Side Project

When you are up to your eyeballs in work and have a million things to do on your house remodel...what is the best thing to do with your "spare" time???

 

 

A side project!!!

 

 

It all began with a leaky faucet in the upstairs bathroom.  I asked Steve to look at it and he decided that the faucet needed to be replaced.  Well, the vanity had water damage from the faucet, so we opted to put in a pedestal sink instead.  So we bought a new sink (which we ended up returning becuase our neighbor had a brand new on in his garage that he didn't want) and upon looking at the complicated set up, decided that we should replace the nasty laminate flooring with tile before permanantly attaching it to the floor. 

 

So now we're into the bathroom with a faucet, pedestal sink, and new tile.  I figured since it turned into such a huge project, I may as well shoot for the moon and paint it too.

 

 

I always forget to take before pictures, so imagine in your mind the half white - half forrest green painted walls, the gold and white 70's laminate, and the tiny, warped, cheap looking vanity.

 

 

 

 

 



Now doesn't that look better?

 

 

Now we can move on to framing the house.

 

 



Under Construction

I had such good intentions of posting all kinds of pictures of the progress of the house.  I've failed.

 

Now we are quite a ways into it and I'm posting pictures of step 50 instead of step 1. 

 

 

Oh well.

 

 

 

 

What I didn't post pictures of was the digging of the hole.  We got a big backhoe (I really don't know how that's spelled).

 



 

Then we poured the footings.  The pictures here are of the wall forms.  We poured the wall the same day.

The forms are off now and we finally have some nice weather, after the 2+ feet of snow we got last weekend, to frame the main floor tomorrow.

 

I will try to remember to take pictures.

Funny Emma

Today Emma said the funniest thing.

 

 

 

To preface, my kids are always asking how to make different colors using the crayon colors they have.  In our house crayons are broken, and subsequently thrown out, on a daily basis.  Thus the lack of needed colors and the never ending question that begins, "Mom, how do you make (insert color)?"

 

I, being the great teacher that I am, or laziest mom ever, always ask them in return, "I don't know, how do you make (insert color)?"  Then they either figure it out or determine that it cannot be made.

 

 

So now we come to the funny part.  To get the full effect, you need to hear her tiny little voice, with her tiny little lisp, in your head.

 

 

 

(only recent picture of Emma)

 

 

 

Emma:  "Mom, how do you make yellow?"

 

Mom:  "I don't know, how do you make yellow?"

 

Emma:  "Umm, I don't know.  Oh wait, you can't !!!"

 

Mom:  "And why not?"

 

Emma:  "Because it's a church color!"

 

 

 

It took me a minute to process what she meant by that.  Then I laughed and laughed and laughed!!!

Emma

I forgot to include this pic in the last post. 

 

 

 

 

 

Emma had an especially nice time at the lake.  This was taken 5 minutes into the car ride home.

Labor Day

 A HEEEEUUUUGE thank you to Jeff!!!!

 

 

 

...Who so generously invited our whole family for a day on the lake.

 



 

First we had to test the water...and take a pee.

 

Once they learned they COULD pee in the water, they all wanted to try. 

Of course.

 

Then we tested out the tube.

 

Note the different expressions on the girls' faces. 

 

Then we had to see how many we could squeeze onto it at one time.  Turns out 4. 

Emma took a spill in the water when she got on.  Thank goodness for life jackets!!!

 

Show off!

 

He knows I've never been able to get up on ski's. 

Unfortunately the water was pretty choppy that day or I would have given it a shot.  Oh well.  Next time.

 

One of the favorites of the kids was just sitting in the front and driving really fast!

 

 

I was so surprised at how well Xena did.  We were doing some pretty hard turns here and she took it all in stride.

 

When Steve went solo on the tube I was laughing my head off the whole time.  Jeff was trying so hard to flip him.  It took about 10 minutes, but he finally hit a huge wake and went flying. 

Nothing funnier than watching the father of your children getting the crap kicked out of him!!!

 

Yea!

 

 

 Again, an enormous thanks to Jeff for a memorable Labor Day weekend!!!

 

 

 

Campout

This summer we had a lot of fun right here in Utah!

 

For example, we finally went on the ward campout for the first time in 7 years.  Although somewhat entertaining, the very best part came after we left the next morning.

 

Some good friends in the ward invited us to go...

HORSEBACK RIDING!!!!

 

 

 

This particular friends' in-law's lived about 15 minutes from the ward campsite. 

 



 

Those of you with whom I grew up, know that I ALWAYS wanted riding lessons.

 



 

 

I did have a friend with a horse who taught me to ride.



 

 

I went so far as to take a class at BYU.

 

I was so excited to be able to take my kids and let them have this experience.



 

 

They LOVED it!!!

 

Even though they were mostly led around the corral.

 



 

 

I know I took pictures of Stevie and Steve, I just can't find them.  I'm especially bummed I can't find the one of Steve looking completely awkward on the horse.  Hilarious!!!

Riley's Baptism

We are SO proud of you big girl!!!

special thanks to Jesse who took all the pictures

Riley's Birthday

This has been a very busy week.

On Riley's birthday we just happened to have a ton of kids at the house around lunch time so I had Steve get us some pizza.



I also went a little pinterest crazy and made this wreath for her.

That night we went to our favorite place to eat to celebrate, the canyon.

Always a big mess, always fun.  Em and the kids are here from Boise and grandma came back from Atlanta just hours before.

 Of course I didn't have any candles, so we used sparklers instead.

A note about the cake.

I didn't have time to decorate a cake, so Riley was more than willing to decorate it herself.  This is how I handed it over.

There were no end of helpers.

This was the end result.  It is an ocean themed cake with many eels.  Eels turned out to be easier to make than fish.  There are some octopi and sharks in there as well.

As if it wasn't beautiful enough, I decided to drop the cake on the way up the canyon and it had to be somewhat patched back together.

At least it wasn't a wedding cake!!!