our simple life

coloring winner!

2012-01-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

Anna entered a coloring contest that was held by the local chamber of commerce. She was so excited when she learned that she one of the winners. And even more excited to get a gift certificate for a free pizza. Unfortuantely, he entry is somewhere and I don't have a copy of it.

oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree!

2012-01-15T18:21:00.000-08:00

We finally put up a Christmas tree on December 20th. Our first REAL Christmas tree ever! We wanted to have a normal size tree but since we waited so late into the season, we could not find a tree stand anywhere in town. So I settled on a little tree I found at RiteAid that was attached to a display stand. The display stand had a recessed area that we were able to put water into so it stayed hydrated anyway.

Try to ignore the moving boxes and bins in my photo backgrounds and the trim that needs sanding, caulking and painting. Hopefully next Christmas all that will be finished, ha ha!

Our Christmas bins were part of a massive stack of boxes that had been moved from our storage unit into one bay of the garage. Rather than hunt them down and maybe have to move 30 boxes to get to them, we decided to buy a mixed box of ornaments from Costco this year. Totally worth $20ish to keep things simple, right?

Even though it's a mini tree, the kids were very excited to finally have a tree up and add some holiday decor to our home.

kitty love

2012-01-05T22:44:00.000-08:00

In November we got a call from a couple in our church ward asking if we'd be interested in a kitten or two. Our kids overheard me on the phone saying we'd like to look at them and the kids were begging from that second on to get a kitten. And I had a feeling that once we saw them, our entire family would be hooked.

We actually used to have two cats up until about 5 years ago. That's when one year old Emily and two and a half year old Anna kept getting into the cat food and cat litter and it became a little too much at that point in our lives to juggle babies and pets. So we found a family that adopted both of our cats so they could stay together. We have missed them a lot through the years and to be honest, I especially regretted giving them away because I missed them a lot more than I thought I would. And Christian missed them a lot and talked about them frequently. So we decided that when Emily was old enough to start school we would get cats again.

Now if you have read most of my blog over the last couple years (or if you know us in real life), you might think we don't like cats because that we had an awful feral cat problem at the house we have just been living in. And because of that and all the cat urine we found on the house, the strollers, the bikes, etc., we pretty much swore off cats at that point. Fortunately, the cat problem was mostly resolved and the last few months we started thinking about having pets again once we got into the new house.

So back to that phone call. We heard about the kittens, we went to see them, we fell in love, and we committed that day to adopting both of the available ones.

I didn't think to take the good camera, so excuse my poor phone pic. Our entire family just fell in love with these two friendly kitties. They had another kitten there but the family had already decided to keep that one. Since we were still building our home and living in my in-law's home, our friends agreed to keep the cats for another month or two and take care of them until we were ready to bring them to our new house. We visited them each week for the next month.

A month later (6 days after we moved into our house) these two little cuties joined our family. They are a brother and sister the kids named Kipper and Willow.

They were abandoned by their mother right after birth and our friends found four little kittens in their garden probably the day after. They raised the three that survived and bottle fed them each day so they are very friendly and love to be around people.

Our kids think it's so fun when the cats jump up to cuddle up to them. We all adore them!

new year update!

2012-01-04T21:23:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to all you friends and family! I can hardly believe it's been almost two months since my last update. Oh wait, I can believe it as I look around at the many, many stacks of boxes needing unpacking, the window trim that needs sanding and painting, the closets that need shelves and doors, the cabinets that need handles and knobs, the paint that still needes touching up, etc.

So you may have guessed that we did make it into our new home. Our not fully finished home. But still, we made it in and it's mostly finished - probably 95% finished. Enough to pass our final inspection and get an occupancy permit which was good enough for us!

And it was just in the nick of time because we wanted to move out and return my in-law's home to them without us still living in it by their expected return time of December 16-24 They were serving a church mission in Ohio and we were fortunate to live in their home while we built our new one. We moved out the 12th with the bulk of our stuff, went back to their home the next few days over and over to clean and get all the last stuff and finished cleaning on Friday the 16th, and Troy's parents came home Saturday the 17th.

And since the 12th, we've felt a little crazy trying to get settled and also have a nice Christmas for our family. Though our house was mostly finished, it's hard to move in and unpack anything when there aren't handles/knobs on cabinet doors or drawers (and the drawers are hard to open without them), when there aren't shelves or closet rods in any of the closets or pantry, when there aren't blinds on the windows or doors on even the bathrooms. Well, you get the idea. All those little things that we just didn't have time to finish before our inspection.

We do finally have some of those things done and get a little more completed each day and shrink the piles a bit each day. And, I just got internet access today! Hooray! Now, I won't have to survive on pricey iPhone internet use or sit in the McDonalds parking lot using their Wifi to check my email, ha ha!

So I promise lots and lots of house, family, Christmas updates to come this month!

Thanksgiving lunch date with our two cuties

2011-11-22T17:08:00.000-08:00

Our girls' school has a Thanksgiving lunch where parents and family are invited to join students for lunchtime. A cafeteria version of turkey and mashed potatoes might not sound so tempting, but it's usually pretty tasty. The best part of the lunch though is being with our girls and seeing how excited they are to introduce us to more of their friends, show us stuff around school, and have a fun visit at school before the Thanksgiving break.

home building: Hardie shingles

2011-11-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

While the drywall was going on inside the house, Troy and Roger continued working on the exterior. They added Hardie shingle siding to two front walls of our home for a little visual interest and board and batten siding under the gables. We originally were going to put shingles under the gables and board and batten on those two walls but changed our minds.

This is what the shingle siding looks like before it's put on the house.

We especially love the shingles and after seeing them up I really wish we had even more sections of them. But considering they were about twice as much as regular siding, it's a good thing we don't have much more.

Troy pretending to take a nap on the roof while Roger cuts the board and batten pieces.

photos taken 10.15.11

home building updates

2011-11-03T23:43:00.000-07:00

I'm behind on my home building updates so we are actually farther along than these photos. But for now, here are some updates so you can see how things have been moving along.

9.23.11 Troy worked many, many hours on planning and installing low voltage wiring (computer networking, speakers, etc.). so I had to snap a pic of him next to one of his wiring charts.

9.26.11 Furnace in. And now that temps are in the 30's just a month later, I'm so very grateful that we have a warm house to work in.

9.27.11 Power almost hooked up to house (and it was up and running about 3 weeks later) making it possible to run that nice furnace.

9.27.11 The very long ditch (probably 150 feet we guess) to run that power to our home from the power box at the far end of our lot.

9.29.11 Hardwood flooring ordered. We went with the prefinished hardwood Golden Teak/Acacia (darker one on the left) from Lumber Liquidators. Had contemplated the Tobacco Road hardwood (the medium & light brown one below the cabinet door) originally. But when we decided to install some darker built in cabinets in our living room and chose the chocolate cherry cabinets to have something different from our white kitchen cabinets, we decided to adjust our flooring to coordinate better with those cabinets that will be near the hardwood flooring. And since ordering we've realized and heard from several people how much dust and dirt shows on their darker wood. Had seriously not really thought about that before ordering but that's life I suppose. It will look really pretty at least when it's been recently cleaned, lol!

10.1.11 Insulation going into walls

10.7.11 Not the best photo, but it was taken from inside the house looking out through the front door which was installed. It's currently still wrapped (as of 11.3.11) to protect it so I really hope it's the one we ordered and in good shape!

10.7.11 Siding continues to progress around the back of the house.

10.7.11 Time to commit to some of the tile. This isn't the best photo but you can get a feeling for the tile. The darker slate/tan/gray on the left is called Blue Lagoon - is for the master bathroom floor. The tan/bit of brown/hint of blue one on the right is called River Rock or River Bed. Something like that - and it's for the floor of the laundry room, half bath, kids' bath. Didn't go with tile on the sample board in the middle of the them at this point.

10.14.11 Drywall began around the 7th and after a week, the drywall workers had all of the boards up.

jack-o-lanterns

2011-10-31T17:03:00.000-07:00

The day before Halloween, we brought the pumpkins in to carve. The girls' pumpkins have paint on them because they got them at the high schools free painting pumpkin day downtown. Double the fun - paint once, then carve.

Emily had a lot of help from us so she finished early and then enjoyed watching Christian and Anna carve.

She had a little help with the carving, but the cute design is all Em's idea.

Anna didn't need as much help this year and was able to carve most of it herself. She wanted a cute mustache for her pumpkin.

And here Christian is with his cute little owl!

All lit up:

another lost tooth

2011-10-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

Emily lost her third tooth and it happened at church! We knew she had a loose tooth but didn't realize it was on the verge of falling out. Then right in the middle of church, she showed it to her Primary teacher who plucked it out that very minute! Emily was so excited to bring it to show me.

home building: hvac begins

2011-10-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

Probably the most boring photos ever. But to record our home building progress (since we will NEVER build a home again ourselves!), here are pics of my floor vent holes. HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) began on the 7th and those subs only took a few days to rough everything in and install our furnace. They will come back and do finish work and install the outside air conditioning unit near the end of our building process.

Have you ever lived in a home and wished a heating vent was just a few feet away or on the other side of the room altogether because it really messes up your furniture options? Or have you ever stood in front of a kitchen or bathroom sink and had your toes freeze because the air conditioning is blasting from a vent right at your feet? We have - many times! So this time around we got to decide where all the vents went. Really hoping that the locations that seemed logical to us at the time we decided are logical once we move in!

9.7.11 photos

home building: in goes the electrical

2011-10-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

Not the most exciting house update, but we sure were happy when our electrical started going in towards the end of September. Troy wanted to make sure our overhead lighting, electrical sockets, switches, and all that stuff were in just the right places. Not only that, but this house is especially going to be well lit (slightly overkill on the can lights if you ask me, but shhhh don't tell Troy).

Even including the new home we purchased in 2006 (which was an already completed spec home with nice but very basic finishes and barely adequate lighting and electrical), we have never lived in a house or apartment with adequate lighting. We have had home after home with only one overhead light or even worse, with bedrooms and living rooms with NO overheading lighting. And we just got so tired of dim lamp lighting.

So electrical was one of Troy's pet projects. We subbed out the job to professionals since we aren't electricans but Troy extensively planned it all out (with highlighted and heavily annotated floorplan copies that he gave to the electricians). And then once the electrical was in, he spent several days himself install the low voltage wiring (speakers, networking, etc.).

Now I just can't wait to see it all finished one day and try out all those light switches and sockets.

circuit panel boxes located in the garage

the wall of the kitchen where our oven will be one day. blue boxes are electrical and green are low voltage (the one you see in this pic is for the office on the other side of the kitchen wall)

It seemsl like many interior designers (many that have blogs I read anyway) seem to have a thing against lots of can lights and ceiling fans. If I could have a lovely chandelier in every room that not only lit up the rooms with lots of lot and cooled the space, then maybe we'd lean more that way. But until then, we have lots of overhead can lights and a ceiling fan in the living room and bedroom. I gladly accept the fact that our home never be the height of design!

9.27.11 photos

blowing out the candles!

2011-10-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

Since we celebrated Emily's 6th birthday at the park with friends and Troy wasn't able to join us, we had a special birthday dinner at home and also invited Uncle Roger & Aunt Leanne and their kids over to join us.

Emily was thrilled to have them over since it had been a long time since her cousins were over (we've been a little anti-social and swamped with all our house building and haven't had them over to eat in a while). She especially idolizes her 12 year old cousin, April and always wants April to sit right next to her for everything, including candle blowing time.

photos taken 9.11.11

home building: Craftsman style doors

2011-10-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

For our interior doors, we chose these Craftsman style doors with inset panels. We had debated about this style for a while and if it was worth a little jump up in price from the standard raised 6 panel doors.

We find ourselves consistently drawn to a lot of modern Craftman, Mission, or Shaker features and Troy and I both love the clean, simple lines of those styles. After a visit to some of our friends that recently moved into their new house and seeing almost identical doors to these in their home, we decided to go for them.

And when this door arrived (it's our fire resistant laundry room/garage entrance door), we knew we had made the right decision. We both love it! Though our interior doors will probably be white, I'm thinking of painting this one the same color as our front door - kind of a muted turquoise. Wouldn't that be cute and fun in a laundry room?!

photo taken 9.27.11

home building: thinking about exterior paint

2011-10-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Choosing paint colors (for the exterior and the interior) has been both one of the most enjoyable and one of the least enjoyable parts of this home building process.

At first, picking lovely paint colors was fun. That is, until I had to show them to my husband and come to some type of happy compromise. I personally have come to the conclusion that if I would just be left 100% in charge of all the color and decorating decisions, life would be so much easier (at least for me, ha ha!). And pssss - don't tell Troy, but my colors usually win out in the end anyway and he always loves them. So if we could skip the round about way of arriving at the conclusion that my colors look great and just go straight to the end, that would be great! Joking a little, but mostly serious. ;)

So back to paint. After much discussion on exterior color options, we finally agreed that shades of gray siding, bright white trim, and a colored door would be lovely.

But do you know how many shades and versions of gray there are?! More than enough to make the two of us go batty.

Here are only a few of the possible colors we were thinking of. Thank goodness Home Depot offers samples that only cost $3. (Didn't get around to color correcting these pics in Photoshop. They were taken in shadow so the color isn't that accurate, but you get the idea).

We instantly ruled out the darkest and the lightest.

Then we narrowed it down to a medium dark gray (Martha Stewart Cement Gray from Home Depot in case you were wondering). We were thinking of paining it in the bottom board and batten wainscoting and then perhaps going a little lighter on the horizontal siding above the wainscoting. Shown here, we have the Cement Gray in both sections. (photos taken 9.27.11)

But then after talking with one of Troy's brothers (who is a drywaller and painter) about paint, he persuaded us to go with Sherwin-Williams or Columbia paint over Behr for many reasons. We decided to go with SW but they don't have the exact same colors Behr does and we didn't want to color match.

We just want to use colors right off of their paint chips so that in the future we will have an easier time maintaining and matching paint. Luckily it didn't take nearly as long choosing possible paint colors this time around. Colors aren't represented in this photo so great and look more brownish than they do in real life but you get the idea again. We are going to use two (or maybe all three - Mindful, Dorian, and Dovetail) of these grays and use the darker blue color (Drizzle) for the front door.

Hoping to paint next week!

kitchen island lighting

2011-10-15T23:02:00.000-07:00

We came across these pendant lights on clearance at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago. Lighting fixtures won't be installed for a few more weeks, but they were such a great price that we grabbed three of these to go over our future kitchen island. I'm hoping that clearance doesn't mean soon to go out of style, ha ha!

I think they have a slightly retro vibe that I like. The biggest factor though was that both Troy and I liked them and there was no debate involved. At this point in our home building saga where we are sick of all things home building but often still have a hard time matching up our styles, that made it a home run.

Don't think we didn't keep the receipt though. Just in case something better comes along. Or more likely, if we can't coordinate it with any other lighting when we get around to purchasing the rest of our lighting needs.

Just came across this kitchen photo on Pinterest.com while looking at light vs. dark countertops. I think these might be the same pendants!

Kindergarten cutie

2011-10-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

A week after regular school started, Emily headed off to Kindergarten. She was excited to ride the bus with Anna and Christian but I drove then instead so that I could snap a few photos of her with her teacher.

We were pleased that she has the same wonderful teacher that Anna had for Kindergarten. We know she'll be in good hands and have a great year!

house building: board and batten exterior wainscoting

2011-10-11T22:51:00.000-07:00

We really love the look of board and batten and decided to put a wainscoting of it on our home's exterior. Other than two front sections of our home, we used it around the entire home.

Had we known before starting what we know now, I think we might have gone with something not quite so labor intensive. There was a lot more work involved than putting up regular horizontal siding. And after the board and batten went up, I was assigned the caulking job which seemed to go on and on and on. Caulking board and batten uses about 10 times more caulk and time then regular siding because I have to caulk around, above and below all those strips.

Some days when the kids were at school, I caulked for 6 or 7 seven hours. And here we are a month later still working on siding and caulking - but at least this wainscoting is pretty much finished. (Of course, we had to work on wiring and other things inside the house periodically to keep things moving along so siding was put on hold frequently but we are hoping to be finished this week).

photo taken 9.13.11

birthday girl!

2011-10-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

Emily turned 6 on September 6th! I've always referred to the year you turn the age of your birthdate (for example, the year I turned 24 on the 24th of November was my special year) as your golden birthday. Unfortunately for Emily, this year her birthday arrived during a stressful time in our family and I didn't really plan an exciting golden birthday for her. Boo to me! But since she was only turning 6, I think she didn't really expect a huge shindig to make her happy.

About 2 days before her birthday it hit me that I should do something for our little girl's big day. Especially given that we let the kids have birthday parties with friends invited over on even years. So I quickly called a few friends and invited their kids to a party in the park. I skipped making a fancy cake and whipped out cupcakes, cut up fresh fruit and brought along a bunch of snacks for the after school party playdate.

Plenty of kids came, they played, they ate, gifts were opened, Emily was thrilled with her gifts. Another successful birthday checked off the list! Forgot the good camera, so enjoy my so-so phone pics.

who doesn't love a round of Red Rover?

Red light, green light!

home building: roof started

2011-10-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

Labor day I went out to paint the fascia (I think that is what the trim right under the roof line is called). A necessary (or preferred anyway) step before roofing.

The next day on September 6th, our general contractor started putting the roofing on. We were so excited to see that part get started. I have to admit that at first I questioned our choice of black roofing because it seemed so very dark up there. But as we've watched it progress we love it! It's going to look great against whtie trim and gray (probably unless we change colors) siding.

Photo taken 9.6.11

However, I'm posting this now a full month after the roof was started and it is not quite finished. Sometimes it's very frustrating to watch things move along at what seems like a snail's pace. Even more frustrating when we watch the house down the street that's being built get their roof up in less than a week. Having the roof go on so slowly meant we couldn't schedule the electrical to come in as soon as we wanted, or have the insulation put in or have our general contractor move on to other steps. Every delayed step delays the next one, etc. etc.

Once enough of the roof was on to keep things covered inside we moved on with those steps fortunately, but it's been worrisome to find puddles inside the house on the few days it rained recently.

So now I'm really, really hoping that this is the week it will finally be finished!

home building: siding progress

2011-09-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

Some pics of the exterior progress taken 9.27.11.

We learned very quickly (okay, Troy did and I learned from watching anyway) that putting up your own siding is a lot of hard work. Lots and lots of measuring, cutting, nailing and climbing ladders. And then caulking (which was my job). We sure hope it lasts for years or decades because we don't want to redo it anytime soon!

house building: on to horizontal siding

2011-09-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

About mid September, Troy finished as much of the board and batten siding as he could do. There are still two sections left to finish - the area above the front patio and the area above the back patio. But those can't be tackled until our general contractor does the concrete for those patios. Hoping that happens very soon.

In the meantime, Troy moved forward with the upper part of our home and used Hardie plank siding that he has been putting up with the help of his brother and friends occasionally. He worked on it for about three weeks (well, two actually since he let it sit for about a week while he worked on wiring inside the house) and finished all of it Saturday, October 8th.

This photo was the first wall of the house that he put horizontal siding on with the help of our friend, Geoff. This wall is the back of the garage which is why we have really small windows. Photo taken 9.15.11

I don't have photos for it right now, but he is now working on two sections in the front of the house that have shingles.

white tile - too much of a good thing?

2011-09-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

For our kitchen (which will be white kitchen cabinets and hardwood for the flooring), I'm completely sold on white subway tile for the backsplash. I love bright and white elements in a home like cabinets, shelves, trim, windows, etc.

Lately I've been noticing a lot of white tile on design blogs and in home magazines. I love the look of white tile anywhere, and I think it would be great to carry over consistent design elements throughout our home. But I'm wondering if it's practical for bathrooms - meaning will it show too much dirt?

Just look at how pretty this bathroom is - I'd love to copy this look for our master bathroom (which definitely would not get as much wear and tear as the kid bathroom), but am I going to be driven insane every day by even the smallest amount of dirt on white?

Would it be a better idea to only use it on backsplashes perhaps and do a slightly darker floor like this one:

I just can't decide. And I really need to decide soon. Opinions VERY welcome!

tears, sweat & prayer

2011-09-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

In case I haven't returned your emails, or your calls, or your texts lately, it's because I've been a little stressed out. Well, a lot stressed out. I've been trying to block out the stress by listening to a book on tape as I sit on a stool next to our house-in-construction and caulk the siding for hours on end each day and not think about the stress. The upside is I listened to one and a half books and I lost about 4 pounds from lack of appetite.

So the source of the stress - Saturday night I had to give a talk in stake conference (a large church meeting of a couple hundred people, plus it was broadcast to part of our church stake that lives far away but I hope only 10 people at most attended over there).

I was asked a little over a week ago and for once I didn't mind not having much time to prepare because more time would have meant being stressed out even longer!

I am NOT a great public speaker, nor do I enjoy speaking in public at all. I'm comfortable teaching classes to small groups (maybe 20 people tops if they are adults and only slightly more if they are kids) and any size past that and I feel like I'm going to puke, wet myself, sweat to death, and pass out - all at once.

In our church, members are asked to speak usually once a year (sometimes more, sometimes less frequently) and I dread it. I dread it every single time. I just get so nervous and awkward in front of an audience and then I talk too fast or get teary or sweat a lot. Public speaking is just not one of my talents. Usually I make it through my talks and pray that I don't get asked for another year or ten!

So when our stake president asked me to be one of the speakers, I about passed out on the spot. Speaking in stake conference feels about 10 times as nervewracking as a regular Sunday! And then when he asked me to talk for 15-20 minutes on strengthening marriage, I felt even more nervous to talk on such an important & sensitive subject. For some reason though (I think perhaps inspiration from the Spirit), I started thinking about this topic last month as I reflected on my Grandmother's life and when I attended her funeral and as I thought about our marriage and family goals for this fall.

I prepared as well as I could and fortunately, my reflections on this topic last month helped me prepare. Then I prayed a lot for strength and peace and help. And then I prayed some more. Saturday night I felt so sick with nervousness that I started to cry about 30 minutes before the meeting began when Troy asked how I was. He was supporting and comforting and said a prayer for me. Then my sweet little Emily offered another prayer for me and all the kids gave me a big hug but I was still so nervous that I could hardly talk on the drive to the church.

When I got to the church and the stake president saw me and shook my hand and asked how I was, I could only barely squeak out a reply and then I started to cry a little - right in front of him. ugh. So then I went to the restroom and went into a stall to dry my eyes and pray some more.

But somehow as I stood to give my talk I felt a calmness (not as calm as I'd like to feel relaxing on the couch but a noticable calm compared to how I felt before the meeting began) and I made it through my talk with minimal tears or shaking and managed to speak at a normal pace and not lightning fast as usual. And so many nice people came up to talk to me when the meeting ended that I felt a great deal of support and kindness to lift my spirit. I don't know if my talk helped anyone else but if anything, I alone have a stronger testimony of the importance of marriage and the power of prayer.

foursquare - good idea for a driveway?

2011-09-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

Christian loves to play foursquare (is that what this game is called?). Sometimes in the summer when we walked to the nearby school, he'd bring a ball to play foursquare with his sisters or his cousins and have a great time. It's such a simple game but it can last for a long time.

So my question is - would that be weird to paint the foursquare lines on a driveway? Or look tacky? Cause I'm kind of thinking of doing that at our new house for the kids to enjoy.

6.10.11

home building: plumbing

2011-09-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

The plumbers came and roughed everything in. There wasn't much to tweak or change from what we planned months ago so the plumbing went smoothly. One thing I wasn't sure if we'd be able to fit was a laundry room sink but we'll have that after all and I'm very excited about it even if it is a little thing. Here are a few miscellaneous phone pics to share.

double sinks in the kids' bathroom

tub surround for kid bathroom

hard to tell, but this will be the master bathroom shower and all this will be tiled over

master bathroom double sinks

9.6.11

first day of school

2011-09-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

Christian is now in 7th grade and moving on to a new school! Lunch packed, backpack filled with supplies, french horn ready to go.

Anna moves on to 2nd grade and ready to show Emily the ropes at their school. Though it's hard to tell, she had me put curlers in her hair the night before to have cute hair for her first day.

And though Emily is going to Kindergarten, it didn't start until the following week. So she had one last week as my buddy before she began her school career.

I sure am blessed to have three wonderful children!

9.1.11

goodbye summer vacation - hello school!

2011-09-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of the new school year. Christian is off to a new school - to 7th grade in Middle School and Anna is in 2nd grade. Two down - one to go! Emily starts Kindergarden next Wednesday.

It's been a fun summer but can I just say that I was SO ready for school to begin. Ready for our regular routine, ready for the heat to end, and ready to be able to help more on the house while the kids are away at school.

Favorite things I'll miss about summer vacation:
1. Sleeping in almost every morning. And finally having all three kids be old enough to turn on the tv and watch cartoons in the morning or find something to entertain themselves with and get their own breakfast if they were hungry and they had woken up before me.

2. Lots and lots of fresh, very affordable fruit. Watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, raspberries, plums, apricots, cherries, grapes, nectarines...Yum!

3. Reading books for fun every day. We participate in the library's summer reading program every year and I'm so glad all three kids (and so do I!) love to read and be read to. This summer Emily even learned how to read basic words and can make her way through simple childrens books with a little help.

