Joshua's first grade field trip

I particularly love this shot!

They took the first graders up the canyon for a super fun field trip. And I was lucky enough to get to come along. I took lots of photos, but I'm nervous to post pictures of children that I don't know. So here's some more obscure ones. Joshua is in the green shirt. It was a really great field trip. The kids all had a great time.

"The After"

It is difficult to get a good picture of this room. It is hard to capture the transformation on film. Because one of the biggest things that we did was to re-texture it. And you can't really tell that from the picture. But you can see the color, and the nice white trim. I don't know...It's just what I've got so far.

"I want an architect, mom"

So Breanne is going to a pet store for a field trip this week, and last night Josh suggested that she should buy a pet while she is there. We, of course, say..."no", But you can buy a pet when you are 18 and moving out of the house into your own house. To which, Breanne responds, "I will buy an Architect!" We smile to ourselves and say, "what's an architect?"

"A dog from the Arctic!" -Breanne

I thought it was pretty cleaver.
It could actually make a pretty good laughy-taffy joke.

Remodeling!

We started remodeling again! We are going from Room to Room and just doing what we can, when we can. We are having to re-texture pretty much every wall and ceiling, so that is adding a huge extra step. But I think that the result will be totally worth it.

Here's Jared texturing the walls. We will be painting tomorrow, so I will post that later!

This is a picture of the bathroom. We aren't done with it yet...by any means....but we did paint the cabinets, and I think it made a huge difference. They used to be Peach, like the walls...Ugh! I can't wait to see what it looks like with a decent paint color on the walls. Of course this is a temporary remodel until we have the funds to rip everything out, and put in new!.....someday.

This is a picture of a few things: First, is the "before" picture of what the hall looks like. (Because we are going to be working on it next).

Second, is of the mess that is infront of the door of the room that we are working on right now. And Third, of the cabinet at the back that I painted. They used to be dark brown. They look awesome and new all white! That is what we will be doing to the kitchen......soon.

Here is what it looked like when we textured the ceiling. Those are the dressers full of the kids clothes. Did I mention that I will very happy when we are done, so I can get to all their stuff again.

Hair cuts!!!

Joshua really needed a hair cut the other night, so after he got one, Breanne actually asked for one. Usually she tries to avoid it. Luckily she doesn't need them too often, cause she is wiggely! And it was a little harder than I thought it would be. But I think it turned out cute! She loves it. I think it makes her look a little bit more grown up. It will grow fast, and it really isn't that short. Just a change.

Joshua got the customary short cut. I just hate it when his hair starts sticking out over his ears. That is when I know that it is time for a cut.

And here is Scott. I acutally cut his hair like a week ago, along with Eli's. He has super thin, fine hair, and I was worried that by cutting it off, he would look like he didn't have any hair. But I think it looks cute. He is such cute kid. And it also makes him look more grown up.

THE BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS!

"Can I have a popsicle?" This is what I hear pretty much all the time from Breanne. But One morning I gave in, and let them have popsicles before they had eat'n anything else. They were so cute! They kept saying, "Cheese!" And holding up their treat. Thanks mom! This truely is the Breakfast of Champions! (or atleast I seemed to be a champion that morning!)

Labor Day Weekend Fun!

We are going to be working on the house on actual "Labor Day", so on Saturday, we went up the canyon, to our "usual spot", with Kip and Linda, and Chad and Janice. I didn't get a lot of pictures. Infact, I didn't get any of Chad and Janice and kids. Sometimes you just forget to bust out the camera. I'm often so busy juggling everyone...getting them food, making sure they don't get to curious with the river, or don't fall in the fire...... you get the idea. So at least I got these cute shots. We had a lot of fun. The kids always love going up the canyon into "Nature!"

4-Wheeling!

How lucky are we??? My mom and Dad have two four wheelers, so we get to go up the canyon everyonce in a while and just really enjoy ourselves! We didn't get to go as much as we would have liked to this summer due to the move, and then the huge amount of visitors we had. But luckily we made it up the other day. It was a perfect day. Only it got dark too soon. We would have loved to be up there for a couple more hours. What was so fun, was that Scott LOVED it. He was so upset when he had to get off. I'm sure he will love it when we can go again.

Preschool!

Breanne's first day of preschool! She was so excited! She loves school. And is a great student!

Cute kids!

The water park

These are the only pictures I got when we went to the local water park.

The kids loved it! Joshua went on the huge free fall slide a couple of times! Mom's never even done that!

Everyone was pretty tired when we got home though.

First Grader!

Joshua is getting so big! We love him so much and miss him now that he is gone ALL day. But he loves his school, and his teacher, and is making lots of friends.

