My New Best Friend

I want everyone to meet my new best friend, Wes (as in Weslo, the eliptical brand). He is gonna kick my butt into shape and get me toned up!! So far tonight I managed to do 10 minutes, which about killed me. I didn't realize how out of shape I was. Right now I'm weighing in at around 144 but my goal weight is 130-135. My current waist size is 33 1/8 inches. Wish me luck with this journey!! I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on my progress!

Until next time...

A Kitchen Redo

We decided awhile ago that we wanted to redecorate our kitchen. Our goal was to take down all the wallpaper, put up a backsplash, and paint the walls, something we thought would be easy to do and wouldn't take long. So the first thing on the agenda...taking down the wallpaper. Oh what a task this was. Throughout the whole kitchen we had to take down 4-6 layers of wallpaper and border!! This took us several days to do. Isabella even helped out.After we got the wallpaper down, we changed up our game plan a little. A couple walls were not in good enough shape to paint so we found this cool textured wallpaper that looks like Rafita that will go on those walls. We are also enclosing the wall and putting in a door that goes out into the "den" and that will become our home office/scrapbook room/etc. So the next thing on the agenda was the backsplash. I came up with the idea to use self adhesive vinyl tiles rather than regular tile because it was a lot less expensive. It turned out awesome. We just have a little trim work to do and that project will be complete.Our kitchen is finally coming together. We are hoping to get most of the painting done this weekend and maybe get the door put in. If that works out as planned, all we'll have left is the wallpaper and our kitchen will finally be complete. This has been quite the project but once it's done I'm sure we'll love it!! More pics to come as we make more progress!!

Until next time...

Simple Plesures

Ok, so Roxanne posted her simple plessure and encouraged us all to do the same :), so here goes:

*Dancing Around with ISABELLA*

*Watching HER sleep*

*Fountain Diet Coke*

*GIRL Scout Cookies (especially Thin Mints from the freezer)*

*Dollar movies from REDBOX*

*Going for Walks and BikeRides*

*Spending time with JASON*

*Time with FAMILY*

*Hot Showers*

*CHURCH on Sundays with the Family*

*Reading a Good Book*

*Anything CHOCOLATE and Peanut BUTTER*

*Singing along with the Radio*

I know there are many more and the moment I post this I will think of them. But for now, these are the simple pleasures that stick out in my mind!!

Until next time...

The Worst DIY Project Ever...

So we were walking through Lowe's the other day, and we found these caulk strips. We thought they would be a great thing for our shower, since our shower really needed a new caulk job. On Saturday afternoon, I spent at least an hour, with little help from Jason, putting up all these caulk strips. It looked awesome when I got done. The next morning we walk into the bathroom to get ready for church, one caulk strip from the shower wall had fallen completely off, and the other was about halfway off. I was irritated!! I decided, lets put a little bit of regular caulk behind the strip and maybe it would hold it up. After church, I did just that. Boy was I wrong!! A few hours later, the strip had fallen down again. (The base strips did stay up though!!) So I had to use the regular caulk, which is a pain in the butt to use, and caulk the two spots going up the shower wall. While I'm doing this, my husband finds it amusing to take pictures of me working.

Overall, the shower looks great! It was just a process to get it done. Just a little advice to those that need to re-caulk your shower...Don't use the strips! It's a waste of time and money!!

Until next time...

Bella's New Room

With her new wall mural, we officially got Bella's big girl room finished! We decided to leave the nursery the way it was so it's ready when we decide to have another baby. So we made-over the extra spare bedroom upstairs in our house. The first project was taking down all the wallpaper that was up. That took us a few days to do. Then we got the paint for the walls, of course I chose pink!! I painted 3 of the 4 walls and put up a green and gold wallpaper on the last one. I painted a toy box white to match the dresser we found at a garage sale. We got the new light fixture put up and a couple new shelves. My original plan was to use an antique brass twin bed that was my grandma's. We got some pink sheets and a green comforter for it. Once we got it all set up, we realized it wasn't going to work out just yet. The bed stood as tall as Isabella and we were too afraid she would fall off the bed even if we got siderails. Luckily my mom had a white crib that turned into a toddler bed so we are currently using that. I got some cheap fabric and made up some bedding for it. Once we got everything put together and the pictures up on the walls it turned out really cute!! The only thing I have left to do is paint her table and chair set white so it matches everything else. I plan on doing that when the weather is warmer. Bella loves her room and would play in it all the time if I would let her. Here are some pictures of how it all turned out:

Until next time...

Snowtime Fun

For those of you that don't live in Northern Indiana, you are not lucky enough to experience beautiful, lake effect snow (sarcasm). A couple weeks ago we got hit hard with snow, snow, and more snow. It added up to 10-12 inches before it finally stopped!! Plus, we had sub-arctic temperatures that made it painful to go outdoors (at least that's how I felt...LOL).

So anyway, the last couple days the temperatures have gotten increasingly warmer and some of the snow finally started to melt. With the warmer weather, that meant I could tolerate going outside, at least long enough to take Bella out to play in the snow for the first time! Jason, Bella, and I got all bundled up and ventured outdoors. We got to test out her new sled! At first, she was unsure about the snow. Being all bundled up made it harder to walk too so I think that was part of it. We put her on her sled and pulled her around the yard. Then daddy took her up the little bitty hill at the edge of our yard and decided to push her down it. Bella was not happy about that at all (See picture below). Since she wasn't having that, we decided to build a snowman, or at least I built the snowman. Bella just stood and watched me. Our little snowman is sad looking but it was still fun making him! By the time we were done, it was time to come in and warm up. So Jason pulled Bella and I in the sled up to the house, I'm sure that was a sight. Overall, we had a great time playing in the snow. Not sure how soon we will do it again because I am definately not a snow lover. You never know...

Here are some pics of our fun. Enjoy! Until next time...

Growing like a Weed!

The other night, I went through all the pictures we had taken of Bella, thinking back to those first days we brought her home. It was so hard to believe how much my baby has grown and changed in 17 months. Yes, I said 17 months!! I can't believe that it has gone so quickly. As I was looking at all of these old photos, I couldn't help but wipe away the tears, knowing I'll never get that time back with her. It has made me cherish every minute I get with her now!

She has gotten quite the personality, as you can see from the video above. Bella loves attention and will make sure you are watching her every move! She definately brings a smile to my face!! Here are just a few more photos I snapped of her the same day I took the video:

What's instore for the Standefords in 2010?

• In April, we are taking another trip out to Phoenix, AZ to visit Aunt Donna and Uncle Jim
• In the spring we will be getting passes to the local zoo and state park so we can enjoy some warm weather fun
• We will be getting Bella baptised on Easter Sunday at church
• Hope to go on another camping trip to Holiday World this summer and meet up with the Vogerls again

I'm sure there will be plenty more exciting things pop up for us. There is definately never a dull moment in our house! Until next time...