Clean House West Style

The week of Thanksgiving my parents were out of town. This is always the perfect time to get things done in the house because we can use things that smell that my mom can't be around. Before they left Kimi and I decided to ask them if there was anything that we could do for them that needed to be done. We suggested painting, getting the floors in the kitchen refinished, and etc. Our parents decided that some painting really did need to be done in the upstairs bathroom and then Kimi and I suggested that we do the extra room upstairs and our dad's room because they both needed paint and major cleaning done. So that was our plan and as soon as our parents were out the door we got started. But first of all we decided that we needed some major help.

Kimi then called our grandma to see if any family members might be able to come out and help us. May I just say that I love my family! We called Friday night and Saturday morning we had so many wonderful helpers come and help us move furniture and get the first steps of painting done. While there my Aunt Terri really wanted to do something that my Uncle Marc and her had talked to my mom about doing a couple years ago and that is tiling our front entryway in the house. I am so very grateful to them because they took time out of their busy schedules and got this done for my mom, which is something that she really has wanted done for so long because our carpet had gotten so worn. 

Throughout the week we had busy little helpers coming in and out to finish the tile and the painting. We also had people come over and help clean the whole upstairs. It is amazing how much a little cleaning goes a long way. We got everything finished (except a few things on the tile which will shortly be finished.) My parents are now THRILLED with the paint, their new office, and the TILE!! In fact my dad wants everyone to know that he fainted from the thrill of it ;). Our house truly looks so wonderful now and I am so grateful that we were able to do this for my parents. Now on to the reason for this post, PICTURES!!!

Now this was my dad's room before

This is my dad's room after!

Big honkin' difference right!!

Now I am sorry I don't have any before's of the other rooms but let me just tell you that they are also HUGE improvements!

This is the new office slash sewing room.

This is the bathroom which had a lot of issues. There was a big patch in the wall that was never finished so this really needed to be done.

And last but certainly not least the new tile in the entryway!!!! (I will post pictures of the completed deal soon)

I simply can't believe how much was accomplished in that amount of time. I sit here in awe and would be completely ungrateful if I didn't thank everyone for their hard work. 

* Thank you Kimi and Ryan for all the help and time you sacrificed to this. You can't imagine how happy mom and dad are.

*Thank you Mandi for coming home and being my buddy and helping us with all of this you are awesome.

* Thank you Aunt Terri and Uncle Marc and the whole Purles Family for the tile and the help you gave to get it done. My parents absolutely love it.

* Thank you Chase and Cam for your late night of hard work and multiple days of early mornings.

* Thank you Grandma Davis for getting everyone together for us.

* Thank you Mackenzie, Amie, Chris, Aunt Teresa, Uncle Michael, Aunt Jerry, and Grandma for coming out to help us it was greatly needed and appreciated. 

If I missed anyone I am truly sorry. But I want everyone to know that my parents absolutely love everything and we are all TRULY grateful for all that you have done for us. It truly has shown me all that I am grateful for!

New Toy to Play With!

So this post is mainly for my sisters who asked for some pictures of my NEW CAR!!! This is really exciting especially since I was blessed enough to buy it new. Now let me just say I loved my last car, but the timing was just to good to get a new car. My last car was in great shape for its age but it was getting older. I was looking at starting to need to pay for repairs and if you know me well you know that I don't do well with cars breaking down. Even seemingly small repairs kind of trip me up. I also have been dreaming of a dark blue car since I bought my last car. I also have been wanting some way to play my ipod in my car. And as much as it pains me to say I decided that it was time to switch from a manual to an automatic. I want to keep this car for a long time and it is just too hard to multitask with a manual. Sigh. Oh well.

But this new car is awesome. It is a 2012 hyundai elantra. I now have bluetooth in my car and can call people hands free. I can also now play my ipod in my car and have XM radio (we'll see if I keep it). I can control my radio and volume from my steering wheel. My rearview mirror automatically dims and lightens itself and can be programmed to my garage door opener. I have a compass and outside temp display. My center console can slide forward to give me an arm rest. My seat can go forward, backward, up, and down. My steering wheel go forward, backward, up, and down. If you can't tell I love my car! Now onto some pictures...

