Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our date night this year was last Friday. Brad's parents offered to watch Connor for us while we went to Joe Morley's BBQ in Midvale (the sugar-back ribs are to die for) and then kept up our annual tradition of getting Love Potion 31 ice cream from Baskin Robins. It's always nice to have a date night alone with Brad. They are so rare these days.

Today my sister Claire and her family (Sterling and Jaxson) came over to play for a little while. They are in town for Claire's birthday until Wednesday. Connor is loving playing with his cousin again.

Tonight when Brad came home from work, I was greeted with a sweet Valentine's kiss. We were interrupted at our feet with "up" (Connor's new favorite word). Sigh. We laughed. Brad picked him up and put his other arm around me. Connor laughed, stiff armed me and pushed me away. Thanks, Happy Valentine's Day to you too, Son. It's a joke to him. He doesn't like me to hug Brad when he is hugging Brad.

I love my two boys.

I hope you all had a fun Valentine's Day filled with hugs and smooches!

I'm seriously addicted

I can't help myself. I can't stop myself. I'm seriously addicted, but I like it so much I'm just not willing to stop. I'm up into the wee hours of the morning just looking at picture after picture (last night was 2 a.m.). I've downloaded probably a thousand pictures by now and saved them on my computer for future viewing and reference. It's gotten so bad lately that I'm ignoring my child just to waste away in front of my computer for hours at a time. My back hurts from sitting so long and I've even put off eating if Connor is asleep. I'm so hooked that I'm considering waking up early, before Connor is awake, just to have a couple more uninterrupted hours all to myself. And if you know me at all, you know from that statement alone that I am so far gone. Sad, huh.

Yep, I'm completely smitten.

With home design.

I CAN'T GET ENOUGH!! Drapes, rugs, throw pillows, wall art, reupholstered couches, painted chairs, refinished armoires, enough DIY projects to last me until I die. The most beautiful rooms (and homes) I've ever seen. I'm quite literally dreaming of completed projects in my sleep.

Unfortunately, this DIY and decorating talent does not come easily to me. Fortunately, I have found several interior decorating geniuses in the blogging world to copycat. And I have no shame in this.

I've been accumulating free furniture and other accessories from friends and family for my future home that I didn't quite know what to do with at first. But thanks to these DIY goddesses (found in my sidebar) I seriously can't wait to decorate my home with my own DIYs.

New updates, new friends, new experiences

The longer we live here, the more this is starting to feel like home.

Brad and I were just called to be youth Sunday School teachers for the 16/17 year olds. We're excited to be team teachers and the kids are so good (and quiet). Connor will be in there with us too, until he goes to nursery in 3 months. By the way, we are in the Country Meadows Ward in the West Haven Stake - for now...

We had a Relief Society meeting (social) last Thursday so all the sisters in the ward could get to know each other (apparently our ward was split and combined with another ward just before we moved in). It was fun and very helpful for me since we are new here. And that also helps explain why not many people introduced themselves to us the first couple Sundays. They were all new too!

I met a few new friends at the RS social that have boys too, 13 months and 21 months old. Connor is 15 months. Perfect. Our first play date is tomorrow morning (Wednesday). We were planning to meet at the play ground just outside our apartment but it's FREEZING outside this week. It's currently 7 degrees but feels like -12 degrees because of the really cold 20 mph winds (according to the Weather Channel online), and tomorrow is supposed to be 20 degrees for the high). So we will meet in our apartment instead and stay warm. We can't wait!

We went and looked at 12 more houses yesterday with our realtor. We feel grown up, but a little nervous too since we've never done this before and this is kind of a big deal - buying your first home. We have a definite favorite but we aren't quite ready to put in an offer until we've looked at a bunch more houses to make sure this is the one. I'll keep you all in suspense of what it looks like until the deal is sealed...

So, on that note, to be continued...