Dad Shed

In the fall, my parents decided that they needed a shed in the backyard and got to work planning and purchasing the materials. When we were there in November, all the adults pitched in to help with the "barn raising" (complete with watching a few good clips from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). They got it assembled and covered with a tarp and everyone was really pleased with the progress. However, we didn't get it all done - and my dad had a surgery on his hand scheduled. So the day before surgery, Jenna and I brought our kids to play inside while we helped my dad set the plywood and shingle the roof. 


Shingles are actually a skill that I have. When I was about 12, my dad re-shingled our roof in Ephraim and I helped him a lot and learned the process. When we were newly married, Cal reshingled Grandma McAllister's roof and I got a lot of practice in there. So even though I'm not an expert, I felt like this was something I could do to help. The three of us had a great time working together, even though the roof was incredibly steep and there were a couple of times that I thought I was going to fall off for sure. 

It was COLD outside, but we worked until the sun went down and we were freezing and we couldn't feel our fingers anymore. My dad woke up and went with my mom to his hand surgery and Jenna and I finished out the roof by ourselves. It's not perfect, but I think we did a pretty great job and I know my dad is so relieved to have the roof protected and done. I have zero doubt that if we hadn't been able to come help, he would have been out there the day after the surgery with one hand bandaged and the other trying to hold the nail and hammer at the same time. Surgery or not, I'm grateful that my dad taught me skills like this and that he continues to teach me and help me learn new skills. It reminds me of this comic: 

When I remembered that comic and went to look for it, I didn't remember that it had the daughter fixing the roof - but it just makes it even more applicable to this experience and the skills and opportunities given to me by my dad.  I hope that I can give my kids the same opportunities, skills, and confidence. 

Father's Day

We had a wonderful Father's Day this year. It started out bright and early in the morning, about 6:30 a.m. when one of our fire alarms decided that it's battery was too low and started to chirp at us. I got up to try to figure out which alarm it was coming from but by the time I figured out which one it was, David had gotten up, too. So much for sleeping in on Father's Day. Instead, he was a hero and changed the battery before it woke up any of the kids (and so I wouldn't have to stand precariously on a chair at 9 months pregnant). 

 It was a special Father's day for me (Shantel) because my Dad came down and stayed for the weekend. (Mom has been here for several days and Dad came to join us.) It was such a wonderful day to celebrate these two wonderful Fathers in my life. My own Father who is funny, kind, giving, faithful, and supportive. He's a fabulous Grandfather and the only thing I love more than having him as my dad is seeing him as a Grandpa. There's not much better than a dingbump from Grandpa Walker. And David, who is the best dad to our kids. He makes them laugh, he gets down on their level to teach them things, he helps them work through their emotions, and he takes 100% ownership of his role as parent, father, and leader.

I was blessed with an incredible father as I grew up and I am grateful every day for the blessing that David is to our family. I feel that Lydia, Austin, Caleb, and soon-to-be Lucy are among the luckiest kids in the entire world.

I would be remiss if I didn't add David's Dad who makes a trio of wonderful Fathers for our little family. Cal is gracious, hard-working, generous, and full of kind words. He happily gives the kids fruit snacks every time they come to his house (even when they aren't particularly patient about asking him the very second that they arrive). He reads to them, chases them around the house, and takes them out to play on the treehouse in the backyard. He raised David to be an incredible man and he continues to teach and support and love. We are so grateful for him. 

We went to church then came home for a nice relaxing afternoon, including some family study time, card games, and a little Father's Day Party.  I asked my dad to give me a blessing, and he gave me a beautiful blessing for my upcoming labor that was full of peace and love. I was grateful to receive that blessing from my Dad on Father's Day

I bought David a super-awesome jacket that turns into a backpack. It was a Shark-Tank special. We saw it on an episode and thought it was so neat and so I decided to get one for him. The day that it arrived in the mail I just couldn't get out to the mailbox, but David had had a busy day at work so I thought that he wouldn't get the mail on the way home. But he did!  I was so disappointed because David really likes surprises and I'm surprisingly bad at keeping things a surprise. Ugh. The package was marked with a big "QuickFlip" logo and there was no way he could have missed it. I was lamenting this to my mom and then decided that I would get him a second Father's Day present and really surprise him. I bought a long shelf and set up all of our Logan paraphernalia underneath a picture and our USU diplomas. We used to have the Logan stuff out on a little shelf, but it's been in storage since... well.. since we moved to this house over six years ago. I hung the pictures up a couple of months ago, but I love the way this turned out. David was surprised when he saw it on Friday (as an early FD gift) and really liked it - and then when I gave him his QuickFlip jacket on Sunday he was still surprised and so happy! He said that he didn't see the package - which I honestly think he's lying about because he doesn't want me to feel bad - but either way I feel good about getting a few small things that show David how much I love him. Because I love him, and he deserves all the things, way more than my tiny budget can afford.  

We love this David-Dad of ours. He's the best of the best - and particularly the very best for us. I pray every single day my heartfelt gratitude that he is in my life and that I'm the one that gets to travel this journey with him. 

