Dancing Gabby

Gabby missed Kelsey's wedding because she had her final dance recital on the same day. We had to miss it, but Gabby got to spend the day with her good friend and it sounds like she had a wonderful time. This is a picture that my friend took after the recital.
Here is the picture of her class in their other costume. She had a great time dancing and did very well, but decided that she doesn't want to do it next year. We'll see how things go. :)

The Wedding

I know that there was a lot of hype and publicity about the royal wedding right around the first of this month, but that is not the wedding I am blogging about.
On May 7th, the day before Mother's Day, we got to head into the Salt Lake Temple for my niece, Kelsey's, wedding. The grounds were beautiful and the weather was so nice (especially for such a cold, wet spring this year) we just had to take some pictures. Here is me and my sweetie.
Being Mother's Day weekend I got a few pictures with my babies. Gabby wasn't with us because she had her dance recital that day (practice in the morning, recital that night - so she spent the day in Grantsville with a friend in her dance class). But here are the other two.

And finally the reason that we were at the temple. Kelsey and Alex got married!








After the temple ceremony and pictures outside we headed over to the Lion House for a lunch. It was yummy and we had a fun time playing with cousins and making fun of our teenage nieces and nephews.


That night the reception was in Tremonton. Quincy was completely attached to Cambric the entire day! Cam was really cute with her and they sat together at the book.

The day was so nice. The lunch and the reception were beautiful! It was a really great day and we are so glad to have Alex join the Williams family!

Finished projects

The week before Easter my parents came through on a visit to most of their kids houses (sorry Thad and Tera)! They decided to help each of us out somehow with a service project. Well, that's an easy thing at my house, there is always so much to accomplish around here! :)

To tell you the truth, I was really not in the mood to do anything. It was the end of the semester and a week before finals. I was burned out and tired and the thought of doing anything on my house was a little overwhelming. But, my mom, being the way that she is, was determined to help me accomplish the things that I just needed to FINISH! I am so glad that she did! In just 2 days we finished some major projects and made the house look so great!

First, the kitchen. I have done nothing with the kitchen since we moved in, other than buying new appliances and putting handles on all the drawers and cupboards. It is a very red kitchen and it has been fine except I can't touch up any paint spots and it is need of an update. I have also never had a back splash and have been trying to figure out something to put back there that will match my green countertops (yuck) and red walls.

I will someday change out my counter tops, so I didn't want to do anything like stone or tile yet (even though that is what I really wanted to do). One day as I was looking online I decided to check out wall paper. I know wall paper can look pretty fake and terrible when you are trying to do stone, but I found one that I love and it looks so realistic that I just had to buy it. I have had the wallpaper for a few months and just haven't felt comfortable about hanging it. So, when my mom (the queen of wallpaper hanging) came I told her that I needed to hang the wall paper.

Here is the kitchen before (this is way before, like right when we got our new appliances - notice no handles on the drawers or cabinets?) It was just painted red, nothing spectacular.

My mom and I started working on the wallpaper and it wasn't as easy as it should have been. The repeat was pretty far apart and so it seemed like we were wasting a lot to match up the patterns. We worried about having enough to finish the accent wall that I wanted it for. Luckily my sister, Tracy, came over and offered to help my mom. They both are experienced in wallpaper hanging (I am not) and while I finished painting the bathroom (see below) they got to work hanging the thick, nice, scrubbable vinyl wallpaper.



And after all of their hard work. . . Here is the finished kitchen wall. Now I will find a nice color to go with this to paint the rest of the kitchen.
I love the way it looks and it makes my kitchen seem bigger! Here is a close up of the wallpaper. People have had to come and touch it to make sure that it isn't real brick - which is what I wanted when I bought it. I am so happy with it and can't wait to paint the rest of my kitchen now.
The other project that my mom helped my finish was my bathroom. I haven't completed it because I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted it to look like when I was finished. Well, Mom was determined not to leave without this complete. She took on the vanity. She sanded and painted it black and put on new hardware. I can't believe its the same vanity! It looks so much better! Some day we will get a new sink/top, but for now it looks amazing!

I went back and forth on how to paint the rest of the bathroom and finally decided that I liked the color that I chose enough to just paint the whole room that color. My sister, Tracy, also offered me the iron pieces that you see in the bathroom. They were a light green color, so my mom painted them black also. Now I have a place for magazines and extra towels. I still need to figure out something over the toilet and put up a window curtain. But I am really happy with how it looks now.


I also still need to find the perfect mirror, or something to go on this wall. I just love how clean and fresh my bathroom feels now!
I can't thank my mom enough for pushing me and helping me to finish these projects! It makes me so happy to have things done. And it helps me want to accomplish even more! Now, if only I had the money to get those things accomplished! :) Oh well! My mom ROCKS!

Wright Easter /Birthday Party

On Saturday we headed in to Lee and Tricia's house for our Wright Easter party. We also celebrated both Gabby and Tricia's birthdays (a day apart from each other) while we were together. Gabby requested a chocolate cake with "Easter stuff" on it. So I made a couple of cakes and decorated them with jelly beans and sugar cookie chicks. Not my best cake effort, but she was thrilled! :)

Trish showed Gabby how to use the whopper eggs to paint her lips - Thanks a lot, Trish! My kids spent the next few days after Easter with all different colored lips. :)

Then the adults went out front and hid all kinds of eggs in the front yard for the little kids. Here are the little guys all lined up youngest to oldest waiting to get out the front door. From youngest to oldest: Lewis, Quincy, Peter, Lily, Corban, Gabby, Parlee and Mallory.
Tracy and Jared's baby Ed. He's getting so big!

After the younger kids had their turn it was time to really get hiding. We moved to the back yard and started hiding eggs for the big kids. The only rule is that you have to be able to see the egg from at least one angle. It's a contest to see how hard eggs can be hidden for these older kids. Here is our muscle man, Jared trying to get an egg into the top hole of the swing set. He kind of had a hard time (when did we get so old??). The funny thing is that Emi went out and climbed right up like a monkey and snatched the egg quicker than Jared could get it up there.
The guys then got a great idea to hide an egg on one of the chickens. It took awhile for them to catch her, then they put the egg with tape, softly, around her neck. When they put her down she immediately scratched it off.
Then they caught her again and this time put it around her leg. Much better choice.
When the kids came out to look for the eggs we told them that there was a moving egg and whoever found it would get some money. Amber was pretty determined and even though the chicken hid behind the barn and under some muddy boards, she finally caught her. You can't really see in this picture all the mud on Ambers arms from getting the chicken.
Here's all the big kids after the hunt. From left to right: Emi, McKenna, Amber, Kaylea, Dallin, Conner and Andrew. We had a lot of fun with everyone. It was a great Easter party!