Lately Ryan and Sarah have loved dressing up. Here are a few photos:

I love the masks that I got from my sister-in-law's Aunt. They are even cuter in person.

Hello everyone! I just started a new blog. I've been toying with the idea for a while. You see, our family blog was starting to feel less like a blog about the family and more about my DIY projects. I have also been having a hard time wanting to give tutorials/details of what I was doing on a blog that was intended for showing off pictures of our kids to their grandparents.  So I decided to get all my creativity out on a blog dedicated specifically to my projects. We just finished our kitchen cabinets and I've posted some pictures. I hope you will show some love and follow me on my new blog!

Birthday Celebration 

(Girls-Night-Out-Style)

(Photo taken with Stephanie's camera. Thanks for passing it along!)

I was really sad to leave Milwaukee where I had such dear friends. Those kind of friendships are so hard to find. (I still miss them a lot.) One thing that helped me with our move was knowing we were going to a place where I already had a few really great friends (who lived back in Milwaukee with me). I feel very fortunate to have those friends so close. The thing I worried about was finding new friends in my new ward/neighborhood. However, I have been so blessed to have great visiting teachers and friends in the ward. I feel like they took me right under their wing and have helped me adjust to being in a new place. They are so cute and very nice to me! I have such a great time with these girls and feel so blessed to have them as my friends. Thank you so much for the great night. I had so much fun, it makes turning 30 not feel so bad!

New Table...well sort of.

There is a table we've wanted to buy for a while now and we had planned to save up for it. That said, it's been six months now and not a penny saved for it (too many other items higher on our priority list). So I decided to try to get the same look with our existing table. It's obviously not exactly the same but I think it turned out pretty darn close (?) Anyway, it's much better than it was and I am much happier with it.

Source: restorationhardware.com via Kristi on Pinterest

Here is what I had to work with. It has a very similar shape. However, the color wasn't my favorite and the top had some major wear. Fortunately, it was fairly simple to sand. It only took a couple days from start to finish.

Before:

Here she is after I sanded, stained, waxed (I wanted a very natural wood look), and painted (the bottom of the bench).

After: