Katie Ann

She is my wife. She is my best friend. She is my confidant. She is the mother of my children. She is my support. She is beautiful. She is powerful. She is strong. She is constant. She is special. She is loving. She is hopeful. She is helpful. She is selfless. She is everything and more. 

It's her birthday. For thirty years she has graced the earth with her talent, intelligence and hope. I look forward to the next thirty at her side. I wanted to write down how I feel about her even though I know it isn't enough. The words are weak and do her no justice. 

She is a blessing in my life. She is my life. I love being with her, watching a movie, playing with the kids, working out, going to church...with her. 

I love her. 

I hope you have a wonderful birthday.   

Love,

Jared

A Day of Thanksgiving

Like most Novembers this month has made me think about all of the things that I am thankful for. I thought that I would take a few minutes and put some of those things in writing. This list is in no particular order and is no way exhaustive.

I am forever thankful for my wife Katie. It truly was love at first sight...I tried to deny it for a few months but before too long I knew that I would be spending the rest of my life with her. What a joy it has been! She loves me, she supports me, she lifts me, she smiles at me, she lets me hold her hand, and she makes me want to be a better man. She is a wonderful, outstanding, amazing, mother. She is kind, loving and patient. She puts the kids and me first and is so selfless. She never asks for anything. She deserves every praise that I can think of and I love her.

My kids. What an adventure that children are. My very first child was a boy and he was 5 years old when he came into my life. Talk about a learning curve..but Tanner has been great. From day one he let me in. He loved me, he shared his mom with me (even though when we first told him we were getting married and asked if he thought that would be okay he said "no."), and he called me dad. He is so full of life, love and happiness. He is such a good helper with his younger brothers and he really wants to do what is right. I enjoy spending time with him and he makes me happy. Parker is such a good boy. He is so gracious and dishes out compliments all day long. He tells me that I am doing a good job and it makes me smile. He wants to help with everything and is a good listener. Carson is so crazy! He is such a boy and is so loud. It takes a lot of concentration and reminders for him to talk soft, but he makes me laugh everyday. All three of the boys love their little sister, Brightly. Talk about precious. She melts my heart. She is only 3 months old and is full of light. She radiates. I am thankful for all of my kids. I am thankful for the lessons that they teach me and for the lessons that they let me learn at their expense. I miss them when I am not with them.

Diesel. He is my dog. I always wanted a dog, and we have had several. He is a well behaved, super energetic yellow lab and I am thankful to have a dog.

I am thankful for a job. I am thankful that I can attend college and learn about things that I really enjoy. I am thankful for my parents and their examples of faith, hard work and diligence. I am thankful for my siblings and the relationships that I have with each one.

I am eternally thankful for a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior. I am thankful for the plan of salvation and for the gospel. I am thankful for the scriptures, living prophets and temples.

I am thankful for the country in which we live. I'm thankful that I have the freedom to enjoy all of the things that I have listed above.

I am thankful.

Refinished a table for our dining room

Before...

 After...

Coming soon...

Our "new" dining room table

How to paint your own curtains

As part of the master bedroom makeover we wanted some new curtains for the sliding glass door. Katie wanted white curtains stripped with a grey to match the 2 dark grey walls that we painted. Well, there aren't any curtains that fit the description so we again turned to Pinterest to see how we could paint stripes onto curtains.

Step 1: Buy the curtains that you are going to paint. We bought ours from Ikea and they were very affordable.

Step 2: Wash and iron the curtains to get all the fold lines out. Then lay the curtains out on a flat surface.

Step 3: Using a ruler or tape measure (we used a long heavy metal ruler that Katie's mom let us borrow) to measure and mark where the stripes are going to be.  We wanted the stripes to be 10 inches thick.

Step 4: Tape off the stripes using painters tape. Remember to put the edge of the tape on the top or bottom of your mark depending on where you will paint so the that all of the painted stripes turn out the same size. Does that make sense? We used a pencil to mark which sections we were actually going to paint.

Step 5: Now you are ready to paint! We used the same paint that we used to paint two of the walls in the room a darker grey. We used a smaller, thinner foam roller. We started at the top and did one coat all the way down, then went back to the top and did a second coat. Be careful and take your time to stay in the lines. We had a couple accidents that we had to fix. Oops.

 

 

 Note: we lined the edges of the curtain using plastic garbage bags so no paint got on the rug.

Step 6: Let it dry for a few hours and then peel off the tape.

Step 7: Hang and enjoy!! We are very happy with how they turned out. They are much bigger than our old curtains so we raised the rod up to the ceiling. The curtains hang from top to bottom and it makes the room look bigger.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We are making lots of progress on the room. Stay tuned for the night stand that we refinished, the mirror and the egg chair! Also have some before and afters of the room as a whole. Let me know if you have any questions.

Yellow Dresser for the Master Bedroom

Katie saw a pin of a master bedroom that she loved. So, we are now in the process of doing our best to copy it in our own master. The main piece is a yellow dresser.  We just finished it a few days ago and are really happy with how it turned out. It's not perfect and it was our first time using antiquing glaze but we are happy with it. Enjoy and share!

Before and Afters:

 

 It took a lot of sanding to get that finish off the top of the dresser. 

 

Of course our helpers always want their picture taken as well!

Baby Girl's Dresser

With the birth of our baby girl just a few weeks away we have been working on the nursery. Again, Katie found a craigslist special that she had a vision for. This dresser was in really good condition and only had a light clear coat finish. It did have some stickers stuck to it and some missing hardware but it was the perfect height for a dresser/changing table.


BEFORE:

It also had this awesome carving of some flowers on the face! 

We sanded, primed it and painted it. We love how it turned out!

AFTER:

Stay tuned for the crib we refinished and for the entire nursery reveal!

-Jared and Katie