4. Swimming at the pool several times each week. That $100 family summer pass was money well spent. The kids loved swimming and playing at the local pool and playing with friends each week. And I loved hanging out with my mom friends and swimming there myself.

5. Sunshine, short sleeves & flip flops. Though I'm looking forward to cooler temps, part of me is dreading having to wear longsleeves and jackets.

little chickies

2011-08-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

There is a home in our town that has a giant chicken in it's yard. Don't know why but my kids sure dig it. Almost every time we drive by it, they love to yell if they see the giant chicken first.

On the way to working on our home one Saturday, we noticed the chicken house having a yard sale. No good buys, but the girls begged me to take their pic next to the chicken. One day they'll come across this photo and wonder why on earth their mom took it!

photo taken 8.27.11

home building: exterior siding & trim going up

2011-08-23T23:02:00.000-07:00

When I came back from Hawaii (where I went for my Grandma's funeral in August), I was excited to see that Troy and his brothers had started putting up window trim and the board and batten wainscoat and that all the sheeting was put on the trusses. Troy and whoever helps will continue working on siding (we're going to have a combination of the board and batten vertical siding, regular horizontal siding, and shingles) and soon the contractor will be putting up the roofing.

in case you are wondering what the hole in the roof is, that is one of the two skylights in the kitchen.

this is the north side of the house near the garage doors - my job is going to be to caulk all those nail holes and around all those strips.

8.23.11

home building: windows are in

2011-08-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

For our windows, we chose Prairie style windows - with a simple grid a few inches in from the window frame, and they are all single hung (meaning the bottom panel slides up to open instead of side to side or top down). Troy installed them with the help of his brother and did a great job.

looking at the front of the house

looking from the kitchen windows out the front

my hard worker! you can't tell, but it was HOT that day even in the shade

this photo was taken standing in the entryway and looking into the living room

8.13.11

home building: house wrap up and roof sheathing over trusses

2011-08-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

Troy and Roger added house wrap to the exterior walls to prepare for siding. Colt, our contractor, was in charge of putting down roof sheathing over the trusses to prepare for roofing. Sorry I didn't have Troy move his truck and trailer to get a better shot.

8.11.11

home building: front gables

2011-08-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

Now some of the front gables are on the house (the triangle shape at the top of a couple of front walls in case you don't know what they are) and add a nice touch. Little by little it's coming along.

8.8.11

home building: up go the trusses

2011-07-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

Our contractor was in charge of putting up the trusses. These make it definitely look more like a real house!

home building: planning the kitchen

2011-07-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite parts of planning our home has been designing the kitchen. Though it's literally taken hours and hours and hours (both with a cabinet designer/planner and on my own at home), I have enjoyed planning what cupboards we need, what dishes or food or kitchen supplies will go in what areas of the kitchen, where the appliances will go and every other necessary detail.

The kitchen is one of my favorite parts of a home and of course one of the most important. I love to cook, bake and can and spend a lot of time in the kitchen with our family so getting the kitchen just right is important to me.

Before we started the process I had no idea how much you can tweak every little thing in a kitchen. You can change cupboards to be wider or narrower or taller or shorter in 3" increments. You can have base cabinets be ones with doors, with rollouts, be drawers instead, have dividers in them, etc. For both uppers and lowers, you can choose regular doors, ones with glass, or have open shelving. There are a ton of different wood colors, paint colors, door designs, trim designs, hardware (handles and pullouts) designs.

Not only are there a million different options, there is a huge difference is cost that comes with all those changes. So we've tried really hard to balance longevity (we want a timeless design that's not going to be dated in 5 or 10 years), with a style we like, with a finish that is easy to clean, will blend with our home style, be very functional and highly organized.

And now finally, we have tweaked it to the last detail, gotten bids from two places (and we are going with Lowes, not Home Depot where we are in these pics), had a dozen+ appointments with the cabinet people, and are ready to order! It will take 4-5 weeks for them to come in so though we aren't ready to install them, I sure hope we will be in 4-5 weeks!

Lots and lots of appointments sometimes brought out the crazy in us!

We learned early on that having kids along on our appointments wasn't the best idea, ha ha!

We are ordering white cabinets with brushed nickel hardware from Lowes. Though we aren't ordering these things yet - other parts we have in mind will be dark countertops, white subway tile backsplash, brushed nickel hanging lighting over the island and wood floors.

Ours will be much simpler and less "blinged" out than this kitchen, but I have this photo for inspiration.

Just look at that crisp, white, glossy backsplash. I love it! That dark countertop with the white cabinets is so pretty I think. And though initially we put in a few glass upper doors, we've taken them out of our order. Each upper glass door can be around $300 difference from a regular door-crazy!

my hardworking boys!

2011-07-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Troy's been working on building our home every possible day he can. During the week, he tries to wrap up work at his office early each day so he can several hours in on the home construction before nightfall. And Saturdays he spends the majority of the day out at the lot in the heat working. Thankfully, Sundays are a day of rest. Poor guy comes home exhausted each night from consturction but still gets up early the next day to repeat the cycle all over again.

home building: interior walls going up and rooms coming to life!

2011-07-11T21:26:00.000-07:00

Once the interior walls started going up, it was even more fun to visit the house site and get a feel for the rooms of the house. The kids immediately started discussing which room they might want.

silly girls

2011-07-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

This is what happens sometimes when the girls play with my phone in the dark. Sillies!

home building: exterior walls done, interior walls going up

2011-07-02T22:24:00.000-07:00

The exterior walls of the house (but not the garage yet) are up and interior walls have been going up. The kids' rooms and hallway are up. This evening we stopped at the lot for a few minutes and the kids loved checking out their future rooms and already claiming which one will be theirs.

I enjoyed seeing the improvement from Monday night. Remember that was the last time I was out of the house, and that's where I sprained my ankle? Yeah, that was a memorable visit. So I was VERY careful as I hobbled around the site with my crutches. Didn't want to come home with a second sprained ankle.

Seeing the house construction progressing is very exciting! But can I tell you a little secret? Sometimes I feel a little bit of anxiety and worry about it.

Wondering if things are really in the best location. Or if we should have made certain areas bigger. Then wondering not long after if we should have made them smaller. Wondering if it has too many or too little windows. Wondering if we are going to be spending too much. Then wondering if we are trying to hard to pinch pennies and if we are going to regret that we didn't make some things nicer.

There is a lot of wondering and overanalyzing going on in my head these days. All of the decisions feel very overwhelming. And a lot of things just can't be changed at this point. But a lot of things can be changed still which is the part that is more stressful, ha ha!

Anyway, here are some phone pics we snapped tonight. Spaces for windows aren't all cut out yet so don't feel like you have to email me that yes, we need more than the one window, ha ha!

taken from front left corner of home

taken from same front left corner of home (but inside it). the far right side which has interior walls up is the kids' hallway.

taken looking at the front of the house. the opening in the front right corner is the window for Christian's bedroom

ouchy updates

2011-07-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

Emily is doing great and her tooth money has her overjoyed. She had her tooth and root extracted and did just fine at her appointment. To her great surprise the tooth fairy brought her a $10 bill! I don't know what the tooth fairy was thinking (pure craziness!), but Christian and Anna convinced Emily that it was probably going to be more than the usual $1 because the tooth came out under special circumstances and it was her very first tooth at all to come out.

I think the tooth fairy was a bit crazy to give that much but probably had to when he/she got to our house late at night and only had a $10 bill on hand. Hopefully Em will use it to buy a good toothbrush and lots of floss! ha ha - one can only hope!

As for my ankle, things are looking up. The first two days I could barely more any of my foot, not just the ankle and boy, did it hurt! I followed doctor's orders and kept it elevated, used ice off and on, and have been very careful with it.

It still hurts a lot but I can move my foot a lot more and can even touch my toes to the ground to help my balance (while using crutches). The swelling has gone way down, though I do have unsightly bruises (mostly where the Ace bandage was not wrapped tightly). I can hobble around okay and that makes me happy that things are looking up. Today I even left the house and when Troy finished up at the house early, we took our kids to the pool for an hour and spent time with Troy's cousin and and his lovely family. I just sat with my foot up, but it was so nice to be outside and enjoy the company.

another ouch!

2011-06-29T19:32:00.000-07:00

We haven't had the best week around here it seems! Today the kids went over to their cousins' house so they could do something fun and I could relax and keep my foot up.

The kids were having a great time until the girls had a fall out of a wagon and Emily got several scrapes, a puffy lip, and hit her face against the road. One of her top teeth was pushed inward and is now loose.

