Remodel Updates

As promised here are a few updates of the remodel. Hopefully soon we will have a little family to fill this newly remodeled home.

Chad hard at work

The stairs are to the right, they go straight up now.

Then the two bedrooms are on the left.

From inside the tiny room (0ffice)

Oh yeah, we've added a new supervisor to the project. Welcome Hurly.

Faces

I never realized this until the other day, but when I dream, the people in my dreams do not ever have faces. I know who they are in my dream, I just never see faces on people. I've asked others and I guess I'm just the odd ball because it seems that everyone else dreams of people with faces.

I've never realized it until now because I had an amazing dream the other night and I saw a face for the first time in my dream. It was so clear and beautiful. It was the face of our daughter, that's right I said daughter. I've always had this perfect image of what my family would look like one day. I've always thought I would have 4 boys. Well lately I've been having several different dreams that Chad and I have a daughter. Her name starts with an "A" but I can't ever remember what it is when I wake up. I've seen her at all stages of life, from an infant to a beautiful adult. It's crazy but I just know somehow that we are going to have a little girl in our life one day. In my dream the other night I saw her face for the first time. She had beautiful blue eyes and a dimple on one side of her face (like chad) and a pointy little chin. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and words can't describe the feelings I felt when I saw her.

I hope that one day Chad and I can welcome this beautiful little girl into our lives, either through adoption or through our own pregnancy. She was such a beautiful little miracle and I hope to see more of her in my dreams. Anyway, just thought I'd share this rare (at least to me) and beautiful experience with you.

To this day I still don't see people's faces in my dreams, I don't know what it means but I've started to pay more attention to my dreams and still there are no faces.

Do you see faces in your dreams?

Two Years and getting Better

Two years ago today was the best ever. I was able to enter the house of the Lord and commit to my husband and my God for time and all eternity. What a tremendous amount of blessings that day has brought to our lives. I am so grateful that Chad and I are a family forever. I look forward to the day when we are able to adopt children of our own so that we may take them to the temple and be sealed to them also. I can't wait to teach my children about the temple and all of the blessings that can come to them if they life righteously and make themselves worthy to enter the House of the Lord. I am so excited for those moments to come with my children and for now am extremely blessed to have Chad in my life.

Girls just wanna have FUN!

My Mom and my Niece came over this weekend and we had such a blast. My Niece Shaylee loves to do nails and she's actually really good at it. So she pampered my mom and myself. It was so much fun to just hang out with the girls and get spoiled. Thanks Shay!

He belongs in this family

Guess who else loves socks.... Yep, he was born to be a part of this family.

Hot air Balloons

We got up early this morning to watch the hot air balloons take off. Loni, Chad and I all got up and went, it was so much fun. After we got some great pictures we decided to take a drive through Draper.

After we watched the balloons take off we decided to go for a drive around Draper. We saw lots of really fun things, for instance this really cool old double-decker bus. We had to stop and take pictures. To see more fun pictures head over to my photography blog. www.luxslens.blogspot.com

Bad day gone good

Today I had a HORRIBLE day at work. I hate my job and don't care much for the people who work there either. However, for now it's a source of income that we rely on, so until I find something else I will have to tolerate it. Well I just had the worst day ever at work and came home nearly in tears (as I often do because I hate it so bad). When I got home I found little surprises all around the house. See while I was busy at work all day, my wonderful hubby had taken care of the dogs, cleaned the whole house, had all the laundry done (yes he does these things on a regular basis) and had gone to the store and bought me little goodies and surprises. Then he hid them all over the house for me to find. It made my day so much better and I love him so much for thinking of me like that. What a wonderful surprise, not to mention my house is clean now and the laundry is done. What a lucky girl I am.

Cheap Entertainment

This is what we did today...

Sleeping

So our new little guy has decided that he gets to sleep wherever he wants. Most of the time he picks daddy's neck to sleep on. It's cute and the best part is that Chad doesn't seem to mind too much. It's cute because I'll move him several times during the night to his own bed, but he always seems to find his way back to cuddle. I love it.

Best Buds

Hurly and Folesome are getting along nicely. They finally figured out how to play nice with each other and that it's ok if they BOTH love Momma. So they will play a little bit and then rest together but they are always together now and this makes me a happy girl. Here are some pics from this week. 'lp[oopiouuuuugyyt5rou8888888i9l';'l'l'l'''' (Hurly wanted to type too)

(Please don't mind the messy house, it's under construction)

Hurly Prancer Lloyd

My how quickly things have changed. I was feeling all bummed out and really sad today because we had to return Finlly yesterday. I was and still am worried for her because I don't think her previous owners treated her well. It's out of my hands now and there isn't anything I can do but pray that she is taken care of.

Today Chad saw how upset I was with everything and he surprised me with this wonderful little guy. We saw him and instantly fell in love. I was hesitant to go meet the dog but Chad talked me into just going and looking at the dog. I agreed and well, the second Chad saw him he fell in love.

