Here is our Master bedroom, I took the pictures with my iphone, so the quality is not as good as our camera would be, but I'll change them soon. I really like our room, I have always wanted a calm feeling room, like when you are in a hotel room. So we found a soothing blue. Jared built our bed. I really like it. It was higher and I could not even run and jump onto it. So Jared took six inches off and it works much better for me. I went with white curtains, it feels really great in there. I enjoy getting on the bed and relaxing. I made the headboard, I love the chocolate brown look and that it gives the room texture. I've been wanting to make a headboard our whole marriage and finally here. Moving here to TorC has been such a wonderful experience already. I feel such peace here. That may be me working so much on myself and centering my life a lot more on Christ. I hope Jared and I are creating a feeling in our home that can help our kids grow up happy and that our environment can be an asset to them. That they may feel joy and happiness here. I am grateful for our home.

My mom has been asking for pictures of our house. She was here when we first moved in and saw all the things that needed changed. She has been looking forward to seeing the changes. The red ones are of our kitchen. We will be changing out the cabinets and countertops this month. It will look so much better. We are getting white cabinets and Jared will be tiling the countertop, and putting up a backsplash. I am anxious to have it changed. I'm in the kitchen more then I ever have been. Since I have discovered how much I enjoy cooking. Been doing at least three new recipes a week. It is a lot of fun.
The white bookshelf in the living room, Jared built. It looks great. I really like the contrast of white to the paint. I had originally painted the wall with the stairs yellow like the rest of the living room. But I found that it seemed overbearing, since it is a solid staircase and seemed looming. So I continued the paint from the fireplace wall. I really like it now. Jared also built the stand the TV sits on. It fits perfectly in that cubby and doesn't seem to be the center of attention in the house. Next to the fist tank Jared also built shelving, so that our dvds, and Wii accessories have a place to be, that is out of the way. They fire place has brick around it. It was a dull orange red. We were planning on tiling over it, but could not decide what color and other details, so I painted it white and really love it now. It really pops and flows with the rest of the room. We are designing a proper mantle for the fireplace. We are enjoying customizing our home, little by little.

When we first moved into our house the kitchen was a dirty dingy white. Now Jared knows that I have a hard time making decisions sometimes as you will soon find out. I really had a difficult time figuring out what color I really wanted the kitchen to be.
We painted the main part of the house a warm yellow, so I thought okay lets carry that into the kitchen to help it flow better. I really thought it would be great. Well that lasted for about a month. My brother Greg came to visit on his way up to Utah, him and is five boys. Crazy man. He, who is blunt and just says things, said, " This is to much yellow for me!" So after he left I got to thinking he was right so I painted again.It was green and then I painted the wall to the left of the kitchen green too. I was happy with it for about two weeks. Then I told Jared I don't know why I am trying to go for a look that is really not me in any way. I know what color I like kitchens. I'm going to the store.


I am so much happier with the red. Its name is Ginseng Red. I really love it, its a mix between a brick orange and a deep red. I really love deep red and Jared really likes orange hues, so it was a good mix. I also painted the cabinets for the third time, to this chocolate brown. We took down the cabinet hanging over the stove and counter to open things up. I was getting a pain in my neck from looking under the cabinet while cooking and talking to company/kids. We will be tiling the counters eventually. We have quite a list of things are wanting to acquire/get done. We changed out the light fixture and love the new one. I am so glad that I ended up with this color. I would of loved to figured it out sooner, but no going back now. We are going to be putting crown molding on the cupboards, but that is also all the huge list. I really love my kitchen. I am especially loving it now as it is cooling off, you know getting to only 75-80 during the days now. Fall is here.

Living is fantastic. We went to the lake almost daily until school started. The kids would wake up and during breakfast want to know if we could go right after to swim. I put the kids in swimming lessons. Jordan wanted nothing to do with lessons though. I'll try next summer for sure. Alena is a great swimmer she is the first one in and the last one out. Saige has great strokes, she just gets so nervous to drown. I loved this picture of Jordan. He likes to run out to the lake and then come back to me over and over. Usually showing me another amazing seashell and adding it to the growing mound of other amazing sea shells.

This here is called a Horny Toad. We find them frequently. Not as much as lizards by any means. The kids love them. They are really pokey and can be really tinyy or big like this one. Which is the biggest that we have caught yet. Or that Jared has caught yet. I love watching him pounce on the creatures. It is so amusing.

Salt Lake Zoo

On our way down to New Mexico we stayed with Aunt Angela in Burley Idaho for a couple nights and then went to Aunt Lesli's in Salt Lake. We went to the Zoo. Angela drove up that morning so all the cousins could be there together. It is the first time I can remember being with my sisters and going somewhere besides a reunion. The kids had so much fun. I really enjoyed it too. It was a hot day though. When we got back to Lesli's house we went swimming her community pool. Besides the crazy wind that picked up it was a lot of fun. The kids were exhausted. As were the Mom's!!!

Since my mother has been in China she has been asking for pictures of the kids, house, etc. So this morning I thought I should update this regularly and post pictures. I know my girls would like looking at the blog. I've got three months to catch up on.

Saige turned eight right before we moved, but we weren't sure if Jared was going to be in Washington or New Mexico, so we did not schedule anything. So we waited until we moved down here and when Jared's parents could come. Saige was so great about her baptism. She really wanted to understand want the covenants being made meant to her life. She looked so cute too. This picture was after the baptism when we got home. She was baptized by her dad and confirmed by him too. Grandma and grandpa Johnson spoke at her baptism.