Secret Millionaire

A few nights ago Lindsey and I stumbled upon a fairly new TV series called "Secret Millionaire". The whole premise of the show is that they take a millionaire and they send them to live for a week in very poor neighborhoods. After the week is over the millionaire chooses to give at least $100,000 (of their own personal money) to people that they have met during the week. It truthfully was a really powerful show and it even made Lindsey tear up. We are not sure how the other episodes have been but the one we watched would be well worth your time to watch.

Never had a Whopper?

About a year ago Lindsey just mentioned that she had NEVER had a Big Mac in her life so we went and got one. Then just a week or so ago she mentioned that she had NEVER had a Whopper either. I was shocked. So we went down to Burger King and she had one (she loved the Whopper). Anyways Burger King is doing this new marketing campaign on the web and what they did was go all around the world and they searched out people who had never had a Big Mac or a Whopper (it is still bizarre to me how far they went to find this people) and then they let these "un biased" people decide which is better. It is pretty crazy to think that just a year ago they wouldn't have had to go to the North Pole to find these people because they could have just gone up to Rexburg Idaho and Lindsey could have been their tester!

Christmas Devotional

So we were able to leave Matthew with Grandma and Grandpa Durrant while we went to the First Presidency's Christmas devotional - it was kind of a good little break. It was kind of sad because Matthew didn't even miss us for one second - no tears, no sadness, no nothing - as a parent I would have felt a little better had he at least been sad for a second but I digress. The devotional was excellent - I especially liked the talk by President Uchtdorf (for some reason his messages are always so clear to me). And we were able to be there with a couple from our ward (Aaron and Sarah) so it was a very enjoyable evening. We hope everyone was able to watch it if not I am sure it will be on BYU-TV a few hundred times in the next couple of weeks.

Merry Christmas and A Happy Yee Hah!

Playing in the leaves

This little video makes me realize what a beautiful little boy and wife I have!

Go Cougars!

Two weekends ago Lindsey, Matthew and I went down to the BYU-SDSU game. It was pretty loud and it was lots of fun! It was nice since it was senior day and also because SDSU is so bad there was no chance that the Y could possible come out of it with a loss. Since it was both Matthew and Lindseys' first time at Lavell Edwards Stadium it was a day filled with lots of emotion:

it was intense...

joyful...

action packed (oooooooooooooo nice hit!)...

a nail biter (well not really)...

and overall it was just tiring!

Our Kitchen

Here are some photos of our kitchen as it is now. It still isn't 100% finished (we need to tile the back splash - which is why the walls aren't painted right above the counter tops [no I didn't just forget to paint that part], get a microwave, put up some more trim, etc.) but it is livable.

Brigham City Fires

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Dancing with the Stars

Here is a little preview of the next season of dancing with the stars - it looks to be a good one!

The Church in Spain

Matthew and I were just watching the BYU-International channel (which is just like the BYU channel but in Spanish and I think it is in Portuguese also) and they had this little clip on Spain. It was pretty cool because I know the first person that they speak with - Oscar. I didn't know his wife but he lived in Villalba and if I remember correctly he was the Elder's quorum president.

Halloweenie!!

Halloween was so much fun this year. Matthew really enjoyed carving the pumpkins and playing in the squishy insides with his spoon. It was also a blast to take him trick or treating. As soon he understood that if he went to the doors he would get candy he was running from door to door.He would stick out his bucket and was not shy to take more then one piece. Mark has definitely enjoyed Matthews candy!

Precious moments

Through all the chaos and craziness of remodeling and not being in our own home Matthew and I have still been able to have some sweet precious moments that I have truly come to treasure. Since I'm not in my own home with all the responsibilities that come with being a house wife I have been able to sit back and smell the roses (I guess you could say). I have been able to watch and admire my sweet boy in a way that I never really have. I have been able to hear each laugh and notice each adorable smile and crinkle of his nose.

Matthew has a lot to say too. He's constantly talking and jabbering like he was having a full on conversation with you. Sometimes I think I understand him but 95% of the time I just nod my head and make him think I know what he's talking about.Then I have to chase after him as he runs from one room to other, climbing from shelf to chair to couch. He is in constantly moving from the moment he wakes up until the moment he falls asleep (excluding his short nap time). I think my mom and mother-in-law can vouch for me on that one.

Probably the number one thing that Matthew has to offer that I just can't get enough of are his sweet lovable hugs. It truly warms my heart when he walks or runs up to me with arms wide open and wraps his skinny little arms around my neck and pats me with his little tiny hands and exclaims "ooohh". It is very rare that he will sit and snuggle with me for a few seconds. I love how he needs me and wants me by his side at all moments. The times when I do have a minute to myself, I admit are nice, but knowing he's waiting at the door for me when I return makes me anxious to get back to mom duty.

We have been able to go to the park quite often and go on walks without any time restraints. We have read books and played blocks and played tag until we are both exhausted. I have even had the chance to take a couple naps with him, which is very rare. I believe that a sleeping baby is a great blessing from our Father in Heaven. And I don't mean it as in it saves a mother from insanity, but it provides a brief yet wonderful moment for you to stare into your child's angelic face and remember how he is the most precious gift you have ever been given.

