Challene's 30th Birthday

On Friday June 11th I turned 30 and threw a huge party. Ugh it was a hard number to reach, but my birthday was so much fun that it was worth it. For my birthday I invited all my friends and family for some food, cake and fun. For dinner we had pulled pork sandwiches, for cake I made my own Topsy-Turvy cake and for the fun part Will and I rented a large obstacle course blow up toy. It was so, so much fun! Due to the weather we ended up having to have my summer birthday party inside our church cultural hall but it was still a ton of fun. So that is a quick overview of the day now enjoy the pictures.

Heres the cake that I made it was a Topsy-Turvy cake. It was my first fondant covered cake. Lets just say I learned a whole lot and had no desire to make a cake for a long time. I finally did for Joshua's birthday and that was in September.

My handsome husband cutting the cake for everybody. Just an FYI it tasted great!

Some but not all of the green family.

Me and one of my good friends from High school. Katie and her husband Chad.

Friends from the ward. Clockwise from Meagan (in orange) and her son, Darren and his little girl in pink, Spencer and Kim, CJ and Diane.

The adults in line for the obstacle course.

Steve and Will it looks like a tie. You can totally tell they're brothers, they even ended the same, love it.

I thought this picture of me was hilarious. Notice there is nobody next to me? That is because I am so slow they were already standing up waiting for me. I don't think I won any races but I sure had fun. Oh and it didn't help that there were some husbands that were intentionally pushing on the obstacle course. It would knock the wives down and make it a ton harder to get through. It was legal wife abuse and they loved it.

My cute Ethan.

Josh and I racing.

My cute Joshua.

Konnie and Me.

Megan and Me.

Thanks to all that came and celebrated my 30th with me. It was so, so much fun! Oh and thanks for all of the gifts you know you didn't have to, but I love them.

Kindergarten

Wow I am in shock my oldest is now a Kindergartener! Ethan Started his first day of school on August 30, 2010. We got to his school 15 minutes early and at first he was excited. We stopped by my friend Kim's classroom to say hi and burn a little time. I wish Ethan had Kim for a teacher but she is a full day Kindergarten teacher and only the kids that struggle have her. I also thought that by stopping by to see her it would help Ethan know she was there. After our short visit with Kim we went next door to Ethan's class. We took some time to look around but when I told him I had to leave he got scared. He wouldn't sit in his chair and he was grabbing on to me saying "Mommy, Mommy, I want Mommy." Poor kid, it broke my heart but I was trying to be strong and I couldn't exactly break down. That definatly wouldn't have helped. So what does any great mom do at that moment when she is trying to not make a scene? Well she starts bribing her child! I bribed him with TV and treats but ultimately nothing worked he still wouldn't let me go. Finally his teacher took him. I rushed out the door with Joshua in tow and literally only heard Ethan cry for 2 seconds. I stood out in the hallway for a couple of minutes passing the time with a friend while I listened to see if he was okay. I then had that friend look in to check on him. He was fine so I peeked in and he looked fine. His back was to me and he was standing next to the teacher. I left very reluctantly and worried the whole 3 hours about him, keeping my phone right next to me. I was worried the school might call and tell me he was having a hard time. But nope not one call.

During Ethan's school I had an errand to run down to Bountiful and on my way I did cry a little. I was just worried about him, it's hard to let your child go when they are crying. It just goes against every motherly instinct in my body. Finally it was time to go and pick him up and it was so surreal to see him walk out of the front door of the school surrounded by all of his classmates. He just seemed like such a big boy. You know it has crossed my mind that someday my child will go to school, someday my child will drive, go on a mission, etc. but I have to tell you this one still snuck up on me. Where did the time go?

Sorry, I digress, lets continue on. Ethan and I had a predetermined meeting spot and he started to look for me there and once he saw me he had a huge grin on his face. I don't specifically remember what I asked him but he said he had fun, thus making all my worry for not. Oh and shortly there after he started to remind me of all the things/bribes I had told him he could have after school. Yes, I did pay up.

Today was his second day and he again had a hard time wanting to go. It probably had to do with the fact that today they had to line up in the back of the school on a number and wait for their teacher to come and get them. It really was overwhelming to have all of the kids out there. He didn't want to line up and he wouldn't let go of my hand when it was time to go but I handed him off to his teacher who took him again with less reluctance than yesterday. He went and had another good day.

Ethan is the only child in his class that seems to be struggling. I am sure this has to do with not having gone to preschool. But considering all he is doing great. He does have 4 friends from our ward that are in his class and I am really glad for that I think that helps as well.

