Brigham City Temple

This morning we attended the Brigham City LDS Temple open house.

This was the first temple Winston has been inside, and he was excited. Then he heard that we got cookies after the tour and all during the tour that's the only thing he said. "I want cookies now," repeated like a broken record.

This temple has beautiful artwork throughout, and peach-blossom detailing.

It's very well decorated. We enjoyed walking through it and enjoying the peace found therein.

Winston also enjoyed playing around on the temple grounds.

On our way home we picked up a half bushel of peaches. Fresh-off-the-tree northern Utah peaches are so scrumptious!

Mmm...don't you want some?

All Work and Still Some Play

Sam went back to work today. I guess it's always a bitter-sweet thing. It's crazy to think that another whole summer has vanished into the memories of our past.

Last week Sam finished another project in the house. As he was doing so,  I started listing the many, many projects he completed this summer.
- Installed 2 doors and one door frame.
- Painted said doors and the baby's room.
- Moved furniture and junk from one room to another to another.
- Put together new furniture and baby's furniture.
- Took out old shower door and installed shower curtain.
- Seeded large sections of our back yard.
- Planted and weeded our garden (I helped with that, too).
- Painted baby furniture & other stuff.
- Hauled in 2 truckloads of dirt and leveled a large section of our backyard.
- Ripped out a large section of soggy, flooded sheetrock.
- Installed a light in a hallway that never had a light.
- Installed a new faucet and garbage disposal.
- He even mowed the lawn a few times. Bwahaha.

Hooray for a teacher's summer vacation!

I'm amazed that even with all the work, he still managed to get in almost three weeks of camping/fishing trips and numerous trail-running excursions. (See his blog here for more on those adventures.) No wonder the summer went by so quickly.

As for the latest project, here's what he did.

Winston's closet went from having wanna-be fast track removable metal shelving that really didn't make much use of the space (didn't get a before photo, unfortunately) to something like this:

Sam remembered to grab a photo before he did any more work.

All complete.

Now Sam has redone or added to every closet (except one) in our house to make the most of the space. For example, he added another shelf to the top of our coat and linen closets because we didn't need a 4-foot space above the last shelf. This has really helped make better use of otherwise wasted space.

I have learned by watching Sam that adding shelving to closets is probably one of the easiest home improvement projects. I think I could even do it all by myself (but I'm happy to let him take the lead). It's helped us get rid of dressers--we now just use the space in our closets.

I've also learned that Winston has way too much stuff. I'm trying to sneak things into the donation box without him noticing...

Step Right Up! Name This Baby!

Baby naming is not the easiest task for me or Sam. It's not that we don't like talking about names, because we do, and we have for years and years. In fact, I have been following a blog, Baby Name Wizard, long before our first pregnancy. It's fun to read discussions and analyses of baby naming from someone who really studies, analyzes, and puts a science to it.

We just aren't passionate about any one name, and we have definite opinions about what we don't like. And then there are just so many names that are mediocre to us.

With Winston, we kind of narrowed down a list and kept them all in mind as we welcomed him into our arms the night he was born. It still took a few hours, but Winston Jack was the final choice--even though when we asked for some opinions, we didn't get the most exciting responses. But that's just the parents' prerogative, right?

The girl names we considered before we knew Winston was a boy don't really hit our fancy any more. I was kind of hoping this baby would be a boy, because of all the names we considered for Winston, there is one and only one other that I still like, even more than I did 3 years ago. But, that name will have to wait, I suppose.

While Sam and I do disagree on some names, more often our problem is that we don't really like any specific name.

Here are some I like (note: I didn't say "love") that Sam has totally vetoed. 

- Ellanora

- Ebony (he says no because it is the color black...)

- Mariella

- Cora

- Coral

Here are some Sam likes that I totally vetoed.

- Lilyana (I do actually like Lily...but it's too popular for me)

- Natalia (it sounds too much like "nutella")

Sam really also likes Scarlett. I had to consider that for a while. Mostly all I could think of were things like, "though your sins be as scarlet," The Scarlet Letter, the color red (see Sam's veto above about Ebony...), Scarlett Johansson, and scar. Plus, it's a name climbing high in popularity, which we always shy away from, anyway. So, eventually I got that one off Sam's list. I still kind of like it, but all those connotations stand out in my mind first.

Here's a small list of others we considered for a short little while, that eventually have left our list of consideration.

