International Salon and Spa Expo...Long Beach California

This last month, I entered into a contest for an Salon Expo in long beach California. It was a before and after cut and color competition. My model was amazing and let me do whatever I wanted to do.

Here is her before picture....

Looks like a mug shot kinda....

Are you ready to see the final picture???

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Doesn't she look amazing? I think so!!! It was so much fun!!!

What does yellow mean?

The other day we were driving in the car and I decided to teach Carter what the traffic lights in Utah meant.

Then I thought it would be fun to work on counting with him....

And spelling....

He still has some work to do, but hey he is only 2.

Its been a long time....

I have decided today is the day to start my blog again. I know it has been a long time, but hey at least I am starting now.

We have been pretty busy with our new house, the holidays, and keeping up with this little 2 year old. I just cannot believe how fast these little kids grow up. He is talking pretty much in full sentences, he says bless you when you sneeze, please, thank you and your welcome, and he will get himself a napkin when needed. We are having a hard time with things to eat, but he is still growing up nice and healthy.

Here are a couple videos of him singing his ABC's and twinkle twinkle little star.

I have noticed that the reason I dread updating the blog, is because I feel the need to post huge things. So I am not going to. Just short and sweet. So enjoy these videos!

Well.... Its been awhile!!! But A LOT has been going on!!!

A lot of things have happened in the past 6 months or so!!! We were living in Holladay and my nanny job was about to be up. So we had to make a decision whether to stay in our same apartment and pay a lot of money, move somewhere else where rent was cheaper, or buy a house.

I was looking on KSL in the house department, and kept seeing this one house. It was the only house for sale in our price range that was actually a house and not a condo or townhouse. But it was a bank owned property and the only picture it had was the front of the house, and it was pretty rough looking. So I called the realtor for the exact address so I could drive by and see it. So he gave me the address and the code for the lock box so I could see inside without having him meet me out there.

When I got to the house, it was pretty rough looking. I walked inside and I was afraid to touch anything. The pictures say enough....

The master bedroom (with beautiful sports wall paper)

Looking from the living room (with salmon pink paint and no carpet throughout the whole house)

The dining room (also with no flooring)

The Living room (the front window is cracked all the way down)

The Kitchen (the dark spot is mold. Ya the whole kitchen floor needed to be ripped out and replaced due to mold under the sink and all over the floor.)

The back yard- (for some reason I didn't take a picture of the front of the house)

The bathroom-( this was the nicest part of the whole house)

The other half of the back yard

The other bedroom up stairs- (more sports wall paper)

After seeing this house, I thought wow this sure is a fixer-upper, and I really wanted Devin to see it. It was a 3 bed 1 1/2 bath, 1 car garage with a dining room. It also had a fenced back yard and it wasn't a condo or town house, So I really wanted him to see it.

I called him as I was leaving and told him that I wanted him to see this house tonight, and I would get him from work. So we met our Realtor over there and to my surprise Devin didn't think it was too bad. I was so excited. Right away we started talking about carpet colors, paint, tile etc.

We had our Realtor put an offer down for us, which was a pretty reasonable offer and we waited. And waited and waited. The wait is what kills you.

Well we didn't hear anything. They never got back to us. So we decided to move on. We continued looking and found a few more townhouses that were short sales and we put offers down. I think we put 4 or 5 other offers on different places and we either never heard anything or they counter offered and we decided to not go with it.

Well while we were waiting to hear from one of them, our Realtor called us back and said that the first home we put an offer on, had just dropped the price to what we had offered about a month prior. We decided to offer the same thing and them pay closing.

Well with in 48 hours we got a letter saying they had accepted our offer and we were to close in about 4 weeks. We were so excited. Oh my goodness! So we started getting everything ready, doing inspections, meth tests, and getting bids for things we need to get done to make it live- able.

So we did. And we closed. And now we live there!!! and we LOVE it!!!! Here are some pictures of what it looks like now!!!

Our new House in West Jordan UT

The living room..New Paint and new carpet

This used to be the blue room.....Not any more!!!
The kitchen.... New tile and paint and appliances

Our new front window!!!

Used to be the red room....
My first flower garden!!!

There are still some things that we need to do, it is far from being done. But we love it. We have met our neighbors and we have a park right in the back yard just through the fence. And Carter LOVES that!!!!!!

Update...I know...Its been awhile

Wow... time sure flies when you are busy and having fun. I have only 3 days left to nanny, and it is kind of bitter sweet. I know that Carter is going to miss being around this kids, and all that he has learned. And weird to say, so will I. It has been a wonderful experience for us all....

This is an example of the kids and how determined they are...

She really wanted to eat that yogurt!!!!

Maren will be 2 on May 1st and William her brother just turned 3 in Jan. They are very smart and fun kids, but need a lot of attention. They have taught Carter a lot of good things, and a lot of not so good things. Like how to feed himself, how to walk and talk, and scream and throw fits.

Carter is also growing so fast and learning so much. For example, when I am driving, and I start to yell at another car for cutting me off or something like that (which happens all the time), Carter will try and repeat EVERYTHING I say. Haha. Its kind of scary. But we love him anyway!!

He has also been sleeping through the night, (knock on wood) for the past 2 weeks now. From 8pm ish to 7:30 ish. Life is so much different when you have had sleep!!!!

HOW?????????????????

To all you moms out there, how in the heck do you keep your house clean? It seems that no matter WHAT I do, I can never stay ahead. There are always toys everywhere!

Our trip to Cabot, Arkansas

A couple of weekends ago, Carter and I flew out to Cabot, Arkansas to visit a good friend of mine and her family. It was so great to see Jessie and her hubby John, and their four boys...Joseph, Hyum, Henry and Benson, and number 5 is on the way. Carter had so much fun playing with all the boys that were his same age. He didn't want to leave!!!!!

John is in the airforce, and we got to watch all the planes take off and land at the air force base.

Here is her car full of little handsome boys!!!!!! So much fun!

And here they were all getting ready to eat lunch! Thanks Jessie for having us over! It was so great to see you all. You are a wonderful mom!!!!!! I have learned a lot from you.
I had never been to arkansas so it was very interesting to visit. I took some very funny pictures, that I will post next.