a farmers market to mark my last day of freedom this fall

saturday was my last day of freedom this fall.
pumpkinland is only 4 weeks away and i needed to escape the store and enjoy one last day out and about.
we invited faith to stay over with us friday night and join us saturday in slc
and we also went to see the city of bones movie in the afternoon. {it's our guilty pleasure}

joe, alyson, mom and dad dayley, ashley and kennady joined in our morning adventure at the farmers market.
there were a few things that i was determined to acquire
heirloom tomatoes for next growing season,
the best dog treats we've come across
hot sauce and jellies.
and naturally there were many other items calling to me.

after the farmer's market we attempted some antique hunting.
kudos to alyson and ashley for their hidden treasure.
mitch and i haven't quite found the thrill of it yet.

for lunch we went to the copper onion.
it was delightful!
mitch and i are determined to go to dinner there sometime.
their brunch was superb and we can only imagine the dinner menu.

i'm so grateful for our friends and family.
especially being able to create wonderful memories together.

before the storm

i enjoyed a few quiet moments in the greenhouse saturday morning.
it was a perfect way to start the morning

four wheeling

last saturday we headed up hobble creek canyon to go four wheeling
the leaves are starting to change
crispness lingers in the air
and i can't get enough of the fall that has arrived

joe and his girlfriend alyson joined us
it was fabulous!!!
plus, i'm proud to say that i've finally managed to overcome my fear of going pee in the mountains {lol}
we all went out to dinner after wards
definitely a fantastic way to spend our saturday evening

spending the day in slc

saturday morning we got up early to head up to the SLC farmer's market. i loved how many dogs were there at the market. i almost wished we had brought jake. he would have loved the adventure and been better behaved than the little one. i loved exploring all the booths and seeing the difference of salt lake's culture. it varies dramatically from happy valley. after our wander through the farmers market, we made a quick stop at the whole foods store at trolley square. then we got dropped off at city creek while mom and dad went back to the farmers market to meet ashley. 

city creek is a gorgeous place. we had fun walking through but surprisingly were finished within the hour. as we waited for mom and dad to finish at the market again we tried to decide what we wanted to do. nanna was content to sit on the couch in front of macey's and nap, mitch had no desire to walk around the city anymore than necessary and i wished i could have been wandering the streets. i've decided that mitch wouldn't make a very good tourist... i would love to spend a day walking a city .... he wouldn't. before we meet back up with mom and dad, we walked through temple square. i can't remember the last time we were there. it was beautiful. 

we had lunch at p.f.changs. ashley, brendon and kennady joined us. it wasn't exactly what we had in mind but it was delicious. after lunch we all headed over to red butte gardens. red butte is utah's botanical gardens and i was excited to finally visit them. they were absolutely gorgeous and i loved seeing the beauty. i absolutely adore gardening and was thrilled to spend an afternoon wandering through these gardens. if only i had endless land to design and garden.... i enjoyed spending so much time with family yesterday.

nanna was planning on spending another night with us. that was until she got an offer to spend the evening with a boy. it worked out perfectly, because by the time we got home my head had started pounding. i crawled into bed by 5 and napped for 3 hours. sadly it didn't help with the headache. but what better way to spend one of the last stay-cation nights in bed?? 

Derby Darlings

Saturday night we had a chance to watch the local Roller Derby.
My lady Andrea {from work} is on the one of the teams.
She has wanted all of us to come see her do her thing.
We all kind of didn't plan on going
but Chase came up with the brilliant plan of all showing up without her knowledge.

Mitch wasn't so sure of going to see a roller derby.
None of us really knew how the game was played
and we've only heard stories from Andrea
It was surprisingly fun.
Andrea's husband, Paul let us sit with him and he gave us the run down on the game.
Sanna and I seemed to get the hang of it and had a ball watching it.
Mitch didn't get it until we started to get ready to head out.

Dan, Lexi, Chase, Sanna, Mitch and I all headed out for ice cream afterward
We all shared a tiny table at coldstone
I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time.

I'm grateful we headed south for the night
and we have such fabulous friends.
Thanks Ando Commando for showing us your thing ;)

busy living life

Time has flown by the last couple of days. I suppose with spending majority of my hours at work and then attempting to get a few things down around the house... poof the days pass by. 