My new blue car!

Gray Interior

Center Console Below

Happy Halloween!!

These were my pumpkins that I carved this year. They are Hades from Hercules and Ariel from The Little Mermaid! I am so happy they turned out. I hope everyone is having a Happy Halloween!!!

I Now Have My Own Ricky Type of Story!!

So my purse was stolen from my car early this morning, ugh. I had to get up early to go to work. I walked out and our garage door was open (not by the thief, we have someone working on our roof so he has needed the garage open and long story short he didn't tell us he was leaving and we forgot to shut it) and the interior light of my car is on. Cue heart attack. I checked the doors on my driver side they were good. Then I walk around and see that my passenger door and my dad's drivers side door are ajar. I went into my dad to ask if he had been in the garage (semi hopeful) and he hadn't (all hope gone...whoosh). We both walked out to the garage to inspect further. Sure enough I looked into my car and my purse was gone and so was my debit card. We looked in his car and it had obviously been gone through but nothing taken (although his car is always so messy I doubt he knew for sure :]). Great. I had 10 minutes before I had to go to work so I ran inside to get on a computer to check my bank account, nothing major. I needed to leave by then so my dad offered to take of everything for me (I have a great daddy!). I went back out to my car to hurry and leave but can't. Remember what I first saw that was wrong, yeah the thief left the door ajar which left my interior light on killing my battery. Awesome. I am a little frantic now because it is early in the morning and I need to get to work and my day is already so AWESOME!!! So I run back in and tell my dad so he comes out with me to look at it. When we get out there we have no time so I ask him to just take me to work and keep me posted and let me know what I have to do. I spend the whole morning talking to banks and police officers and my dad. Luckily nothing is very bad news when I talk to everyone, just inconvenient. Then my dad picks me up at my break to take me home and jump my car.
We get home and start the jumping process and get my car going. Then we let it run and I had to take care of a few break time type things. My dad stayed out front to let our dog relieve himself. After doing this he walks into the house and in his hands is my purse!!! I immediately take it to look through it. A lot of things were still in there but it had obviously been gone through. Thoroughly. In jumps my Ricky type story. Anybody that knows my dad knows he has some pretty funny stories and if you want to hear the one that relates let me know. So when I say thoroughly I mean thoroughly. They took every possible thing out of my wallet and took my drivers license, gift cards, 2 account information cards, and my debit card. But then they also decided to look through my tampons and pads that I had for emergencies. They even dismantled the tampons!! Yes people I hide money in my TAMPONS!!!! Goodness. I saw this spectacle and showed my dad and said "your friend stole my purse!" (Again got to know his story to understand this, but made short he and his friend found a prostitutes purse when they were little and the friend went through the tampons and found money). We started to laugh and then I needed to call the bank because the thief had all my account info and I needed to freeze my accounts. I went through the rest of my day at work and then had a fun afternoon of going to the bank to terminate my account and start a new one. Then I had to go to the DMV to get a new license( which I am mad about because I didn't realize that they would want to take another picture and lets just say this one was really not flattering and showed that I was tired and mad).
All in all the thief got away with 4 charges on my card, gift cards, and my license. But that is not the only thing they have stolen from me. They have partially taken my sense of security. They have really inconvenienced my life for awhile now as I have to get a new bank card and watch out for fraud. I am over it but I still have to deal with it and the police. Really in my mind what kind of loser is this person that they are trolling neighborhoods at about 3 in the morning. The thing that really gets me is that their charges were sooooo stupid! For heavens sake they went to McDonalds!!!! What is that!!! LOSERS!!!!! Oh well I lived and I learned!! I will not be making the same mistakes again.

Time to WAKE UP!!!

I just got back from a family trip to DISNEYLAND!! I was able to see my whole family and it was awesome! But sorry this is not my posting for this trip. I need to gather a few pictures and am way too tired right now to make any sense in a long posting. This posting is about an incident that happened at our hotel.

