The Hogle Zoo

When my sister, Audrey, was in town, we took the kiddos to the zoo. It was our first time going to the Hogle Zoo so I was excited to check it out and see if it's worth getting a season pass. The weather was really nice, so we were able to enjoy the sunshine AND the animals. 

Kinsey is "pretend" sleeping.

Kinsey was all sorts of excited to see the animals. 

 Shayla demanded she be held for most of the trip. 

 Scarlett was a perfect little angel in her stroller. I almost felt bad that she was so good because then I just left her in the stroller. Sorry baby!!

 Sometimes the animals made K giggle. She is so funny. 

 It was kind of bright, but I promise Kinsey is there next to Audrey and me. 

 Shayla has been interested in hair lately. I assume that's what she was doing while waiting for Kinsey on the carousel. 

 Kinsey loves the carousel!! She chose the elephant and refused to let me touch her while she sat on it. I just wanted to make sure she didn't fall off. She just wanted to be miss independent and ride the elephant all by herself. 

 Scarlett got out of the stroller! Yay. I'm sure she loved the break with her daddy. She's a bit of a Daddy's Girl. And Mommy's Girl. She's just an all-around sweetheart. 

 Kinsey had a ton of fun with her Aunt Audrey. She loves all the attention, love, and presents she gets. She's a spoiled little girl!

 Kinsey discovered this sea otter statue and she was OBSESSED! She kept rubbing it lovingly and kissing and hugging it. I don't know what it was, but something about that little guy struck her fancy. I'm thinking we could consider this her first boyfriend. 

 Scarlett didn't care about the animals, but she loved people watching. 

 Kinsey enjoyed all the picture opps once she saw other kids posing. 

There were these lion mouth drinking fountains all throughout the zoo. Kinsey was FREAKED OUT by them and every time she approached one she would start to freak out because it was too scary. FINALLY right before we went out the exit she braved the fountain and got a drink. It only took her a few hours to work up the courage. Better late than never Little K!!

 The Salt Lake Zoo is definitely nothing to write home about. There weren't that many animals and it made me miss the Kansas City Zoo. But our kids are young and they didn't seem to notice. I'm just not sure when I'll want to make that drive again...

Easter Festivities

This picture describes Kinsey's enthusiasm for Easter eggs. The girl is obsessed!! If your children have ever watched egg surprise videos on YouTube then you will understand what I'm talking about. 

The week before Easter we had our ward's Easter egg hunt. I love the fact that it's pretty much in our front yard. Kinsey just dug right in and snatched up those eggs. 

 Scarlett and Shayla would spot an egg and be content with one or two. We had to push them a little to get their 12 eggs, but they were adorable. Kinsey was more than willing to find the remaining eggs for them. 

 The twins placed the eggs in their baskets like champs!! Occasionally they would pull the egg back out and repeat. Next year will be so much fun with them. 

My sister Audrey was in town and joined in on the fun. It's nice to have extra helping hands as well as more people to take pictures of my cuties. 

 Check out her determination to find more eggs. Go Kinsey!

 Love my sweet Scarlett. 

 I filled some of the eggs with marshmallows. Shayla was a happy camper when she discovered what was inside. 

Christian and Grant joined in on the hunt as well. We love cousin time!! 

 Holidays are the best and make me so grateful for my beautiful family. 

 A few days later my mom and little brother came over to dye Easter eggs with us. It was Kinsey's first egg-dying experience.

Kinsey enjoyed dipping the eggs in the colors, but she didn't really care about decorating them further than that. However, our dye set came with a matching game that she loved playing with Uncle Jeremy.

EASTER DAY
The Easter Bunny "hid" the girls' baskets and a bunch of eggs in our living room. Kinsey didn't pay any attention to the random eggs scattered around the room. She headed straight for her basket and started opening her "egg surprises." 

Shayla headed straight for her basket too. The Easter Bunny knew how much she enjoys playing with the car seats so it was a good "hiding" spot. 

Scarlett was the first one to notice the eggs on the ground. She picked one up and then headed for another. It was actually a bit of a chore to get her to find her Easter basket because she was enjoying the eggs too much. I had to place her directly in front of her basket so should would notice it.

The girls busted open the goodies right away. Kinsey's basket was mainly filled with stuffed eggs since that is her current obsession. She got a few Choco Surprise Eggs that she tossed aside so she could get to the surprise inside.  

The babies were more than happy to scoop up the chocolate from the eggs Kinsey discarded. Eric wasn't too happy with how much chocolate I allowed them to eat before breakfast. Hey, it's a holiday! Now every time the twins see candy they point to it with stars in their eyes. 

And for the grand finale...the Easter Bunny fulfilled my lifelong dream of owning a power wheel (the very wish Santa chose to ignore every year on my Christmas list). I mean my KIDS' dream. At first Kinsey wanted to go back inside and open more eggs, but now she is obsessed with this car and hates receiving driving lessons. She wants to do it her way and no one else's. She's such a teenager. Shayla is already scared to get in the car with her. 

Holidays are a great reminder to me of how blessed I am to have three beautiful children. Our lives have changed so much in the past few years and we couldn't be any happier. We are so grateful for our Savior and the opportunity my children have to grow up with Him in their lives. We hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!!

My 2 1/2 Year Old

For the most part, Kinsey only has two sides. She is either the sweetest, cutest, nicest, funniest little girl in the world or she's a nightmare full of tantrums and yelling. The last couple days have been the latter, so I apologize for anything I may say in this post. 

Kinsey knows her colors. She can count to 10 all by herself when she actually focuses. Sometimes she gets lazy and says "1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10." She really likes jumping to six! She also sings out her ABCs. It's not all correct but it's close, and I'm pretty darn proud of her considering I never taught her that. Kinsey sings a few other songs too like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and I just love hearing her bust out a song. It's not very often, but when she does it's adorable.  

