What a happy day!

I've been on cloud nine all day! I decided a little while ago that I wanted to refinish the china hutch I was so lucky to inherit of my grandmother's, and today we finished it!! My grandma collected cups and saucers, and when I was just a little girl I decided I wanted a collection just like hers. I finally feel like I can display what I have upstairs in my living room. Brad helped me sand, prime, and paint it an antique white color, and we stained the edges. We removed the back panel of the hutch and reinstalled a bead board backing (which I love!). I don't have a fireplace mantel, an entry way, or a large entertainment center to decorate, so I was just in heaven actually having somewhere to display some seasonal things. Happy day!!!

The hutch BEFORE (I almost forgot to snap some photos - I'd already removed the left cupboard door as you can see):





And the AFTER (We bought new hardware, but I figured out that we could use our new knobs along with a decorative part of the old knob and it made our knobs look even better!):






I was already having a great day when I decided to FINALLY pull out my Halloween decorations. See, I really wasn't that excited since I didn't have anything but a tinsel black cat!! I opened up my Halloween decor bin and lo and behold "three tied up grocery bags with carefully wrapped items inside"...turns out I had bought after Halloween items last year (so they still had the tags), and I'd forgotten all about them. So I had new decorations after all. Here's a couple of them:


We had a great weekend. I loved watching conference, and really loved President Monson's message to us about being happy and positive. My dad ran the St. George marathon, so I was thinking of him Saturday, and he was amazing as always. During the two hour break between sessions on Saturday, Brad and I and the girls drove up to Strawberry Reservoir and saw the kokene salmon. On the way home we had a fun picnic lunch at a cool little spot we discovered for our first time called "Whiskey Springs". I'd checked out a library book for Megan called "Look what I did with a leaf", which made her want to collect leaves so she could make leaf animals, so we gathered leaves too. Fun day. Here's some pictures of our Saturday as a family:


Her first animal was this cat (which she made up without using the book):

Then she made this cow (which she made by looking at her library book):

And this was her bear... :)


Okay, this is turning out to be the longest post ever, but it wouldn't be complete without writing about HOW FUN it is to watch Megan play soccer twice a week. I never thought it would be all that fun spending a Saturday morning watching a game, but I guess when it's your child out there playing, it somehow magically becomes REALLY FUN. I absolutely love it. She's been having a great time. Here's a couple of photos. I love the second photo because it shows her in "sprint mode". When she decides to run fast, she sure has a good sprint with those super long legs. She's a little too timid and nice, but she's got a great run!