enjoy our down time watching HGTV. It's fun to see the demo day's and the whole transformation at the end. We often find ourselves agreeing with the tile, flooring, paint etc., in each show. I slowly picked up on this and one night mentioned to Kelly how often we agree on the style they seem to pick. It was a big a-ha moment since I think we thought we had different styles.

Pretty much since we finished the kitchen I had this vision for our bathrooms. I wasn't sure if he'd go for it. Since it meant literally HOURS AND HOURS of work. I explained it to him and showed him some ideas. To my surprise he liked it.. so now the trouble was finding what we wanted to do. We only spent one night looking at tile and found everything from the deco mosaic, subway tile and flooring. In fact I fell so in love with the flooring I begged Kelly to do it in the kitchen but he said "not gonna happen".

This is our hall bathroom's before pictures

I have to let you know that Kelly ripped into "demo day" when
I wasn't home to clean or move anything out. It was so gross when he started to know the tile down.

UGLY light fixtures & mirror.

Bye, bye cabinet

We had to do some plumbing changes and my dad helped
Kelly out while he add copper lines to pex lines.

Old laminate flooring

As we were getting ready to start painting the walls

Kelly peeking through the Master Bathroom as we did demo of the tile in that bathroom

As Kelly did demo on the hall bathroom he realized he was hitting the tile so hard that my decor that hangs in the kitchen was shaking and falling off the wall. That's when we realized we would have to gut the tile out of the Master bathroom before we were thinking because we didn't want to finish the hall bathroom and go to take down the old tile in the master and ruin the new tile. It literally made the nastiest musty mess. Back in the day when our house was built they did sheet rock and then a chicken wire and on top of the wire they would do their cement that would hold the tile. Kelly was a hunk to carry that down the stairs and outside. I honestly can't even lift a box of the new tile yet I lift at 30 pound toddler daily. :)

We also didn't take into consideration the plumbing. We knew we wanted to change the fixture from a three handle to a single handle. Kelly isn't afraid to figuring things out and he definitely will do it himself before paying for a plumber (can't blame him..) but, we were more shocked at the cost factor to change things and add the extra pipe we would need. Luckily my dad stepped in and helped him with parts of it all. 

The only thing I had to convince Kelly to do was a recessed shower shelf. He wasn't to happy since he knew it meant more work. But I won and he said he'd do it, I mainly convinced him how cool the new tile would look plus the fact that the little shower soap inserts are kind of a thing of the past. 

As of tonight (April 1st) Kelly has spent since 9am putting up the new tile in the hallway bathroom its now been 16 hours later and he's getting to the last few tiles. I keep telling him probably every half hour how I can't believe how gutsy he is to learn to do things or teach himself how to do it. He said this morning "how hard can it be?" Well, I lucked out in the husband department he really is the jack of all trades and master of few. But either way he saves us a ton of money by doing it himself plus I think it makes you appreciate the final result that much more. Am I right?

Kelly said "I want to wipe out the stuff in my nose, but there is no way my fingers would even fit."
I wonder why those cement fingers wouldn't fit.

It will be left for a day or so before Kelly will grout it! I can't wait to see the final look of it when it's cleaned and grouted. You can also tell we painted the walls the same color we have in our kitchen and hall. I'm obsessed with that grey... its perfect. It's called Tempered Gray by Valspar. A couple Saturdays ago me and my mom spent half the day painting the celling and walls! Honestly I can't get over how my mom doesn't have to tape anything she can just freehand the ceiling and door frame. I couldn't get over the change in the room when it came to just having new paint and a new light fixture.. it changed everything so much. But the shower surround tile definitely is the cherry on top so far.

Then the next debate started on the flooring. We had the tile but I was indecisive on how to do it. I finally decided on the 45 angle! I haven't regretted it! I absolutely love the flooring. And yes its porcelain tile. They told us about the process and all I understood is they take pictures of wood and then somehow print it onto the tile. Its crazy. I would put this tile in my kitchen if I could.

Then I spent hours and hours.. probably days. Trying to find a shelf for over the toilet. I wanted to build something but after discussing it for weeks we decided to find something already done. We then found this cabinet. It sufficed us both. Then I spent a couple days painting our original vanity cabinet. We did it exactly like our kitchen cabinets the only thing different is I didn't antique the edges. 

Next up was the heavily debated mirror. The biggest complaint I have about our home is STORAGE! It has none! Or maybe I'm a hoarder but either way I want storage. I had a mirror originally that had storage but it was so outdated. I finally saw this idea pop up one day. I knew exactly what I wanted.

So I went to Ikea and picked up their GODMORGON mirror.. It was much bigger than what we needed once we decided on the dimensions of the frame. So I took it to a local glass business and they cut off the excess for $5. It was totally worth it. That way by the time we made the frame it fit perfectly in the space. We spent about $80 or so in wood to build the mirror.
I love the storage it provides and I can keep my counter clean now that I can place everyday things in that shelf. Let alone the toddler isn't tall enough to reach what's inside!
The cheapest thing that changed the entire game of our small bathroom was the lighting. LITERALLY! Lightbulbs! LED daylight bulbs. I got them from Costco 12 bulbs for under $15. They made the bathroom so much brighter then... I got ultra obsessed and changed every light bulb in our house to these bulbs! So four boxes later I am obsessed with these bulbs plus they will last forever!

Then I got to retail therapy! I have been so excited for this part. We got new shower rod's, hooks, shower curtain, liner & rugs. I also have been in the market for a bath toy holder that would actually stay hooked to the wall and drain the water that all those toys collect. (Its the 21st Century it shouldn't be that hard to find but it totally has been a pain in the butt!) 

We also had to get the finishing details for all the towel hooks & toilet paper holder. Kelly really wanted a towel bar.. I can't stand them. Plus for it being a rod they are not cheap. I ended up finding these hooks for the hand towel & bath towels at Hobby Lobby for half off. I didn't even spend on these hooks what we would have spent on a towel rod. Plus I love the industrial metal look that they add to the bathroom.

All the shopping links you need! 

What can I say except You're Welcome.

Over The Toilet Cabinet: http://bit.ly/2u6K0n0

Toilet Paper Holder: http://amzn.to/2td8bLX

Posi Temp Tub/Shower Kit: http://moen.co/2vaR6DU

Sink Faucet: http://moen.co/2tH2GsB

Flamingo Curtain: http://bit.ly/2uguANr

Flamingo Rug: http://bit.ly/2u7etRR

Hand Towel Hook: http://bit.ly/2tHjsHZ

Bath Towel Hook: http://bit.ly/2ucf4S3

Stool under the toilet... Squatty Potty: http://bit.ly/2u7ywzL

Ikea rugs: http://bit.ly/1YpdFxE