We're back from Utah! We were gone 6 days and it was WAY too short. Too many people that I wanted to see or just spend more time with and I didn't get to. :( But I'll be back again in less than a month!! Thank you cousins who are all getting married and giving me an excuse to visit with everyone!! :)
Our trip was great. I didn't take a single picture. Way too busy for the camera. (or I forgot it).
We partied all night at Tristan's killer reception. We shopped with Grandma and the girls. We watched conference and ate way too much delicious food. We played freeze tag, red light/green light, mother may i, and jumped on the trampoline like crazy people. So much fun. My family is seriously the coolest.
One thing we did, that I will eventually have pictures of: Long story. Are you ready? For those of you who have not been to my parents' home, let me paint you a picture. First, they bought the home because my dad loved the property. Huge yard, pool, pond, gazebo. It's fun. And beautiful. And they keep improving it. I love it. Anyway, my dad told my mom that if she would let him buy this house, he would let her do anything she wanted to it. So they basically gutted it. I wish I had the pictures to show you the before and afters, but alas, I do not.
Now, upstairs, there is the living room/formal dining area. My parents master bedroom and bath. The family room/kitchen/breakfast nook area. Laundry room. Mud room. Garage. Half guest bath. Entrance. And then there used to be two bedrooms, but my parents had the wall between them knocked out and made it into one big huge bedroom for my two little sisters. Oh, and their bathroom.
Downstairs there are two storage rooms, a large family room, the playroom (under the stairs), computer room, my dad's office, my old bedroom and bathroom, the exercise room, and then two bedrooms with a jack-and-jill style bathroom between them. Those were my brothers' rooms.
Now that both of my brothers and I have moved out, my parents have been doing some rearranging. They had hardwood floors put in upstairs. They repainted the girls' bedroom, added more molding, and put a fireplace in it. It is now my dad's new office. He liked the idea of not having to take clients all the way through the house, downstairs, and to the back of the basement. They also added a desk in his office for my mom, so they can hang out more. Precious. :) So the downstairs office is empty, waiting to be redecorated. It will be a guest bedroom. My room has remained the same. That's where we stay whenever we visit. And anyone else for that matter, because it has been the only guest bedroom in the house until now. The girls have moved all of their things into the boys' old rooms and are in the process of redecorating as well.
Really, I could make this story so much shorter (be leaving out all of that) but it's my blog and I don't want to. :) So there.
Anyway, Madie is keeping Brennan's old furniture because it's fairly new, in great condition, and matches the new decor. Maren, however, is getting new furniture. Who knows where Devin's old bed will go. Madie's room and my old room have queen sized beds. The new guestroom will as well. And I'm assuming they'll get one for Maren. This is so that in the future when we all return home for holidays and whatnot we'll have somewhere to sleep with our hypothetical spouses. Or real ones, in my case.
Sooooo, in Madison and Maren's old bedroom upstairs they slept in matching twin beds. These beds were the beds Devin and I slept in growing up. Eventually Devin and Brennan shared a room and the beds stayed in my room. When the little girls were old enough I got my queen bed and they received my old beds. I recently learned that before they were mine they belonged to my grandparents on my dad's side. They were his beds growing up, and his sister's before him. We're not sure before that, but I plan to ask each of my aunts and uncles if they know (since both of my grandparents have passed away) to see if they were in the family beyond that or if they were purchased new. But as far as we know so far they are at least 50 years old. Still in great condition and beautiful!
The reason behind all of this useless information? (Useless to you, anyway). Now that my parents have redecorated and rearranged so much they have no space for these beds and I have inherited them!! And one of my sisters' old dressers as well (which matches the beds, although it is only about 10 or so years old).
We only have one car (which is FINALLY out of the shop, by the way!) but it's not capable of towing anything. We thought about renting a truck and borrowing a trailer from someone in the ward to haul the furniture back with, but rentals don't have hitches. We looked into renting a uhaul, but that was going to cost over $400. I'm too cheap for that.
So instead, we woke up bright and early Monday morning, loaded up my dad's trailer, and drove the 3 hours home in my parents' Denali. :) We unloaded the furniture as quickly as we could. Between my two wimpy arms and Jason's one good one, we got everything up the stairs and assembled in just about an hour. I was impressed with us. Then Jason drove the 3 hours back to my parents' house, dropped off their Denali and trailer, hopped in our car, and drove another 3 hours home. Fun day for him, right?
Well, along with the dresser and beds we received mattresses, box springs, sheet sets, pillows, and everything! All fairly new (5-7 years old) and it great condition. My mom quilted matching bedspreads when the girls were younger. They're beautiful!
So we took the toddler bed out of Payson's room and put it into Jack's room for when he grows out of the crib. She was growing out of it anyway. I bought some curtains, a lamp, and some framed pictures to match the bedding and got everything in place and hung up.
It looks so perfect!! I love it! And Payson loves it. It's so fun to sit on her bed with her at night and read stories and say prayers. It reminds me of doing the same with my parents growing up. And then when the beds belonged to the girls, Sunday nights my mom or dad would go in and lie on one of their beds with one of the girls and read stories from The Friend. Whenever we were over for Sunday dinner I would lie on the other bed snuggle with the other sister and hang out with them. And now I get to make memories with my daughter on these beds as well. I love that!
I want to post pictures, but the room has to be completely finished first! I'm trying to find a bookshelf and a few more things for the walls and then the room will be completely finished. The bookshelf I want is in Salt Lake, so I'm hoping when I'm in Utah for another cousin's wedding in a couple of weeks I'll be able to grab it. And on that same trip I want to grab some stuff from a few boutiques to finish it all off. Or maybe I'll get impatient and just make a weekend trip to Utah to shop, shop, shop!!
You might think I'm a little over excited about all this. And you're probably right. But I'll let you in on a sad little secret: Since we've been married I have only completely finished decorating one room ever. And I've never completely unpacked in any of the apartments we've lived in. There have always been boxes somewhere that I planned to go through "at some point". And as for the decorating, I either didn't know what I wanted to do or we couldn't afford what I wanted to do, so it was always put off as well.
When we lived in Lehi, I finished the family room area. I wanted at least one room to feel homey when we had company over. But that was a much smaller place than here, so now this room feels empty again. :( But oh well, I'm just working on one room at a time. Getting all this new stuff for Payson's room has given me new motivation and inspiration! (And a great budget, since so much of it was free!!) :)
So as soon as I finish Payson's room, which should be pretty quick and inexpensive, it's on to the master bedroom. I feel like after 5 years I deserve a nice room to relax in. :) Then I'm torn between finishing downstairs or Jack's room. I have a good idea of what I want to do in both, but Jack's will definitely be less expensive, so I could finish it more quickly. On the other hand, more people see the family room, so I'd like to get that one in order.
But anyway, I'm having fun coming up with ideas and watching them slowly come to life. I don't have expensive taste. (I bought payson's curtains, lamp, and pictures all at Walmart). But when everything is put together and organized everything feels so much homier. I relax a little more. The kids and I have spent so much time playing in Payson's new room this week. I love that!
So stay tuned for pictures of Payson's completed room, as well as the rest of this place, one room at a time!! Oh! And if you have any suggestions of great online stores and boutiques for furniture and home decor that isn't terribly expensive, please share! I'm learning (as I live in the middle of nowhere) that online shopping is usually my best bet! :)
