Feb 19, 2017

This week Cora auditioned for the Unicorn Theater's production of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.  She got the part of Mr. Beaver and she's so excited about it.  She's quite the talented girl!

Feb 18, 2017

Todd and I got to take some friends up to the cabin at Bear Lake this weekend.  We took Rosie and Kevin Barker, our friends we met in Nebraska that now live in Ogden, Scott and Heather Gibby that were in our ward in Brigham City, and Deandra and Jim Harps who are friends from Logan.  We had such a great time talking, playing games, eating good food, and just relaxing together!

Heather, Scott, Jim, Deandra, Rosie, Kevin, Todd, Gretchen

Feb 17, 2017

Today Todd and I got to go to the middle school and watch Maggie perform a violin solo in her orchestra class.  She did a great job!

Feb 16, 2017

Every day Ethan sits at the dining room table and does his homework.  It's so nice to have kids that enjoy school and don't mind putting in the hard work that it takes.

Feb 15, 2017

Tate decided he wanted spiky hair after his bath.  Pretty funny!

Feb 14, 2017

Happy Valentines Day!!

Some pillows I made to sell.

Feb 13, 2017

Maggie participated in her Mount Logan Middle School orchestra concert tonight.  She is doing a great job learning the violin!

Feb 11, 2017

Ethan texted me from school today to say he thought he had ringworm.  Sure enough, we took him to see Dr. Nordell Brown and he has ringworm.  It's going around the wrestling team so we weren't surprised.  He'll put a little anti-fungal cream on it for a couple weeks and that should take care of it.

Feb 10, 2017

I got to sneak into Todd's American Festival Chorus rehearsal.  It was fun to see the rehearsal and the way that Dr. Craig Jessop refines the orchestra and choir to get the exact sound he wants.

Feb 9, 2017

Rick Rack Vintage has been such a fun business for me.  I've been trying out some new things.  I tried a rub-on transfer on this cute table and I love how it turned out!  It's fun to try new things and have them turn out!

Feb 8, 2017

Tate loves to play Legos!  We were talking today and I said how fun it would be to have a tree house.  Well it wasn't very long before he came into the kitchen to show me the Lego tree house he had made.

Feb 7, 2017

I LOVE to re-do upholstered chairs.  I don't know why, but they make me happy.  I learn new things each time I do one and they don't take as long as a couch.  Plus, they are easy to move around when I'm working on them.  This is my latest chair.  It turned out so cheery!

Feb 6, 2017

I recently got a new job working for Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater.  I work for them each summer sewing costumes but their painter, Anne Benson, recently contacted me and wondered if I would be interested in sewing backdrops for her to paint.  Drawings were coming in from the scene designers and she couldn't keep up with sewing and painting all the drops.  So I took the job and it's been great.  Easy work, other than the massive amounts of fabric to deal with.  The large drops are 26 feet high and 60 feet wide.  The best part is, I only go in about 2 mornings a week and I get to take Tate with me.  He sits and watches movies while I work.  It's great to have a flexible schedule and be able to take him with me!

The picture today was taken after we had been at work.  Tate wanted to go get a Happy Meal from McDonalds but I told him we had food at home to eat.  He suggested that we go home and make a happy meal.  What a great idea!!  He likes chicken nuggets, apple slices, and chocolate milk in his happy meals!

Feb 5, 2017

Well it was Super Bowl Sunday.  We don't watch pro football other than the Super Bowl each year.  The kids think it's fun because we eat lots of yummy food.  I took this photo of everyone, including the dog on the bed watching football.

Feb 3, 2017

Wrestling Divisional Meet

Ethan had a great wrestling season.  He had NEVER wrestled before so he had a lot to learn!  There was a spot that opened up on the varsity team and the coach asked Ethan to fill it.  He had to drop about 4 pounds in a week but he managed to do it.  So off to Tooele, Ut we headed to cheer him on.  His first match he ended up wrestling a girl, which we had kind of teased him about all season.

The next kid he wrestled was last year's state champion and he got pinned.  The next one was the kid who finished 3rd at the meet.  Ethan put up a good fight but in the end got pinned again.  It was a double elimination tournament so Ethan was done.  It was fun to watch him try something new, learn new skills, and work hard.  

Todd and Gretchen at the wrestling tournament with Ethan and his friend Simeon in the background.

Coach Drew Wilson talking with Ethan and Todd.

Jan 30, 2017

Another project for Rick Rack Vintage...a dressing table painted with milk paint.

Jan 28, 2017

Logan High Regional Swim Meet

This is Ethan and his best swim buddy Kolter.  The Logan High boys won first place at the regional swim meet!  This was a hard season for Ethan.  He decided to swim and wrestle.  Swim practice began at 5:00 am, then he would head to school, and then wrestling practice lasted until 5 or 5:30 pm EVERY week day!  He wore himself out but we were so proud of him for sticking it out on those long hard days.  He also managed to keep his grades up!  His times weren't good enough to qualify for the state swim meet so he was pretty disappointed.  He swam the 100 fly and the 200 IM. 

