Be Our Guest

A couple months ago I bought a Storage edition of the Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication.  And I fell in love with this linen closet organization.  I know, that may sound lame, but I love it.  I have looked at every detail multiple times, and have looked up the websites of the retailers to purchase the different elements of this perfect closet.  I am convinced the linen closet in my new house will look something like this.

One of my favorite elements of this linen closet (besides how beautiful it is) is the tray of personal items for your guests.  I knew I wanted one of these from the minute I saw it, since I'm certain with a bigger house we'll have more people wanting to visit us :-)  I really liked the compartments in the example, but I am even more excited about my $7.99 Marshalls find.  I think my black and white fabric covered tray is beautiful.  And I even got a couple smaller matching ones for some of the other elements in the closet.

I still have more items I want to add, but not a bad start, especially considering I don't have a linen closet to store this in for three more months! :-)

We Have a Second Story

Gingerbread Man House

The Gingerbread Man is one of Kylee's favorite books (still!).  She is getting really good at "reading" the book on her own, but I thought I'd re-post a video from almost a year ago when she liked to help her daddy read it:

Anyway, when I told her we were going to Grandma Nye's to make gingerbread houses, she got really excited.  For the rest of the day, she called them gingerbread man houses.

Here are a few pictures from the evening.  Thanks mom for carrying on this fun tradition.  And making all those real gingerbread house pieces! 

Dr. Oz 3-Day Cleanse: Day 3

I'm done!  I was almost a little giddy this afternoon thinking about the fact that I only had one shake left.  Like I said on Tuesday, I can do anything for three days.  But I'm glad this wasn't any longer than three days.  I am ready to eat some food.  In fact, for breakfast tomorrow morning I think I might eat the salmon that was leftover from Sunday dinner.  I have been eyeing it in the fridge all week hoping Matt would eat it so I wouldn't be tempted.  I know, it's not a breakfast food, but I'm not a big fan of breakfast foods anyway.

Well, today was day number three, and so I'll highlight the final of the three shakes - the dinner shake.  It consists of 1 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup mangos, 1 cup kale, 1/4 avocado, 1 T flaxseed, 1/4 t cayenne, 1 T lemon, and coconut water.  I was a little unclear in the "recipe" how much coconut water to use, but I ended up buying four 14 oz. bottles of the ZICO coconut water, and then using 1 1/3 bottles for each shake.  Also, like my raspberries, I used frozen blueberries and frozen mango.  These worked great for me.

Here are the ingredients:

And the final product (making just over 4 cups):

This shake is a little odd because of the cayenne pepper.  It makes the shake a little "spicy".  Kylee asked me for a sip Tuesday night - I first said no because it was spicy.  She asked again, so I let her have a sip.  She kind of wrinkled her nose, and then asked for some water.  I don't know if she wanted the water because it was spicy or because she didn't like the taste, but either way, I would have water nearby just in case the cayenne is a little much.  I love spice (although in this shake I thought it was kinda yucky) so the heat wasn't too bad for me.  All in all, though, it wasn't terrible.

A couple final notes as I close out my cleanse... I was down another pound this morning, hooray!  Not sure if I'll notice anything on the scale tomorrow, but if I do I will post an update!  Also, I've been asked if I have been tired at all.  A couple of my gym buddies mentioned they have been tired, but I've actually been okay.  I haven't noticed a difference in how tired I am or felt more sluggish.  In fact, I haven't really noticed a difference in how I feel at all.  I'm sure my body appreciates all the natural food though.  Especially before this weekend when I have Book Club tomorrow night (think we're going to a Cuban restaurant), Bunco on Saturday, and Christmas fondue on Sunday!  Hope I don't completely counteract everything I've done this week :-)

One other update - Kris suggested with the breakfast shake just eating the almond butter instead of putting it in the shake.  I did this with my final snack shake this afternoon and it did make the shake taste better.  I figured that almond butter doesn't need to be "blended" to absorb into my system.  Plus, I like to eat almond butter with a spoon anyway, so this was a nice snack.  Also, I tried adding a little stevia and 1 T cocoa powder in my snack shake as Robbin had suggested, and it was pretty tasty!  I couldn't really taste the cocoa, but I can tell you that I would totally make that shake over and over even when not on the cleanse, just omitting the almond butter and adding the cocoa and sweetener (or even just omitting the almond butter, because I thought it was pretty good without the sweetener!)

