New beds for girls

I finally finished up a bedroom makeover for the girls' room. I saw someone who had made beds that were made from pallets and thought to myself...I can do that! :) So after finding some pallets and some other salvaged wood I started building. Didn't really have a specific plan in mind...just kinda figured it out as I went along.

Only needed a chop saw & sander and of course a screw gun. I did end up having to buy a few wood supplies but in the end didn't spend more than $22!

Here is the work in progress.
I got it together and thought I would just leave it rustic. I put a bit of paint on randomly and then sanded it off to just leave a touch of it behind.

Got it into their room and decided I didn't like how really rustic it was for what I wanted to do in there so took them back outside for a nice coat of paint and a few more finishing boards. Oh, and I had to add a diagonal board across the bed for support...they were a little too wobbly.

After a nice coat of paint they were back inside (sorry about the bad picture :))

Here is the final product. I added a shelf big board below one of the beds for the toy storage and left Cadence's bed (one on right) open space. The kids love crawling back there and using it as a hide out. :)

I'm happy with the way they turned out and am glad I gave a try at building something myself!

Swinging from the branches

I have had this rocking chair for many years now and it has gotten pretty wobbly recently. I saw the idea to make a chair swing (on Pinterest) and thought this chair would be perfect for a re-do. All I had to do was saw off the legs and I screwed a few boards to bottom for reinforcement and then drilled a couple holes in for the rope to feed through.

And...
here is our new chair swing. I love it!!
It's charming, peaceful and the kids love it.

Another reason to enjoy the outdoors. :)

Tempe Town Lake Ride

On Sunday late afternoon we went for a bike ride at Tempe Town Lake. The new bridge is open now so we went and checked it out. It was a little windy out but such a nice day! We brought along a pizza for dinner and found a perfect little spot to have our meal. :)

At night the bridge is lit up, the picture didn't capture how really cool it is. So glad we went and did something special.

Janae turned 6!

Today we celebrated Janae turning 6. She had a party at her house with all her friends. Dottie the clown made another appearance this year and the girls loved her little performance about being a princess. :)

Happy Birthday Janae!

Winter Garden

My garden is doing great. This is what we picked this morning. The kids have been eating the snap peas off the vine and our brocolli is amazing & full. Only problem is that it is all ready to be eaten at the same time!
We pulled up some carrots for the first time also today. They are round ball carrots and were delicious!


I love having the kids eating right out of the garden!

Sunrise Weekend Trip

We took a long weekend trip up to Pinetop/Sunrise. It was such a great trip and I was really proud of the kids and how well they did...it is so much easier with them getting older!!

Mark and Dylan rode the mountain all day long, from 10-3:30! Mark said Dylan did great but was tired and cold when they stopped. I think next year we may try for him to learn snow boarding because he is great on the ski's now.
On the top of the mountain.

The girls and me found some snow to play in out of the way of all the skiers. Cadence loved it and was rolling all around, Isabelle on the other hand did not enjoy herself very much. She sat down for a bit in it but other than that wasn't too excited to be in snow. :)

They are so cute all bundled up!

Snow angels

When we were good and cold we headed into the lodge and played a few games of Uno, even Isabelle played this time (with a little help of course). We all had lunch together and then the boys were off again. The girls and me headed to the car where we all took some good naps.

We normally have to get a suite hotel room so that Mark and I don't have to go to bed at 7:00 when the kids do, but there weren't any decently priced in Pinetop so we just got a regular room and to our surprise it worked out really great. We are thankful to know that a regular room will work now that the kids are older. Dylan and Cadence shared a bed and as you can see from the above picture that Cadence obviously didn't stay to her side of the bed! :) Dylan never woke up...he must have been really really tired to not wake up to a foot in your face!

It was such a fun trip and are thankful that we were able to spend some time away together.

Donut Dessert!

We had donuts for dessert one night this last week (really, Mark was craving them so it was a excuse to go there :)). There is a newer donut shop called Bosa donuts that is very close to our house...I'm not a huge donut fan but these donuts are soooo good!
We let Dylan eat 3! And he would have kept going if we didn't make him stop!


Cadence really only likes the frosting and sprinkles :)

And Isabelle enjoyed every bite of hers. :)