I just wanted to post this to remind everyone that, yes its been exciting to have our kitchen remodeled, but the most important thing in Mark and I's life, besides each other, is our sweet Matthew Gene. He is our pride and joy! p.s. If you look closely you can notice Matthew's chipped teeth. Yes, he chipped his beautiful, straight, perfectly shaped teeth that I took so much pride in. But it was bound to happen with the crazy energy and excitement that boy has for life. At least they're baby teeth right?

Counter tops

We had the guy come down to make a template for our counter tops - and he brought his wife and baby (who sat in the truck while he measured) but his wife, Callie Stevens, is from Highland and was friends with Lindsey and Ashley. What a small world! He mentioned that he hopes to get the counter tops installed by Tuesday (Thursday at the VERY latest). And today we got our dishwasher and it is installed, so things are moving right along. Here is a picture of the counter tops that we picked out.

Day 21

The end is in sight! Today we got our beautiful, wonderful cabinets. They are everything I hoped for and more. As you can see their is a space to the right of the sink for an oven and overhead microwave and to the left is a spot for a beautiful dishwasher. I like to think that because I will finally have a dishwasher that their will never be a dirty dish in the sink again. Ha ha ha. Wishful thinking I know, but I definitely think it will help the cause. I am also very excited about the pantry. It is a lot bigger then I expected but I think the extra storage space will be much appreciated. So next will be the corian counter tops (with a built in sink) which I was told will show up sometime next week. I was thinking of a dark brown or black granite look. Any suggestions? Like I said it is all coming together one step at a time and the end is near!

Day 17

Yesterday we basically finished up the grout and then we put up some of the crown molding. You can see there are parts of our walls that aren't painted but that is fine since that is where the cabinets will be going. Monday is the big day when the cabinets come so watch for pictures late that night or early the next morning! And then the counters should be in by the middle to end of next week!

Baby Blessing

Two weekends ago my sister blessed her baby Natalie and we didn't get any pictures posted. So here are just a couple that we took.

Day 16

These pictures didn't turn out very well - for some reason it is hard to get a good picture inside in our kitchen. But you can get the general idea (the color of the walls are a yellowish color). But the good news is that the tiling is like 95% done now which means that we just have to grout tomorrow and the floor will be pretty much done. The cabinets will be put in this Monday so we will keep you updated.

Day 15

Today we finished up all the texturing. So tomorrow all we will have to do is a little sanding, put the primer coat on and then we can put the real paint on. Hopefully tomorrow it will start to look as if we are really making some progress. Up until now most of the work has been lots of prep work - which is necessary but doesn't look so hot.

Day 9 and Day 10

We were able to get some good work done this weekend - I had the help of my Dad and my old home teacher Bro. Wood to help. We ended up getting all the sheet rock hung, the vast majority of the texturing done to the walls where the cabinets will be hung, and we were even able to lay a couple rows of tile (we only laid tile after Priesthood session so it did go fairly quickly). Things are going good though and the hope is that by this weekend all the tile will be laid and grouted and we will have painted the walls and ceiling where the cabinets will go.

Day 8

I ended up taking a little break from working on the kitchen and today I ended up putting in some sod in the backyard. I found someone giving away sod on KSL this morning and we picked it up in the afternoon and it was in by night fall. Anyways I am hoping to put up sheet rock and start putting tile down this Saturday. Wish me luck - and we will post more photos.

Tile

Here is the tile that Lindsey picked out. We ended up getting the tile from a place called Tile for less that is in Ogden (but they are all over the West Coast). And it ended up being a pretty sweet deal since the tile was regularly marked at $3.00 a square foot but it had been marked down that day to just $1.25 a square foot. And in the picture you can see the paint sample that we are most likely doing on the walls.

Day 2 and Day 3

On Friday my Dad came over and we were able to rip out the sink and the cabinets completely out of the house. And then on Saturday my brother Matt and my good friend Rue came over to help and I ended up having to rent a floor remover to all the linoleum and if anyone was wondering it is absolutely horrible to get the linoleum up off of the floor - it probably took 4-5 hours to just do that. But by the end of the day we had everything basically ready so that we could lay the tile.

Day 1

So I took last Thursday off and decided to remove all the cabinets. It ended up being a much bigger project than I had thought but they are all down now.

Kitchen Design Plans!

Here is the design that the cabinet people gave to us. It gives you an idea of how it should look once we get things finished up - and as you can see there is a dishwasher.

Our Kitchen Last Week

Here is what our kitchen looked like last week before I started tearing it apart (isn't it just lovely?). Truthfully it was really cramped and just down right aweful before. We didn't have a garbage disposal, dish washer, or even enough outlets to plug mixers into without having to unplug the clock radio or the microwave. Yuck. And you can see in the below photo that we had some weird shelf deal on the end of the cabinets that only purpose which it served was to allow Matthew easy access to whatever we were trying to keep off the floor!

Natalie Janelle Benson

My sister, Sharla, had her baby last week and we were finally able to get down this this Sunday to see her - she is an adorable baby. It is amazing how small they are!