She loves playing outside and finding new "toys"

 If you pay attention to any of the pictures I post or any of the pictures in this post, you will notice a theme. Kinsey is almost always wearing pajamas. She was in a very long pajama phase once she started dressing herself (probably because before that I was too lazy to get her dressed for the day) but I think we are FINALLY past that.  

 Now she has a few favorite outfits she likes to wear. She changes her clothes three or four times a day and likes putting her pajamas back on for nap time. Kinsey hates when I tell her what to wear and usually makes it a point NOT to wear what I want her to. She also MUST remove her clothes immediately if a drop of water spills onto them. 

 This results in her hanging out "nakie" as she calls it. Even in December. Outside. At least it was a warm year. 

Right before she tripped.

 She loves being independent. I can't tell you how many times she has put her pants on backwards or the heels of her socks on top of her feet. But she does it all herself, and that is a HUGE help. I love telling her to get dressed or put her shoes on so we can go somewhere. 

Ward Christmas Party

Her independence actually led to her being potty trained. One day after bath she picked out her clothes and had undies with them. I asked if she wanted to wear them and she said yes. And that was it. She was potty trained! Potty being the operative word. She was also very constipated. The doctor gave us some medicine to help which caused her to poo like ten times a day. It was horrible. Once we got the dosage figured out she started going poo in the big potty and now she's a pro. It's so AMAZING having a kid who is potty trained!!

Cleaning up for me!

 Kinsey has had her share of sickness this year and has been a trooper. A couple times she has had no energy and, as sad as it was, it was kind of nice just being able to watch her fall asleep in my arms.

Sick Kinsey

 The twins got a wagon for their birthday, and if you ask Kinsey she will tell you it's hers. She liked being pulled at the beginning, but now SHE does the pulling. 

 We've been practicing our faces, and I LOVE it. Can you guess what face she's making? 

Happy (what?), angry, surprised, happy.

 Kinsey did the funniest thing the other week. She grabbed this Wii nunchuk, put it up to her ear, and said "Text time Debbie Walker" (a combination of text and FaceTime). Apparently she pays attention when I give Siri orders. She's been doing it ever since and almost sent my dad I text when she told Siri "text Daddy." 

 Kinsey has been enjoying her backpack. I get a kick out of her wearing it around the house. She is a little person and it's so hard to imagine how much younger she seemed a year ago. 

Ready for school, Mom!

 The other day she gathered all the play food and made a picnic. I love when she's so cute like this!! 

 Cute things Kinsey says:

-Gosh darnit 

-Lost all my clothes (when I did laundry and she couldn't find the outfit she was looking for)
-Where's Shay Shay? Where's Scarlett? (Every time they crawl out of sight)
-I love you more
-Good job Mommy (When I use the big potty)

Before and After: Kitchen Reveal

The kitchen was by far the biggest project we took on during our renovation. We didn't keep ANYTHING from the pre-reno days--windows, cabinets, doors, baseboards, light fixtures, etc. It's not the biggest area, but I think we were able to maximize the kitchen space and improve the flow of the entire house. I'm in love with the end result!

We changed the layout a little.

We replaced the wall with an island to create an open concept. 

No more hideous cabinets!

The view from the living room.

Ta da!!!

Here's a look at the in-between of our renovation:

To start off, Eric and his dad removed all the kitchen appliances and the cabinets. I tackled the nasty wallpaper while these guys were hard at work. 

 Thanks to some handy dandy YouTube videos, Eric learned how to remove the wall separating the kitchen and living room. I was very impressed!! He also took down the soffits (it's pretty much wasted space the upper cabinets were hanging from) because it's a dated look and we need all the cabinet space we can get. This actually ended up being harder than taking down the wall, and Eric had the privilege of being rained on by insulation. 

The soffit is the thing in the top left corner. 

 I continued to take down wallpaper. It was a very tedious process that I didn't finish until the day before I needed to. 

 As much as we LOVED this linoleum, it had to go.  

This was another huge, back-breaking project (for the guys). There was actually an extra layer of linoleum and an extra subfloor beneath the first two layers. Then there were millions of staples that needed to be removed so the new hardwood could lay completely flat in the kitchen. 

The staples were about every two to four inches! 

 We got rid of the gross drywall, put new insulation in, and patched it back up. All the while Eric poked holes for the ceiling lights (one light in the kitchen and one light in the dining room was not going to cut it) and Eric and our friend did all new electrical.  

Our new doors were installed (new windows were installed throughout the house months before). 

 New hardwood floors were put in to create a cohesive space between the kitchen and living room. 

 Then I picked the stain so all the flooring would match. We went with the darkest stain we could that wouldn't lose the grains from our original oak floors. 

 Finally, we were to the point where we could start putting things IN the house. The baseboards and window/door casings were installed. The walls, ceiling, and trim were painted. And the cabinets were installed. All that was left was the granite and finishing touches. 

 You have no idea how good it felt to see it all come together. I shopped for months for different items for the kitchen (appliances, backsplash, light fixtures, hardware) and I was finally able to confirm all my choices looked good together. What a relief! 

 Here are a few of our favorite parts:

This sink is so deep and has NO divider! I love it. I can put dishes in it all day long and still have room to rinse off more. 

 We made space for a pantry. In our five+ years of marriage Eric and I have NEVER had a pantry. It's amazing. 

 This island has four deep drawers that fit our pots and pans and much more. I haven't even filled them all, which is pretty amazing. 

 It was a long wait for me to see my new kitchen, but well worth it. We're really happy with how everything turned out and feel pretty much like renovation pros now.