The Piano Room

When we first moved into our house, almost six years ago, I had big plans for the front room in my house.  It's a small room.  So small, in fact, that we could only fit a little furniture in there.  It wasn't big enough for our whole family to sit in, so it only got used when my visiting teachers would come to visit...

I decided--way back when we moved in--that this room would be the perfect piano room.  I had always wanted my kids to take piano, and this room gave me the perfect excuse to start saving for the baby grand.  Well, back in August, I finally got it and we started re-decorating the room.  Here's how it turned out...

I wanted to make this room a little more elegant, but I didn't want people to be scared to sit down in it, so I guess I was going for a casual elegance.  I also wanted to brighten the room up, but painting wasn't really an option, unless I wanted to paint my entire house, because there really wasn't a good place to stop the paint because we have rounded corners everywhere.  So, instead, we did this white accent wall, and white crown molding.  The wall is sort of like board and batten, but a little more formal.  The wall was also in response to the top of the piano covering up a large section of the wall.  I didn't feel like I could hang artwork on that wall because the piano would cover part of it.  So, an accent wall seemed like the perfect solution.  It brightened the entire room up, and it made the wall visual appealing without the needing to see all of it.  Mike did the wall himself, and he did it beautifully!

I'm very happy about how the room turned out.  It's one of the first things people see when they walk into the house, and now I feel like it really makes a statement.  I'm glad my big plans for this little room could finally work out.  --Lindsay

Top 15 of '15

Time for my recap of the year!  Man, this year flew by!!  I have no clue where it went, and I'm afraid each year will probably just get faster and faster as the kids continue to grow up.  Here's our top 15 things of 2015:

#15: Buying Our Baby Grand Piano

I've wanted a piano for the past five or six years.  When we bought this house, I decided that the front room would be a perfect "piano room".  It's supposed to be a formal living room, but it's pretty small, so you can't put much furniture in there.  I decided way back then that--at some point--I'd save up enough money to buy a baby grand and redo this room.  Well, that point finally came.  The room turned out beautiful.  I show you the finished product in my next post...

#14--Real Salt Lake Games

We love going to Real games!  Nana and Poppy are nice enough to share some of their tickets with us sometimes, so we can go cheer on our favorite MLS team...

#13--Playing Tourists in Our Hometown

This past year, we've tried to do a few fun touristy things around Salt Lake City.   People visit this city from all over the world, but because we have it in our backyard, we don't take advantage of it as much as we should.  So, we tried to go do some of the stuff that a tourist would do if they came here for a vacation (minus the skiing because I stink at it big time).  We visited the State Capitol Building, which looks a lot like the U.S. Capitol--just on a much small scale...

We went to Temple Square and went through the Visitors Centers...

We went to City Creek to play and shop...

We rode on Trax...

We went to the planetarium...

We got soaked in the City Creek splash pad...

And spent a day at the zoo...

If you haven't done this in your hometown, I highly recommend it.  It was a lot of fun to visit all these places, even some we had never been to before.

#12--Vivvie Started Dancing

Viv started a dance class at the beginning of the year, and was able to participate in her first recital in December.  She loves it, and loves all her cute dance friends too...

#11--Spent a Day at Lagoon

We always love to spend a day each summer at our local amusement park, roasting our butts off and getting in a few thrills...

#10--Family Reunion in Fairview

When I was growing up, we'd always go down to Fairview for the 24th of July, which is Pioneer Day here in Utah.  A couple of my mom's cousin's decided to recreate one of our favorite childhood memories by planning a family reunion down there on July 24th.  We went to the town parade, visited the museum where my great-grandpa's artwork is on display, and ate a yummy barbecue.  It was really fun to relive some fun memories, and see some people I hadn't seen in over a decade...

#9--Connor Goes to Scout Camp

Connor went to scout camp for the first time this year.  Mike even went with him for a couple days.  He was able to earn five merit badges while there, and had a lot of fun with his patrol as well...

#8--Connor's Trip to Denver

 Connor spent a week in Denver with his grandparents.  They went to lots of fun places all week long...

#7--LOTOJA

Mike and Poppy competed in LOTOJA again this year, and did great...

#6--Mike Turns 40!!

Mike turned 40-years-old this year.  To celebrate, I threw him a surprise party with about 50 of our closest friends.  He was shocked!!  He seriously had no clue...

#5--Fall Break in Moab

We spent a long weekend in Moab for Fall Break this year.  We did many of our normal activities, but also spent a morning off roading in this big ol' unimog...

#4--Cohen as Little Leo

Poppy was able to arrange for Cohen to be Little Leo for one of Real's games.  He got to hang out with Big Leo, hold a flag and run around the field, and he got his name on the big screen too.  Such a neat experience for him...

#3--Soccer Lessons from the Pros

Poppy also arranged for the boys to be able to go to a "soccer training camp" taught by the Real players.  These kiddos are pretty lucky.  How many kids can say they got pointers from the pros?

#2--Our Trip to Disneyland

We spent a week at Disneyland in June with Nana and Poppy. It was such a fun trip!!  This was our first trip to Disneyland without a baby. It was so much easier--and so much more fun!  We had a blast...

#1--Vivvie Starts Growth Hormone Injections

The most important thing that happened this year was that Viv got to start on her daily growth hormone injections.  We were trained and began giving them to her on January 15, 2015.  She has responded so well to the treatments and is growing like a weed.  Can't wait to see how tall we can get her...

So, those are our Top 15 of '15!  I love doing this each year!!  It gives me the opportunity to look back on the previous year and pick my favorite things.  As I look at all these amazing things, I realize, again, just how blessed we are.  It can get hard when you're in the day-to-day craziness of life to see just how wonderful your life is. But, if you'll take the time to look--especially over the course of an entire year--you really realize that life is soooooooo good!  --Lindsay

Party Like It's 2015

We had a New Years Eve party at Ashlee and Greg's house this year.  We ate pizza, played games, and of course watched the ball drop at midnight.  I had to work the 10:00 show, so I had to leave for awhile in the middle of the party, but I got back in time to ring in the new year.

We're getting to the point where most the kids can stay awake all the way until midnight.  This year, 7 of the 9 kids in my extended family were able to make it until midnight.  Landon and Lila were the only ones who fell asleep early.  Here are the kiddos counting down the seconds...

Happy New Year...

And then a wrestling match started.  Because, apparently, we can't make it 10 seconds into 2016 without having a wrestling match...

Mike and I at midnight...

Happy 2016!  Let's hope this year brings health and happiness!  --Lindsay

Cell Phone Gems

It was time for another cell phone dump...on not only my phone, but Mike's as well.  His clearly hasn't been downloaded for awhile, so this post is basically going to be a recap of all the random stuff from 2015...in no particular order.

My new toy at work.  This thing is the first vehicle in Utah that has the capability to go live while driving.  It also has a weather station, and multiple go pro cameras, so it's pretty awesome...

Vivvie's bestie is Hazel.  She lives next door, and these girls love each other to pieces.  One day in December, Hazel's mom invited Viv to go to Thanksgiving Point with them.  Here are the pictures she sent me.  Ice cream--yummy...

Seeing Santa's reindeer...

Playing at the Dinosaur Museum...

Connor and I also went on a date to Thanksgiving Point in December, so we got to see the reindeer too.  I guess Connor is pretending to be one of them...

In December, Thanksgiving Point has this hot chocolate stand that makes gourmet hot cocoa.  We added the giant homemade marshmallow to both ours...

Cohen and I went on a date to Trafalga, like usual.  First up was rock climbing...

Then miniature golf...

Afterward, we went to McDonald's.  Cohen is a good little server...

Connor took a guitar class last semester.  Near the end of the term, they put on a recital.  It's was...your typical Jr. High recital--if you get my drift...

Aiden was chosen as Student of the Month for December for being able to do hard things. His teacher wrote, "Aiden is very good at doing hard things! He was first in our class to master division and he got a great score on his test. He chooses to do the right thing even when it's hard. He recently took responsibility for a ruined book. Thanks for doing what's right! Sincerely, Mrs. Young".  So proud of this kiddo...

Miss Viv giving the turtle a shot so he can grow bigger...

Anniversary dinner at Fleming's.  Great restaurant, horrible name...

Seeing an early screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens...

This must be how the animals in the zoo feel...

We hit 150k on our Fusion in December.  Poor thing is just a little over 6 years old.  Here's to hoping we can get another 50-75k out of it...

This is me waiting for football to end so I can do my 5:00 show.  It always goes on late during football season...

We took the kids to see the new Star Wars a few days after we saw it...

Breakfast of champions...