My dad and I were in a room together because we are the snorers and early risers. One morning my dad got up before me and started to get ready to go down to the breakfast our hotel offered. It woke me up and I got up for a second and then went back to lay down and go to sleep when he was done. He left and I was half asleep. He wasn't gone more then 10 minutes when all the sudden I hear the key card reader go off and in comes this complete stranger who is not bothering to be quiet. Needless to say it scared the crap out of me, and I was awake. I sat bolt up right and looked at this lady. She saw me and said "so sorry" and slammed the door shut.

Since I was up I decided to get dressed and go downstairs and tell my dad the story. We were both a little concerned that some stranger was able to get into our room. We also thought it was quite suspect that she came in less then ten minutes after my dad left the room. We were worried because my mom would be in the room by herself the rest of the day. We went to the front desk and told them what had happened and they were also very concerned. They immediately got on top of the problem and tried to figure out what happened. They sent people up multiple times during the day. I don't know if they ever figured out what happened but it never happened again. It was quite the wake up call for me though.

The Best Hot Fudge in the World!!

My dad and me went to his mom's house to collect some of the things that we wanted to save and that would remind us of her and grandpa. As we were looking through their books we found an album of her recipes. This was incredible! There were a lot of recipes that we thought went with grandma. She was an incredible cook and I loved going to Grandma West's just to have some of her food. They are all hand written and some have gotten some stains and drips on them. I've made it my own little project to type them and and get them out to my family so that we can keep her recipes going. I might share some of them on my blog as I go along for those who live out of state and just so that others may enjoy.

The first recipe I want to share is a family favorite and a must with dinner at Grandma's. I don't think there was one dinner where we didn't have it. In the spring and summer we would go out to their gardens and pick cupfuls of their raspberries to go along with it. This recipe is grandma's hot fudge sauce! It is sooooooooooo good so I hope you enjoy. P.S. Fresh raspberries are the best to put on top of this!

Grandma’s Hot Fudge Sauce
1 can Eagle Brand Milk
1 cup Water
¼ t Salt
½ cup Sugar
3 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate
1 t Vanilla

Directions:Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil it should be thick.

Then put on top of whatever ice cream you want, but vanilla is the best! ENJOY!!

Here's Your Sign!!

So many of you have probably heard of Bill Engvall. If you haven't he is one of Blue Collar Comedy guys. One of his bits is something called "Here's Your Sign". This is a bit where he says that there should be signs you could hand out to people to let them know that they have said or done something idiotic. Well I had one of these moments yesterday. Some guys were over at our house early in the morning to put some new carpet in my mom's room. They parked their truck right in the middle of our driveway so there was no way of getting any of our cars out of the garage and I needed to go to work. They were outside when I needed to leave and so I went out to ask them to move their truck really fast so that I could leave. They were talking so I was standing there waiting for them to finish. I had my keys in my hand and my coat on. It was obvious that I needed to leave. One of the guys noticed so he stopped their conversation and asked me if I needed them to move their truck. I said yes thank you. Then he asked "is your car in the garage?" I seriously thought "here's your sign". I mean there were no other cars anywhere on the street or in the driveway. I sat there and I thought "no I just wanted to have you move your car for the heck of it, mine is actually parked down the street out of sight!" Seriously, HERE'S YOUR SIGN!!

Elise Claire Jensen (AKA E. Claire)

On October 24, 2009 this little bundle of joy was born. She was 10 pounds 6 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long! Big baby! As you can see she has a full head of hair. She is my newest little niece and is Kimi and Ryan's first little girl. I think she looks a lot like her mommy when she was a baby, maybe I'll post a picture later so you can make your own comparisons. She is so cute and I wish they lived in Utah so that I could give her some lovin'. Hmmm... maybe I will just need to plan a suicide trip to California and go and see her!

This is a picture Kimi and Ryan sent me of her first car ride home!

I made this little hat for her for Halloween so that she could be a pumpkin. Isn't she the cutest little pumpkin!

Lots to Catch Up On....

So there is a lot that has happened in the last couple months and I am just now getting time to blog about it all. So please bare with me as I do some catch up.

