Impulsive? Depends on who you ask...

Am I impulsive?

Nah, I'm just a good, quick decision maker. Really. You should totally ask my husband. Lololol.

If my children have any impulsivity control, I'm afraid I know exactly which parent that comes from.

We have very different decision making styles at our house. Mark thinks about things from all angles. Me? Noooot exactly my jam. This was first very evident to Mark about 5 months after we got married. I decided it was time for us to have a baby. Guess who celebrated their 6 month anniversary expecting a little bundle of joy? Good thing we were serious!

Mark often laments that hopefully I don't view husbands like I view vehicles. First sign of trouble, I decide we should start "thinking about" looking for a new car. I always swear I won't come home with something new. I do mean it when I say it. Really!

Thankfully, I DO NOT consider trading him in at the first sign of trouble. I mean even if I were to consider it, I wouldn't actually do it.

This brings me to the latest thing that I thought we should start "thinking about."

My new couch!

Special thanks to my sister-in-law Julie.  We have an agreement that husbands can be lent for furniture moving pretty much any time.  ;-)  Oh, and also, Chris and Tils should get some credit.  LOL

Our old couch came with us from our last house. It was super comfy, but not all that practical. It was light beige...almost off white. What were we thinking? It also doesn't have arm rests which makes it very difficult for some of our extended family members to get up.

I'm sure Mark knew as soon as I said I was thinking about it, we would have a new couch. I can't help it! I get obsessed with finding the right one. (Whatever the "one du jour" happens to be.) It haunts me...for real!  And that's not to say I'm anything but frugal. Which is probably part of the reason Mark rarely balks at anything. He knows I'm all about getting a good deal!

So, I started looking. And I really was just looking. But then I found what I wanted. It checked all the boxes. So, why not get it?? I'm sure Mark could offer some reasons, but I think he has a headache.

Me, as they were still unpacking and setting up the rest of the pieces.

Clearly, I am the poster child for delayed gratification.

How To Build a Shop in 9 Easy Steps...

When we bought our house 5 years ago, the plan was to immediately build a shop on the back of the property. Then, we discovered a roof leak (which the inspector missed, of course) and had to replace the entire roof. Then, there was the new heating/cooling unit that had to go in. And a few other things that ate into the budget.

So, five years, and A LOT of planning later, we have begun the process.

Step 1.  Save a lot of money.
Step 2.  Go through all of that money way faster than you imagined.
Step 3.  Repeat steps 1. and 2. over and over again.
Step 4.  Get Building plans...finally.
Step 5.  Agonize over said plans for what seems like FOREVER to your wife.
Step 6.  Schedule concrete pouring.
Step 7.  Reschedule concrete pouring 3 or 4 times.
Step 8.  Finally get concrete poured.
Step 9.  Frankly, I have no idea what the rest of the steps are because I long ago stopped listening...but if you REALLY want to know, I'm sure Mark would be happy to talk to you about it.

Here are the photos that have my husband giddy. I'm not sure I understand his joy, but Men ARE from Mars, so whatever.

Vegas, Baby!

It's Wednesday evening and I've just woken up from a nap.

Mark and I got home from our Vegas trip around 3 and let me just say that I am officially too old to survive for long on so few hours of sleep!

We spent a lot of time buying this...

Mama needs her coffee!

This is a shot of our new found freedom:

Because everyone needs to see us on the plane, right? LOL

It's funny that I didn't actually take a ton of photos. I'm usually whipping my phone out on the regular, but there are SO MANY PEOPLE on the streets and such. I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of too many people being around me.

So, what did we do while we were there? Well, I gambled...a lot. Mark doesn't love it quite as much as I do, but he played along. We also walked...and walked...and walked.

Check out these stats from our first full day:

We did see a show our last night. I cannot recommend this enough!

So impressive! We kept thinking how much the girls would love it! But, I'm sure they were having a ton more fun without us. Ha!

