New House

Thanks to my sweet sister you are getting pictures of my house. Her computer is much.. much... MUCH faster than mine. She came and spent last Friday and Saturday with me to help me move some of the things out of the old storage room into the new one. NO we are not moved in yet, but the storage room had nothing left to work on, so we were able to start moving some things.

This first picture is the front of the house. I'm glad it's at a distance, because that is me in my clean-up clothes holding a broom. We are getting the last little bit of siding put on today, and then we have the deck to finish,and the railing around the deck and the porch to do, and garage doors. I think after that, the outside will be finished. This next picture is of our living room upstairs. Out the doors is where the deck is, to the right is the kitchen, and in the corner is our fireplace with it's beautiful mantle that you really can't see very well, so just trust me I guess. This room now has carpet as well. It was sooooo nice to finally have all the carpet put in. Natalie helped me sweep the whole house to get ready for the carpet layers. THANK YOU A TON!

This picture is of my kitchen. I really love the cabinets. Our little woodworker guy did a GREAT job. I know it's hard for you all to see, but there is a black dishwasher behind the bar. I am SO EXCITED to finally own one of these things. Natalie also promised me lessons on how to actually use one. We cleaned the kitchen up so it isn't this messy, but Natalie said the picure she took of it after being cleaned was mostly of me. I'm glad she chose this one to post.

Last but not least is a little bit of the master bathroom. To the right is toilet, shower, tub. To the left is our closet. We are just super happy with the way everything is turning out. Our plan is to be moving over there next week, with some things going in this weekend as well hopefully. I feel like I need the stress of moving to be gone so I can deal better with the stress of decorating, Christmas, putting everything in a new place, and Jody starting the process of going back to get his masters. (That is for sure more of a stress to him, but we both know it will be a blessing in the end).

I guess it is so long for now. I'm not sure I will be blogging again until we're hooked up in the new house. But who knows, I may just surprise you.

We're on a Roll!

This is my crew on Halloween night. We were in Montana with my brother, and my mom and dad. You can see my dad in the background, and even though I accidently cut off my mom's head, she is posing with the kids. She was dressed up as well.

Kaden was Zorro, Ali was a hippie, Tyce was a dinosaur, Paige was a witch, and Danica was an unhappy little cow. They had lots of fun trick or treating the "old fashioned" way going door to door instead of going to a trunk or treat. Last Wednesday, Paige FINALLY got her cast off. We were SO EXCITED! We clapped and cheered right there in the doctors office. I could not believe how much better the X-rays looked this time. Thanks to all who put her name in the temple and kept her in your prayers. I believe completely that those were the reasons we saw such a tremendous difference.

Now Paige has to work on getting movement back in her elbow and wrist. She's doing really well, but we do have to remind her still sometimes to use her right hand for things instead of her left. After a month of no playground equipment and tumbling, the doctor thinks she will be able to go back to everything as normal. Good news!

Now this is a picture of my cabinets. There is a molding around the top that was not on yet, but this is a great idea of what one corner of the kitchen looks like. I really love how the cabinets and countertops turned out. We also have the pendant lights over the bar that I love. My brother in law is our electrician, and he gave me the idea. I'm so glad he did.

We are going to have to work really hard, but we are planning to be done so we can move in at Thanksgiving time in 2 weeks. Our carpet is going in on the 17th, and that will finish the inside except for a few small things like door knobs and stuff. We should be getting all the rest of the plumbing in starting tomorrow. I'm very excited that we're getting this close, but it also seems a lot harder to be patient now.

I'm still here!

I so badly want to keep up with everything, but I'm not doing well at all! I feel like I've been running non-stop, and so many things are falling behind because of it. Laundry, dishes, my blog, and so so so many more things! I'm not so sure it's going to slow down until we have moved and gotten settled, but I'm so excited about it all, that I guess it's okay to be crazy for a while. We are just 2-3 weeks away from having out house finished, and we are all very excited. It's fun to see all the cool stuff going in now like cabinets, tile, paint, and light fixtures. It makes it seem like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I would have put a picture of the house on here, but I needed to put 2 pictures on here already, and my computer takes forever to upload them, so maybe next time.

