Our Latest Project!!

So we have been working on a home improvement project and we think we are finally finished. When we bought our house, it came with a lovely black/DARK brown lava rock fireplace. Well, we knew we didn't like how dark it was and discussed changing it. We did like the blue tile hearth but what should we do with the rest??? We tried to find ideas on the internet, but only found ideas on tearing out your old fireplace and completely redoing it. Not really what we wanted to do. So we heard of a family who painted their rock fireplace we went and took a look and decided we were absolutely 100% sure that is what we wanted to do to ours. So the next time we were at the house we mixed together some cheap leftover paint (it turned out kind of blue) and we started slapping paint on that big black sore in our front room. WE figured it would soak up a lot of paint but it wasn't until we actually started painting that we realized that we were going to be there a long time because that lava rock was soaking up sooooo much paint in every little hole and just not working like we wanted. So brilliant Sam took the Spackling Paste and started filling in holes and before we knew it we were on to a great plan. We started by filling in those little holes using spackling and lots of water to thin it down. Needless to say we didn't finish before moving in because by then we were sick of painting and the lava rock was beastly to our little hands that were trying to fill in little holes.......................So the project has been patiently waiting for us for six months. Looking like our little collection of fluffy white clouds.

Then just two weeks ago, Arlene came to our rescue and we once again began the process to finish the black beast. That first day we finished spackling......it ONLY took 5 1/2 quarts of spackling to cover that beast. Here it is all white with splackling. Wow isn't that even a great improvement. Way better than black but we didn't really want it just white. So a couple of days later we began to add the colors we wanted. We picked a grout color and a bass color that would go together with our walls and all the colors and each other. Then we painted all the grout lines first. Then we started painting on each rock with the bass color and then we sponged in some other colors to add a more natural look to the rocks. (blues, reds, brown, golds, and grays) We finished it about half way and had to take one more day to finish the not-so-black-any-more beast. We finished last Friday and we have just been observing our new neutral fireplace in all the different possibilities of light and looking for anything we don't like and I think that we have got a new fireplace that we can enjoy for years to come. Thank you to the amazing ARLENE who has such artisic capabilities and truly knew how to bring out the beauty in each rock. Thank you for teaching me and helping me be brave. Now we need a nice mantle like Arlene, don't we?? We love our new fireplace and the kids love that they now have a stage. Let us know what you think of our BEFORE and AFTER!!! Success or not so success???

Nacho Libre

The reasons Jack Black in Nacho Libre sent me gasping for air as I was laughing so hard:

1- It is set in Oaxaca Mexico. Many of the little amusing things about Mexican culture (that I grew to love) were captured and used correctly to make this screaming funny.

2- It knows it is pure silliness, and stays on that road the whole movie. It doesn't try to make some ethical point, or pull some moral out of the story.

3- The butchered Mexican accents used by many of the main cast.

This movie didn't just hit my funny bone, it struck it with such amazing force, I literally had to pause it in order for my wife to be able to hear it, as I was laughing so loud. My sides hurt.

Some of the best quotes/moments:

"Be grateful Juan Pablo, today is especially delicious."

"Are you aware that I have had diarrhea since Easters?"

“So anyways, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.”

No swear words, no sexual content, just good, clean, 13 year old fun.

I loved it.

Our little miss smarty pants

Tonight while we were reading scriptures, we were talking about Jesus visiting America, as well as living in the middle east. "A" promplty replied, "And He is going to come visit us too." And we told her that He will, we don't know when, but He will. Then she asked, "How will He get here if He doesn't have a car?" We said, "He knows how to get here, and He will get here." She said, "Like will He walk on the side walk?" "Ya, maybe He will walk on the side walk dear."

She was then asking why people were mean to Him and cut him(we were talking about His hands and feet). We explained that some people didn't love Jesus and weren't nice to Him. She then said, "Well, I love Jesus, and He loves me. He loves all the children, He loves everyone. You, and you, and you, and me." "Yes dear, He loves everyone."

Where does she get all this? Well, we know, but it is so amazing that it is all in there and she just spurts it out some times.

She is so precious we just love her to peices. We talk after we have little moments like that with her and just think, she is so smart, she is going to pass us by here pretty quick, and she is only 3. We are so lucky to have such chosen little spritis come into our homes and bless us and teach us. Yes, it is discouraging at times, as she can be very determined with a lot of things, but we try to love her and guide her to choose the right. We just love her.

She lives with us, and nobody else, so neener neener!

Halloween!

Halloween this year was very fun........we had some fun halloween tights from grandma that we had to use on sunday.....this was our sunday before Halloween attire....cute tights huh?? (Ashtyn's has black cats)........Then we also had soem fun halloween outfits to wear this time of year near halloween.....look at little Ashtyn strut her stuff....Pretty cute.....and for halloween we had a kitty cat(including a tail to match the ears that you cannot see) and a ladybug at our house. Aren't they adorable.......I can't help how cute I think they are. The girls loved their costumes and we really had fun watching them have so much excitiment to get dressed up and enjoy being dressed up. We had a fun family party at our house on Monday night. We had fhe and then we played a few games and ate good chips and dip and decorated cupcakes.....that was our mummy game we played (Ashtyn is on the left and Owen on the right along with their wrappers)it was great!! It was really cold last night so we just took the girls to the mall and did trick or treating there. Most of the business were handing out candy...it was fun but a little busier than we would have liked. The girls went right along though....they kept getting candy every couple of steps and Ashtyn was like dazed and kept running into things and Hailey was just like wow all I have to do is hold up this bucket and I keep getting treats. Then we stopped by both the grandmas to trick or treat. Of course that was the girls fav.......not because they got the most candy there but because they love their grandparents!!! he he