Going to the Lake

The kids loved going up the canyon, having lunch, and splashing around in the lake. Mom loved it too. We didn't get to do the camping I wanted to do this summer, or even get up the canyon as often as I would have liked, so with the last day of Summer, I went with my sister and her kids up to the lake.

Prepare Yourself!

Okay, prepare yourselfs for a very long list of new posts! I have been on the computer for like 3 hours straight! I finally got a minute to post all of the pictures from all the stuff that has been going on lately! We have been so blessed to have so much family visiting, and there was a lot to post about! So keep scrolling down! You have a ways to go........

The new grass!

So really this post is for Caroline and Christine because they need to see Kip and Linda's new backyard! They finally put the new sod in! And now they will be able to use their whole backyard! And it looks amazing!

Visiting Family

We can't believe how lucky we are!!! We get to have not only Kathy, but all her kids visiting us right now! I'm telling you, I LOVE THESE PEOPLE! And it is just a real treat to be able to get to visit with them! Especially Nicole, because she just moved, is a mother of 4, and life is crazy for her right now! But she somehow made it out here (from Wisconsin) to see us. She could only bring her oldest (Celest) and her youngest (Jake) with her though. The other two (Ben and Charity) have been left with Dad in Wisconsin. She misses them a lot, and I know it is a sacrifice to come out here but I'm so grateful!!! It is so neat to get to talk with her! We have SO MUCH in common! We are always joking about it! But really, we are "two peas in a pod!" I love her a ton! And she has the most awesome Mom! We always love it when she comes to town! We also love to see Ben and Joey. They are great! I think Jared has a lot of fun playing games and hanging out with them. Oh, and I need to mention how talented all these people are! They are all professional singers! And we get the treat to hear them sing in Church tomorrow! Thanks for coming you guys! We love you!

In addition to the above people, we have Linda's other sister (Terri) and her family visiting too! And I LOVE THESE PEOPLE TOO! I didn't get a picture of Terri and Dave....YET. But this is a picture of their girls. Their names are Madison (the dark hair one) and Meckenzie (the blond). They are so awesome! And the last time I saw them, they were like Breanne's age. So it has been so fun to see them as young women! They are only 10 months apart, and look nothing alike (and apparently their personalities aren't very similar either, but they are super cute and very helpful with our kids!) We are so glad that they came down too!

Bow Making!

Everyone is having such a blast making bows! We got Kathy and Nicole hooked! And hopefully Missy has a girl somewhere down the line because she will have some very cute bows to wear that her very talented mother made for her! And I was so excited to see the things that Kathy made for herself! Very beautiful and sofisticated flowers! She was thrilled about them (and so was I)! Now everyone can't to make more! We all made very cute things! And just had fun hanging out and visiting!

Go AF Cavemen!!!

I went to my high school reunion this week! Crazy how time flies! I went to American Fork High School, home of the Cavemen! And our colors were Red and White! While I was there I was voted to have the most "school spirit", I was a Student Body Officer that did the assemblies, and some school announcements, I was in the band (playing the Bass Clarinet) and in the marching Band (playing the Clarinet....and with which I went to the Rose Parrade, and we won every competition), I was in Choir, and involved in a TON of other things! It is funny because Jared was completely opposite in High School! But anyway, I had a lot of fun and I loved it! (I'm so glad it is over, and would not want to do it again, but I loved it then!) In the above picture is: my brother-in-law: Jake (who played the Tuba!), My sister: Melissa (they were high school sweet hearts), My best friend from High school: Anna Davis (who because she was there...made the whole thing worth attending! We had a good time laughing about crazy things we did during those days), Me, and Jared who was so awesome and supportive, and I was very proud to be there with him!

Here is a shot of just Melissa, Anna, and Me.

It is a crazy thing to attend ones reunion. I'm glad that I did, but I'm glad it's over with!

Anyway, Go Cavemen!!!

IT'S GAME TIME!

There has been a lot of time spent on playing fun games while everyone is here visiting. We like the game in the picture, which is called Ticket to Ride. But we also played a game called Settlers of Catan which is fun too. Also there was a lot of X-Box and Wii games that were being played!

The trouble is that most of the time they were being played at a VERY LATE HOUR! When I was taking a picture the guys playing, Seth said, "You should take a picture of the clock to represent the crazy hours we are playing these games at." So I did! That is 1:18 A.M!!! And they were just getting started! We didn't get to bed until like 3:00 that night/morning. But in the words of a great song from a great musical..."It's great to stay up late...good morning!"

Just another angle of the table. Good times! And I guess I should add that Jared won a good percentage of the games played! It soon became that everyone was out just to dethrown him. But he would hold on, and win another. I'm not sure if he won this particular game or not though. I just loved that we were together, I didn't really care who won or lost. I just loved "playin' the game!"