Just between you and me I got a little choked up when they handed Chad the new puppy and I saw how happy he was with the little guy. I haven't seen Him so happy in a while. I just had to say yes. (For those of you who don't know, Chad and I are not able to have children of our own so to see something like this bring such joy to Chad, I couldn't say no). So please say hello and welcome to our family Hurly (like the big fluffy guy from LOST) Prancer (the name previously given to him by the wonderful family who gave him to us) Lloyd (our last name of course). We are so happy to welcome this little guy to our family, he fits right in and in case you couldn't tell, he totally looks like he is related. Thank you Shaunie and family for bringing this wonderful addition to our family.

Change of Plans

So we have had Finlly for a little over a week now and we had fallen in love with her, only to find out that the previous owner decided out of the blue that they wanted her back. We were heartbroken, literally. So we gathered her things and returned her to the previous owner. I am worried for her because I think she was abused, but what can we do? With heavy hearts we returned her and can only hope for the best in her future. So today was not such a good day. Now the house is quiet and back to just Chad, Folesome and I. Hopefully not for long.

Marriage

Today my brother married his long time girlfriend Martha. They asked me to be the photographer for their special day. It was SUPER hot but very beautiful. I am so grateful that they finally got married and that I was able to be a part their day. Thanks Jarin and Martha, and congratulations.

Lagoon

This year we decided instead of going on a vacation, we were just going to buy season passes to Lagoon. We have some friends and family members that also got season passes so we have been looking forward to going with them. This week I was able to go with my sister and her kids. It was so much fun. I mostly rode the kiddie rides with Brynne, she was my buddy all day and we had so much fun. Here are some pictures from the day. To see more pictures, check out my photo blog www.luxslens.blogspot.com

Finlley Roo Lloyd

Say hello to our newest addition to our little family. This is Finlley Roo Lloyd. She is a 8 month old schnauzer and so full of energy. She belonged to our next door neighbor's sister and last week the sister called our neighbor and told him to come get her or she would be taking the dog to the vet to be put to sleep (very sad). She told him that she would rather the dog be put to sleep than to have it go to a home where it might be abused.

Anyway, Chad and I saw her and fell in love right away. Folesome loves her too. So we talked to our neighbors and asked if she could be an addition to our family. They said yes and we adopted her today!! YAY! We are having such a good time with her and love having her in our family.

Proud Auntie

I can not say it enough, I am one proud Aunt. I have such amazing and talented family members. Here are a few of them.

Kaelan has been doing amazing at Football this summer. I'm lucky enough to be able to go to some of his games with Chad.

Taegon was selected to participate in the chalk art festival at his school and this is his drawing. *Go Gaga!

Gandon has been having the missionaries over to his house and has made the decision to be baptized. I'm so very proud of this choice that he made all on his own. He is such a shining example to all around him.

All in all, my family is doing some pretty amazing things and to put it perfectly, I'm blessed to be a part of it.

Bubble Bath's and Ipods

So at the end of a hard day I am guilty of wanting to take a hot bath by candle light and listen to piano music. Today was no different. I took my bath, listened to my music and washed the worries of the day away. When I was getting out of the tub and drying off, my towel hit one of the freshly blown out candles and knocked it over onto my ipod. Wax was everywhere, but mostly all over my ipod. I was so worried it was ruined, but all is well. I have learned my lesson now though, keep my ipod away from candles.

New House... Kind of

So we started a remodel project this summer. We currently live in a 1 bedroom loft town home. Since our plan is to adopt children we want a house that has plenty of room for little ones. So we are going to remodel our house to be a 3 bedroom home. Here is the project as we are starting. Hopefully this project won't take too long and we will soon be a step closer to making our dream of a little family come true. I am thankful that I have a husband that is willing to learn from others and is such a hard worker. Thanks Chad for making this dream a possibility.

How it looked in the beginning

Chad and Kaelan putting in the floor

Folesome is a wonderful supervisor

Justin, Chad and my Dad working hard

Kaelan hanging on the floor boards

Out with the junk and off with the Ba-dunk a dunk

So as many of you have heard I'm in a weight loss/body transformation challenge. Im doing really well with it. Since I've started just 5 weeks ago I've lost 26lbs and have gone from a pant size 20 pant to wearing a size 14. I know I know that may not really be a big deal to some but to me that is HUGE. I'm finally starting to like the way my body is looking again. I am able to fin into a lot of my older clothes. I am replacing 2 meals a day with an amazingly delicious drink. Then I'm fee to eat whatever I choose for my 3rd meal of the day. That's right ladies, no starving myself with only an alloted amount of calories, no giving myself shots, and no spending hour upon hour working out in a gym. I simply replace 2 of my meals a day and eat healthy. In fact, I really don't exercise at all which makes this program work for me.

I recently cleaned out my pantry of all junk food and unhealthy snacks, just to keep myself from being tempted. I replaced all of my junk food and snacks with my drink mixes and healthy chocolates. I'm so excited about the changes that my body is going through. My husband is also in this same program and my oh my is he looking sexy these days. I'm definitely enjoying the side effects of eating healthy.