Labor Day Weekend With Grandma and Grandpa

We had some really fun guests this past Labor Day Weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Walkenhorst! We had so much fun just hanging out and Zara loved all the attention, she was totally smiling the whole weekend. We had a blast just all sitting around the table or on the floor watching Zara do whatever she was doing, whatever it was it was always "the cutest thing we've ever seen". Dusty and I even got to go out on a date! I think I will share a few pictures now and a few later on in the week. 

Eating is a lot more fun with Grandma! 

Lately Zara loves pens, here she is twirling one around with Grandma.

Grandpa even showed her how to write on a pad of paper and she was thrilled. 

Grandpa and Zara had a good time hanging out solo. Sometimes they went for a walk or just sat outside together.

Stay tuned for more fun times!

Pinterest Project: 3/365

We heart Nashville! I've been seeing these state silhouettes on Pinterest where you take the state you live in and then put a little heart where you live. So here is Tennessee, it sort of looks like a gun....I made it for Zara's room. It was really easy to make! I just found the state of TN on Google and then cut it out on my Cameo and used an old Ikea frame that we broke the glass to. 

Fun Times

A couple of weeks ago my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Greg came to Nashville for a work conference. We were so lucky to get to see them for a bit! Aunt Debbie, Zara and I hung out Friday afternoon and got some yummy lunch downtown in Franklin and then we walked around the Carnton Plantation and it's confederate army cemetery. On Sunday they came to our ward and it was awesome. They entertained Zara the entire time, Zara's favorite toy was a lipstick lid that Aunt Debbie happened to have in her purse. Afterwards they came over and we had dinner and chatted. It is always so nice to see family!

Pinterest Project: 2/365

It's starting to feel like Fall here in the south! There are even a few leaves falling from our tree in the backyard and when I woke up this morning there was a little bit of frost on the car window. I mostly can't wait for a little bit of crisp air around here.

I had some leftover pumpkin in the fridge so I thought I would try making these Pumpkin Snickerdoodles. You will have to excuse the link when you click on the picture from Pinterest to get to the recipe because her website contains an expletive that implies she has a really rockin' kitchen.....

I thought the cookies turned out good. I'm not that great at making Snickerdoodles to begin with. I think it's hard to tell when they are done cooking and you can see below in the picture that mine always turn out a little darker than the recipe photo (does that mean they are overcooked?). Snickerdoodles also don't contain any chocolate, I thought the pumpkin might make up for that but I'm not sure that it did. It was really fun making them and rolling them in sugar cinnamon goodness. Yay for fall!

Cheetah Pajamas

Dusty came home a little late the other day and Zara was already in her little cheetah pajamas ready for bed, but she had to get a few snuggles in with Dad first.

365 Days of Pinterest

365 Days of Pinterest, sort of stole that title from my sisters blog 365 days of great.  Hope you don't mind Sarah! It's pretty self explanatory. Lately I have been "Pinning" tons of stuff that I want to make/do/craft or read someday but not actually doing any of them. While we were in Utah for Christmas one of my friends (Ba) told me that her husband said she could only pin things she was actually going to try. Well, today is the day people!

I am going to try, FOR FUN, to do something everyday from things I've pinned on Pinterest. Whether it be a new cleaning chart, painting something, sewing, cooking a new recipe, or getting a new book from the library. Then I will document how it goes. If anything a few years down the road I will look back and have a good laugh.

Here is my first Pinterest attempt 1/365:

This was a fun one! I pinned this picture of some flower nail art awhile ago and decided to attempt it while I was at craft group the other night. Usually I just do my nails at craft group anyways so it wasn't too crazy. It helped to have my friend do my right hand for me.

Our House: Yellow Door Makeover

Remember this post from a while ago that inspired me to make our home more "ours"? Well, I finally finished my first project and can't believe what a difference a little bit of paint makes!

Now everything is white, clean and we have a bright yellow door. My Mother-in-law was here recently and helped me find that super cute grey and yellow rug from Target.

I have been wanting to paint the wainscoting and trim white for awhile now and the other weekend finally got around to it. I stopped worrying about silly stuff (how would it look with the old kitchen cabinets, do I need to use primer?, taping is sooo much work, blah blah blah, etc...) and just knocked it out, I even used paint that we already had lying around. It turned out to be easier and quicker than I thought, the hardest part was waiting for the first coat of paint to dry before painting the second coat.

Halfway through painting the trim I asked Dusty what he thought about about a yellow door and he thought that sounded fun so a few days later we ran to the depot and grabbed a little pint of yellow paint. The most time consuming part of the whole project was taping off all the little windows but I was so glad I did! Fortunately little miss Zara decided to nap really well that day and I was able to finish taping and painting in one day, yay!

So far we have really enjoyed it and every day I think to myself, "Why did we wait 2.5 years to paint this stuff?" It also made a huge difference when Dusty replaced all the old doorknobs a few weeks ago, yet another project that wasn't nearly as complicated as we thought it was going to be but has made such a huge difference!