Nursery 101

 It is a big day in a little girl's life when she gets to go to nursery.

It's also a big day in Mom and Dad's life as well!

 For 8 months now we have walked the halls with her...Tis but a season. It goes so fast.

 Now it is time for this little one to leave mommies nest...for 2 hours each Sunday at least:)

Of course you have to have the right shoes.  Must start out on the right foot after all.

And she did. Stayed the whole time. Only time she cried was at the end they opened the door and put up a baby gate. She could see out. But couldn't get out. Nobody puts baby in the corner.

Pumpkinland: Vineyard Garden Center

October 15, 2010

 Staycation Day #2: After insisting that we at least SEE a pumpkin patch I convinced August and the boys to go to Pumpkinland at the Vineyard Garden Center. After our lackluster day at Gardner village they begrudgingly obliged. What it turned into was an absolutely wonderful day.

 We started off in the Corn Maze. It was one of the tallest mazes I have seen. The best part. It was only us and a few other families. No crowds!

 We just let the kids run. No people to bug, no one getting lost among the thousand other blond kids and it was WARM!!!

 They had  ton of these cut-out-thing-dingies. They are so dumb, but how can you not take a picture with your cuties lookin' back at ya?  I just want to eat them!

After the maze we did the petting zoo...yes...it was an EVIL petting zoo.

 Then we let the kids play on all of the bounce houses. I usually hate these. Too hot and too many kids. Again, there was NO crowds. The kids had a blast.

 They also had a wooden park. As you can tell, Bella barely survived. August sent her down a big slide and she FLEW off of it and face planted.

 Can you hear her? "how could do do that to me?"

 We also did the "light-alley" as opposed to the spook-alley. It was a crack up. Then we let the kids pick a pumpkin. Caleb jumped right in and had one immediately. He wanted one with a BIG stem. No other criteria. Josh took his time and thumped them, poked them, patted them, lifted them and made sure his pumpkin was perfect.

 Can you see the sweat and dirt? He totally ENJOYED himself.

 It's really hard to get a candid smile of Caleb...he tries way to hard. But, I was being really silly and caught a true-Caleb smile!

Our little chunky chicken was obsessed with these apples (ok..tomatoes but she wouldn't hear of it). She would pick them up and put them in her wagon. I would put them back in the bucket because the saleswomen was looking at her and she would glare and put them all back in the wagon.

Fierce.

Pumpkinland=$3/each

No Crowds=Priceless

Gardner Village

October 14, 2010

We had two days off of school and August was willing to take some time off of work. We thought long and hard about where to go. We checked out Yellowstone, Moab and Mesa Verde only to decide that August (and the rest of us...of course:) should probably be home on Sunday to go to his meetings and such. We decided on a STAYCATION. Whoever invented this word is crazy. Staying is NO vacation. We had 2 days off of school...but since we were staying close August only took 1 day off (mistake #1). We also decided to hit up all of the FALL activities around Utah (mistake #2). What we didn't plan for is that when you STAY you still feel like you have to clean, cook and "take care" of things at home. It results in you being tired and it is too easy to just go home. We have learned our lesson. Go...and go far far away. The farther you go the more you are able to forget about the stresses of life.

Staycation: Day 1

We had never been to Gardner Village prior to this visit. It was a charming little place decked out in Halloween/Witch decor. It was quaint, cute and BUSY BUSY BUSY. Fall break=million kids/families. Did we have fun? Yes. Would we go with the kids during the Halloween season again: NO.

 We had some lunch and watched some crazy witch lady try and entertain the crowds. It didn't go so well. We all just stared.

Bella was concentrating so hard on how to get the M&M's out of the cookie. She tried to bite, lick and pick at the little buggers. She finally settled for digging them out with her fingers and leaving the cookie.

 

Bella-Boo

 They have lots of photo ops staged....if you had kids that were willing to sit and let mom take pictures. My kids only said yes to one...

 We can see how that turned out...Thanks Joshie for LOOKING AND SMILING!

 Joshie-Poo

 Caleb absolutely loved following the witch hunt. Great combination. A list...which he LOVES (just like his mom) and funny things like finding a "witchy poo" (bathroom with a witch sitting on it). He was all about crossing the different witches we saw off his list. I would bring Caleb back again. He is easy to entertain.

