beauty blogs

You may have not noticed the addition to my "blogs I read" list on my sidebar but oh boy, let me tell you, there's been an addition. As you know I recently completed my Makeup Artistry course and since then I have had MAKEUP on the brain. And I'm not alone. I have added numerous beauty blogs and these gals are serious about their cosmetics. From some amazing FOTD's (that means Face Of The Day in makeup talk) to some extensive cosmetic collections that make mine look like child's play, these girls aren't kidding around. I have already learned so much from a lot of these blogs and my make up wish list has grown exponentially. If you have any interest in make up go check out some of the links I've posted and then link from their links, and then link from those links, and... well you get the point.

my son is a statistic!

Upon a recent trip to see the doctor for the most swollen glands I have ever seen in my life we learned that Porter has a Bifid Uvula.

What is that you ask?

I'll explain.

We all have a hangy ball, er, uvula, at the back of our throats right? It is somewhat of a little tear drop shape correct? Well Porter's isn't. It is split down the middle like so:

Apparently this only happens in 2% of the population which means that with a son like that I'm totally going to buy a lottery ticket tomorrow. Ok no I'm not, but for reals this is rare and I've got it walking around my house! Apparently there are often some speech challenges that go along with this but for anyone that knows Porter you'll attest that his speech is anything but... well... challenged. There are also supposed to be a lot of middle ear infections because of this split uvula business but the doctor's appointment I mentioned earlier was the first Porter has had in his 3 years besides scheduled check ups. I'm hoping the only side effects of his split uvula is the fact that his uvula is split! It's pretty hard to get a good view of it in his chubby little mouth right now but I'm pretty sure once he hits elementary school he will be showing anyone that will stop and look. I can only imagine he's going to want to show this thing off. Boys.

Utah trip in review

It would be a shame if I didn't write a full post about our trip to Utah, it was really such an amazing week.
I'll do it in point form to make it an easier read. Some of the highlights were:

• Seeing family I haven't seen in years. It is such a shame but it's just worked out that I haven't seen that side of my family in honestly about 15 years. I was able to introduce my Grandpa to my husband and my 2 boys and that was such a joy. I got to visit with 2 of my cousins and their kids and then spend an entire afternoon with my cousin Catherine. If her and I lived closer I think we would spend a lot of time together and have so much fun. We have a ridiculous amount of things in common and would just be able to enjoy each other. It was so great to spend time with her. My aunt and my cousin Jesse and his family came to Provo to see me when Neil was away with the van. It meant a lot to me that they would make the effort to come visit me. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit with them. I would love to see my extended family more and keep in touch better. It was so nice to reconnect and be reminded of the wonderful people I'm related to.

• Spending time at temple square. It was so nice to take my little family to temple square and hopefully make some memories for Porter. He was thrilled to see the SLC temple and when we went to see the conference center he recognized it from TV and knew that's where Pres. Monson speaks. It was wonderful to be reminded of the heritage we have and the work that went in to bringing us the gospel today. If you would like to learn more visit here.

• Staying with Jake and Steph. We are SO sad our friends have moved away. It was awesome to spend one last week with them and get to enjoy them before we had to part. They took great care of us and made us feel so comfortable in their apartment. It was great to help (not that we did much!) them settle in and see their place so now we can picture where they are while we are missing them so much! :(

• Neil ended up having SO much more work than we thought he was going to - which was great because that really was the reason for the trip. It did cut into a few things (we didn't get to do a live session at the SLC temple, which I REALLY want to do! And we didn't get to see a few friends we were hoping to, sorry guys!) but it was awesome for him to meet with so many guys and to sign up a few new reps. It was definitely worth the trip down there. 

• OBVIOUSLY the Guster concert. It was the perfect way to top off a great week. My head is still spinning about it. :) 

• The roads and the kids. On the way down the roads were horrendous until the border and at one point I really wondered what we had gotten ourselves into! After the border they were awesome from there out, bone dry in most parts. The way home was the same, dry roads. I was SO grateful because I am a terribly nervous traveler. The boys (and Bailey on the way down there) did awesome! They slept, watched movies, sang songs, ate treats - were just plain terrific for the whole trip. 

