the painted house

Doug's pride and joy last month was Operation: Paint Most of the Rooms in Our House. Since the DAT was over and he was still only working part-time, he spent several days painting our bedroom, bathroom, and front room.

Oh, and please forgive the weird camera angles. The rooms are messy and I'm trying to hide it. Don't judge us.

The Master Suite: a simple white that helped clean up the old scary paint job significantly.

We went a little accent crazy with vinyl cutouts made with my Cricut machine, but it was way fun. I consider it still a work in progress.


The Bathroom: a color blue that we think totally rocks. Matches our towels and our shower curtain. A dream come true.



The Family Room: we (well, Doug) created a fun green accent wall and left the rest of the walls a light brown. If you think we've hung up our pictures again, you're wrong.


My buddy Scott came to visit and we realized that we were matchy match with not only each other, but with the walls too! Here we are blending in with our perfect camouflage.


We love the new look! Mad props to Doug for taking on the project. I heart him!!

the next generation

If this post feels different to you, that's because it is.

I came home from work tonight and found this:




and then this:




and this:




and even this:



and finally THIS!!!:




[cue the hallelujah chorus]

After months of saving and plotting and planning, it's here! So this is our first post from our new computer. No more running to campus to use the computers, no more running to Ben and Whit's to annoy them as we use their printer, and no more cursing the inconvenience of having no way to do homework late at night. Our lives will never be the same...

family time

Thanks to graduation and the LDS Dentists Conference, we got a chance to see all of the Shafers and some of the Wolfes last week. So fun!

We celebrated with the Shafers going out to eat at Tucanos, hitting up the Heber Creeper (a train extravaganza), and hanging out.






We celebrated with Ben and Stacey by going out to eat up in Sundance, introducing Stacey to my Cricut Expression machine, and Doug giving Jack his first haircut.







It was so so good to see them all!! We totally heart our families.

pomp & circumstance

Loved seeing these Shafers graduate. There’s just something about the three siblings in cap and gown that rocks my photographic world.

Way to go Doug, Ben, and Kadi!

graduate doug shafer... almost

Last year it was my turn... now this year it's Doug's.

This Thursday and Friday Doug will graduate (kinda) from Brigham Young University. Technically he finishes his classes in December, but BYU doesn't hold graduation ceremonies then. So Doug chose to walk a bit early since his brother Ben is graduating this week too. And to really spice it up, their sister Kadi is going to throw on a cap and gown and walk with them too (she never did it when she graduated a few years ago... better late than never!).

So don't be hurt that we didn't send you a graduation announcement. We both feel like "oh yeah, he's graduating... in December." It won't feel real until he walks out the testing center that one last time, and then goes to buy himself some delicious BYU fudge so he can down it all by himself without sharing and without any guilt. Or at least that's what I did after my last final.

Go class of 2007!

alpine days rodeo a/k/a doug finds his true career path

If you are a minor and a citizen of Alpine, Utah, you know where you were Friday night: the Alpine Days Juvenile Rodeo. This hot spot was the gathering place of children, youth, and adult guardians alike. It was a great chance for people to reunite, strengthen their bonds as neighbors, and watch small children ride sheep. It was my second year attending a children's rodeo, and I have to admit it's quite the experience. It's not very often that you can see a crowd of kids chasing after chickens (the lucky winners got to take them home and the lucky parents got to explain why they had to leave the chicken in a box underneath the bleachers), and very rarely do you get to see teenagers ride steer as if steers were made to ride. It's amazing.

And to tell you the truth, I don't consider myself a rodeo person. I don't even own *gasp* cowboy boots! But I still came, for one reason and one reason only...

to see THIS:


Priceless, isn't it? Doug was a very good sport and agreed to help out our old bishop who runs the rodeo. He and two other guys helped herd sheep, run from angry steer, and throw free stuff to the rodeo-goers. As you can imagine, Doug did a great job. And he loved it. He told me that he's considering forgetting dental school and focusing solely on rodeo clown opportunities. I simply punched him in the face.






We also hit up the real grown-up ("Pure Bull") rodeo the next night with the Allers. It really was fun, although I find the whole rodeo concept to be extremely fascinating. And at times disturbing.

tonight...

If any of you need to find us tonight, you're going to need to look at the Alpine Days Rodeo. I'll be the one sitting in the bleachers trying to blend in with the rodeo crowd, and Doug will be one of the rodeo clowns running around in the ring. He'll be wearing a flourescent green shirt and a gigantic cowboy hat--you can't miss him.

(It's a favor for our old bishop. And it's a children's rodeo, so there are no big mean scary bulls. Just smaller only semi-angry animals. We went last year and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.)
(And yes, I will take pictures. Moments like this require photo documentation.)