Dr. Oz 3-Day Cleanse: Day 2

I am officially 2/3 of the way through my detox cleanse, and I have to tell you, I am looking forward to "eating" on Friday.  It is a little tough to only drink your food for three days, but at least there is plenty to drink.  One bonus on the timing of my cleanse - these three days worked out really well with my schedule.  Matt works all three days, and he can eat all his meals at work.  I only had Kylee last night (she is with her mom starting today), so I only had to worry about one dinner for her.  And I made it easy - Spaghetti O's (on Sunday she asked me if she could have "that soup with the circles in it" - weird because I've only fed her that once in the last 9 months)!  Needless to say, I wasn't tempted to eat her dinner at all :-)

Today I wanted to highlight my favorite of the three shakes - the morning shake!  Since you also get to pick your favorite as an afternoon snack, I'm "eating" two of these a day.  It consists of 1 cup water, 1 cup raspberries, 1/4 cup spinach, 1 T almond butter, 1 T flaxseed, 1 banana, and 2 t lemon juice.  I am using frozen raspberries because fruit is expensive right now.  After talking with Brandee, I'm thinking it might even be better with the frozen raspberries than with fresh because the shake isn't as runny.  This afternoon I also tried it with a frozen banana - I decided that was a little thicker than I liked it, so will be going back to a regular banana tomorrow.  My friend Robbin said that she added 1 T unsweetened cocoa and a little stevia and that it was really good.  I may try that with my afternoon snack shake tomorrow!

Here are the ingredients:

And here's the end result - it makes about 2 cups.

I felt a little hungry about mid-morning, but I think that may have been more mental than anything since I always eat a mid-morning snack.  I only stayed hungry for about 20 minutes and then was fine until lunch.

And the good news is that lunch only took me an hour to eat today - which, by the way, yields about 5 cups worth of a shake!  In fact, I wanted to add one more "lunch" picture before it's all blended - look how much food that is:

And even more good news, I was down 2 pounds this morning.  Fingers crossed for similar results tomorrow!

Dr. Oz 3-Day Detox Cleanse: Day 1

I don't know how I got talked into this, but I (along with some of the people I work out with at the gym) am doing the Dr. Oz 3-Day Detox Cleanse.  Supposedly someone with 20 pounds to lose can lose 6 pounds in the three days of this cleanse.

I decided I could do anything for three days... but I wasn't so sure once I laid out all the food on my counter!

Over the course of three days, I would be eating:

• 3 cups of pineapple
• 6 cups of kale
• 3 cucumbers
• 3/4 of an avocado
• 1 1/2 green apples
• 1 1/2 limes
• 3 cups blueberries
• 1 1/2 cups mango
• 6 cups raspberries
• 4 bottles of coconut water
• 6 bananas
• 6 tablespoons almond butter
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk
• 3 cups spinach
• 12 stalks celery
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 7 lemons
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 9 tablespoons flaxseed
• 3 multi-vitamins
• 3 omega 3 supplements
• 3 probiotic supplements

I know, I bet you're jealous wishing that was your menu for three days!

Anyway, I successfully finished Day 1!  I drank all four of my shakes (I will be drinking the breakfast shake for my snack every day since that is the tastiest) and took my vitamins.  And I'm not dead.  Or sick.  And I think I'll even finish the program over the next two days!

I thought, with the cleanse being three days long, that I would highlight one shake each day.  I decided to start with the lunch shake.

The lunch shake consists of 4 celery stalks, 1 cucumber, 1 cup kale, 1/2 green apple, 1/2 lime, 1 T coconut oil (pictured above in the container with the almond milk!), 1/2 cup almond milk, and 1 cup pineapple.  I had everything prepped and brought all the ingredients to work.  I was happy to have been able to borrow my mom's VitaMix - not sure if my blender could have handled all this chopping.  This would have tasted a lot worse if it wasn't smooth.

Here's a picture of the end result:

This puts a whole different spin on green smoothie!  And it made a TON!  It filled two large glasses.  Taste wise, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  It was definitely the worst of the three shakes though.  I had heard that it was pretty awful, and with that much celery, I was mentally prepped to barely gag it down.  It did take me over an hour to drink it all though.  I got full about half way through, so when you're full and drinking something that isn't completely tasty, it got a little harder to down.

Our House Looks Like a Chicken Coop

After church today, we drove out to check out the progress on our house.  I had received a tip from my friend Melissa who lives in our new neighborhood that they had started the framing!

Here's a picture of the progress.  Isn't this so exciting!?

Kylee wanted to document the progress with her camera.

The first thing that Kylee said as she walked up to our house was, "Our house looks like a chicken coop," followed quickly by, "Our house smells like a chicken coop too!"  Haha.  As I mentioned in a previous post, Kylee loves her Grandma and Grandpa's chickens, and their coop must smell like wood planks!

We walked around the "first floor" of our house, telling Kylee what each room would be.  Kylee squealed with delight as she ran around our house, and thought it was pretty funny to run "through the walls".

We are loving this process!