This show was at our hotel. Which was why we chose to see this version of Cirque de Soleil. Because, lazy. And our hotel was amazing. I'd show you, but no pictures. 

Speaking of the girls, they went to Disneyland with the Bishop Kelly choir. Which was the catalyst for us going to Vegas. Win/win for sure! My friend Jennifer sent this of the girls:

Clearly they miss us.

And clearly, I was eating responsibly on our way home...

Airport Cinnabon? Yes, please!  (Poor Mark had to be my photo assistant)

I will say that our journey home was delightful with all this leg room. So nice for those of us who normally are squished up on airplanes!

And now, it's back to work. I can say that I'm actually happy to be home. And I'm also actually looking forward to the normalcy of life. Exactly what you would hope to achieve with vacation!

Now I just need my chicks to get home...

Smiling's my favorite! - Buddy the Elf

Peyton has declared 3/16/16 the BEST DAY EVER!!!!

After 4 1/2 years (3 years longer than anticipated) the braces are off. Can I get an Amen?

Without retainer

With retainer...that hopefully won't get lost for at least a little while!

This is what she looked like the day they put them on...

She's changed a little I think.

I took the morning off work to go with her...and to document the occasion, of course. Because if THIS isn't blog-worthy, I don't know what is.  :-)

I almost don't know which of us is happier. J/k, it's definitely me...

Happy birthday Nanna and Boppy!

For her birthday, Mark's mom requested we take her to see "The Young Messiah." So,Saturday morning, we loaded up and headed to Buhl for the day. Chris, Julie and Tilson were not far behind us, but apparently Starbucks was much slower than Dutch Bros?

We met in Twin at Sizzler for lunch. His mom LOVES Sizzler and their bread pudding. Here are a couple pics of our motley crew...

Ladies table

As always, my selfie skills are amazing, aren't they?

Mens table

The girls had their own table which suited them just fine.

After lunch, it was off to the movie:

Aunt Bill and Syd checking things out while waiting for the group to show up!

Nanna!

Mark even bought me candy to go with my popcorn. He said I earned it being on restroom duty.

The plan was to go birthday shopping with his dad after the movie. He wanted a new recliner so the boys decided we would all chip in. I'm sure the employees at the furniture store could hardly wait until we left. Hooligans!

Cousins! Big feet or small heads? Probably both...

We did end up finding a chair. We also almost lost the chair out the back of the pick-up because we are idiots. :-) After Church and dinner all us Boise peeps headed home. I'm sure Nanna and Boppy both slept well that night! I know WE were exhausted for sure!

Surprise! Surprise that we finally got something done, that is...

So Syd had a birthday...7 months ago. One of her gifts was a re-do of her room. Mark and I finally got around to the paint update this weekend. The girls were gone the whole weekend so we definitely walked on the wild side. Ha to the ha ha.

Here is the before picture:

As you can probably tell, Syd got to pick her room color when we moved to the new house. It really is as obnoxious as it looks. In fact, more than once, I've walked by thinking she left the light on when in fact, it's just the loud paint.

Sydney has had trouble sleeping for the last few years. It finally dawned on me that maybe her wall color had something to do with it? So, we researched the best wall color to help sleep. And we came up with blue.

Unfortunately, we had a little bit too much "BSU" coloring around the house for a couple hours. Thankfully, we survived the embarrassment...

Here are a few "action" shots:

Impressive, huh?

Macie was really curious what we were doing too.

Mark and I are not the cleanest painters...

This doesn't even show when I bumped the wall with my entire arm. Oops.

Here is a "final" picture. We are still trying to decide what she wants on the sign I'm going to make for above her bed.

It's difficult to tell the color from my awesome photography. But here is the swatch:

She was pretty surprised when she got home. I imagine that is mainly due to the fact that her parents are totally unreliable dolts. I also think that if she wasn't so completely exhausted, she would have been really excited. She did thank us several times. So, there is that. Parenting win? Probably...if we weren't closer to her next birthday than the last.