Troy took her into our dentist and unfortunately the root is broken and the best thing to do is pull the tooth and root. It's one of her baby teeth (she actually hasn't lost any baby teeth anyway yet) and so now she'll have a gap for one or two years until her permanent tooth grows in.

So tomorrow, she and Troy will need to drive an hour over to the pediatric dentist (in case she needs to be sedated) and get it pulled. I wish I could go with them but I still can't put any weight on my ankle/foot and need to keep it up.

Poor little Em!

ouch! sprained ankles are no fun!

2011-06-28T21:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got my first ever (and hopefully my last ever!) sprained ankle. Boy, does it hut and I am NOT enjoying the down time.

The girls and I had driven over to our lot yesterday to take Troy and Christian dinner and snap a few progress photos. I unwisely wore some platform sandals and headed over there.

When we were finished, I was getting ready to round up the girls to head back home and eat our dinner here, and I stumbled over a rock on the lot and down I went. There was so much instant pain that I could not help bursting into tears and within a minute the outer side of my left ankle began to swell. So we knew it wasn't good. I was just praying that nothing was broken.

Fortunately, my sister-in-law, Leanne, was also at the lot at that time with her kids. One of her daughters took our girls back to their house to watch them and then Leanne drove me to the local clinic along with Christian and her son, Ryan.

X-rays were taken and nothing was broken, thank goodness. So now I just have to keep it elevated for a couple of days, do some icing, and use crutches to get around until I can walk on it again.

I've never broken or hurt anything seriously so I've never had to lay around waiting to heal (other than after giving birth three times) so I'm already bored and frustrated. The kids and I have so many plans that this really puts a crimp in our summer. I'm really praying for a quick recovery!

home building: more exterior walls going up

2011-06-27T12:22:00.000-07:00

It was pretty exciting to see the exterior walls going up! Troy and Roger worked along with our contractor to get them up and we enjoyed watching the process. Unfortunately, I tripped and sprained my ankle just a few minutes after snapping these photos and then couldn't go out to the lot for a full week to see any more progress.

home building: walls are going up!

2011-06-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

No posts lately because we went to Utah for a super fast few days for my cousin's wedding last weekend. We returned home super late Monday night and this past week and we've been playing catch up with laundry, getting back into our routine (what little routine there is for summer), etc.

Since we've been back, Troy and Roger have been busy during the evenings building walls for our home and over the last couple of days, a couple of them have been put up. The ones you see are the front right corner of our house - for one of the kids' bedrooms.

Little by little, the house is coming along!

the man in the photo is a neighbor that was nice enough to come over to help the guys out.

home building: floor joists and wood flooring panels

2011-06-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

First day of floor joists. This is where Troy and Roger take over from our contractor for a while.

They are hard workers and had additional help from Christian and a neighbor boy, Eli (who also is Roger's nephew) so it only took two evenings I think.

Once that was complete, it was time to lay flooring boards.

More helpers. Well, visitors anyway!

Flooring now finished. Time for some walls!

on her own two wheels

2011-06-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

Last fast we worked with the girls to help them learn to ride bikes without training wheels. They both almost had it down before the cold weather came and the bikes were put away. They could each ride without training wheels but had difficulty starting and stopping (take off and landing as we refer to them).

Very sad to admit, but this year we didn't really get the bikes out to ride until school ended in June! So most of what they learned was forgotten. Not long after school was out, I loaded the bikes into the van so that the girls could ride around the street we'll live on when the house is done while Troy and I worked on things at our home construction site. There is very little traffic out there and nice wide streets without cars parked along the sides.

Though Anna struggled (and actually kind of freaked out and had a meltdown), in just a couple of minutes of me running alongside and helping a bit, Emily was a pro. Then, cousin April helped Emily out some more and now she is a very confident bike rider!

6.10.11

dog days of summer

2011-06-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes our general contractor brings his two black labs with him to the job site. They are such gentle, good dogs and my kids love to see them.

They especially seem to love Anna and her own gentle way with animals. And she doesn't seem to mind their dusty fur or slobbery tongues.

6.10.11

last day of school!

2011-06-09T22:35:00.000-07:00

This was the last day of 1st grade for Anna and 6th grade for Christian! The kids were so ready for the school year to end and ready for summer.

When Emily and I dropped Anna off at school, we went inside for a couple of minutes to take some pics of Anna with her wonderful teacher and some classmates and of course they had to do a silly pose. :)

home building: concrete for garage

2011-06-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

home building: pony walls

2011-06-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

Next up are pony walls. These will support the floor joists.

Ginkgo Petrified Forest

2011-06-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

Though most of our free time (Troy's anyway) has been used for building our home this summer, we tried to do a few fun things with our family. One afternoon we stopped at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park. (I'm pretty camera lazy these days, so please excuse the mediocrity of my phone camera pics)

We've driven by the sign leading to it a hundred times since we moved to Washington but haven't taken the time to check it out until now.

Very fascinating park. At least Troy and I thought so. The kids thought the gift shop was the highlight I think. Ah, the lure of shiny rocks!

6.4.11

meow

2011-06-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

The girls really seem to have quite a bit of animal magnetism, ha ha! Wherever we go, if there is an animal to be found and loved on, my girls will find it.

Emily found this friendly cat when I took her with me to my knitting group. Emily and the cat took turns following each other around my friend's yard. It was quite a friendly cat and Em loved having the animal attention.

6.1.11

home building: stem walls completed

2011-06-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

5.31.11 Concrete going into stem wall forms.

5.31.11 Stem walls filled at end of day

6.1.11 The next day the forms were removed and the stem walls are set. Dirt was backfilled closer to the house. The shot was taken from the far right front corner of the house (one of the kids' bedrooms)

6.1.11 Front shot of the house

home building: prepping for stem walls

2011-05-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

I have no clue what any of the technical term are for home building steps or materials, so hopefully I remember correctly what Troy tells me.

From my understanding these are the concrete walls that make up our crawl space. Then, the floor will be built above that and dirt will be backfilled around these walls.

these boards are in place and ready for the concrete to be poured into it

My nephew was with us when I stopped for quick photos of the latest progress. This shot is take from the left side (the north side) of our home and down the road into our culdesac. Right now we only have two neighbors on our street but there is another home being built next to the two story home on the right side of the photo.

preschool graduation

2011-05-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

On the 27th, Emily graduated from preschool. Her teachers held a brief ceremony and farewell party for the children and parents. Each of the children wore the tie dye t-shirt that they had made the week before at preschool. I was surprised that Emily didn't dye hers pink and purple, which are her typical favorite daily colors.

After a couple of songs from the class, the ceremony and handing out of diplomas, we visited with other parents while the kids enjoyed snack time. Since Em's preschool was at a private Christian school, most of the students will continue on there for Kindergarten. We've been happy with the local public schools, so Emily will go on to the same Elementary school that Christian and Anna attended (Anna will still be there). There also is a second public Elementary school here in town so between all those factors, there are only two or three kids that I think will be at Em's same school. I'm hoping that she ends up in a class with at least one of them and hopefully a kid or two from church so she knows someone in the fall.

Some of Em' favorite buddies

Saying goodbye to her wonderful teachers

and remembering what she looked like at the start of the school year

home building: concrete into footings

2011-05-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

A few days after the steel bars were added, in came the concrete. I'm sure hoping that we keep up this pace because I'm thrilled to see one step after another going in every few days.

And then here it is the next day. Concrete set and more steel added for the following step.

5.25.11

Em and her flowers

2011-05-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

This little gal of ours is quite the handful most days and I'll be honest that most of those days I'm counting down until she starts full time Kindergarten this fall. But at the same time I feel sad that our days together are coming to an end and that there are no more little ones that will be home with me during the weekdays.

On this day she and I drove to our lot to take photos of the latest home building development. When I finished, she was calling to me to see what she had found. I'm so glad for Emily's little reminder to stop and smell the flowers and be grateful that I still have my little companion for the time being.

5.25.11

home building: footings + steel bars

2011-05-19T20:01:00.000-07:00

A few days later, steel reinforcement bars were placed within the footings framework and prepared before the concrete was poured. I know, I know - it's almost more excitement than one can handle.

5.19.11

local great horned owl

2011-05-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

Over the last several weeks, Christian has been working on his bird watching merit badge. Our entire family has enjoyed learning more about local birds. One of our friends, Matt, is a really good birder and very knowledgable about bird watching so he has been helping Christian work on the merit badge requirements.

He told us that there was a great horned owl nesting high up in the trees at the local park. It was hard to spot at first because it's very high up in the trees. But once we found the, we were even able to spot the baby owl. Do you see it there on top of the nest? It's light tan/gray.

