Tyson Vs. The Screwdriver

Working in the medical field for about 4 years now you'd think I would be pretty calm when accidents happen, but when it comes to my husband (or any close friends or family) sadly I am the one usually freaking out.  I'm pretty sure I had a small panic attack this weekend.

 I was downstairs packing our suitcases while Tyson was outside working on the snowmobiles getting them ready for our Annual Christmas cabin trip, when all of a sudden, Maren came running into the house looking for a towel, while screaming for me saying, "Tyson stabbed himself! There is blood everywhere!" At first, I of course had all of these awful images in my mind, so I took off running up the stairs and outside to where Tys was and saw him holding his hand with blood all over him. His face was so pale, I could tell he was in so much pain. After realizing he was not on the ground bleeding to death (like I feared) I asked him what happened. He said he was trying to pop something off the snowmobile with two screwdrivers, and one of them (pictured below) slipped and stabbed into his hand. He was in shock at first as he looked down and saw the screwdriver embedded into his hand. He carefully pulled it out and that is when the blood started shooting out everywhere. 

We rushed him up to the Instacare because the bleeding wouldn't stop and his hand was swelling and throbbing. 

Luckily they got him back pretty fast and then the real fun began....

As you can tell from the pictures below, he was not happy. The Doctor stuck the back end of a Q-tip into the wound to see how deep it was, then continued to flush it out using a HUGE needle and some saline, all with NO numbing whatsoever. Luckily the screwdriver missed hitting any arteries or tendons, so we consider him very lucky.

     

 Tyson's parents always joke around that I didn't realize what I was getting myself into when I married him. Although, after almost 2 years of marriage and knowing what I know now, I would marry him all over again.  He has been through 2 car accidents, Valley Fever, Pneumonia, and now this and come out even strong on the other side of it all. I am so grateful we have been so blessed through our many trials. I know that no matter what comes our way we will be okay. 

Christmas at the Winders

This year's Christmas was one for the books. Tyson and I went with my family up to Kaibab National park for our tradition of cutting down our  Christmas trees. Of course, being the perfectionist that he is, Tyson had to find the most beautiful tree, even if it meant we would be searching all day. Although this is a time when I am grateful for his OCD because i sure do love a good symmetrical tree. 

Check out the muscles on this guy!

It was such a nice day and we loved just soaking up as 

much such as we could get.

In the end we found the perfect tree to haul home.

Even Tyson approved, which is a big deal. 

One of my favorite parts of the day though, was hanging out in the car with these two cuties. 

I can promise you that you will never catch Liam in the driver seat without a HUGE smile plastered across his face. This kid was born to drive. I fear for the day he turns 16, and so should you! 

Once we got the tree home we added a few lights and decorations and...WA-LAAA!

To top it all off I just finished these adorable crocheted stockings! They were my first pair and I can't wait to see what other styles I can come up with next year! 

And as mentioned in the picture above...."Have yourself a merry little Christmas" 

We've gone country

Today we got to celebrate this adorable, caring, and fun loving little guys birthday. Brayden is such a fun addition to our family and I consider my self so lucky to be his Aunt. Plus his birthday party was the bomb-dot-com! Who doesn't love playing dress up at a farm?!

My dad really wanted to get a turn on the horse, however he's not as young as he once was and needed a little help.

It's so great that these kids have such good examples to look up to. I am definitely blessed with such a wonderful family. 

I tired to act as brave as possible once it was my turn to ride the horse, you know, for the kids sake. What do you think? Can you tell how terrified I was? I sure hope not. 

One of my favorite and least scary parts of the night was the lawn mower ride.

The cutest little cowboy I have ever seen.

The wonderful party planner, aka, mom and another darling niece of mine. Those eyes!

Overall the party was so fun and I can't wait to see what Melissa comes up with next year! No pressure ;)

And then there were 3...

Sorry for the misleading title...but it's true. Our sister-in-law got this adorable little kitty from her sister and brought him home for the family, but Tyson and I kind of adopted him. Yes, not only am I the crocheting old lady, but I am also the crazy cat lady. Get over it ;) 

We struggled to agree on one name for him so we gave him all of them. Say hello to Stinker Bean kitty Spaz Hank Omaly Kevin Kili Winder. I know there are quite a few other names, but at the moment I can't even think of them, and can you really blame me? Most of us just stick with Kitty. I know, real original right? He's a cat, he doesn't care. Hopefully.

  ***UPDATE: Thanks to Tyson's buddy, Shad, Kitty's official name is Dunford Lee Winder***

  

He thinks he needs to be right next to us at ALL times. Adorable right? Right. 

