Front Door & Laundry Room

I love "Before & After" pictures.  Not just because you can see what amazing progress was made, but because if there's an "After" picture, that means a project is DONE!  Geoff and I have been slow and steady in getting projects done around the house, and boy does it feel good to be checking things off our list and feeling so excited about how things are turning out!

Our front door was a piece of work.  There were stickers on the window, finger prints and smudges all over the place and some type of stain splattered all over the bottom.  I was anxious to give this puppy a nice makeover.  So Geoff and I marched down to Home Depot (with Hylie in tow) and picked out some paint colors.  We sure love having this beautiful door being one of the first sights visitors see when coming to our home!

Because the previous tenants took all (and we mean ALL) the shelving in the laundry room, we had our work cut out for us to get this room storage-ready.  It cost us a pretty penny, but it feels good to have a fresh coat of (non-yellow) paint and rows of shelving so we could actually unpack the basement boxes!  We sure are loving our home!

Where's Waldo?

Our church youth group had an activity called "Where's Waldo" and asked Geoff to participate.  The fact that I never realized how much he actually looks like Waldo blows me away.

We had one day to scrounge up a costume--what a fun little event it was!

Gone Campin'

For Geoff's birthday we decided to join some families from our ward on a quick camping adventure.  It was a beautiful weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed the family time (and being away from house projects for a little while!)

We decided to strut our "Team Woodhouse" gear for the trip.

Geoff wanted a chocolate cake to celebrate.  At first I was planning on trying to go dutch oven style...but since I've never really experimented with cooking cake over a fire, I decided to play it safe and bring an "Ooey-Gooey Chocolate Cake".  Boy was it delicious!  Geoff had quite the chorus singing the birthday song to him!

There were 17 children in our group and only 2 were boys!  That night all the girls danced and sang songs together.  Geoff was laughing at the sight and commented how NONE of his camping trips had such activities like this.  Gotta love girl power!  Ha ha!

That night Hylie didn't do too bad.  She slept for a few hours in the tent, but when she awoke crying, I didn't want to disturb the entire camp, so Geoff helped me grab blankets and get set up in the car.  Hylie slept until about 5:00 AM in my arms...I wish I could say the same.  I was in and out of consciousness, but mostly "in".  I enjoyed the beautiful sunrise though!  Around 6:00 AM Geoff joined us in the car so he could warm up from the 48 degree night.

Hylie LOVED being in the great outdoors.  She explored anywhere we would let her.

Our fearless (and filthy) explorer

It was a beautiful day to be near the water.  We played along Lake Michigan before we headed back home.  Happy Birthday, Geoff!  You are such an amazing husband and father.  We enjoy each and every day with you and are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Hylie Highlights

As we continue to work on house projects and squeeze in a few get-aways while the weather is still nice, Hylie keeps herself busy with a few things like:

Finding her belly-button

Playing in moonsand.
(Moonsand = eight cups of flour + one cup of baby oil)

And strutting her stuff with this Winnie-the-Pooh walker.

Some friends let us borrow this toy and for several weeks Hylie wouldn't even let us put her near it--she showed absolutely NO desire for walking.  Just this past week she started warming up to the idea of walking with it and now it's one of her favorite past-times!  It will be just a matter of time that we hear the pitter-patter of her little feet running around instead of her little hands slapping the floor as she crawls.

Hylie's One Year Portraits

Hylie Month by Month

Hylie's 1st Birthday

Even though it doesn't seem like it's been a year, Hylie turned one on August 17th.  We were super lucky to have family with us to celebrate and our neighbors were able to join us as well.

Hylie's birthday was on Saturday when we spent the day at the Air Show, so we decided to have a little celebration on Sunday.

That morning, Hylie woke up to balloons and sunshine decor and seemed to be pretty excited about everything.

This is my first picture wall...I think I went a little overboard on how many pictures I printed...we'll be scaling down next year for sure!

Thanks to everyone's help, we enjoyed a pasta bar with yummy salad and bread.

The cupcakes were little sunshines and clouds.

Hylie was hilarious with her smash cake.  She literally smashed it to smithereens!  She kept playing with it instead of eating it, even after I gave her a taste she continued to smash away.

Finally she got a good mouthful of food--too bad most of it was on the floor by then, ha ha!

Hylie loved all her new toys and played with everything late into the evening.  She pitched a fit when Dad took her to bed.

Hylie's growing so much!  We love her so and look forward to what this next year will bring.