Mia girl

It was a sad day here in the Trout house yesterday.  Our sweet Mia dog found herself a new home.  For awhile now we knew that we were going to have to give her up.  We bought her at a time in our lives when we didn't have immediate plans for children, much less the busy schedule of twins.  Now when I had free time in my day I would choose eating over playing with her.  Poor Mia spent the majority of her day wrapped up in a ball on her little bd that she had chewed to bits out of boredom.
So yesterday we bit the bullet and decided to do what was best for her.  I posted ads for Mia on craigslist and ksl classifieds.  The response was overwhelming! My phone seemed like it was constantly ringing and I was getting a steady stream of emails.  It made me happy that we're not the only ones who recognize that she's a very good dog that anyone would be lucky to have. We even had someone willing to drive the 2 hours from Ogden! In the end, we went with a friendly and local choice.  Anna's friend Whitney was in great need of some companionship and was happy to take Mia home with her.
I was surprised with how well JT did.  He gave away his first dog.  He spent so much time training, playing, petting, and bonding with her.  JT LOVED Mia.  That tells you how firmly he believed that it was for the best. I feel so bad.  Within 2 months both of his first personal pick pets are gone.  I was in tears FOR him. I took a picture of him with Mia right before she left for her new home.  Goodbye Mia! We love you!

Sunday Memory

I was most likely 16 when this picture was taken. It was our first young women's trip to do baptisms at the newly built Redlands temple. It was nice to be able to get ready to go to the temple and not be waking up at 6am in order to fight traffic. 20 minutes and we were there! I love this picture because my mom got to go with me. My mom has had really bad back problems for years, making it hard to do most things the rest of us take for granted. It was a treat to be able to go with her. It was so much fun! I remember being so impressed with the beauty and differences between the Redlands and L.A. temples. They may have been different in their own ways, but the spirit was the same. I remember going in to do confirmations after baptisms and the room was soo quiet and peaceful. I was so wiped out after I fell asleep on the ride home.

I LOVE a good deal!

I'm so excited! Today I picked up so many vinyl phrases for $10 total! VinylLetteringDecor.com in Orem is having a WAY cheap overstock sale.
I managed to get:
*Home Sweet Home
*Family
*God Bless America
*Always kiss me goodnight
*Families are forever
*Love is Spoken Here
*i aM a CHild of God
*Love one another
*Land of the free, because of the brave
*SPliSH SPlaSH i waS taKiNG a batH
*where our story begins

Can you believe it! I feel like such a dork but I was so excited I just had to post this. Now all that's left is to order our "For Time and All Eternity" to go above our clock on our picture wall.
Oh, and if you're interested the contact info for the vinyl place can be found at http://VinylLetteringDecor.com

Our finished lamp

Yay I finally did it! I finished spray painting my living room lamp! I've been randomly running to the garage for a few seconds on and off for WEEKS to paint. Enough talking. It's time for some oohing.

Lamp BEFORE:

Not very special. It was too much brown and not "happy" at all.

Lamp AFTER:

I think it's fabulous! The lamp shade was found in the "as is" department of IKEA for $3.50. The white primer was $2-something. The white gloss spray paint was $2-something. Both were purchased from Walmart. I guesstimate that to be somewhere around $10 total! It's given our living room an instant burst of freshness. Yay!

I'm currently still working on a chubby little candlestick. It's going to end up ADORABLE. My next BIG project I'm gonna tackle is our entertainment center. It's made of laminate so it's gonna take some serious sanding, priming, painting, and modge podgeing. So much fun!!!

Seating & Privacy

We LOVE our couch but are well aware of the fact that our living room still needs more places to sit. I fell in love with this double wingbacked chair on craigslist but the seller never answered my inquiries. Then it happened: Monday I saw an ad for a cute little striped loveseat for $30!

Isn't it adorable?! Of course, JT was sure to get a promise out of me to eventually cover the loveseat in something more neutral. In the meantime I get to enjoy the girlishness of it all. :) All that's left now is two chairs for the other side of the room. I have big plans for DIY upholstering on that one. Yay!

Our second dilemma was our entryway. There is NO privacy! Instead of a peep hole, two windows line our doorway. People knock, look in, and wave to us. There's no ignoring. That's really hard when I've finally gotten the twins to sleep and am heading back to try and catch a nap...and then I get caught. Yesterday JT begged me to take some money and buy material for curtains. Anna and I hopped in the car and ended up at Walmart! We found some pretty gray silky material for $1.50 a yard! 3 yards and a curtain rod later we were out the door. Today I spent a major chunk of the day at Brandon and Anna's learning how to sew. It's difficult getting it all just right, but I'm sooo glad I did it! I feel so much more accomplished!

JT immediately hung them when we got home. I realized that we cut them too short but think that it's for the better. I plan on adding a strip of fabric at the bottom to bring in a pop of color. I haven't decided what color I'm going to end up painting the front door. I may do a light yellow with white trim against the blue-gray walls. I already held up the curtain fabric against the blue-gray and it looks wonderful! The BEST part is we now finally have privacy! That actually was the first thing JT said about it all. Now if only we could get people to stop knocking when we post "please don't knock--sleeping babies" signs. Baby steps.

Heating Issues

Last week (I think it was last week) the weather here in Provo couldn't make up its mind. It got hot and then went back to cold. The first day it got hot I about died. We couldn't get the A/C to turn on and the landlord wasn't showing up. I was sweating and the babies were feeling hot. Delilah wasn't really napping and while Porter was sleeping I kept running into the nursery to take his temperature. I was terrified that he was going to get too hot! The thermometer said he was ok every time though. Anna and Brandon were nice enough to take us under their wing until the A/C got fixed.

Well almost as soon as the air conditioner was fixed the weather turned cold. It was 65 degrees in here during the day! There was no winning. I then proceeded to bundle the kids up. The same thing happened again last night. It was too cold and Porter had been sleeping in just a shirt. He woke up that morning unhappy so I changed him into pants, socks, and a hoodie sweatshirt. He was out again within seconds! Anyways, I got some cute pictures of him in his little beanie from the first time.

Sunday Post....on Monday

Oops! The second official Sunday after announcing I'd start doing picture posts is already a bust. This is the lame belated post instead.

I never realized how forgiving black is--even if you're pregnant with twins! This picture was taken when JT's parents came up to Utah to visit the family. They asked Lacie's VERY talented mom to take family pictures. They came out absolutely beautiful! I love the little shadow on JT's chin. You'd think he had a goatee or something. I had a really good time that weekend with family and really appreciated the chance to commemorate that stage in all our lives. I also think that this is the MOST happy I've ever been with my hair. The color and length were perfect. Now that I'm 3 months un-pregnant it's brown and falling out. Anyways, this was a really good day and a picture perfect picture. :)