School Orientation

Ethan out side of his school Holt on Monday August 23, 2010 ready to go in for school orientation.

The Holt Hawks.

Posing in front of the school mascot wall.

Joshua and Ethan building blocks while I was try to pay attention and hear the teacher tell us what we need to know during school orientation.

First Day of School

The first day of school. Ethan showing off his back pack.

Heading into school.

Ethan sitting at his desk.

Linda's Shower/Wedding day

Will's little sister Linda finally got married in May of this year. We are so happy for her. Below is some pictures from the wonderful event.

Linda & Peter's Shower

Linda and Peter opening gifts.

I Co-hosted the shower at my home. This is a picture of the candy bar that I did. I thought that it turned out cute so I had to take a picture.

I actually ended up etching the glass of this trifle bowl for them for their wedding gift. I don't know if they like it but they can't take it back and I thought it turned out so cute that I have been meaning to make myself one.

Bountiful Temple

May 11, 2010

Linda and Peter with our boys

The fam.

Joshua being his cute self with his cute huge smile

The boys with umbrellas. The weather was a bit chilly and rainy.

I love this picture of Ethan he actually has a genuine smile. No only is it hard to get kids to give a normal smile but he is such a ham in front of a camera that it is a feat to get him to just smile.

The Ring Ceremony and Reception

They had their ring ceremony and reception at the Castle Reception center in Layton.

I did the centerpieces for her for the wedding. Each table had this design either in purple, yellow or blue. It was quite the project and I think it turned out well. Also it was also done for not very much money which was one of the request. First I pruned my front tree and then I spray painted the branches one of the above mention colors. I frosted the glass vases with spray paint. I glued on glitter to the tea lights. And thank goodness for my cricut machine because that is how I did the design on the paper under the vases and all those tons of flowers that were double sided! With lots of time and lots of glue/spray paint here was the end product. Again I think it turned out well.

Cousins!

My kids with my sisters.

From left: Ethan, Peyton, Brooklyn, Joshua and Bryton.

I loved, loved, loved this picture aren't they cute staring at the dessert. Linda and Peter had Cold Stone my favorite ice cream company come and serve ice cream at their reception. Linda and Peter forgot to get my favorite though, sweet cream. To bad I didn't know about this when I had my wedding. But then again I don't think cold stone was around then. Wow that makes me feel old.

Well thats it

Congrats to Linda and Peter and many hopes and wishes for a happy marriage!

Dyson Vacuum review

Dyson DC 28 Animal

with "Air Muscle" technology

I have had my dyson for a little over a month now, so here is my review.

Pros

• It’s not loud (I think I lost some hearing with my last vacuum).
• It works well on both carpets and hard floors.
• It has a great canister that empties easily with little mess.
• The vacuum has not lost any suction, not even with a fairly full canister.
• Will likes the long cord.

Cons

• It does not go under furniture. It has a really large base that just doesn’t fit.
• It doesn’t pick up large things easily. If you want it to pick up anything large (for example: popcorn kernels or rice crispy cereal) it works better if you use the backward motion instead of the forward motion to get them. I don't know if this is necessarily a true "con" since it still does an amazing job.
• The plug comes out of the wall way too easily. This is by far my biggest complaint.
• I’m not sure I like the fact that if I want to use the hose I have to unwind the whole cord every time.
• I’m not sure I like it, but I am getting used to the fact that you have to step on the front of it to get it into the release mode to vacuum. I have always had a release button on the back of the vacuum.
• As far as the attachments go I haven't used the small one at all. The large one is for hard floors and I just don't like that I have to bend over to get it at the right angle on the floor. It hurts my back. So I just don't use it. The vacuum picks up on the hard floors just fine with out this attachment.

I realize I have more cons than pros but I think this stems from the fact that Dyson's vow they are the best so my expectations are way way high. Also we paid a lot so I want my money's worth. Don’t get me wrong none of the cons really bother me that much. I have just had to re adjust how I do things a little bit. And the most, most important thing is that it sucks stuff up... that makes me feel like I have not wasted my time like I did with my other vacuums.

Challene

9 year Anniversary!

9 Year Anniversary

As of May 16, 2010 Will and I have been married for 9 years. Wow, 9 years where has the time gone? In 9 years Will and I have; had 2 boys; Ethan and Joshua, moved at leaste 8 times, owned 1 condo and 1 home, lived in my grandparents duplex twice, lived in my Mothers home, lived in 1 apartment, rented 1 town home and 1 home. We've lived in two different States; Utah then Oregon and then back to Utah. Owned our own business: Rocky Mountain Family Chiropractic.