Everyone keeps asking why we haven't had a baby yet, but the way I see it is we have the best kind.. He can feed himself, he is potty trained from day one, and you can leave him at home alone without getting CPS called on you. Whats better than that? :) 

Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend was so busy! To start of the holiday weekend Tyson and I drove to Provo and bought a new truck, a 2004 Toyota Tacoma TRD and we love it! It is just the perfect size for us right now and has room for growth, when we do decide to start a family. It passed Tyson's functionality test, but more importantly it passed my cuteness test :)

 

 

 

Saturday morning we rode in the Peach Days Parade on Tyson's Great Grandpa Barbers float.

 

 

 

 

Then we walked around at Peach Days and looked at all the exhibits and booths until it was time to watch Colton's band, South of Town, perform. We look forward to listening to them every year. They always do such a good job.

 

After their performance we hurried home, packed up, and headed to my Leavitt family reunion on Kolob. I love Peach Days, but I look forward to this reunion all year round. It's so much fun to see and visit with family all weekend. 

 

Tyson let Liam drive around camp and he was in heaven. I swear this little stinker is going to steal his parents car one day to go for a joy ride. They better keep a close eye on him and their keys AT ALL TIMES.

 

 

One of my favorite parts of the reunion was getting to hold my cousins little twins. They are so adorable! I hope I have twins one day, preferably a boy and a girl, although I'm sure Tyson is praying we don't.  

 

We were pretty excited if you can't tell.  I will never out grow the zip line :)

 

Tyson and I went on a little four wheeling ride and saw a beautiful sunset. I've decided he's the best four wheeling partner around. While there we scouted out a fun area we're going to try and go on a backpacking trip sometime.

 

Once we got home from the reunion we went and helped Colton haul some hay. It was my first time, and as you can tell, I didn't help much because I was put in charge of watching our puppies. I also couldn't help but take a few pictures while watching everyone. Hurricane sunset are one my most favorite things to witness. 

 

 

I loved Colton's silhouette in this picture with his cowboy hat on.

 

 

These two LOVE riding in the back of our new truck. We practically had to drag them out once we got home. We are sure going to miss these two cuties once we sale them. :(

 

 

It was so great to see Tyson feeling well enough to help out. He's slowly getting better and better everyday. He's such a hard worker and being sick made him so frustrated not being able to do much other than sleeping and lying in bed, so it's nice to see him happy and out and about working hard like his usual self :) Plus look how cute he looks in Cowboy pants and those boots!!

 

DIY's

The girls in my family are pretty big into DIY projects. We may not be professionals but we do our best with what Pinterest offers us as far as tips to the trade. In the end we usually love our finished products. Here are a few I've done recently and just adore now!

The first one is this old high chair I scored at a local yard sale for only....wait for it....$10!!! What a deal right?! It was originally stained a darker brown color, but I stripped it down to this lighter brown with lots and lots of sand paper. A special thanks to my sister, Whitney, for helping out with that part!

My super smart, and very helpful husband decided the best and quickest, most efficient way to paint it would be to hang it up and spray it with his spray gun. He's a genius and was right! It was super fast and easy.

And here's the final product of all that hard work. I decided to just go with a white paint, that way it will work for a boy or a girl high chair.

Check out how cute it worked out for my cute little nieces birthday party.



 My next project was this adorable mirror I also found at a yard sale for only $10 too! I just love yard sales. One man's junk, is another man's treasure....or in this case a woman's treasure aka mine :)

This one was pretty easy. No sanding, just a quick spray of paint and it's done.

As soon I finished the mirror I loved it, however I felt like it needed something cute to go with it and later that week my sister found a cute pattern for a small entry table. So we had a girls night out and each made our own. First my dad cut out all the measurements for us. Next we sanded, and sanded, and sanded some more.

 

Once everything was sanded and stained, my older brother was nice enough to spend all night with us nailing our pieces together. I hate to admit this, but I'm scared of nail guns, so I'm really glad he helped out!

I really loved this roughed up stained look but I decided to add some white so it matched my mirror better. Plus when I was staining I accidentally stained some pieces with a darker stain than the rest, and I was too lazy to re-stain it all. :)

I'm so glad I added the white!



The last thing to do was add some cute nobs and decorate, which was my favorite part. Here's the final result, until I change my mind (like I always do) and re-arrange.

 As if I haven't asked enough of my husband while I was at it, I had him paint a few other odds and ends lying around to match the basement colors.









None of them are completely done, but at least they are started. I have some really cute ideas for each one that I can't wait to try out. Although any and all suggestions are welcome :)