New White Kitchen

I always tell Bryce when we own a house one day after he is finished with all of his schooling the main requirements I have for our house are hardwood floors, lots of windows & natural light, and a white kitchen.  We are still far from owning a house but we do now have a white kitchen!  At the beginning of the summer I was talking to my mother-in-law about how much I love white kitchens and she said I was more than welcome to paint ours.   I was pretty intimidated by the idea but about a week and a half ago I decided to finally be brave and tackle the project.  It was a lot of work!  I did most of it myself and Bryce helped when he was home.  It took 4 or 5 coats total, and then we decided to repaint all of the walls in the kitchen, living room, and hallway since we were already painting.  I forgot to take any before pictures but I found these two that show a pretty good idea of what the kitchen looked like before.

Before:

After:

I love how it turned out.  I think it looks so much better!  We found out a few days after I started painting that our brother-in-law & sister-in-law who live in the upstairs unit above us are moving, so we will get to move to the upstairs unit in October.  But we still get to enjoy our new white kitchen for a month, and thankfully the upstairs kitchen is already white ;).

According to Claire

I haven't had time to do much blogging lately so I'm trying to get all caught up this week.  I've been super busy working on lots of projects.  The biggest project was repainting our kitchen all white, which I'm going to post about hopefully tomorrow.  Anyway, now that I'm mostly finished with everything I need to get caught up on Claire before I forget some of the darling things she's started doing lately.  She is starting to talk all the time now and is learning new words every single day.  Since she is talking more I thought it would be fun to start a series called "According to Claire" where I can document the cute and silly things she says.
I found these cute little fox knee socks on eBay a couple of weeks ago.  I put them on her and she trotted around all day saying "Ocks! Ocks!".  
Lately, she loves to knock on doors whenever she sees one that is closed and call out "Hewwooo??!"
She is obsessed with books.  Whenever she sees one she points and says "Book! Book!"  She loves being read to in the rocking chair, and loves getting books throughout the day and "reading" them out loud to herself in her gibberish language.  Sometimes she'll take books to Rory and read them to her too.  It's just about the cutest/funniest thing I've ever seen.  Hopefully this means she's well on her way to becoming a little bookworm like her mama ;).
I just realized on Sunday that her hair was all long enough to pull up into a little topknot so I did it like that for church.  Bryce and I told her she looked so pretty & cute, and then the rest of the day she kept touching her hair and saying "Preeetty, Coot!"
Claire loves bubbles.  As soon as she spots a container she points and excitedly says "Bubble! Bubble!"  She likes to run through them and try to catch them for the first few minutes and then she always insists on holding the wand and blowing the bubbles herself.  

She learned to say please a couple months ago so now whenever she she wants something she reaches for it and looks up at you with her big brown eyes pleading "Pwease?"  Every time she does this I just about melt into a puddle!  She also loves saying thank you and almost everytime someone gives her something she'll smile and say "Dat Doo" (thank you) without being prompted.  Who knew she'd already be a pro at politeness at 19 months old haha!  

Claire absolutely loves Tinkerbell.  We've seen all of the Tinkerbell movies on netflix about a dozen times each.  She tries to say Tinkerbell, and I'm not sure why she says it this way but it comes out sounding like "Bakoo".  It's so funny.  Bryce and I always laugh when she says it.  Every time we watch a Disney movies and it shows Tinkerbell in the opening credit when she lights up the i in Disney Claire claps and points at at the TV exclaiming "Bakoo!"  She also ran up to someone at church who had a tinker bell bag and kept pointing at it saying "Bakoo!"  

Claire has started copying me when I say sorry if I've bumped into her or Rory, dropped something, or knocked something over.  Now she says "Sawee" whenever she drops something or bumps into something.  It's so funny to see all of the little things she picks up on just from watching Bryce and I (and it's made me much more conscious of the language I use!).  That's probably a good summary for now but I'm hoping to start writing down little things throughout the week in a notebook so that I'll have lots to choose from for the next According to Claire post.

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Hanging out on the porch Sunday afternoon with her first little topknot hairdo.

"A portrait of my daughter once a week, every week, in 2015."

Rhett & Bailee's Wedding

Last Saturday my little brother Rhett and my now sister-in-law Bailee were married!  It was such a fun day.  They were sealed in the Ogden temple, then had a luncheon for family and friends afterward at the Highland Chapel in Mountain Green.  At the luncheon we have a tradition that started with my sister's wedding, and then my own, of sharing funny/embarrassing stories about the family member who was married.  Bryce and I told a little story about Rhett's poor clothing choices & all of his health problems and sang the song "Fixer Upper" from Frozen.  It was really funny to hear all of the stories everyone shared about Rhett and all of the stories Bailee's family shared about her.  After the luncheon we had a few hours until the reception so we took Claire home to take a nap.  She didn't wake up until six so we didn't get back to the reception until around 6:30.  Then we partied and celebrated some more, ate lots of yummy food, and I took lots and lots of pictures!

Their darling wedding cake.

Claire hanging out with Nana & Papa in the reception line.

The happy couple!

Claire & her BFF/cousin Lydia giving each other hugs.

I love my girl.  She gives the best hugs and kisses.

Cutting the cake.

The night ended with everyone turning Rhett's truck into a giant tutu with all of the tulle from the reception.  I'm sure this was his favorite part of the whole day ;).  I'm so happy for Rhett & Bailee and glad we were able to share this special day with them!

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Little miss Claire looking far to grown up for mama's liking.

"A portrait of my daughter once a week, every week, in 2015."

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Helping make brownies.

"A portrait of my daughter once a week, every week, in 2015."

Claire's First Sleepover

Claire had her first sleepover this past week at my parent's house.  It was the first time we've ever left her anywhere overnight, so I was a little apprehensive about it.  Bryce convinced me she would be fine staying at my parent's house for one night and I finally decided to trust him ;).  

We stayed and visited for a little bit when we dropped her off.  My mom took Claire out to the garden and showed her how to pick peas.  My picky little eater who usually won't touch peas, ate them by the handful!  We snuck away while Claire was busy eating peas with her Nana and headed out for our date night.  We went to dinner at Costa Vida (my favorite!) and then stayed up late watching movies.  Bryce still had to work the next morning so we didn't get to do anything too extravagant, but it was still nice.  My mom brought Claire back to our house the next morning around 10.  She and I were both so happy to see each other!  I probably missed her more than she missed me.  My mom said she was so good and didn't even cry once!  She slept through the night for them and everything.  I was so glad she had such a fun time, but I was glad to have her back home with me.