Here are two shots of the mother owl. This is the best pic we could get of her since they were so high up in the trees. In person, we could tell that she is quite a large owl.

home building: on to footings

2011-05-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

During the week that followed the excavation, our contractor worked on the footings. It was so exciting to see these first few stages going in. Especially as the last year+ ticked by and we wondered when we'd actually ever be ready to start.

In case you were wondering, it's going to be a one story rambler. We live in a very rocky area and that combined with the price of concrete means that not very people have basements. And since we have a fairly big lot (2.40 acres) and probably will be living here until we retire, we decided to just have one level with no stairs.

While we were walking around the lot, a couple of girls from a neighboring home rode by on their bicycles. Emily ran up to the younger one (she seemed close in age to our girls) and excitedly yelled something along these lines at this little girl as she passed, "Hi! I'm Emily! I'm going to be your neighbor soon because we're building a house and then we can play together!"

The little girl didn't stop to chat, but Emily didn't seem fazed. She is definitely not our shy one.

let the home building begin!

2011-05-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging very much lately because almost all of our free time in the evenings and weekends over the last month have been spent on home building homework. Looking at ideas in books and online, comparing prices of materials and products in person and online, fine tuning the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry designs, debating needs vs. wants vs. budget, etc., etc. etc.

As fun as you would think home building would be, choosing every. single. thing and deciding on the location of everything in a home is laborious, exhausting, confusing, and overwhelming. We are trying to have fun along the way, but I kid you not when I say that this process is wiping us out! And we aren't even ready to purchase anything or do any of the manual labor ourselves yet. We are just in the analyzing/comparing/narrowing it down stage.

But while we haven't been out on our lot actually working, the building has started! Although we wanted to have an owner/builder construction loan, our bank required us to have a general contractor. So the man that we bought the lot from in 2005, who is the same man we were going to have do our concrete and a few other jobs, who also works as a general contractor is the man we are working with. The nice thing is that we have a good open working arrangement with him that we can choose to do whatever work we want to, or select whatever sub-contractors we want to, and that Troy will be working closely along side him to plan and build our home.

We officially began the home with our general contractor digging for the foundation on May 10th. Here are the first few pics I snapped that week with my phone camera. They were taken from different sides of the foundation hole on our lot. As you can see, we live out in the wide, open, treeless country. Once the house is built, we're going to have quite a big landscaping project. One step at a time, right?

good intentions

2011-05-10T20:38:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I wasn't born with a green thumb. And if I did have one, I'd forget to take care of it just like these.

They were doing so well at first. Almost all the various seeds sprouted and were growing nicely. And then they just seemed a little droopy after a couple of weeks so I brought them outside to get some real sunshine. But then I forgot about them for a couple of days and the sun and wind fried most of them.

There are a few seedlings hanging in there and I'm really, really going to try and remember to water them. Really.

Mother's day

2011-05-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

I love being a mom. It's not always an easy job but there is nothing better than having a family and getting to take care of these great kids. Troy and the kids were so sweet to get me flowers and some of my favorite treat the night before.

taken before church

the girls helped Troy pick out flowers for me

you might have guessed that I'm kind of a fan of peanut butter, ha ha!

birdy snacks

2011-05-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

We have had lots of birdy visitors come check out Christian's birdfeeder. It's been quite fun for the kids to sit by the back windows and watch the different types of birds.

I ♥ Jane Austen

2011-05-05T15:47:00.000-07:00

Today I finished reading (well, listening to the audiobook) Pride and Prejudice. I loved listening to every single chapter of the unabridged version. I downloaded it onto my iPhone and took it with me everywhere I went. If you saw me with earphones in while grocery shopping, that's what I was listening to. I folded laundry, scrubbed dishes, pulled weeds, ran errands, put on makeup, and even vacuumed (with the volume as high as it would go!) while listening to Pride and Prejudice.

I think I first was introduced to Jane Austen in my AP English class during my senior year of high school. And I might have read it again in college. My memory is foggy as to which of Austen's books I read in college. And I've seen about four movie versions of the story and loved each of them. But I think I loved the story even more this time than the first time I read it.

But either way, I just can't believe I haven't read it again in all these past years. I'm thinking I may just have to reread it again in 2013 when it's the two hundred anniversary of it's publication.

Now, on to Emma. My next favorite Jane Austen book. I can't wait!

feeding the birdies

2011-05-02T15:17:00.000-07:00

For Christian's bird watching merit badge, he wanted to make a bird feeder to hang in the backyard. Troy had the idea to make a two story feeder and the birds seem to love it! It has surprised us how many varieties of birds we see eating at it as we watch out our back window.

We also hung a hummingbird feeder next to it but so far haven't seen one single hummingbird.

Not long after, we stopped visitors!

5.2.11

my pretty, little ballerinas

2011-04-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

The girls have been taking ballet since September. They loved it for the first few months and were so excited to be in the December recital.

But their interest has been dwindling these last couple of months. Anna has even cried a few times after school because she's felt so tired and not interested in ballet anymore that she just wants to stay home.

But since we had to purchase these pricey ballet costumes and committed to being in the June recital a couple of months ago (before I learned that the girls were losing interest), we have been sticking it out.

This was photo day when the girls got to finally wear their costumes and had their photos taken individually and with their dance class in a group. I snapped these before we headed over to the photo shoot.

egg dying

2011-04-24T22:27:00.000-07:00

The night before Easter, the kids each dyed a dozen eggs. It wasn't as pleasant and fun as in years past, thanks to an episode of snottiness between Christian and Emily. I think he was tired and cranky from being up late the night before for the egg hunt and was very snarky toward Emily. She is never one to back down and was quite sassy back.

Oh well, the eggs came out as pretty as ever though and were gobbled up happily in the following days.

basket hunt breakdown

2011-04-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

About 6:00 a.m. Easter morning, Anna came into our room in tears and woke us up. Being woken from deep sleep and not understanding her teary mumbling, I had no clue what was going on. It took a few minutes, but Troy and I finally figured out that Anna was upset because the Easter bunny hadn't visited our home.

Ha ha ha ha! I had to try so hard not to laugh at the poor girl while reassuring her that of course the Easter bunny would not skip our home. We sent her on her way to go look a little harder because perhaps the Easter bunny was in a silly mood (as he tends to be every few years) and just hid the baskets.

Thankfully, she found them and let us go back to sleep for an hour.

Easter egg hunt EGG-stravaganza!

2011-04-23T22:17:00.000-07:00

Just like last year, we took the kids to the local Easter egg hunt. Now that Christian is 12, he's too old for it so Troy took him to the teen flashlight egg hunt (for some reason, the "teen" hunt is 12 and up) the night before. It sounded like it would be a blast. At night, flashlights, big prizes like an iPod, etc.

But that teen hunt was such a disaster. Troy told me that there was a countdown to when the kids could run past the rope and start hunting but the hunt organizers didn't enforce the rules and the kids started as soon as the counting began. Then, older kids were shoving and pushing and there weren't nearly as many eggs spread around as there are for the younger kids.

When Christian eventually found some, he said he was tackled and the older kid pried them away from him. He came home without a single egg on the verge of tears. Poor guy.

So the next day, we had him help Emily fill her basket. They had a great time and Anna did as well. There were a lot of our friends there and it was a really fun hunt. And this year they weren't quite as creeped out by the Easter bunny.

The girls found one of their friends and they are geared up and excited to get started, but waiting patiently behind the yellow tape line.

There they go! So many eggs but so little time!

And there goes Anna!

They found lots of eggs and some friends, too.

Looking through the eggs for prize slips. No luck this year, but lots of yummy treats anyway!

If only the bunny didn't have those long, stringy, black eyelashes that look more like cheap mascara caught in the rain, I think she/he? would be a lot less creepy looking.

curly girls

2011-04-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

After learning that there are foam curlers at the dollar store from a friend, I came home with two bags for our girls. They often ask me to curl their hair for Sunday morning but since we have church at 9am, the time usually just rushes by and I don't have time to use a curling iron to do even one girl's hair, let alone both of them.

Turns out, these dollar store curlers work pretty well. Sorry I don't have "after" photos though. They are really easy to put in and now I want to get more because the girls want even curlier hair and the more curlers in the hair we learned, the more and better looking curls.

planting seeds = springtime!

2011-04-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

When the girls and I were at Walmart today, the garden center had supplies for kids to plant flower seeds and decorate planter sticks and April gave my girls a hand planting some.

ukulele time

2011-04-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

We had a great time with some of the local missionaries that joined for dinner. We always enjoy visiting with the missionaries and especially had fun hanging out this time. Elder Akaka is from Molokai (one of the Hawaiian islands) so Troy brought out the ukulele for him to play around a little bit on. Troy and Christian practice off and on so they shared some of their tips with Elder Akaka and then he and his companion, Elder Wheeler, seemed to quickly get the hang a couple of songs and together they sounded great.

