Making January Productive

I was feeling a huge need to unclutter our home after Christmas. We talked about it, and it was decided we should rearrange our home!

Here are some before and afters. Mostly befores.

Second Bedroom - This was used as our guest bedroom. Through December, it became the whatever room. The door was closed most of the time. It wasn't a happy place.

First Bedroom - This was used as our bedroom. Slightly more spacious than the other room, and a lot more closet space.

Front Room - Yep. You guessed it. This is the first room you enter when you come over to our house. Please notice the pretty tree and collection of Christmas cards hanging out on the closet door.

Now today, we're only focusing on the First Bedroom. We had fun moving things around.

And it was time for the wall vinyl to come off. It just wasn't going to work between the two bookcases, and it would clash with the theme of the new room.

Now, here is the First Bedroom. It's not completely finished, but it is done enough to share.

 

The First Bedroom is now the t.v. room / library. I love having The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights framed! I also love having page 3 of the Constitution modge podged onto the frame and the picture of us in front of the White House! I never thought I'd love having a rifle displayed on a wall, but I do. (It's a Gowen family ancestor who used it to settle the frontier.) I love being able to display the crystal vase, my first purchase from my days at OC Tanner.

Sean is so patient with my zest for this country. It feels like an actual room now! Hooray!

That's all for now. The move helped January to feel productive.

Christmas Fun

It was a special Christmas for a few reasons. We got to spend a lot of time with family. That was the priority of our Christmas this year. Get as much family time as possible.

I got to take pictures in the snow with this cute family! It was cold but everyone was a good sport. Thanks guys!

This isn't uncommon to try at a Gowen gathering. In some way or other.

Christmas morning started over at the Smiths....

This was a choice time. Grandpa received a book from his grandchildren honoring the life and memories of his wife Velva Lee.

And Christmas ended over at the Gowens.....

It was a lovely Christmas. Merry Christmas to all!!!

Hiking Season Ends.... Mostly

This morning, the sky was blue and the world still snow covered and frosty! Now that the roads are mostly good, I can enjoy it a lot more.

These are pictures I took this morning. As you can see, our roof forces the snow to melt in a creative way. You can also see the snowman I helped create yesterday. He started melting, and froze again. It almost makes you want to put props on the left side for him or something....

We had some hikes to finish up for work. The easy hike was Faux Falls:

 The hard hike was Spring Canyon:

Our friends Tommy and Tyler were able to come visit before Thanksgiving. My battery ran out after one hike due to me dropping my other battery, but you can see some of the fun. Since it had just snowed, it was very muddy on the trail. We hiked close to a Canadian group on the Delicate Arch trail who were entertaining.

For Thanksgiving, we had our friends the Gales over! Much fun was had and we ate a lot of delicious food. I think I was pooped after making food, so no pictures of how beautiful the skin was on the turkey. Trust me. It was beautiful and delicious. (Having paper plates the whole weekend was the best idea ever.)  But. We did go exploring on some hikes, and those were documented.

The last hike for work, the medium one, was Courthouse Wash:

Then we hiked Hidden Valley, and saw some very cool petroglyphs. We're holding hands in one picture because that's what the people on the wall are doing.

Then we ventured off to Faux Falls again. Can you see the human skull in the rock formation? 

We enjoyed seeing family and friends this last month. Not all visits were documented, but they will definitely be remembered. Thank you Tommy and Tyler, and Jeff and Brittany for visiting!