Temple Square in the Spring

(Seriously can the top picture be any bigger?! I need to figure out how to use this thing) :) Today we went and met Kirk (Mitch's brother) and Leann's family for lunch at The Garden at temple square. Afterward, Ellie and I decided to go have a mini photo shoot and try out our new camera! We had a great time even if it was raining!

Snowshoeing Mount Everest

Last weekend the Lifferth clan left all their kids with a babysitter and headed up to Park City for the annual snow shoeing extravaganza. Tyler (my brother in law) was our guide. One thing I know about Tyler from running is that no matter where we go, it will no doubt be HARD and we will find ourselves at the top of a mountain by the end. Naturally, he was true to his form and we headed straight up the face of the mountain. With the wind blowing snow into our ears I couldn't help but think, "yep, I never want to climb Everest".

There are a few other phenomenons that occur when the Lifferth children get together. First, things get really competitive as we all try to "out do" each other (all in fun, may I add), and our ability to make logical decisions takes a drastic turn for the worst! My sister in laws always say on these types of outings in reference to their husbands, "Every time they all get together they lose half of their brain cells. " They are SPOT ON!

(Sorry you'll have to look at the pictures from the bottom up. I couldn't get them in the right order.)

Robb and Spence trying to block the wind. By this picture you would think they were 3 years old. CLASSIC.

Scaling the top of the mountain. The wind was blowing so hard it was nearly blowing us over!

Mitch took a sled off the top. He also regretted this as he slid about 200 meters down the face of the mountain. He really was able to appreciate the snow on his long hike back up.

Spencer doing a Swan Dive off the cornice. Remember what I said about logical decisions.

I'm not as daring as the boys. I went with the basic 'form-less' front flip!

Randy, for some reason, thought it would be a good idea to try a belly flop. I think he regretted that.

This is us taking a break during our hike. All of our legs were burning!

Our silly caravan

Larry's Great Example

Last month Grandpa Larry (Mitch's Dad) received his Silver Beaver Award. It is considered to be the highest rank you can get in scouting! I can honestly say I will never get this award (yes, women can get them too). I'm just not willing to sleep out in the cold, build and sleep in snow caves, not shower, and deal with a bunch of teen aged boys. But that does not mean we are not VERY proud of Him! Way to go Grandpa Larry!

Done and Done!

We are finished! I said I would do it and I did! I completely re-did our cabinets. From start to finish it was a 5 day project with 2 of those days working from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. (Those were the two days the cabinets were spread out and being painted in our front room because it was too cold outside). I've always wanted to re-finish our cabinets. It's been that one thing that has really drove me nuts about our house. The family that lived here prior to ours used A LOT of grease in their cooking and our cabinets have had a film across them that no cleaning solution could touch. They were horrible. I even tried to used sand paper to just take the paint off with it but it would tear because the grease was so thick. Totally nasty.

This is what it looked like before. This picture was actually taken before we moved into the house.

This was me stripping the cabinets. The grease was so thick that I actually had to use a lacquer to get all the grease off. I was so glad I had that mask because I was totally starting to get high from all the fumes. Luckily, the lacquer took off most of the paint too. Naturally, I had to try a few test spots to find the perfect color. We ended up going with 'quail egg'.

Mitch and I putting in the hours

Ta-Da! We did it! I absolutely love my kitchen now! I made the silly mistake of making the comment of "it just makes me want to be in the kitchen because it looks so nice!" He replied with, "great, that's where you belong!" You better believe he got pinched for that one. :)

A Wild Hair

This week I have had a few wild hairs. I feel like I should be 8 Months pregnant and I have all this nesting to do! Let me assure you, I'm not pregnant but I have conjured up all a few fabulous projects that have made Mitch's eyes roll multiple times. Monday night we were laying in bed and I was looking at our dresser. Let me explain a little about this dresser. This dresser was given to Mitchell by his mother for him to use at college. In fact, if you saw the dresser you would think, 'yep, that old dresser with spray paint and scratches only belongs in some smelly dorm!' This dresser was so yucky looking to me that I actually put it IN my walk in closet so nobody would see it! Back to the original story... We were laying in bed and I was having negative thoughts toward my dresser. Then I told Mitch how I really want to re-do that nasty old thing. He replied with 'well, i'm not necessarily attached to it.' GREEN LIGHT!

On Tuesday Morning I dragged it down both our flights of stairs (I can do that now because I've been doing Jillian Michaels LAST CHANCE WORKOUTS!) then I re-stained it. Now I love it! (and so does Mitch) :)

Before

After! Even Ellie can't believe it!

On Wednesday Morning I woke up and told Mitch I wanted to re-do our kitchen cabinets...Stay tuned!

That little Sneak!

I suppose it was inevitable that Ellie would try to outwit us, I just didn't think it would be so soon. Take for example exhibit A. Here we have Ellie who was presumably down for a nap. Generally, when she does not want to go to sleep she throws her "Bink's" out of the crib so that I have to go pick it up and stick it back in her mouth. But with time, my heart has hardened and I no longer feel bad when she has to fall asleep crying and Binky-less (ruthless, I know!). But today I looked up the stairs and found... Exhibit A. Ellie flipped on her light switch (which is quite a reach!), pried open the door, and chucked her 'Bink's' out into the hall for me to go pick up.

That little sneak! I admittedly laughed out loud at her cleverness. She must have got that from me (he he). But this is not the end of her sneakiness! The other day she was being a little too quite in our living room. When I looked around the corner I saw her going to town on a bar of chocolate while hiding in the corner. Is she really thinking the devious thought of, "Mom's going to be ticked about this, I better go hide in the corner while I enjoy eating her chocolate bar!" (and yes, she was eating wrapper and all). Or is it simply a primitive instinct that we are born with in regards to chocolate? Do we somehow already know that we should not be eating something that tastes so delicious, thus we better find a secret spot to indulge ourselves? :) It's hard to say, but all I know is that this whole parenting process is a laugh and a half. Everyday I find myself laughing at the next thing I have to deal with! But as always, I'm up for a good laugh!

Stacie = Mature. Is that an Oxymoron?

Last weekend we had some of our friends over to play a few games. One of the couples in particular is new to our ward. So obviously we did not know them that well, but we still had a great time. Upon leaving one of the couples asked us how old we were. I told them I was 24. '24!' she exclaimed. 'I thought you were like 33! You act so mature!'. I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the word 'MATURE'. The only thing I could envision was myself standing on my bed belting out Taylor Swift to Mitch and Ellie as Ellie giggled at her ridiculous off key mother. ah...If she only knew the 'REAL' Stacie... :)