Adorable

Okay, so I owe you all some pictures from last week. It was spring break and to celebrate it, we bought ourselves a new king size mattress, really nice, and are happy to no longer be sleeping on a very old a worn out mattress on the floor (our bed frame broke last month). Then on Monday, we went to Tuscon for the day. We had a blast at the botanical gardens, esp the butterfly exhibit. Then we went to the zoo down there and really enjoyed feeding the giraffes. The next day, I enjoyed crafting with my sister Katie and letting Jason play with mom and jennie. However, Jay got sick that day, and through the week, me, Dustin, Mom, Katie, Chris, Dad, and Jennie all got sick as well. Amid the rotating sickness (and it was pretty bad, trust me, you don't want more details than that) we still managed to paint our kitchen (I owe you pictures for that too) and go out and see Alice in Wonderland to celebrate our anniversary.

However, tonight we are having a birthday party for me at our house, and Dustin is gone all day taking a test to officially get his credential transferred to AZ. So I have a busy day of cooking and cleaning by myself with Jason to prevent me from doing much. So I don't have time to detail all our Tucson trip and painting pictures for you. (Tucson pix are on my facebook page if you want to go see them).

But I couldn't resist putting at least these pictures up. I took Jay to get some photos done 2 weeks ago, and I think they turned out great. Hope you enjoy too, and if I don't find time to blog before next week, Happy Easter as well!

Home Sweet Home

Recently, we have made some bigger changes to our downstairs area. Aside from extensive cleaning this weekend in preparation for some visitors, we have also done some decorating and furniture reorganizing.

Specifically, thanks to Katie and Chris, we got some new-to-us leather sofas, which went in the family room and meant we could move the blue sofa into the living room with the matching chair, and move the piano to a new spot to make room for the sofa. I finished sewing all the curtains and matching pillows (minus the round ones, I bought at Ross - perfect color matches!) for the family room and dining room, bought some wall decor and hung it, moved the piano, and got some nice decor stuff on top of the cupboards. We even bought bar stools and assembled them, as well as reupholstering our chairs.

We still need to paint (not sure what color yet... we're open to suggestions, esp. to compliment the burnt orange wall), and we plan on getting a brown ottoman instead of a black one, and eventually see an entertainment type center where the TV is, as well as refinishing the kitchen table and chairs to have brown wood instead of white.

But I thought I would post a few pics so you can see at least our downstairs area. Let me know if you have any decor suggestions!

Do you have my name?

On February 27th and 28th, we had the privilege of being reunited with some of our favorite people in the world - Denny and Tina Niumatalolo. These musical Maori friends of ours started a choir in California called Latter-day Ambassadors. Those rehearsals and firesides were the highlights of our Sundays. Tina writes all the music herself, just words on papers and she plays the songs by memory. None of her music is notated. So we learn to sing all the parts by ear in rehearsal. And she can play the songs on the piano in any key. She doesn't realize she's playing it in the wrong key sometimes and just quickly transposes it. She's amazing.

Denny is a spiritual giant and conducts the choir. His testimony is the sweetest thing you've ever experienced. The way he loves each individual just pierces your soul and overwhelms you. And of course, they have great senses of humors, contagious laughs, and always throw an amazing potluck.


Unfortunately, they moved to Utah and the choir in CA disbanded. They formed a new choir in UT and are blessing the lives of those singers and everyone they preform for. Well, Last weekend, they came down to Gilbert AZ, to two chapels 15 min from our house, and preformed a special fireside called "Do you have my name?" on family history and temple work. We were invited to join them, and some of our CA friends from the choir made the trip out.

We were so grateful to the Wyzlics and the Somes for watching Jason both nights while we preformed. Dustin had a speaking part he had to memorize of a young confederate soldier. Hearing him speak in a southern drawl was quite entertaining. Overall, the whole presentation was moving, and it was such a treat to get to be a part of Ambassadors again.



We even got to go to an "after party" of sorts Saturday night. We picked Jay up from the sitter and brought him with us where he slept on the floor soundly, despite dozens of loud adults and a "jam session" going on 2 feet away.



Jason eventually woke up and had fun with the dog of the homeowners where the party was at. He loved to give the dog kisses.


During the "jam session" Dustin got to sing a solo in one of our favorite songs "What would you do." We got it on video. The lighting isn't ideal, but it will give you a feel for the type of music, as well as the nature of the group we were with.


Oh how we miss the Ambassadors already! We can't wait until the next reunion we can attend.