Then Emily entertained us with some of her musical skills. She may not know how to play the piano yet, but she sure has a way with the programmed songs and volume button. We got to the point we had to have her put on the headphones so we weren't deafened any longer.

Pike Place Market

2011-04-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

We always enjoy visiting Pike Place Market. Unfortunately, we are usually there in the mornings for breakfast when most of the shops are still closed. But there is always the seafood shops and flower shops to browse through. The next timethough, I want to go in the middle of the day and explore every bit of Pike Place.

We started out with breakfast overlooking the water.

put a donation in the giant piggy bank

and wandered around the market

stood by the giant totem pole outside the market

REI rock climbing

2011-04-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

While we were in Seattle for spring break, we took the kids rock climbing at REI (their flagship store which is HUGE). Originally, Troy had made appointments for himself and Christian to work on one of Christian's Boy Scout merit badges. I was happy to decline and just watch and I didn't think the girls would be interested.

I was surprised that the girls wanted to join in the fun and so we booked two more appointments. When we arrived and the kids saw the size of the climbing tower, they were a little intimidated but with some encouragement and instruction from the climbing instructor, they had a great time.

Troy climbed almost to the top and Christian made it about a third of the way up. The girls made it a little less than a quarter of the way up but for their first climbing experience and given how they really had to stretch their little legs to reach some of the rocks, they did great! Anna was the most nervous and was scared until she took a break, watched Emily climb and then Anna had a second turn and enjoyed it a lot more.

wall o'yuck!

2011-04-09T08:15:00.000-07:00

Troy had a must-see sight on our list of things to do in Seattle - see the wall of gum.

Yes, a WALL of gross, nasty, yucky, disgusting, chewed up and spit out gum.

I had never heard of this unique tourist stop but turns out that quite a few people like to visit it and leave their gum. We stopped for a look, did NOT leave any gum, did NOT touch any gum, felt a bit grossed out, snapped a few photos, and vowed never to return.

And if you want to be grossed out like we were, just click on the photos to see them even larger. ha ha!

Woodland Park Zoo

2011-04-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

Seattle has a beautiful zoo. Lovely wooded grounds, nice walking paths, and the animal habitats seem well designed and well kept. The kids and I have only been once before but it's been probably three years. When we got to the zoo, it seemed like everyone else on spring break had the same great idea because there was quite a long line. Thank goodness I had a little knitting project in my purse. Gotta get the kids used to their mom knitting in public, right?

Anyway, after about 30 minutes we made it in and once inside, it didn't feel crowded at all since everyone went their own way throughout the large parklike zoo.

I have to say that these three little monkeys were my favorite thing at the zoo!

While we were walking through the orangutan area, one large orangutan came right up to the window, sat down and arranged a blanket around himself and just sat for such a long time watching the children that came up to the window. Emily was thrilled and gave him quite a few window kisses.

looking for penguins

spring break in Seattle

2011-04-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

During the first few days of the kids' spring break from school, we watched their cousins for two days, Troy went to work, worked in the garden, etc.

Thursday, we hit the road and headed for Seattle. Although our time there was a little on the chilly side, we had beautiful sunshine most of the time, and it was even warm enough (high 50s, low 60s) to take off our coats and walk without them at times.

Thursday, we started our day with a visit to the temple. For Troy and I that is. Now that Christian is twelve, we felt he could be trusted to watch the girls for a little over an hour early in the morning. All they had to do was sleep in, watch cartoons, and not kill each other until we returned.

Then we shopped, we ate out, and we enjoyed downtown Seattle and then that night we lucked out in getting a great deal on a four star hotel room through Priceline.com (which then was upgraded for free to a suite) at the Grand Hyatt. It was the nicest hotel room the kids have ever accompanied us, too and they felt like they were in heaven! That is, until two of them realized they still had to sleep on the floor (on cushions, though - it wasn't so bad). Such is life.

We had plenty of fun after that to make up for it though. Here are a few highlights from our first day.

Somehow, we stumbled across the Oberto Jerky company's first location. I never knew there were so many varieties of jerky. Our new favorite is BBQ pork jerky. Seriously - so good. We left with what we thought was a year supply of jerky. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly, it's quickly dwindling).

Anna connecting with her Asian roots while practicing her chopstick skills that night at dinner.

Part of the lovely bathroom in our suite. The girls LOVED this tub. It may not look it in the photo, but it was very large, very deep, and water heaven for the two girls.

Part of the living room of our suite.

While looking for someone selling tickets to the Mariner's opening game downtown, Troy and Christian were handed free tickets (yes, free!) to the game and had a great time, even though the Mariners lost, while the girls and I went shopping and out for ice cream and early to bed in the suite.

little devil

2011-04-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

Our first night in Seattle, we stopped at Deseret Book to look around a bit. For some reason, Troy and I came across Emily looking at this product.

Not sure why, since she can only read a few words so far. Coincidence, hmmmm?

spring break sleepover

2011-04-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

It seemed like spring took forever to arrive this year. And it still can't seem to make up it's mind and some days still feel and look like winter. Fortunately, the first couple of days of spring break were sunny and bring, though a little on the chilly side.

Roger and Leanne were in Spokane with one of their children for testing the first two days of the week and the other children stayed with us overnight.

Our kids thought that was the best thing ever. We don't allow our kids to go to sleepovers (nor invite children over for them). So having cousins stay when their parents go out of town really is super exciting for them!

though sometimes it doesn't feel super fun when your favorite cousin isn't paying you as much attention as you unfairly demand and you tend to be a pouty girl. ha ha

happy campers

2011-04-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

Troy and Christian never seem to get tired of camping. Which is a good thing since Troy is a Boy Scout leader and Christian is a Boy Scout. Camping just goes with the territory. Here they are off to another scout campout.

I'm glad they have each other to camp with and have such a good time. And I'm glad they occasionally bring home their leftover camping treats to share with us girls. I can almost always count on leftover Oreos.

unwelcome visitors

2011-03-31T08:59:00.000-07:00

When you are brushing your teeth, the last thing you want to look up and see is a swarm of termites flying out of the heating vent.

I never realized how prevalent termites and ants are in this area until last year when a termite swarm came flying out of a vent in the house we were renting then. And now, here we are in a different house and the termites have come to visit once again.

Yuck. I'm just glad that so far, they've only popped in for a visit twice. I'm hoping they got the hint and won't be returning.

iPod love

2011-03-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

I never could have imagined a few years ago how much iPods and iPhones could do. I take my iPhone everywhere and use it for my calender, appointment reminders, to check my email, use the GPS to find locations, play music, listening to books and podcasts while I do housework, games to keep the kids happy while we are in waiting rooms or on long drives, apps for just about anything, etc.

We also have this iPod touch that came free with Troy's new computer a couple of years ago and now that I do have my iPhone, this iPod touch is for the kids to use. We don't have very much on it but there are a few games that are great to entertain the kids sometimes and the girls especially love to plug it into these speakers and dance to music.

junior jogger

2011-03-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Anna was so thrilled to bring home a Junior Joggers shirt from school! The kids earn them by running miles over time during recess. My mind's blank right now and I can't remember how many miles that is to earn it, but a lot! Perhaps I need a junior jogger t-shirt program to get motivated.

all dolled up

2011-03-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

Anna finished her first doll scarf almost a week ago. She is so proud of it and I'm so proud of her! Other than casting on (starting the first row of knitting), helping her fix a couple of mistakes, and showing her how to cast off and then tie on the fringe, she knit the rest herself.

Being someone that loves to work with my hands and create things, I just loved seeing the joy she got out of making something pretty and useful. And to see her choosing knitting over playing the Wii or watching tv frequently especially made me happy.

Right after she finished this scarf, she cast on a second scarf (that she wants to give as a gift at Christmas) using a different yarn and has already finished that as well. Currently, she's working on a hat for her doll.

first s'mores of the year

2011-03-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

A good friend invited us over for dinner and birthday fun to celebrate her husband's birthday and we had such a great time with them and getting to know two other families that also came over. Hamburgers and hotdogs were grilled over their fire pit and they were SO good. Grilled food = springtime in my book. We have a similar firepit and I kept thinking how it cool it would be if we had a grill that layed on top of ours like their's so we could make fire roasted dinners at home.

Come to find out that we do indeed have a grill top for the firepit we've owned for two years. How I didn't know that or why we haven't used it is beyond me. But it's on my to-do list now.

