Finished Cabinets

Pictures of the long awaited bathroom cabinets! So three coats of gel stain and three coats of top coat later we have this!

Doors
Frame
Assembled - Close Up

Still trying to decide for sure if we are going to take the kitchen plunge and do those cabinets as well. If we do decide, that will be a post for another day.

Bonus: "In Progress" pictures

Taped, Papered and Sanded
Coat One
Coat Two

Yogurt Making

My mom called the other day and said,"I know how hard it is to find yogurt with fat in it for Ella. Here is a recipe for Greek yogurt! "

She might also know how much I dislike paying $4 for 20 oz of yogurt.

I was in.

I killed my first batch by getting it too hot. Oops.

I tried again, and it worked! I had to strain out the whey to get yogurt.

It took a long time.

Ella wanted lots of samples. Did you know fresh yogurt is sweet?

She waited and waited...

It was delicious!

We only got a pint from a half gallon of milk, but that was like getting yogurt half off!

Bluebonnet Pictures 2015 ( And Other Spring Adventures)

These are really late, but here are our blue bonnet pictures for 2015!

Cute, cute, cute!

(Outtake. Just trying to be like Mommy.)

First Cabinet Staining Samples

I've been thinking about gel staining our cabinets for a while. I'd seen all the tutorials (I'm very thorough :P) on pinterest about General Finishes gel stain. We had used some on our nightstands project. I used some to refinish a little table we had in the house. I loved how it worked, and I felt pretty confident in using it. But before sacrificing our cabinets (and before I thought I could pick a shade), I wanted to do a sample cabinet. We picked up a sample at the ReStore. Here is the progress so far.

Front (two coats)
Front (three coats)

Conference Fun

Conference this year was great. Ella had lots of fun while she was awake: distracting us! She and Daddy had lots of fun going through her make shift tunnel.

We had Easter Treats to supplement our 72 hour kit rotation. (Our new family conference tradition.)

Ella and her Books

Ella loves to read. She has decided that sometimes she just wants to sit in her rocking chair and read. But, if that isn't available, she will use a laundry basket, or (if times are tough) she'll even sit on Daddy's lap.
Ella even likes to "read" Mom's books. It never fails that if I'm trying to read a book she will drop everything to come and take it so she can read it herself. (It is like a peek into teenage Ella)

New Fence and Other Projects

This spring we've ended up doing several big projects for our house. One of the major projects was putting up a new fence. Our old fence had been on it's way out and wind storm finally did it in.

We decided to have the fence people use these cool posts which only stick out one picket's worth instead of being a big metal post in the back. Here is the finished fence.

We also had our front trees thinned and trimmed, and the pest control people out to help us deal with our ant problem in the yard.