Black Friday Awesomeness

Matt and I saved a pretty penny with our Black Friday shopping this year.  And we (for the most part) only bought things that we were already planning on purchasing.

Let's start with the steal of the day - our beautiful new 31.6 cubic foot Samsung French Door refrigerator.

Isn't she beautiful!?  A refrigerator was actually part of the appliance package in our new home, but when I saw the deal at Best Buy to get this puppy $1100 off the original price, our builder agreed to just discount the price of the house for the cost of the refrigerator.  And the best part?  Best Buy will hold it until March and deliver and install it in our new home.  Sweet.

We also bought a few items for our new theater room:

• A couple 6 foot Comfy Sacks - we also want to get a couple rows of theater seats, but those will have to wait!  These over-sized bean bags were 20% off and had free shipping (ordered online).
• Two Klipsch floor speakers from Best Buy at 50% off each, plus free shipping (ordered online).
• A new Onkyo receiver from Amazon for 50% off, plus free shipping (ordered online).

Add to that a few Christmas presents for Kylee, maybe even a gift for Matt, and we saved over $2100 on our Black Friday shopping.  I know, we're pretty amazing shoppers.

I Am Thankful For...

Wow, I sure have had a pretty wonderful year and have an awful lot to be thankful for.

• I am especially thankful for this guy:

Yep, I am lucky enough to have this super handsome, amazing husband, who is a wonderful father to our four-year-old daughter.  He makes me feel happy and loved and I look forward to many many more adventures with him.

I mean, who else has a husband who was excited to spend days making ribbon jello for Thanksgiving?

• I am also thankful that when I married Matt, I became a mother to this beautiful angel.  I'm 32, and I've wanted to be a mom for a long time.  I couldn't have asked for a sweeter little girl.  She brings joy to my heart every day.

• I am thankful for family - that I have such wonderful, supportive parents, siblings, and in-laws, and that we get to live close to most of them.  They are always there for us, for which I am grateful.

• I am thankful for my faith, for my testimony, for my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that the Boise temple has re-opened, and for my knowledge that families can be together forever.  We attended a funeral for Matt's cousin's wife this weekend.  It was incredibly sad - at 22, she was taken from this life much earlier than anyone expected, but we have peace knowing that she is with our Father in Heaven and that we will see her again one day.

• I am thankful for a good job that I love.  And that Matt has a job that he loves.  

• I am thankful for good health.

• I am thankful that we are in a situation to be able to build a house - we are so excited!

We are blessed!

Chicken Eggs

My parents have a small chicken coop in their backyard, and the first thing Kylee ever wants to do when we go to visit is look for "chicken eggs".  Oh, the simple pleasures of a four-year-old!  Last night she gathered five eggs.  She was especially excited about the two blue ones.  She ate them this morning for breakfast!

Kylee also thinks it is fun to feed the chickens, to pet the chickens, to hold the chickens, etc.  Here she is one Sunday afternoon earlier this year with one of her "friends".

Pretty Paisley

Matt and I are planning on getting Kylee a bigger bed when we move to our new house.  She is still in her toddler bed now, and that works great, but we know she'll need something bigger soon.  Of course, I've already pinned the bed I want to get (pictured above) - a full size bed with a trundle.  I've also been looking at bedding.  I found a few bedding sets that I liked, but I fell in love with the bedding that was staged in the Alturas model home.  I asked the interior designer where she got it (Target), and went and bought it this week.  I love it for the bright colors, fun pattern, and also that it will work for a 4-year-old or a 14-year-old.  

Here's to already starting to "decorate" our new home :-)

Stocking Envy

I was recently perusing blogs of friends from high school and came across a post by Anie (picture courtesy of her blog).  Can I tell you that I have serious stocking envy?  I love these.  They are classic and beautiful and perfect.  Matt and I are really doing our best to save our money right now in preparation for spending a boatload of money come spring when we get into our house.  But I'm a little antsy now, and have already gone out to the Pottery Barn website three times since last night when she sent me a message that that is where they are from.  We'll see if I can hold out... this may need to be an exception to our saving plans!

Let There Be Light!

I got an email from the interior designer this week that we need to set up an appointment with Builders Lighting to select the lighting for our house.  In preparation for that meeting (that I still need to set up), I've been perusing their website to so I have an idea of what I want before we meet.  Man, there sure are a lot of different styles!  This is going to be difficult.  Here's some of what I've been looking at.

I don't think I want the typical "boob" lighting in our bedrooms (I didn't come up with that name, by the way - that's what they are being called online)... I'm a little more drawn to the drum shade lights.  Here are some that I'm looking at:

I'm a little more undecided on what I would like as a pendant over the kitchen island.

And of course we'll need to decide on outdoor lighting...