Caleb-Too

All in all we enjoyed ourselves. After the crowds we ditched our idea of doing Wheeler farm that afternoon in favor or taking a nap. Nap is a word that usually doesn't exist in our vacationing-vocabulary.

Can you imagine?

October 3, 2010 

August (old), Bella (17 months), Joshua (3), Caleb (6), Jacob (5), Riley (9), Isaac (4), Audrie (7)

Did you get that? 9,7,6,5,4,3,1....yikes!

When we went to MO in September, Adam and Julie were nice enough to watch our kids. When they went in October we were able to return the favor and have their kids stay at our house.

 In between Conference sessions on Sunday we took the kids up to Squaw-Peak and let them burn some energy check out the valley and the fall colors. Can you imagine us having 7 kids? You would have thought that after this many kids for 4 days I would have said NO WAY!! But, it wasn't so bad. I think I could have 7 kids...if they weren't 12 months apart of course.

Now the question is where do I get 4 more? Any takers? Bella needs a sister?

We even let them hike around the bend to check out the canyon. No one was lost. No one was hurt.

Success!

Herriman Beach...again

September 14, 2010

Amber and I headed to Herriman Beach so I could show her this little secret gem. A few pics:

 What is better then itty bitty baby bums?

Olivia and Isabella

 

 Don't worry...the little girls had their life jacket on MOST of the time.

We packed a lunch...obviously we had sand for dessert.

Sadly, about a month later the Utah Natinal Guard burnt down the mountain and they had to close this sweet little spot. I hope it is up and open next summer.

Park City Cabin

September 11-12, 2010

We headed up to August's Aunt/Uncle's Cabin for the weekend. The weather was just starting to get chilly, but it was beautiful. We haven't been back to this Cabin since before we were married (12 years) and boy how things have changed!  The cabin is beautiful.  It use to be a one room cabin with no bathroom or running water inside. Now it has electricity, water, bedroom, bathroom, shower and anything you could think of.

The thing about going away from home is that you have time to do absolutely nothing. You also are able to take the time to make everyday things memorable with your kids. The first night Bella helped us do the dishes. She sat on the window sill, watched for animals and played in the bubbles. She was really cute and I think Aunt Christie got a kick out of her.

 After dinner we sat out on the deck and waited for the animals to come in. They often see moose, elk, deer that bed down next to their deck. We tried to be quiet and not scare off the animals. In fact, the boys did excellent! I was surprised that they could actually whisper.

 Uncle Nolan entertained them with the Elk caller. They were VERY serious about this. The boys just ate it up. They sat so quietly next to him and kept very close eye on anything that moved.

 When we got a little cold we went inside and let the boys use the spot light to keep an eye on the watering trough. While we were all looking out the window, August snuck outside, jumped up in front of the widow and screamed...I almost peed my pants...he scared me to death. I think everyone was freaked out, but my tortuous scream was  scarier then August's little practical joke. Ha, ha honey...I will get you...just wait.

The best part of going up to the cabin was just chatting with Christie and Nolan. The kids enjoyed it, we enjoyed it and we hope they enjoyed it!!

 In the morning, Aunt Christie taught the boys how to light the old stove.  They were so attentive and she was so patient! They loved every minute of her attention.

 After a gourmet breakfast, we had a pancake-flippin contest. We all stood on the deck and tossed our left-over pancakes into the woods for the animals to eat.

Salt licker!

 The kids had a blast with the marshmallow guns. Josh's gun quickly became full of spit, Bella just ate the marshmallows and Caleb practiced his precision shots. They shot at hummingbirds, chipmunks and of course: each other. No worries, we all came home with two eyes.

 That afternoon, the rest of the family (minus a few) came up for lunch.
We dined, chatted and had a great time.

Park Day

August 21, 2010

With Caleb being back in school, two kids seems a lot easier to manage at the park. I am not sure why. Caleb is pretty independent. But, somehow two just seems easy. Maybe it is because the weather has turned slightly cooler or maybe it is because Bella is just getting older. This was the first day I was able to just sit and watch them play. We were also the only ones at the park and I didn't have to worry about her getting bumped and falling 20 feet to her death. Bella is also getting more agile. She runs, slides and climbs. No jumping yet. She just thinks about it.