So, the 25th of October was Tyce's 5th birthday. I haven't actually gotten birthday pictures off my camera yet, so this is just a recent one of him. He is such a happy little dude. He has loved preschool, and really enjoys learning how to write all of his letters. He recently learned how to tie his shoe as well. I only had to show him twice, and he took it from there. On a trip we took to Montana this weekend to see Travis and Bekah bless their new little baby, Casey, Tyce took a turn riding with my dad so my mom could ride with me. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, but I think maybe Tyce. He has told me several times that he had grandpa play I Spy with him and he wrote a card at preschool today about grandparents, and added to his note that he loved it when grandpas show him old tractors. (If I understood him right, my dad showed him one they passed in the car). Dad also told me that Tyce had asked him where his GPS was, and dad told him it was in his head. I guess dad had to really do some convincing before Tyce would believe something like that. Anyway, we sure love this little boy and are so happy to have him in our family. Now, a month ago I blogged about getting cast #3 off and being done with it all, but unfortunately for Paige, her bone is just not healing very quickly. She had to have another cast put on for 4 more weeks. We go back on Wednesday to see if it's finally ready to have the cast taken off. They put her on some calcium as well to see if it would help it go any faster. I'm really nervous about what the next option would be if it's still not growing new bone. We are sure praying that everything will be okay this time. Paige and I celebrated a little too early last time, and I think that really made it harder for her when they said she had to have another cast, so this time I'm not going to do any cheering until we know what's going on.

Last week we had Parent Teacher Conferences. I was really happy with all my kids. They worked hard and none of their teachers had any complaints. I can't believe that the first quarter is already come and gone! Before we know Christmas will have come and gone as well, so just in case, I've started to sing Christmas songs behind Jody's back. He tries to tell me that I can't start singing them until after Thanksgiving so I can concentrate on what I'm thankful for. I just always tell him that I'm thankful for Christmas music.

Well, I guess that's it for now, and I will try to get some new pictures of the house on here next time. I can't wait until I'm putting on the pictures of us moving in! Should be soon!

There's Good news, and Bad news

So it's been quite a week. Our family seems to be passing one illness or another around and around and around. Jody, Kaden, and I have all had sinus infections. Kaden's being this week. I had the stomach flu on Saturday, and Ali is down with it for her second day now. I'm working on getting over my third cold in 4 weeks, and Tyce started coughing again last night. Thankfully, we have not had too much fever with all the illnesses, because that would mean we were probably getting the swine flu that's going around Preston SOOOOO bad! We've had people in our ward get it, along with kids and the teacher in Paige's class. Who knows how many other of my children have been exposed as well. So, all in all I am counting my blessings. I thought I better get Paige's third cast picture posted before she gets it off next Wednesday. She will have owned this one for 3 weeks. It was one week longer than planned, but she did not have enough bone growing on one of the broken bones to help it heal, so hopefully the next X-rays will be better. If there's still not enough bone there I'm not sure what the Dr. will say, so we're just praying for NO MORE CASTS!

I'm also finally getting around to posting my boys soccer pictures. This one is Tyce coming off the field after he had been the goalie. He has turned into quite the little player as long as he doesn't have to play defense. He can be a little boring to just stand there, so he dances, cart wheels, runs into other players, or just jumps and runs around in his own little area. Paying attention is extra hard for him to do. At our last game, he had played defense twice, and goalie once. He was having a little bit of a boring game I guess because when the coach said to go in as defense for the third time, Tyce told him that he wasn't going in unless he got to be a forward. I think the coach knew he would be fighting a losing battle, so Tyce went in as a forward. I was happy too, because he gets in there and goes after the ball even though he's one of the youngest on the team. It's been fun to watch him play.

This is Kaden, who at his last game scored a GOAL! We were all sooo excited for him. He was quite a ways back, so I wasn't expecting it, but he just booted it, and it went straight into the goal. He had been to the dr. the day before for his sinus infection, so I was worried about him playing anyway since it was FREEZING at Wednesday's game, but he did really well, and we are so proud of him.

Now a little about Danica. She is walking every where now. She started the night of her birthday which made her turning one even harder on her mother. She sure is busy too. She says things like moo, baa, bye-bye, mom, dad, meow, and a lot of jabbering that is understood only by herself. She loves to fake laugh when ever she thinks she's being funny, or we're laughing and she wants to be involved. She sure keeps us all happy, and the kids love to maul her most all of the time. Paige and Ali have sure been good to help out with her this last month while I've been sick or busy, busy, busy.

Last but, definately not least, is the update on the house. We are completely sheet rocked. They finished this week, so now it really looks like a house on the inside as well as the outside. They still have to tape and mud, but that should be done next week. Before we know it, we will be painting walls, and putting down flooring. It's getting very exciting.