And then there is the dining room light, bathroom lighting, hall sconce lighting, etc.  Guess I'll keep looking (and pinning)!  I will also take votes and suggestions!

Birthday Girl

I'm officially the proud mother of a four year old.  It's funny to think that I didn't even know Kylee a year and a half ago, and now she has completely stolen my heart.  I know she's not perfect, but I think she's pretty close.  Here's an example:

A couple months ago I was having a Young Women's Board Meeting at my house.  Matt was at work, so I had Kylee on my own.  Before the women came over for the meeting, I got Kylee in her pajamas and told her that the meeting would go past her bedtime, so when I told her it was 8:00 and time for bed, that she needed to go to the bathroom, say her prayers, and go to bed, and that I would come tuck her in after my meeting.  I wondered how this would go, since I had never had her go to bed on her own before... As 8:00 rolled around and I told Kylee it was bedtime, she responded with "Okay Mommy" and went to the bathroom, said her prayers, and got in bed all on her own.  Such a sweetheart.

Another example:  Kylee loves to give hugs.  She gives hugs to anyone she recognizes.  She especially loves giving hugs to the young women in our ward and the young women leaders.  Don't be startled if all of a sudden a little one has come up from behind and started hugging your leg.

For Kylee's birthday, we had a big family dinner - 15 of us in total.  It's fun that most of my family and most of Matt's family live close enough to celebrate with us.  After dinner we had cake (I loved that Matt made the cake on his own) and presents.  Kylee loved all the attention and was super excited to play with all her new toys.  She especially loved the singing Barbie that Grandma and Grandpa Nye gave her, and she has been carrying it around for the last two days, pushing the button to make the Barbie sing over and over again.

Just to close, I wanted to record a couple cute things Kylee has been saying lately:

"My bottom is dancing." - as she sits in her car seat "dancing" to music on the radio.

"I'm so proud that we live close enough to the church that we can walk." - she doesn't quite understand what the word "proud" means!

And she loves to say "I love you to infinity and beyond."  And if we ever say I love you to the moon and back or to the far far galaxy, she tells us that is "short"!

She calls any time she goes to bed a "nap".  She either takes a "short nap" (her daily nap) or a "long nap" (when she goes to bed at night).  I've tried to explain that it's only a nap when she sleeps during the day, but she continues to call sleeping at any time a nap!

Updates, Exterior Picks, and a Park!

Here are the latest photos of the progression of our house.  We now have a driveway, garage, and i-beams!

Also, this week we got to meet with our interior designer and pick our exterior paint colors.  We drove around Paramount for a while to see what kind of paint colors we liked, and will be modeling copying this house, right down to the red door.  I don't know if Matt loved the red door as much as I did, but he was a good sport and let us make that our final selection.

Here is the stone we selected for the exterior of our home.  We think it will look really nice with the paint colors we selected!

One final picture, and this one I am pretty darn excited about.  Yesterday I drove out to see if there had been any progress made on our house, and I noticed that across the street from our house, there was a crew putting in a fence.  You can kind of tell from the picture, but across from our house (dark green on the bottom left), there is landscape and a walking path, and then backyards of people in the next phase over.  Anyway, I noticed that the fence they were putting in ended right across the street from our lot.  I immediately pulled up the plat of the neighborhood and saw that there is a park or green space planned almost directly across the street from us!  I am so excited - not only do we have no across the street neighbors (part of why we picked this street to build on), but we will have super easy access to a park!  Only 3 1/2 more months, and I can't wait!

A Little More Concrete and Some Grading

Finishings Preview

We met this afternoon with Alysse - the interior designer we are working with as part of our building process.  We had met with her a few weeks back to make some initial selections, and then met again today to finalize everything.  I'm really excited with how everything is looking, so naturally thought I'd share.  

For the kids bath and the laundry room - laminate floors (left), dark cabinets, "linen" looking  grayish laminate counters, with a biscuit colored subway tile for the backsplash.

For the kitchen - stained 4" plank hardwood floors (right), white cabinetry (not pictured), dark cabinetry for center island, narrow glass tile to go vertically behind the range, light tan quartz countertops, biscuit colored crackle subway tile for the backsplash.

For the guest bath - tan tile floor, with matching wall tile for the shower, dark vanity, light tan quartz countertops (same as the kitchen). glass/stone tile backsplash and shower insert.

For the fireplace - gray tile surround with dark mantle/cabinetry.

Tan carpet - shorter kind for family room and stairs, plusher kind for upstairs.

For the master bath - gray floor tile with matching gray tile for shower, white cabinetry (not pictured), dark gray quartz countertop with narrow glass tile backsplash, small square glass tile for shower inserts, and light gray small square tile for shower floor.