- Winter (I don't think I want both a Winston and a Winter)

- Sunshine (kind of a joke to begin with, but it kind of grew on us, but not enough to seriously consider)

- Solana (that's sunshine in Spanish) 

- Star or Starlet

- Eloise

- Annabelle

- Violet

- Maeve
- Constance (as a joke)
- Hazel

- Evangeline

- Vivian or Vivienne

Along with the fabulous Baby Name Wizard website and blog (which has great charts to show the use of a given name, an awesome data base of names, and also a section with sibling names common with a name, plus more!), there is a great book The Baby Name Wizard by Laura Wattenberg, who is also the genius behind the website. 

This book is not a book with lists of names and their spellings and definitions. It includes definitions, common sibling names, popularity of the name, and also categorized names into styles. This was really cool. I loved the styles part. I found that the names we liked showed up in a few styles: "modern meanings," "charms and graces," and "why not?" The "why not?" style was one of my favorites--and the main reason I borrowed the book from the library. These names seem to fit in with fashionable and trendy names, but for whatever reason are not popular or common. Like "Max" is popular, but "Rex" is not. It's an interesting list, with lots that I like.

At the beginning of the pregnancy, I downloaded a few baby name apps on my phone. We spent a few minutes each night flipping through names. I randomly came across Juniper and laughed. We decided to joke around with this name as being a name of choice. Put it with our last name and it is even more hilarious. Some people's reactions have been well worth the joke.

But a funny thing happened. The name actually grew on me. I guess it's a good thing we have the last name we have, because I might be seriously pushing for Juniper. And what makes it even more funny is that it shows up on the "why not?" style list. Ha.

We often ask Winston "Where's the baby?" He usually giggles and says, "In mom's tummy." Then we ask him, "When is the baby coming out?" He replies, "When papa goes back to work." A little while ago we started asking him what we should call the baby. He came up with "Baby Alligator" all on his own. So, we've considered variations of Allison, but we're not satisfied.

So that's kind of the end of it. We still don't really have a favorite. Here's our very short list of possibilities--but we're still not in love (sigh).

- Belle

Wha ha ha. The kicker is that I really only want it as a middle name.

So, now we ask for your thoughts and input. We know everyone has opinions, and you know from Winston that we may or may not regard your opinion. But, we still want them.

7 Months + Baby Quilt Top + Icky House Mess

The calendar is crazy. It can't really be the beginning of August...

Now, don't be deceived by how small my tummy appears in this photo. Sam told me the other day to lay off the beer (it looks like I have a beer belly).  Har, har, har...

It's much harder to get a good belly shot than it looks. Either my hands are positioned right and my face looks icky, or the lighting is weird, or something else. Oh well.



Not much progress in the baby's room as I would hope to share with you right now. I still feel like I'm getting back in the groove of not being on vacation or youth conference or cleaning up a house mess (wait for that story). But, my mom did help me with a baby quilt. We finished the top fairly quickly, and while she was away I only had to unpick like 2-3 times. That's pretty good for me! :) Now all we have to do is quilt and bind it.

I got the pattern idea from pinterest. I'm really a fan of big, simple lines on quilts. I like showing off fabric and the clean, crispness of big blocks. Plus, it's simple. And I'm not a sewer, so I need simple.




So, when we returned from Baltimore, I stepped in water. On the carpet. In the basement. Not a good sign.

We apparently had a leaky faucet that leaked out under the sink and into the vent beneath it. It went into the vent and came out the ceiling in our basement onto the carpet beneath it (but not a huge spot, thankfully). It also got between the tile and the floorboard in the kitchen and caused all kinds of icky mildew on the tile grout. It also dripped straight down through the floor and onto the clothes dryer and floor next to it (that was the easiest part to clean).

Icky floody-ness, ripped out by Sam.

Luckily I kept the warranty paperwork on the faucet (we put it in new when we bought the house 2 years ago), and good ol' Home Depot gave us full refund on it. We used it to go towards an up-graded faucet.

Sam cut out all the wet sheet rock.
Then he installed a light in that hallway while it was apart,
and put it all back together again before carpet
cleaning people came.

Also luckily we have been building a home repair fund, thanks to the information I learned while attending college (studying family finance and housing) and teaching home ownership classes (it's recommended to save 1-3% of your home's value in its own little "home repair and maintenance fund" to have a source to pay for a leaky faucet, or a new roof, or whatever).

We bought a new garbage disposal while we were at it.
Sam is really glad he's not a plumber by profession.

It was nice to know we had money put aside and I didn't have to fret about getting the tile cleaned and buying a new faucet. Instead of worry and concern, I felt great relief.