Grandma West

On June 29 my sweet Grandma West returned to heaven to be with her eternal companion. She was an awesome lady and these two were the greatest example any two people could be. They really loved each other and they let us grandkids know it. They were sweet together and it was really sad to see them separated by death for ten years.

Grandma was also awesome in her own right. I used to love to stop by her house on my way home from work and say hi. We would always talk for like an hour or more. She was always a person I could talk to and she would always make me feel so special. She had that way about her where she could talk to anyone and make them feel special. She also always taught her grandkids how important family is. She was always the one to bring us all together for dinners. I loved grandma and grandpa's house because it always felt so warm and loving. I also loved that our birthdays were within the same week of each other. It was so fun for me to think that my grandma's birthday was near mine because she was one of my most favorite people. I love and miss grandma very much, but I know she is loving being back with grandpa.

Heyborne Summer Visit

The Heyborne's came down for their annual summer visit. It wasn't all fun and games but on the whole it was an awesome visit. Let me clarify why it wasn't all fun and games. See shortly before they came down our Grandma West passed away, so we had the funeral and all things it includes while they were here. Which was convenient for Trish so that she could attend. But other then that unfortunate event we had a fun time with them.

They were here for the fourth and so we partied and got fireworks and had a little firework show with them. We also went up into the mountains and had a little picnic. It was so much fun to see the kids explore and then to end the night with roasting marshmallows and singing. Dad, Mandi, and me also took Max on a little fishing trip. Max was the only one that caught a fish! Good for him. We also just had the random days where we just hung out at the house, which is always so much fun. All in all it was fun to see them again!!

Getting Ready to Watch Fireworks!!

Our Little Pyros!!

Watermelon is a Fourth of July Must!!

Gwen was teething so she loved the watermelon.

The Heyborne Family on the Fourth

Sadie watching the fireworks

The starting of our picnic.

I thought this was so cute! All the kids were loving that Kirby was playing with them!

Roasting Mallows! Max especially loved burning them.

Fishing Expedition

Grandpa preparing Max for fishing.

Max catching the the first and only fish of the day.

Max catching his fish.

Max with his catch.

California 2009!!

So this summer my whole family and me went down to California for Max's baptism and a DISNEYLAND TRIP!!! When I say everyone I mean everyone, mom came down too :o). Mandi and I drove down while my parents flew. Mandi and I left a little earlier and made it a good looong trip, AWESOME! But Mandi and I did not drive to have a longer vacation. See Mandi was already down in St. George for a Senior Trip. The only way to get her down to California would be for me to drive down to get her and drive the rest of the way. We had tons of fun together, THANKS Mandi.

We went down three days before our parents so we hung out around Valencia. We played with our nieces and nephew, saw Kimi and Ryan's new digs, and went to the BEACH!!

Gwen was trying to eat the sand so we were trying to get her to be interested in other things.


Trish and Kimi are going to kill me for this picture but it's so cute!

Then on Saturday our parents arrived just in time for the baptism. Max is such an awesome kid and I am so happy that he made the decision to become baptised. After the baptism my parents went to their hotel and Mandi and I decided to stay until the next day and go to the Heyborne's sacrament meeting. After their sacrament meeting Mandi and I headed down to our parents hotel by DISNEYLAND. Then dad, Mandi, and I went to DISNEYLAND!!!!

Our first day of DISNEYLAND we decided to do some reminiscing. We watched the fireworks (which may I say is AWESOME!! Not only do they have Tinkerbell fly over they have Dumbo fly over. AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME.), saw Fantasmic (which is a classic and must see), and rode some rides. It was so much fun!! The best thing is we were on the Haunted Mansion and some family asked us if we wanted their fast passes for Splash Mountain which could be used in the next twenty minutes. The only answer to the that is heck yeah! We rode the Haunted Mansion and then Splash Mountain which is one of the best rides ever! After our full day we went back to the hotel and passed out!