To make this Father's day extra-special, I'd been having fairly consistent contractions all day, after all of the partying, dinner-eating/clean-up, and bedtime routine my contractions started getting closer and intense enough that we decided to head to the hospital in anticipation of the arrival of our new little Lucy-love. Although she wasn't born until the following morning, becoming a father, for the fourth time, is quite a special way to spend your Father's Day. 

Happy Father's Day, David. We all love and adore you. 

Rugby Game

Shantel surprised her dad for his birthday with tickets to the Utah Warriors rugby game. Scott loves rugby and it was great because we were able to get tickets for everyone who lives in the state. It was really fun and the kids had fun as well. 

Blog takeover from Shantel: I found a coupon code for really really really cheap tickets for the last Rugby game of the season and so I bought them without even asking anyone if they would be able to come. Then I sent out a text to my family telling them to save the date for June 1st, without telling them what for. I figured that those who could come, would come, and if they couldn't - then hopefully at least my dad would be able to come! It was awesome because both Melissa and Blake AND Jacob were able to make it, and even my mom was able to come, too. I've never seen a Rugby game before and it was really interesting and fun! 

The kids did a great job of sitting and watching (and eating candy and playing with Melissa and Blake) but toward the end when they started to get restless my dad got up with them and walked with each of them individually around the field, telling them about what was going on, etc.. One of the times he ended up coming back with a big snowcone for the kids to share. (He's a softie.)  

I'm grateful for my dad and all the things that he does for me and for my family and I'm so glad that we got to celebrate him and his birthday by going to this Rugby game together. I love spending time with my family - and I love how they always come together to support and show love, too. 

Go Warriors!

Bowling with the Walkers - Grandpa's Christmas/Birthday

So I have to preface this post by saying, I didn't take any other pictures than these. And by the pictures, you'd think that it was just our little family that went bowling and that we invited my dad to come with us. But that is not the true story. The real story goes: For Christmas, we gave my dad a coupon to go bowling with us. But then, come May, when we still hadn't used it - we decided to invite the whole family to come bowling for his birthday! All of my siblings were there (all 5 of us, plus all of our spouses where applicable), and all of the grandkids. My mom and dad were both there and we took up several lanes at the Morgan Bowling Alley. It was SUCH a fun afternoon with everyone. WHY didn't I get more pictures? WHY?  

I'll just say that I love my family and I love that we are able to do things like this together. 

And here are a couple of the cute pictures that we did catch: 

My dad is a wonderful Grandpa and he had almost as much fun bowling with these kids as they did with him. We are lucky to have him, and lucky to have such a wonderful family to spend time with. 

Some things I love about my dad: 

1. He's incredibly kind, patient, loving, and giving. 

2. He makes me laugh because he's so funny. 

3. He was always a cool dad, and growing up my friends and I liked to hang out with him all the time.

4. He can fix basically anything and he never gets impatient or frustrated when we are all constantly coming to him for help. 

5. He is a great husband to my mom, and I'm grateful for his example of marriage. 

6. He goes to the temple regularly and bears his testimony of Jesus Christ frequently. 

7. He loves his family, and shows it through his words and actions. 

8. He sometimes worries about his introvertedness and awkwardness (I inherited these things from him), but he's the most sincere, wonderful person - you can't help but love him.

We love you Grandpa! Happy Birthday (and Merry Christmas!) 

Father's Day

I know I just did sappy post for our anniversary - but I couldn't let this day go by without wishing a Happy Father's Day to my darling husband, David. He does so much for our little family, and truly is the best father I could have hoped for to raise our children together. He is kind and sweet and loving. The way he loves Lydia and our baby boy brings me such great job and makes me love him even more every single day. He's perfect for me, and an amazing and loving father for our kids. 

We started out our Sunday with some yummy bacon/sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits - slider style. Then let David open his presents. A hamburger/bacon pan for the stove and a "good for one Whiteboard" coupon for him to pick out a little whiteboard for his shelf in our bedroom. (Both things that he asked for - so nothing too exciting, but hopefully they helped show him how much we appreciate him!)  

We headed to church, where Lydia gave us both an awesome Father's Day Present and went to nursery by her self for the entire time - for the first time ever! The men got bags of chocolate chip cookies from the Relief Society, and hopefully they all felt loved and appreciated. 

I made Barbecue Ribs, garlic mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob for dinner - per David's request. It was delicious and we just enjoyed spending the rest of the evening together. Much of it consisted of this:  

Lydia would say "Swing Daddy!" and they would take turns swinging their legs up while bracing their bodies on the couch/coffee table. The words "Swing again Daddy!" were repeated probably 100 times. David was exhausted, but as a mark of what a wonderful Daddy he is - he couldn't resist and played this game with her all night. She absolutely loved it.  Want proof? Here's a video of it: 

I hope that our son grows up to be just like David, and that Lydia marries a man just as sweet and kind and caring as him. 

David and I both have wonderful fathers, and we were able to Skype/Facetime with them before dinner. I'm grateful for their examples in our lives and we wish them a very Happy Father's Day as well. 