To top off the evening at the birthday bash, not only was their birthday cake and ice cream but s'mores! You can guess that every kid there was not only on a sugar high but crazy thrilled! And sure, Troy and I enjoyed every bite of gooey, sweet, roasted marshmallows layered with chocolate and graham crackers as well.

way back in 2006...

2011-03-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

is when I should have scrapbooked these photos, ha ha! I have 95% of Emily's baby book (my pregnancy up until she turned two) finished but there have been a few gaps that for some reason didn't get scrapbooked. At the overnight retreat I went to, I didn't get as much done as I have in the past, but boy, did I get caught up with some good sleeping! So I didn't mind less scrapbooking.

Enjoy these flashbacks to 2006 when our baby was actually a baby.

the family is growing

2011-03-26T21:54:00.001-07:00

Friday, I went to a retreat with friends at Ensign Ranch. It's referred to as a scrapbook retreat - but it's pretty much a womens/friend retreat where we all just bring projects (scrapbooking, sewing, quilting, knitting, whatever) or don't bring projects and just hang out and have a great time from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon.

For some reason, I didn't think to take any photos at all this time! Sheesh - some blogger/scrapbooker I am.

While I was up at the retreat digi scrapbooking, knitting, and catching up on my sleeping, Troy called me. He was looking for our rice pot so that he could make his favorite dinner of pork chops, curry, and rice.

And where was our rice pot? With me. At the retreat. My food assignment was rice and so I brought my awesome rice pot with me. So Troy decided to make something else for dinner with the kids.

Later in the day, Troy called me back. He changed his mind back and he really, really wanted to make pork chops, curry, and rice after all. I had such a laugh when he asked me if I minded if he bought another rice pot. You see, cooking rice in a regular saucepan is just not a skill that Troy nor I have ever acquired. I did suggest he google how to do it (you can pretty much google anything these days, right?) but if he wanted to buy another rice pot, that was fine with me. It can't hurt to have a second one around I suppose.

So here they are. Rice pot mama and rice pot, junior.

our ballet dancers

2011-03-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

Excuse yet another phone camera pic. But I had to snap a photos of the girlies at ballet practice Thursday. Anna really enjoys ballet lessons, but Emily isn't always so enthusiastic about the exercises and stretches they do during class. I think she'd love to just dance away each lesson hour and skip the other stuff. But little by little, she's complaining less at home and paying more attention in class.

At the end of class, we picked up their costumes (sparkly leotard with a fluffy tutu trimmed with ribbon) for the spring recital and the girls can't wait to wear them in June.

mmmm, snickerdoodles - my favorite cookie!

2011-03-24T21:18:00.000-07:00

In my mind, there is no better cookie than a cinammon and sugar sprinkled SNICKERDOODLE. Well, maybe peanut butter double stuff Oreos. But okay, there are no better homemade cookies than snickerdoodles.

Honestly though, I just don't make them very often because when I do, it's almost impossible to not eat a dozen or more all by myself - and that's usually just in the first hour after they are out of the oven. I love them that much.

Emily helped me make some to give to friends and some for the womens retreat I was going to. Her favorite part was rolling the dough balls in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. They came out a little on the crunchy side since I didn't pay super close attention to the time but they were sooooooo good!

silly shoppers

2011-03-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

The girls plead for the "car" carts at Safeway or Walmart but if you've used those before, you probably agree that they are not fun to push around. Much too long to maneuver very well and pretty much impossible to turn around in the aisle. So even though I resist getting the car carts, the girls still manage to have fun with any cart. Emily loves to ride on the lower deck and Anna loves to be the driver.

well...we're on our way

2011-03-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

We finally have the first real step completed to build our home - a well! We felt lucky that our well only had to be dug down about 160 feet. Some of the homes in our same neighborhood are twice that depth. And that means a LOT more money. So 160 feet was great!

Do you see that home off in the distance near the top right of the photo? That's our nearest neighbor on the same side of the street. There is only one lot between ours and their home which means we are going to have a lot of space to stretch out, garden and run around. 2.44 acres in each lot. Can't wait!

science night

2011-03-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

Christian's school hosted a science night Monday evening so we took the kids there for our family night. Several tables were set up and each had a different case study to solve using forensic clues. It was fun for a little while but the girls quickly lost interest and Emily became a little squirrely. Ssince it was near bedtime, I took them home early. Christian and Troy stayed to finish up a few more case studies and then headed home.

popping up in the garden

2011-03-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

I love seeing signs that spring might actually stick around. These lovely little flowers are some of the first we noticed popping up in the garden. Such a pretty sight to see.

tent in the living room?

2011-03-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Friday night to Saturday afternoon, Troy and Christian joined a group of Boy Scouts for an overnight campout and a long hike (about 10ish miles). They had a great time. Well, except for coming home completely exhausted by the LONG hike.

While they were gone, I had a friend over to scrapbook. I didn't get any actual scrapbooking completed (she did though and completed gorgeous pages!) but I did get quite a bit of scrapbooking stuff-in-progress organized and am feeling excited to scrapbook. Does that count?

Anyway, back to the tent in the living room. Troy wanted to air the tent out a little and have it be completely dry before packing it away, so up it went in the living room. I wasn't too happy about that, given that now our home smells like a smokey fire pit. But it was the living room, or outside in the clutches of the large local band of feral cats that literally pee on everything.

backyard basketball

2011-03-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

We are so glad that the weather is turning warmer and nicer every day. There is a basketball hoop on the back patio and each day after school, Christian plays a little ball before he starts his homework.

some green bling for St. Patricks day

2011-03-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

I remember how fun it was to celebrate holidays when I was in elementary school. I also remember feeling so worried one year that I would get pinched by everyone when I didn't have anything really green to wear to school on St. Patrick's day. I think my mom helped me scrounge something up like a hair accessory but I wasn't totally convinced it would be sufficient. Fortunately, I didn't get pinched after all that day. It felt like a close call though!

Anna wanted to make sure that she was fully covered in the green department, too so she wore several things with green to be safe. The night before I also beaded a pair of socks for her to wear (my first pair!). My sister, Nikki, taught me when we visited them in California and was even nice enough to send me home with a baggy full of these beads and the socks to crochet them onto. Awesome aunty that she is, she also sent the girls home with MANY pairs of new beaded socks and it seems like every day they want to wear a pair.

Since you probably aren't lucky enough to have a crafty sister named Nikki around, here is a link to a youtube tutorial that seems very similar to Nikki's way.

beaded socks

another knitter is born

2011-03-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

Emily couldn't resist the lure of knitting after watching Anna and I knitting so much these days. I cast on for her and taught her the same little poem I taught Anna to help her remember the steps:

Bunny in
Around the top
Bunny out
And off he hops!

It's from a book I borrowed from the library about teaching kids to knit. It really seemed to help Anna remember the steps if she said it as she knit. Emily isn't getting it down as quickly as Anna did but gets about half of every row correct, which is great for a 5 year old I think. We'll see how it goes. I'd love to have two little knitting buddies.

we love books!

2011-03-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

We always seem to have a large stack of library books. Lots and lots of picture books, with a few chapter books mixed in, for the girls. Usually a thick chapter book or two for Christian, and another one or two for myself, along with a few knitting or sewing or other fun books. Troy's not a big library visiter these days. He's always bringing home work so when we are reading, work stuff is keeping him occupied.

band concert

2011-03-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Monday evening at the high school gym was a band concert for the 6th grade band, the middle school band (7th & 8th grades), and the high school bands (there were three different high school groups). We were really impressed with all of the music performed, and impressed with the improvement of Christian and his classmates in the 6th grade band from the beginning of the school year up until now.

Such a long concert though - over two hours long. The kids were all really tired the next day but it was nice to hear great music and see Christian perform the trumpet.

games with friends

2011-03-13T22:51:00.000-07:00

We love to play games. We love to visit with friends. We love to eat good food. But for some reason, we often go months without inviting friends over. I suppose it's just life getting in way, keeping us so busy that we feel like we don't have time or energy to plan fun friend nights.

This year we are trying to make more of an effort and at least have friends over once a month. January and February rushed by so fast that I can't remember if we did or not! So maybe this week made up for it - two nights of friend fun in one weekend!

Becky and Matt and their kids joine us for Sunday dinner and game time. Our girls had such a blast with their girls and the two boys (our big boy and their little boy) joined in where they could. I don't know if we should let Christian play with the adults anymore, because he beat us all at Settlers, ha ha!

We also played a couple of rounds of Catch Phrase (we love this game - it never gets old) and Quirkle Cubes was a hit with the kids.