The next day Mandi and I went to the park early and tried out our first time at Disney California Adventure. We went to go on Soarin' and while we were on there Trisha, Max, Sadie, Kimi, and Dad met us there. Guess what ride the kids wanted to go on, yep Soarin, so we all went on it again. Then we spent the majority of our day in California Adventure. Here's a side note I do not recommend going to Disneyland on a Monday. There was so many people there that they had to close Disneyland to all new visitors. Needless to say that all the lines were looooong. But we had Max and Sadie so it was all worth it. One of the best things we did was go on Tower of Terror with Max, Sadie, and Trisha. Sadie was so funny. She screamed the whole entire time. In fact before it even started Trish looked over to me and told me her ands were sweating she was so scared. But we got off the ride and Sadie said it was the best ride ever, go figure. Then we went and rode some other rides and then we waited in line for the Toy Story Mania ride for two and a half hours. Almost not sure it was worth it. I'm not saying it wasn't a fun a ride, I'm just saying I can't wait in line for that long for a ride. But it was fun to go on it with Max and Sadie. Then we went on Grizzly Rapids, soooo fun and we got super soaked. Poor Sadie got the brunt of it but she is such a trooper, she never complained. Then we went into Disneyland and rode some rides there. Then the kids got too tired and so Trisha, Kirby, and dad took them back to the hotel for the night. While Mandi, Kimi, and me stayed in the park. We rode a couple rides together and then decided to get something to eat. MISTAKE!! The park was so full that every place we tried had an hour wait. Oh, well. Our dad met back with us while we were eating. Then we rode some rides with him and then Kimi decided she needed to leave (being pregnant she was really tired!). Then Trisha met back with us and we rode some rides with her and then all of us decided to leave.

So that penguin Sadie is holding was actually bought for Gwen (get it Pen-Gwen, family joke ;]) but Sadie said she was "protecting" it for Gwen! She's more and more like her mom every day ;).

The sisters!! I think this was the first time we were all in Disneyland together for something like 15 years!Dad and me on the tea cups. We both don't like going around too fast so we opted being on a different tea cup then Trish and Mandi ;)
The Heyborne's Traditional Picture

The next day Mandi and I decided to hang out with the family at the hotel while we still could. I took my dad to the airport so that he could return their rental car since him and my mom were heading home. Then we went back to the hotel and had lunch with the Heyborne's before they headed back. Then I took my parents to the airport. Mandi and I decided to rest up and then headed down to Downtown Disney. We shopped and dined and looked around. It was so much fun.

The next morning Mandi and I packed up the hotel checked out and went back for our last day at DISNEYLAND. We went on all the rides we wanted to and did the repeats of all the best. We also went back to California Adventure and explored everywhere since it was our first time there. We also bought our souvenirs and just had tons of fun together. Then we drove back up to Valencia and stayed with Kimi and Ryan for the rest of our stay. Driving back was no fun for me though. It was late at night and so California decided to do some construction. Now their highways and freeways are not as simple as Utah's. So they had me go on a detour but then did not warn me when I needed to get off my detour. I missed the off ramp and had to pull of at the next one and figure out where I was. Not fun. Eventually we figured it out and got back on the right highway. We then had three days to hang out with Kimi and Ryan and the Heyborne's.

I look a little ghoulish with this lighting, but I couldn't pass up taking a picture in a giant C.

On our last night Kimi, Ryan, Mandi, and I decided to go and explore LA's Chinatown. It was so much fun to see all the nifty things you could buy. We all came away with something. Then on our way home we decided to have what else but Chinese. Not just any Chinese we had PF Chang's. This was my first time going there and it was YUMMY!! Thanks Kimi and Ryan for the adventure!

This is a little dark but it is an alley in Chinatown.

Mandi and I then hopped in the car the next day and drove all day until we got home. Then I woke up the next day went to work!! Back to reality!!

A special thanks goes to my parents for planning and paying for a lot of this vacation. They made sure that everybody that could go were there. Also a special thanks to the Californians for letting me and Mandi hang out with them for a week. Also thank you to Kimi and Ryan for letting us stay with them. Also I would like to say that we really missed Ryan at Disneyland and wish he could have come. We will definitely need to plan another trip where everyone can go!