 Can you see the sun shining off of her luxurious hair? It's growing and I am happy. No pigtails yet, but no worries the day shall come.

 It's strange to have Josh be the oldest one at home during the day. I always think of these two as the "babies". Caleb refers to them as such and so do I. But, just being with Josh reminds me of how big he is getting.

 Josh climbed this circle thing at least 30 times. Each time he got to the top he would yell, "MOM, come take my picture!".  So, I did. Luckily for my blog I am only posting one.

Bella tried to copy. She was determined. She got to this point a bunch of times and then fell. She did finally make it to the top and then never tried it again.

Summer Time Projects

I love summer projects. They give me something to think about when I am bored, keep me busy when I have nothing to do (aka: August is out of town) and help me feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish one!

This projects was the LARGEST I have ever done. I started thinking about it in June,  finally started the work in July and didn't finish until August.

I don't know why...(probably crazy)...but I wanted my garage to be finished!!! I realize that it isn't common in Utah, but when we lived in Tennessee ALL garages are finished. My house in TN had  a great garage. Paint, mouldings and all of other stuff that makes it look like any other room in the house.

So, I decided I wanted my Utah house to look the same. After all, I spend A LOT of time in the "room".  Seriously, if the kids want to play outside then I have to be outside. Why not have a pretty room to sit in:) Can you hear me rationalizing my craziness??

I had to start from the very beginning. The walls only had construction taping/mud and needed more mud in order to smooth out the joints. I did 3-4 coats of mud.  It took weeks. You have to sand in between each mudding. This is such a hard process. You have to have technique...I didn't have it. So, I did my best and agonized over whether I needed "just one" more coat. When I finally was done with the three walls I decided that it needed some texture before painting to hide some of the imperfections that I couldn't (or was just to darn tired) to fix. I used my FIL's texture spray gun and went to town. I had to stand on the very top of that ladder to get the highest parts and luckily only dumped a load of plaster on the ground once (I was told that if you spilt it you will NEVER make the same mistake again....I didn't...cleaning it up was NOT fun).  I did a great job on 2 of the 3 walls.  The first wall looks like...well....I didn't know what I was doing!! But, I didn't. The texture is really thick but not totally horrible (I am sure August's Dad would have said otherwise!!). I am thinking Builder/Missionary/FIL Bob can help me fix it when he returns from Jail (aka: LDS Mission at Liberty Jail MO).



Just getting ready to paint took forever.  Like 3+ weeks forever. I had white plaster dust everywhere in my house. I still had to mud the ceiling, but was hoping August could help me. I was wrong. I ended spending the best $100 ever and paying someone to do it!!! By doing the mud/sanding of the walls myself I saved about $600.  Before I could paint, I also had to hang moulding that was missing under the door to the water heater. I borrowed my Dad's chop saw and then googled how to use it:) After figuring it out and keeping all 10 of my fingers, I successfully cut and hung the moulding. Then, followed with 2 coats of paint on the walls, ceiling, mouldings and doors. We also hung hooks for our 72 hr kits. 

The finished product turned out pretty well!!! I can't believe I attempted this project alone. Although, yahoo/google, Builder/Missionary/FIL Bob and Stephanie did play a significant role in getting it accomplished. Who else was going to field my amateur questions and make sure my kids didn't get hit my cars!!!! I did most of the work at night when the kids were in bed and while the boys played outside and Bella slept.

I am soooo glad it is done. Would I do it again looking back?  Not if I had the money to pay someone else to do it!!!!!!! 

This year I have been on the search to see if I have talents. What I learned: I am NOT talented at wood working, painting, or mudding/sanding. But, I do finish projects that I start and I am not afraid to take on a CRAZY idea. Not sure these are talents...

What I still want to do in the garage (for future list reference):

1. Hang light fixtures (I already bought them....just waiting for August to help...electricity is dangerous right?

2. Base Boards: Still thinking about what kind, how to do it and when I want to invest more money.

3. Epoxy the Floor: Already have it...we started the cleaning process and then the weather got to cold to continue with the process!

4. Finish Stairs: This is Aug's project...