It was such a great week and I just didn't feel right completely overlooking it. 

a post for Sharon

My cute sister Sharon reminded me that I had yet to post a few projects that I completed this fall, mainly to do with restoring our basement after the big flood of 2010 (I can totally see us referring to it as that in years to come so I'm just going to start calling it that now.) I'm realizing now that I don't have any real pics of the full rooms completed but you can see it piece by piece. So here's a post for her, and you too.

We had to cut out about 2 feet of drywall all along the wall in the spare room and my sewing room. Here's Neil replacing the drywall.

Because Neil's favorite thing in the whole wide world is detail work he had no desire to mud and tape the drywall and then repaint the wall. Our friend Kenny suggested he hang this beadboard over the top and call it good. I feel kinda bad that the wall is bare under there, it seems a little like putting your pants on without any underwear first but it totally works. So smart!

To hopefully prevent further flooding issues we installed a sump pump. Neil had to cut up the wall for the pipes so here I am hovering over the pump painting over the patch job he did. We put up the same beadboard in the spare room as well.

The flood kind of forced us to go through all our storage and reorganize ourselves, which is not a bad thing. We had this huge closet (which leads into under the stairs as well) in our spare room and it was somewhat organized. We decided to really make use of the space and build shelves. We then went and bought a ton of Rubbermaid bins and now we are so organized it is sickening. I love it.

After we got the carpet and everything relaid I had a lot of fun putting my sewing room back together. I use these little drawers for my sewing things but have always hated that you can see the mess of it's guts inside. I got some matching scrapbook paper and just slid it in the front so you can't see the insides. It's cute and looks neat.

I have a large storage shelf and I have also hated that I can't ever make it look neat and tidy so I made a little curtain to cover it. At first I wasn't happy with it because the bins I had inside were too big and it made the curtain bulge. I bought some new baskets that fit better so now it lays flat. I was also not sold on the color I chose - it felt a little like a hospital gown to me. My friend Laura suggested I add a ruffle or some detailing. That was a simple but huge improvement I think. I also recovered my ironing board - again a suggestion from my genius friend Laura. It was ridiculously easy and took no time at all. I love that the whole room matches now.

Now let me invite you upstairs to my bedroom. (Git your mind outta the gutter!) People always ask how on earth my husband lets me have a coral/pink wall in my room and I remind them that when it comes to colors and decorating I have free rein as he is colorblind and actually thinks this wall is grey. Like really, am I going to ask for that kind of input? I am allowed to do whatever I want when it comes to colors because he doesn't see them properly anyway. So here are some pillows I made to help accentuate that coral/pink wall. I picked up 2 of these fabrics down at Joann and my sister had the third and missing piece which she selflessly gave me! I think they turned out cute.

And there you have it, I think that's all! Did I get everything Sharon?! :)

Follow That Bird

Do you remember this?

My dear friend Laura brought me my own copy yesterday and Porter is loving it. I have memories of sitting at my friends Jennifer and Laura's house watching this show. Neil says he's never seen it and I'm terribly disappointed in him as a child of the 80's.

Here are a few stills to jog your memory.

Thank you Laura! I love finding something from your childhood. What movies take you back to being a kid?!

Loreal Fail

I hadn't planned on doing this post but I just got back from Shopper's Drug Mart where I saw this

and I had to share. I couldn't believe my eye-shadowed eyes! This is the worst gimmick I have seen in a long time. Come on Loreal! This eyeshadow compact is called The One Sweep Eyeshadow and claims that when you sweep something you found in your glove box and wonder what the heck that was for the applicator over the shadows and then across your eye you will have perfectly placed and blended shadow. I found this review which confirms my suspicions exactly - it doesn't work.

Amusing.

Guster is for Lovers

Ok I think I have finally started breathing again after what was possibly the best night of my life. I don't want to be over dramatic here but honestly, there aren't words to describe how absolutely incredible it was. Now, before you read any further if you are not already familiar with the work of Guster you must do yourself a favor and go look them up now. Go. Do it.

I'll wait.

Love it? I know. 