My Laundry Room

I love our house. I love the kitchen, the stairway, the tech center, and the master bathroom. I love the way it looks and love the way it feels. However, if someone asked me to pick my favorite room in the house - I would easily pick the laundry room. Easily. As we were looking to buy a house, our real estate agent must have thought that I was crazy because one of my biggest concerns was the size/condition/location of the laundry room. Houses were not even considered because of their less-than-impressive laundry rooms. When we finally found this house - I was in love. It's right next to the bedrooms, it's self-contained, it has a counter, storage, and a sink. It's perfect. After never having a washer and dryer of our own in the almost-four-years since we'd been married (and the almost-eight-months of Lydia's life) - the sight of these beauties in my perfect little laundry room was heaven.

We opted not to buy the washer and dryer pedestals for $300 more (on sale from the usual $500 more). Such a lot of money for such useless things. I think that my parents store their lightbulbs in the drawer under the dryer - and they can't even open the drawer under the washer because of the required plastic tub. Such a waste of space. Prior to even moving into our house, I was perusing Pinterest and found a pin that linked me to Ana White's building plans for a washer and dryer pedestal.  I knew that this is what I wanted and I enlisted my dad to help me! 

David and I took a weekend and headed to Morgan, where my dad so willingly set aside all of the other projects that he was working on and helped us to build my dream laundry stand. We measured laundry baskets and last minute called the McArthur Sales office to see if they would go and measure the laundry room for us. (Our house was in the final stages of completion, but we hadn't closed yet.) Thank goodness we thought to have them go measure - because we would have built the stand just a few inches too long (I was planning to just go along with the online plans, because I figured that it was for a side-by-side washer and dryer and obviously a washer and dryer would fit in the space). Bless Jesse Curtis for his willingness to go measure for us - because we would have been really sad! 

We left the laundry stand at my parents house, because - well - we still weren't living in our new house yet. David and I helped with the bones of the stand, but my wonderful dad did all of the finishing touches on his own. He used MDF to trim everything out and make it look beautiful. No raw edges showing on this beauty. Thankfully my parents were willing to let it take up space at their house while we waited for ours to be completed. 

Finally we moved in.. The only trouble was that the laundry stand is heavy like, "there is no way I could ever move it on my own" heavy and "I was afraid that we'd have to rent a semi-truck to get it to my house" heavy. Life was pretty crazy and so it stayed at my parents house for another month or so. 

Meanwhile, our there was a lot of this going on: 

And some of this:  

And way too much of this: 

My little sister Melissa and her trusty white Subaru volunteered to deliver the stand to us. Her rock-climbing muscles assisted my dad in loading it up, and they were the only thing that enabled us to get it unloaded when she arrived at my house (David was still at work). Seriously, I carry a baby around all day long, why is it that I have absolutely no upper body strength? Regardless, there was much celebration now that my laundry stand was now at the same address as my laundry room. I hadn't decided what color to paint it, but I quickly realized that white was the way to go. The stand took my spot in our garage while I made plans and gathered the supplies needed to get my paint on. My craft-blog-stalking led me to believe that spray paint would get the job done nicely. One naptime later, we were left with this: 

Boo! It looked like a child had scribbled on it with an old white marker. That was an entire can of spray paint. Realizing that any money saved on not buying brushes or other paint supplies would quickly be spent on another 20 cans of spray paint - I headed back to the store for some real paint and small rollers. 

Two and a half coats of paint, several days drying time, and five strong men later - my beautiful laundry stand was finally at home in my laundry room. Isn't it lovely? 

I love how much room it gives to me. That extra space for baskets is invaluable, and it really is much nicer to have the washer and dryer a bit higher as you as changing loads. It's so pretty, and the details make me smile. (Ignore the little purple toy of Lydia's - I didn't realize it was there where I started taking pictures.) Isn't that little trim so nice? 

Before and after: 

The other day my mom and I were talking about The Fly Lady, and some of the tips she has for keeping your home clean and organized. One of her big things is to always keep the sink clean. My mom jokingly told me that I would have a hard time with that. (We have a rule at our house for the after dinner time, especially when we have guests over: Dishes wait until tomorrow.) We kind of laughed about it, but I totally understand the philosophy. Sometimes if you have one area that you make an effort to keep tidy always - the rest of your house doesn't seem so daunting. It may be weird - but I think that my laundry room is that for me. I love looking through the door and seeing my happy curtains, white laundry stand, and clothes hanging out to dry. It makes me feel as if I've accomplished something, and it makes it easier to clean other areas (like the bathroom across the hall). I love that this area is organized and lends itself to being clean. There is just enough space that clothes don't pile up, and I love to be in this room - so it's easy for me to just fold the laundry as soon as it is done and then put it away. I don't have to stress about bringing my laundry into the main room to fold. It's just all right there. It makes me a happy happy girl. 

 I know that it seems a silly thing to love - but I really do. I can't help but get a smile on my face each time I walk past this happy little room. I have some big plans for it in the future (subway tile, pretty printables, a drying rack, etc... You can see some great ideas on my Pinterest board The Laundry Room) but for right now, I love it just the way it is.

Happy Laundering!