Yesterday they also put up one side of the siding. We are waiting on the majority of it to be ordered because they didn't have enough of the green color that we wanted, but what we do have sure looks good. I don't have a picture of it, and it would be hard to tell the color on the computer I'm sure, but when I do get an updated picture I will put it on.

I guess that's it for now. A little good news, and a little bad news, but all of it is just LIFE!

My baby is 1

My beautiful little girl is one today. (I guess it's today, It's 1:15am) She let go of the couch and walked across the room to me yesterday. That's the farthest she's gone so far. I can't believe how big she is. I just want to tell her how much I love her, and how special she is to all of her family. She always has a smile for us, and she truly makes us all so happy. We love you sweet baby girl! Happy Birthday! I wanted to update a little on the house as well. We have got the electrical and heating and air ready for insulation. Tomorrow the plumber is suppose to finish up and Friday we get the insulation going. I guess after that it's on to sheet rock!

This is Tyce posing with one of our new tubs. We're so excited to see some of these things start to come in. Yesterday we got all of our outside doors hung. If we could just get the last three windows to get here, we would be all closed in.

Our brick is also going up. They should have it done today I think. I love the way it looks. It's a little hard to see from this picture all the colorings in it, but I'm very excited about it. My builder told me yesterday that our siding should be here by the end of the week as well. It's coming right along.

The boys soccer games have been fun. They both won their games last Saturday. I would post pictures, but just to get the 3 pictures on here takes me computer an eternity, so we might save that for the next post. However, we are still very proud of them both.

How Much Can a Mother Take?

I feel like everything always happens at once. Danica turns one this month, and she has just started to take her first steps. Tyce started preschool the other day, and it hit me a little harder than I thought it would. And last, but certainly not the least, Kaden has a GIRLFRIEND! He had only been in school about 8 days when the new girl at school asked him if he'd be her boyfriend. He seems like he even likes her too!
I just don't know if this is okay with me. It's too much on this old mom anyway!

So this picture below is my 3 oldest ready for school. I didn't get their pictures on the first day because my camera batteries were dead, and it took me until this week to remember to get a picture. Danica is looking so cute too isn't she??? She had 2 pigtails the day before, and this is what that looks like the morning after. It doesn't matter though because she's still soooo cute.
This was Wednesday. Tyce's first day of preschool. He had a lot of fun and is so excited to be going to school. Tonight is his first soccer game which he is equally excited about. I will try to be more diligent in posting pictures of it sooner than later.

Tonight would also be Kaden's first game, but he has scout camp so he has to miss it. We'll get pictures of him next week. Guess that's the update for now.

Catch Up Time

I can't believe how busy life can be sometimes. Now that the kids have started school, hopefully I can keep up on the blog a little better. I have had mixed emotions about school starting. I was NOT ready to go back to home work and early bedtimes. It just seems like it shouldn't be here already. I do have to admit though, having the kids back in school has made the days a little less hectic. (Evenings are another story, with soccer, cheer, and clogging.)

Before the kids went back to school we did take them on a weekend get away to SLC. We had a lot of fun. We did Lagoon on Friday, Miller motor race track on Saturday morning, and Temple Square Saturday afternoon. We also enjoyed some good eating, and swimming at the hotel.

This first picture is Jody and the kids at Temple Square. We took them on a tour of the Beehive House and they thought that was pretty neat. We also went to the Joseph Smith movie, and they all really loved it. Paige is a little like her mother, and we both cried. She's told me several times that that is her favorite movie EVER! This next picture is of the crew taking a break from the heat with some shade, water, and flavored ice. It was sooo hot at Lagoon that the kids drug their feet most of the the day. By the time Jody and I were ready to go, it had cooled down, and the kids no longer had bricks for feet. They wanted to go on lots of rides. We all had a good time, and I think the favorite ride over all was the good old white roller coaster! Gotta love it!

Now a little house update as well. We now have a roof and are very excited about it. I guess now the changes won't seem as obvious to everyone, because they will mostly be inside. Although we will still have the shingles, siding, and brick to do outside. The other thing we got a while back that I got pictures of but did not post was our staircase. We were all very excited to have them in, especially since our builder almost fell through the hole in the floor where they were suppose to go. Much safer now for everyone.

Well, I guess that does it for catch up now. I can't believe it is already September. Time flies. Especially when you just had a baby, and all of a sudden she's going to be one! I don't know how it happens, but I do know it makes me sad!