Now, on to Mike's phone.  Rewind back to the spring.  It's sort of like time traveling.  Aiden at his Pinewood Derby.  Unfortunately, his car didn't do so well.  Oh well.  Next time maybe...

Vivvie had to miss her spring recital because we were gone to Disneyland, but they let her try on one of the costumes and she loved it...

Sibling selfie...

Aiden and Cohen being hulk-like at the Lego store in Downtown Disney...

More pics from our Disneyland trip.  Splash Mountain...

Playing on Tom Sawyer Island...

Buzz Lightyear to the rescue...

Waiting to go on the Matterhorn...

Could Cohen's eyes get any bigger?

Waiting to fly with Dumbo...

Aiden looks thrilled to be on King Triton's Carousel, doesn't he?

The Golden Zephyr...

Mark Twain Steamboat (shutting down soon to make way for Star Wars Land)...

Meeting Oswald (whoever that is)...

Oh Mr. Rabbit...

Not home...

Space Mountain, baby...

Connor is a goofball, if you hadn't figured that out already...

Vivvie playing in one of the bounce houses at our community 4th of July picnic...

Mike and Vivvie on "the umbrellas" (at least that's what we call them) at Lagoon...

They both wanted to ride in the stroller, and this was Mike's solution...

Connor, Aiden, and I about to blast off on The Rocket...

Bulgy the Whale...

Ready to do some off roadin'...

Riding Dragonfly...

Taking a stroll in the cars...

Cooling off on Odysea...

Taking a spin on the teacups...

Ladybug bop...

Going up the hill on the log ride.  Cohen looks like he's trying to have fun...

Connor went for his first REAL mountain bike ride this past summer with Mike and Dan...

He did pretty good from what I heard...

He also experienced his first crash too...

Here's a Mike selfie taken on one of his training rides...

Cohen's in there somewhere--amongst all those blankets and stuffed animals...

Some pictures Mike took when he went up to Scout Camp for a couple days with Connor.  Here's Connor getting his archery merit badge...

Tayson and Connor...

Hanging out...

More archery...

Mike was apparently trying to shade himself?

Rowing...

Hanging out with the patrol...

Apparently, the leaders had some downtime as well...

Getting ready to spend the night in the woods alone for Wilderness Survival...

Mike's company had a dress-like-a-tourist-competition.  He won.  The saddest part was that all of this came straight out of his closet...

Anakin (a.k.a. Cohen) here to battle the dark side...

Here comes the bride...

Mike's company moved into a new building and got their name on the top...

Another fun Real Salt Lake game...

While on a date, Mike and Aiden ran into a really fun (and really expensive) Porche Spider.  It's a million dollar car...

After drooling over the car, they got some ice cream...

I think I already mentioned that we bought a baby grand piano for our front room.  Here's some pictures of it being delivered...

Viv had to try it out.  Coming up in a future post, I'll show you what we did with this room.  I love it so much...

Connor on a backpacking scout campout...

Fishing to try to catch breakfast...

Hiking (with all their gear) the next morning...

Go Real...

Vivvie's dance studio held a little carnival this past fall.  They had bounce houses...

And got to meet Anna and Elsa...

Viv was in seventh heaven...

There was also the school carnival too.  I posted about it in a previous post, but here are some of the pictures Mike took with his phone...

I love how much these two adore each other...

Strong as Spiderman...

Aiden at the Museum of Natural Curiosity...

Finishing a hike at Arches National Park, during our fall trip to Moab...

Aiden with some of his scouting awards.  Looks like you've got a little something stuck to your face, son...

Connor took a bunch of friends to see "The Scorch Trials" and to get ice cream for his birthday party.  I am loving these teenage parties.  They are so much easier than kid parties--for now...

Darth Vader took over our house one evening, and he made this huge mess too.  Well, we're going to blame it on him at least.  There's a little sneak peek of the piano room remodel in the background...

We got tickets to go to the Alpine Living Nativity this Christmas season.  Unfortunately, I ended up having to go into work that evening, but Mike and the kids went.  They saw all sorts of animals--camels, sheep, cows, etc. there...

Plus, the Wisemen...

And, of course, the Joseph, Mary & Baby Jesus...

"Dad, let me take your temperature!" says Dr. Vivvie...

Mike and I found a friend at the Star Wars pre-screening we got to go to...

So, there you go!  Lots of random little pictures from our fun, chaotic, out-of-control lives.  I wouldn't have it any other way!!  --Lindsay