I think part of the charm of the concert was the simple fact that we didn't think we would ever have the chance to see them play live. They are from the eastern States and don't really come anywhere close enough to make it to a show. When Neil said he may have some work to do in Utah we immediately looked up their tour schedule to see when they would be playing SLC and planned his work trip around that. True story.

The opening band was Good Old War which I really did enjoy live but didn't feel the need to go and purchase the album, as I have with many other opening bands such as Cuff the Duke, the Fembots and Zeus. I enjoyed their set but was basically putting in the time until Guster got on stage.

They opened the show with Barrel of a Gun and it was game on from there on. I did not stop grinning ear to ear the entire time. It. Was. Unbelievable. They played every song I was hoping they would, except for Fa Fa - my favorite being a crazy-fun rendition of Airport Song. The guys are amazingly talented, captivating and funny to boot - like here and here. (GO WATCH, it takes 30 seconds.) Yes, I may want to bear their children. Whatever.

It was an amazing concert and because my words won't do it justice I'll just leave you some iPhone photos from the show and tell you that if you are ever close enough you must go see them live, I would put off every other social engagement if I could see this show every weekend. I mean it.  I still can't believe we got to go, check it off the list! :)

new food friday

We leave in the morning for a week down in Utahhhrr and I'm not sure how much, if any, blogging I'll do while we are away. (There WILL be a GUSTER concert post I promise you!) I have not yet rung in 2011 with a Share A Meal Monday and the next two weeks will be no different. I intend to keep doing it (if YOU link up, last time I only had ONE linker, come ON - my family needs you!) so in the meantime I am going to direct you over to my dear friend Laura. She is starting her own food and recipe related linky party. It's a great idea - everyone must try a NEW recipe, link up and tell us what you did and didn't like, anything you would do differently and if you plan on making it again. She's an amazing cook so you've really got your work cut out for you. Go link up and show her some love! Just be sure to come back for some SAMM in a few weeks. I don't want you picking favorites now...

reading saves lives

I have been keeping all the children's books in the bedside table in the boy's room. That seems a likely place to keep books I thought - the only trouble being once you open one drawer the whole thing tips, sliding the other 2 drawers open which then topples the entire thing forward, pinning my unsuspecting child underneath. It's a serious death trap. For Christmas I asked for something to solve this problem and to prolong our children's lives. One evening at Toys R Us we happened upon this -

*cue those angels*

I picked it up and told Neil that's what he was surprising me with for Christmas. It wasn't actually much of a surprise since I saw it in the back of the van every time I opened it and I watched my man put it together for me Christmas Eve. But let me tell you when I woke up Christmas morning I was thrilled to see it sitting out with some new books for Porter tucked neatly inside. Not only does it match the rest of the woodgrain in their room, fit perfectly along the wall, store books in the open where Porter can get them - I haven't yet discovered a way my children can injure or impale themselves on it.

Fuest

Have you ever noticed how completely odd the names of shoes are? When I shop online and can see them all, I think honestly, did you just pick some letters out of a hat because that makes no sense. They're not names they're just letters. Anyway, these - ahem, FUEST - finally arrived on my doorstep today and even though they have a name only a mother could love I'm happy to be that mother.

The best part is you can wear them folded down like shown or pull them up for the look of a longer boot - which I'm going to call Jirnsple.
 

Spaceboy

Oh hello blog, remember me? Man, the holidays take a toll on your regular life don't they? I think yesterday was the first day I felt back on top of things. My house (and laundry) is finally back in order and I feel like I can function again. What I'm saying is that hopefully my little part of the internet won't be so neglected anymore.

Moving on.

For Christmas we gave Porter a few games that are suitable for his age. He is always asking to play games with us and as much fun as it is moving chess pieces from square to square or stacking dominoes in a tower we thought we'd get him some games that he could understand and actually play. One of the games he got was UNO Moo.

So. Cute. 

It took a few games (and Neil is so much more patient than I am) before he really got the concept but now he's a pro and we love playing it together. I have to chuckle every time though because even though all of the pieces are little farm animals and the case is a barn he has named the little white piece, which very un-obviously (I think I just made up that word) is a farmer, SPACEBOY. Upon a closer look I can't really blame him - that's exactly what the farmer looks like - a spaceboy. See him hiding on the left here?!

A whole farm held together by an astronaut.