More blogs to love

Hi! I love blogs and since I have discovered some wonderful blog goodness over the last few months, I thought I'd share my favorites with you:

The Pioneer Woman
I just love this website. It's written by a woman named Ree who lives on a ranch in Oklahoma, and the site is filled with beautiful photography and delicious recipes. Ree hosts lots of great giveaways, although her readership is so huge that the chances of winning are pretty low. Today she is giving away a KitchenAid mixer. She also has her own cook book. Check it out!

Young House Love
This blog is written by a couple who are decorating their house. They share stories about their hunts to find the perfect items to make their house a home. They also give great DIY tips. I love their style.

Ucreate
This is a great blog that gathers craft projects from other blogs. They also have giveaways. Cute stuff here. Today, the site features a tutorial on how to make this lovely pillow.

Tip Junkie
I'm not sure if I've recommended Tip Junkie before, but I love this site. It's kind of like Ucreate in that it acts as a gatherer of wonderful craft, meal, activity ideas from other sites. They're basically a "tip clearinghouse" for moms. They also have great party ideas, tips on how to get organized, and lots of other stuff. The other day they had a how-to on flower oragami.

Of course, I don't get to actually do most of the things featured on these blogs, but I love to look! :)

If you have a favorite blog you think I should check out, let me know! I love blogs!

Family Reunion and Happy News

We had a great time at the family reunion about 10 days ago! Ruth did such a great job riding in the car with only one or two accidents during the entire trip. We kept her in a pull-up for those long stretches of Wyoming road where there is no place to stop and go potty. The pull-up was pretty much always dry, though. She kept herself occupied and generally didn't complain during the car ride. We arrived in beautiful Beaver Mountain on Thursday evening.
I had forgotten how much I love that place. The air was so clean and crisp, and the mountains are gorgeous. I would love to live there again. Tony and I dreamed about retiring there someday and owning our own cabin near Bear Lake. We stayed in the ski lodge, and there was a total of about 100 family members there. It was great to meet Tony's cousins, aunts and uncles and see his brother, dad and Diane. Here is Tony and his dad in our family reunion shirts:
They assigned each sibling's family a color. Ours was turquoise. Here is Ruth sporting her turquoise:
Ruth also got to meet her Great Aunt Ruth:
Tony and his cousin, Brett:
And another cousin, Olivia:
Aunt Pam and Aunt Mary Beth:


Oh, brotherly love:
Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of our family all together on my camera. Ruth had fun running around with all the little kids, blowing bubbles, etc.
I enjoyed a break from the humidity! There was great food, a talent show, games, and all kinds of other fun stuff. Here is the Gardner family band, with Tony's dad at the drums:

Tony got to go fishing with his brother a few times, which he really enjoyed. We spent Saturday in Logan with Tony's dad, Diane and Mike, and got to enjoy some Jamba Juice, Gossner's cheese and shopping at Deseret Book. Then we had a super yummy dinner at Maddox and stopped in to say hello to Grandma and Grandpa Wayman. On Sunday we drove 11 hours to North Platte and got to stay and play with our great friends, the Olbrichts. Monday we drove the last 5 hours to Omaha. I have to say, those hours seemed to be the longest of our trip. We were all completely exhausted and ready to be back home.
Don't ask me why she has a pillow on her head. Our cat, Justin, was very happy to see us after we had been gone for so long.

This week Tony and I completely finished painting the upstairs. Now I just need to sweep and mop up there, and then we can take up our furniture and get organized. This week I'm starting to watch Jack 4 days a week, which will be a big change but should be fun. Probably our most exciting announcement for this week is that TONY GOT PROMOTED!!! Woohoo!!! He has been wanting this for a long time and I am so glad it has finally happened. He is going to be the sales manager over two of the mall kiosks here. He gets a pay raise and every Sunday off as well as every other Saturday. He will also have to work longer hours during the week, but he is looking forward to the opportunity to be a leader. It'll be a new opportunity for him to stretch and grow and use his talents. His start date is Sept. 1. School also starts back up for him in a week and he's taking 13 credits, so we will have to see how all of that goes. He is so close to being done with school, we can almost taste it!

New baby comes in 7 weeks! Time is flying by! The pregnancy is going well aside from the fact that my blood pressure has been very low. I need to do better about keeping hydrated and that should correct the problem.
Here is a silly parting photo of Ruth pretending to be a ghost this morning:

And here is another cute one of Ruth hanging out with her dad:

Happy Sunday!

Upstairs painting

I'm a little late in posting these, but after long last, here they are:
Before:

After:

Before:

After:

The lighting isn't the best, and obviously the rooms are still a mess, but you get the idea. I'll post more pictures when we get all moved up there. It looks so much better! The color is called "Nurture" by Behr. It's a blue-gray, and I think it looks really nice upstairs - not so gray that it's depressing. It was an impulse choice. I went to the paint store with the intention of getting something totally different, saw a sample of that color, and thought, "Hmm, that might look nice." Tony convinced me to just get it. I'm a little worried that I might think it's too gray in the future, but it looks much better than before and there are so many different options for coordinating with other colors. I'm excited to get it cleaned up and decorated!

In other news, we are going to the Gardner Family Reunion this week. It was another last-minute decision. The reunion is held every three years, and I've been wanting to go so I can meet the rest of Tony's family. (And Tony wants to go for obvious reasons.) It's going to be at Beaver Mountain this year, which is in the northernmost part of Utah. We had been going back and forth about whether or not we were going to attend, and in the end we decided not to go because we just couldn't come up with the money for it. But thanks to the generosity of Tony's Dad and Diane, we are going to make the trip after all. We will drive out Wednesday and Thursday, hang out Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and then head home Sunday and Monday. The car trip will be long, but it should be a lot of fun! I have to admit, though, I've been so distracted by painting for the last week that I haven't done much to get ready. It's going to be a busy few days around here!