What we've been up to

I have gotten pretty bad at blogging, not that I was ever great at keeping up with it, but I just thought I'd put up some pictures of what we've been up to lately. There will be a lot of random photos, but it's better than not posting anything, right?? Anyway, here goes...

We went up to Farmington Bay with some friends to do a little
birdwatching. That tiny dot in the distance is a real bald eagle! It was
so cool to see him, even if he was far away.

Here is a close up/blurry picture. He was eating a fish!

Our friend Prasad took these next few photos of us at the Bay.
They turned out pretty good, although neither one of us was really
dressed or done up properly for a photo shoot, haha. It was still fun.

Me with my really handsome hubby! :)

I love this one. We were watching fish swim around.

As a housewarming gift, we received a wok. We have never used
one before, but we decided to make ham fried rice. John found the
 recipe and even made it himself. I was just his helper and chopped
up all the veggies, etc.

Look at that. I think that's the first time I've seen John with
a cutting board and knife in his hand...haha (I'm kidding of course).

The finished product! It was soo tasty!

This last weekend we finally used the free night's stay at a hotel that I won
last summer at a company party. It was SO nice to get away for a night and
just relax, even if we were only 20 minutes from home!

Here's John standing in the kitchen of our hotel room.
We were just amazed that the room had a "full" kitchen!

As part of our night "away" we went to Gardner Village to do some
window shopping and have dinner. It was a ton of fun. John was really
excited because we found one of his favorite sodas, Big Red, at the candy
store there. He can usually only find it in Texas. It was a big day for him..haha.

This weekend we also went to the new City Creek Center! It was so much fun.
The crowds were insane, but other than that, we had a great time. I can't wait to go back!

A little update on our house. We haven't done a whole lot since my
last post, but we did work on the sitting room a bit. We got a
little side table to go between our chairs...

...and we got a nice bench and rug! We still need to get a different pot for
my plant to go in, a lamp and have the piano moved down. After a few
decorations, this room will be done!

More pictures of our house!

Big surprise that my blog post is about our house again, right? Haha. We haven't done a whole lot of things furniture wise with our house, but we have done some decorating, so I thought I'd put up a few photos of what we've done in the last month. We still have a long ways to go, but it's coming along. Our next goal is to finish up our sitting room. Then we'll start working on the family room, then the guest room, then the other two bathrooms, and then the garage and outside. Like I said, we still have a long ways to go! But it's been so much fun, and I like taking my time searching for the perfect decorations or things that I want. We have been to a lot of cool consignment stores, furniture outlet stores, etc. and have found some great deals. Anyway, here are the photos!

The living room. We got some new pillows (I'm planning on doing green and
 salmon accents in this room), and hung up our wedding photos. We are
going to stain the table you see in the background a darker color and keep it as a
game table. I also have a movie shelf that I'm going to sand and paint.

Dining room. We hung up our giant "Madison" clock, and got a centerpiece
for the table. John found it at Target for 8 bucks! John was so proud of himself, haha.

The chairs for our sitting room. I LOVE these chairs...they are exactly what
I was looking for. We still need to get a rug, bench and lamp for this room. Plus, my piano
will go in here. It's going to be such a cute cozy room when we're done decorating!

Our new bookshelf! We had fun decorating this little area.
And now all of our book are easily accessible! :)

One of my favorite new additions to the kitchen/dining area.
Cupcake pictures! They were the perfect design and color. I love them!

Our front door area. This will probably change once we finish up the sitting
room, but it's definitely more inviting with a rug and something on the wall.

My magnet board. I had this in college and painted it lime green to
match my room, so I just repainted it red and we hung it in the kitchen. I also found
these cute little wooden things so I painted them and turned them into magnets.
It's a great place to keep photos, shopping lists, wedding invites, etc. AND we
don't have to clutter up our fridge. I hate magnets on fridges for some reason.

A couple more kitchen decorations...new clock, fruit basket, and
glass jar for my bamboo plant. It really makes the kitchen look better!

This is a work in progress. I have all this space above the cabinets
in the kitchen, and I have found some decorations I liked, but obviously I still
 need more up there. I'll be changing things around on this shelf for a while I'm sure.