Will has; gone to school for at least 8 of our nine years, finally resulting in him becoming a Chiropractor and having 4 degrees (AS, AAS, BS, DC), he has worked for at least 4 different employers: Contempo Tile, Watson Laboratories as a Quality Assurance Auditor, sold Usana products (for about a month), and Norman Chiropractic.

I have: gone to school for music education then interior design. Worked for 3 employers, once for the state of Utah as an office tech. It is just a fancy way of saying I did all the paper work, data entry, faxed things/recieved faxes, etc. I worked for Curves one in Bountiful Utah and one in NE Portland, Oregon. Had 5 callings in the church; Sunbeam teacher, Young Womens leader, Webolos leader, Secretary in Relief Society and I was the 1st counselor in the Relief Society. I was over additional Relief Society Meeting (aka enrichment). I've also raised two boys.

May 16, 2001

Sealed for all time and Enterinity in the

Salt Lake Temple.

Anniversary Get away

For our anniversary we decided to get away for 2 nights. We found a cheap condo for rent in Park City Utah. The Place was called the Silver Queen Hotel. It is located right on the old main street in Park City. The pictures on its website looked nice and the price was great so we booked it. The place was alright. I think I had too high of expectations. I didn't realize that the place was old. Old buildings creep me out. One of my other complaints is that they didn't have any normal pillows to sleep on. They only had throw pillows with shams on them and a couple other huge throw pillows. Needless to say we ended up using the sham pillows to sleep on. Who knew? If I had I would have packed my own. Also the TV reception was horrible most channels looked horrible if you could see them at all. Oh and I almost forgot. We had a hard time finding/getting a parking spot. The condo manageing company did pull through and finally get us a free parking spot not to far from where we were staying. I hate being all negative so here is what I did like. Even though the place was old it had been updated. It had a really nice new kitchen, which had very sleek modern white cabinets with silver handle knobs and black granite counter tops with all new black appliances. Which included a gas stove, trash compactor, dishwasher and of course a refrigerator. There were a couple pieces of the interior design that I really liked. The first of which was a mirror that was in the dining room. It was a large square framed mirror with a rustic silver frame around it. Then in the dining room it had a shabby-to-chic black chandelier.

Here is a picture of the outside of the Silver Queen Hotel.

While we were in Park city we took our golf clubs and we hit a bucket of balls at a golf course. Then we proceeded to Massage Envy where we had an hour long couples massage. After that we had dinner at Ghidottis where we had an over priced not so great meal. But Cold Stone, my favorite ice cream shop, was next door so we got that to go and had a fabulous desert later in our room while watching the TV that has poor reception. Before we had dessert we took a walk up and down the old main street, where we realized there wasn't hardly anything still open and nothing that interested us anyway. So it ended up being just a nice walk.

Here are some pictures of Ghidottis, it was a beautiful designed resturant. Yes I took pictures, I love interior design what else do you want me to say?

I absolutely love those wrought iron gates! What a beautiful interior.

Happy 9 year anniversary Will! I love you! I am excited to share more years with you and I can't wait to see what is next.

Pure Bliss!

So you know how there are certain things in life that just make you happy. Well I think these lamps are beautiful and they make me happy. I seriously smile every time I look at them. As you all know I am passionate about/love interior design and I think whom ever designed these were brilliant.

Ahhh, pure bliss, I love them!

Frustrated!

If you are not in the mood to hear me rant and rave then just go a head and skip this post.

So I bought this True Clean pet vacuum pictured below a little over a year ago. Yes it was a vacuum that cost under $100.00 bucks but really is it too much to ask that it will work for more than 6 months? Currently it doesn't work at all. I am so, so, so sick of crappy vacuums! This is not my first, actually I wish I would have kept my first vacuum. It was a low end Hoover but it did better then the next two that I have had.

I seriously have had 2 melt downs this week trying to get this thing to pick up anything! My floors look horrible. I know we are absolutely broke and can not afford a Dyson but I am getting one! I will not do this anymore! I know/hope in the long run with a Dyson it will be worth the money.

So that is it. I HATE this vacuum!!!!!!!

Easter 2010

Happy Easter

Easter this year was filled with all the usual activities. We baked sugar cookies, colored eggs and the Easter Bunny came.

Coloring Eggs

Easter Morning

The Easter Egg hunt!

Easter Basket Surprise

The Easter bunny left both the boys a mask and a snorkel. Ethan loves his and Joshua is not to sure about it. To be honest I am surprised I thought it would be the other way around. However the reason is Josh is having a hard time keeping his mouth tight around the snorkel and that is why he doesn't like it.

Too cute! What a big boy.