Last Friday I was able to make it to Yoga. It was exactly what I needed. Headed into work at 11. However, Mitch had the day off since it was Good Friday and I kept wishing I was home hanging out with him. 2:30 rolled around and I called him and told him to come pick me up at 3. {he was trying to get bids on new tires for me and even surprised me by installing a new radio in the Jeep for me. Mitch is amazing!!!} I gave Andrea instructions for the greenhouse. And I took off to spend some time with my man. We rented a movie, grabbed a few snacks and curled up at home. It was the perfect way to spend some time together.

Saturday I aimed for a short day as well. {the joys of pulling crazy hours the first part of the week} We had invited Hope to come have a sleep over with us, since she was such a help with Cezar when we got the furnace replaced. We headed home shortly after 1, took showers and got ready to go out shopping. Mom had asked if we could go shoe shopping for her. I even found a darling pair of flats. Mitch wanted to do a little something extra for Hope, so we hunted for a pair of skinny jeans for her {the ones she was wearing had holes in them} For being a girl, I was surprised that she wasn't into shopping more. Maybe she was being polite. For dinner we grabbed our favorite Chinese - Fongs. We decided to play Monopoly after dinner. It's Mitch's favorite game. I had fun watching Hope try to figure out the best way to get ahead in the game. We had a fun time playing it.... but like always Mitch won. 

Sunday was Stake conference. We stayed home. Mitch was up for over 3 hours sick throwing up during the night. I was even a good wife and got up with him {once he called for me}. Our day was pretty low key. Hope and I made Nanna's birthday cake for her birthday dinner that night. It'd been such a long time since I'd baked a cake, I had to ask Hope for a few pointers since she makes cakes more frequently. I took a short nap before Hope and I headed down to my parents. We made a quick stop at Mitch's parents to drop off a Easter Lily. {it's one of Susan's favorite flowers} Cezar came with me and was on really good behavior when we stopped by. Hope was glad to finally make it home. Nanna was thrilled that Cezar came too. They adore each other. I helped mom hide the girl's Easter candy for their Easter hunt. As we watched Hope and Faith search for their goodies, Jelly {my parents renter} came out to sit with us with her darling baby. Cezar shocked Nanna and I by crawling into Jelly's lap and curling up. Cezar has been so wary of strangers we didn't know how to take his behavior. It was darling though. He even showed interest in her baby. I suppose they is hope for good manners {someday ;) lol}. We enjoyed homemade Cafe Rio for Nanna's birthday dinner. After presents and cake, Cezar and I said our goodbyes and headed home. Cezar fell asleep next to me, I had to stop for gas and was grateful to make it home safely after the holiday traffic. 

Today I had scheduled work off, planning on starting work for Amy again. She forgot that it was spring break though and they would be out of town. I decided to keep the day off though and try to get caught up on some things around the house. I started the day out with Yoga. I never regret crawling out of bed and headed to the gym. It's seriously the best way to start the week off. After Yoga, Mitch and I made a quick trip to Home Depot to pick up new oil for the lawn mower. Stopped at the credit union to look into refinancing the furnace we just had installed. Then I helped Mitch change the oil in the mower so I could get some yard work done. I was exhausted though, so after Mitch headed to work I crawled into bed for a nap. I'm glad I did!! I woke up and spent the rest of the afternoon in the yard. I feel accomplished :) Mowing, edging, dead headed last years perennials, weeding, cleaning out the garden, planting carrots, watering all the flower beds, transplanting a few things to new places in the yard.... The yard looks so much better. A quick shower to wash off the dirt, I headed to Pilates. Needless to say I'm absolutely exhausted tonight. A good exhausted though.

in love with grey

We finally tackled our main floor wall...
When we moved in, we didn't love the paint throughout the house.
So little by little we've been painting.
I am so grateful Mitch isn't scared of color :)
Half our house is painted a shade of grey and we love it!!

I left work around 1:30 so we'd have plenty of time to paint.
We had to make a quick trip to the store for a drop cloth....

When we were buying paint supplies the other day we picked up an edger.
BEST paint invention ever.
I've done all the edging throughout the house so far and I was not looking forward to climbing the ladder and edging...
Gratefully Mitch managed to finally get the hang of it and it worked like a charm.
It took us about 2 hours total.
AMAZING
We finally kissed the nutmeg brownish color goodbye :)

Now I just need to finish decorating and it will be perfect!!

My Saturday Morning

Oatmeal for breakfast, sitting on my porch listening to the birds, enjoying the quiet of the morning, and I finally planted my strawberries.