Jan 27, 2017

I love my business, Rick Rack Vintage!  It's so fun for me and I have met some fun people over the last 2 years.  Two of those fun people are Michelle and Mina who own 2 Chicks And A Tool Belt.  They recently created a chalk paint and asked if I would be a retailer for them.  I jumped at the chance to help out a fellow vintage lover.  So this is a photo of the paint display that Todd made for me to put in a store here in Cache Valley.  Isn't it cute?  I love that Todd is so willing to help with all my projects!

Jan 25, 2017

I got a new part time job working for the Utah Festival Opera Company.  The scene shop hired me to sew backdrops for them.  It's easy work but it's a lot of fabric to deal with.  Some of them are 58 feet wide and 24 feet tall!!  Tate gets to go with me so I took a picture of him at the shop.

Jan 23, 2017

When will the snow end????  The kids finally got to go out and play in it.  The other times it snowed it was -24 degrees so no going out to play.  I love the picture of our cute house with the snow falling!

Jan 20, 2017

I took this cute picture of Bentley dog laying on Ethan and giving him kisses!  Yep, the dog is really part of the family!

Jan 19, 2017

Happy 5th Birthday Tate!!

We had a super fun time with Tate for his birthday.  He chose chicken nuggets and apple sauce for dinner.  We then surprised him by taking him to his favorite place to play; Bounce And Slide!

Jan 18, 2017

Last night was New Beginnings at church.  It's a program for young woman in the church.  This year they welcomed in Maggie because she will be turning 12 in May and will enter the program.  I think she felt pretty special!  Cora was also a part of the program.

Jan 17, 2017

Happy Birthday Todd!!  The big 44!

Today was Todd's birthday.  We celebrated with steak and cake!!

Jan 14, 2017

Tate's birthday is coming up and he got a card in the mail today.  It's fun to see how excited kids get when they get mail.  The best part was that Grandma Cheryl had put some mazes on the card and he loves to do mazes!

Jan 13, 2017

Here's another one from my business, Rick Rack Vintage.  I finished this little dresser.  I tried some new things on it and learned a lot!

Jan 11, 2017

I made cookies for the swim team.  When they have away meets the moms take turns making snacks for them.  I love to have an excuse to make sugar cookies.  The little speedos are my favorite but the bears with tutus and Letterman sweaters are fun too!

Jan 9, 2017

Not so happy photo today.  We found a leak in our basement.  Don't know where the water is coming from and don't know how to stop it.  There was actually ice frozen on the inside of the wall.  Not good!!!

Jan 8, 2017

Today we get a video instead of a photo.  This is a great one.  Tate and Ethan were given marshmallow shooters for Christmas from Grandma Kass.  They have so much fun with them.  Tate thought he would sneak up on his brother and get him!

Jan 6, 2017

Today is a fun photo!

Ethan is on the Logan High Wrestling team and they finally got their mouth guards!  They are pretty funky.  It has the team logo in it and also has his name embedded in it.  He's having a great time being on the team but it's been pretty hard to swim in the early morning (5:00 am - 7:00 am), keep his grades up at school (4.0) , and wrestle every afternoon (3:00 pm - 5:00 pm).  He's doing it!!

Jan 5, 2017

It's a good thing I have such strong men at my house!!  These guys worked soooooo hard to shovel us out.  We got about 2 1/2 feet of snow.  No school and the whole city was shut down!  And still snowing!!!!

Jan 4, 2017

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!  Boy did we get dumped on.  

Jan 3, 2017

Today's photos are from my business, Rick Rack Vintage.  I painted this darling 1940s dressing table with Sweet Pickins Milk Paint in Bluebird.  It turned out so cute and I'll take it to my next vintage market in March.  Isn't it darling?!

Jan 2, 2017

So today I couldn't choose just one photo.  We took the kids sledding on the golf course at Bear Lake.  We just walk from the cabin out to the course.  It's just the perfect place for the kids to sled and when they get cold we just send them back to the cabin.

They had a ball!  The snow was coming down but it wasn't too cold.  Bentley dog just couldn't get enough.  He ran and ran and ran chasing the kids up and down the hill.

This first photo is Ethan and Bentley dog having fun in the snow.

Maggie tried to slide down the hill with no sled.  It didn't work so well!

Cora and Tate loved to ride the sled together.  Last year Tate went down the hill once and hated it!  This year he rode again and again.  They had the best time!

New Year New Resolution

When I was young I used to love to keep a journal.  I loved to document each little thing I was doing.  I would save little cards, programs, stickers, all kinds of little things.

I don't know what happened but when I went to college I just stopped.  I guess I got busy with school work so I stopped journaling.  It's sad to think about all the things that have happened in my life and there is no record of it!!  So sad!

Well, I was watching one of my favorite shows the other day, Studio 5.  They did a segment with a photographer that said she was choosing a photo for each day of the year and that was going to be her journal.  How fun is that?

I decided to try it.  I may not do it everyday but most days this year I'm going to just choose a photo and write a short note about what we were doing that day.  It should be fun and by the end of the year I'll have a whole journal of what we did.

So here goes!  Here's my photo for January 1, 2017

This is myself and my hubby Todd.  We spent the New Years holiday at my father in law's cabin at Bear Lake.  We love to go there and spend time and relax together as a family.  On New Years Day the snow was so beautiful!

Here's to a new year and a new resolution!