Long over due

I have the afternoon off :) heaven!! It's a gorgeous day and I got a fair amount done at work.

Mitch just got off and we have plans for a {HOT} date tonight! :) hooray!! {I forgot how much I miss him when he works the swing shift}

I'm getting my hair done :) {I love coupons} highlights and a trim. Bangs are long over due and I resisted the urge to chop them myself. Kudos me.

What are you doing this fabulous Saturday?? :)

{my weekend}

I had a wonderful weekend!! I was able to squeeze another Saturday off in :) {won't be happening again... any time soon. sigh} But it was pretty great! Mitch owed me a can of paint for my office. So 10 am sharp.... I finally woke him up with the help of the boys. Cezar loves his good mornings! He can't wait until he's allowed into the bedroom, helped up on the bed {we are trying to teach him how to jump on the bed... he's so small. lol} and then smothers you with kisses and sits pretty much on top of your head. It's pretty adorable and charming. Hopefully he doesn't grow much more :) Finally I'm able to drag Mitch out of the house and on the way to Home Depot. They had the perfect color of paint. Cozumel Teal/Blue. I LOVE IT!!! We also checked out the grand opening of Hobby Lobby in AF. We've never been. I fell in love with a beautiful white decorative frame.... I think I need to go back and get it :) It'll match my office. Then we headed home to pick up the 'Hero' cake for Sanna and the finished perennial labels for our Spanish ladies. Plus we were picking up Nanna from work to hang out with us for the afternoon.

We were able to see my grandparents new home {and are SO relieved with the saving of the floor upstairs. ugly linoleum} and seeing the plans for the fireplace and hardware for the cabinets. It's going to be pretty sweet when finished. {Super glad I'll be spending my time in the greenhouse at the store during the move!! Have fun other family members lol.}

For lunch we decided to try out Dickey's BBQ in AF. We are all in LOVE with it!! It's a inexpensive Good Wood. We will definitely be going back!! Then Nanna and Mitch decided we need a cookie run to Smart Cookie. They have the BEST Lemon Cookies and Sugar Cookies and pretty much any cookie is amazing there!!

FINALLY we made it back to the house so I could pop open my paint can and bust out my paint skills. Nanna and I made good progress. Even with her helping Mitch with the attempt to switch out our bathroom switches for cooler ones. {no success in the end... but the switches in the bathroom still work.... the hall light not so much} It was a good day.

PS I really honestly hate taping to paint! I am so cool.... I had edge everything!!
It's pretty amazing.

We also picked up a couple cases of bottled water. I feel the need to be prepared in case of an emergency or a disaster. It's a start. And we took on the task of cleaning out our pantries {we turned our coat closet into more pantry space} and getting rid of the old stuff and organizing it. On the up side we also have a better idea of what we have and need to get. It felt SO good!! I wanna open up my pantry doors every time I walk by :) so I can admire my work. lol. I'm so grateful we were both raised with parents who know the importance of storage and having things on hand!! One step at a time. We feel confident we could easily last a week if not a few more. {everything might not taste incredible but we'd be fine :) lol} We have more things planned for storage and it makes me happy!! {See Mom I did learn something from you ;) }

This afternoon... Cezar made progress in jumping on the bed by himself :) Proud mommy moment for me. lol. I hope he continues to remember. He seems to forget how to jump as silly as it seems. I love my boys. They make me so happy and I love spending time as a little family curled up in bed watching Harry Potter :)

{Someday we'll add human babies to the mix... I promise Moms ;) }

I was also successful... in cooking corned beef and potatoes in honor of st. patties day this week. I feel so cool when I'm successful in cooking meals that always seemed like it was a mommy's job to make. YEA. Like the one time I cooked a thanksgiving turkey by myself and had Mitch's parents over. It was yummy!! :)

AND I made appointments for visiting teaching tonight. I feel very accomplished and look forward to seeing my ladies this week. I'm even giving the lesson. :)

Slowly but surely I'm making one step at a time and making progress every day :)

How was your weekend??? Please tell.

{I've got a HOT date!!!}

It's true! I get to spend my evening with the most charming boys ever!! Golly I sure miss them! It's been way too long since I've spent time with these darling monkeys!! I can't wait to gobble them up!! While I spend the evening (Saturday) with these darlings, Mitch will be enjoying the fresh powder up on the mountains! :) Not to mention I get Valentines evening with them too!! If Mitch has to work, I might as well have these darling men!! :)