Birthdays, Ballet, and House Pics

Liam's 6th birthday was AWESOME! He had very few requests, which were easy to fulfill. Chocolate cake with chocolate icing and candles that said "Happy Birthday". Check. Presents. Check. Cousins come over for cake and ice cream. Check. He also wanted to go to Pirate Island for dinner but I guess they had a fire so he declared that "BYU Bowling" was what he wanted. I thought it was funny that he specified that it had to be at BYU. Liam is such a smart kid! Doing homeschool with him has taught me that he knows more than I thought he did. He's learning to read VERY quickly, can tell left from right, can almost tie his shoes, sings a lot of songs, can run really fast, is kind and compassionate (when he wants to be), and give the best "I love you mommy" hugs.






The camera is blurry because he's SOOO excited!
NOT Natalie's birthday. He he...
All grown up!
I love this picture of Lige. He knows the good stuff that's coming! Cake!
Kids everywhere! We LOVE IT!
I wore this shirt when I was a kid. It's Natalie's current fave for bedtime.
One pair of pjs for opening presents at the crack of dawn, another for eating cake right before bed. Perfect day!
Master bedroom. To my fellow HGTV fans, yes, I KNOW the marriage certificate on the wall is not the proper scale. Vern would be horrified, but it's not staying there. In fact, it's already been moved.
The room without curtains...

The room with curtains. Now I just have to make a bed sash for the foot of my bed. Blue or Brown? What's your vote?


Never ending back yard...oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh...(Never ending story.....)

"Club house." The kids have used it to play school, rapunzel, spies, everything. It also probably contains half of my dishes. And some stuff from the pantry.

Basketball hoop and box gardens behind. I made homemade spaghetti sauce and fresh salad using the onions, peppers, tomatoes, and carrots. It's also got potatoes, corn, raspeberries, strawberries, peaches, and some other stuff. Does anyone want some jalapenos? I'm not a fan.

Kitchen from the living room. Our table seats 5. We're still looking for a bigger one, until then, card table it is...

Our tiny living room from the kitchen.

Back of house.

Family room office space. The cabinets were built in.



School room/craft room.


Play room. The black stripe is chalkboard paint. I like that the kids had written "dad loves mom" on the wall.

Well, there you have it. The pictures really don't do the house justice. For a real view, you'll have to come visit. To my Idaho family, we make a good pit stop. If I know you're coming, you get cookies....

OH THE THINGS ONE CAN DO

...in a new house.

I'm writing this in the basement where I can look out my walkout basement door and see my kids playing happily and noisily in the huge back yard. Life here has already been hectic, loud, quiet, and wonderful. We feel like we live in a grand hotel and are playing house. Pictures are coming soon, but the kids broke my good camera so it might be a while. In the meantime here are the things we have done since we've been here in Brigham:

1. I became a real parent two days ago. All the potty training, discipline, love, comfort, cooking, and cleaning don't make a real parent. It's when you have to say no to a pet that it all becomes real. It was the most adorable fluffy orange tabby kitten and it followed Ben home. Several times. (Lest you think I have a heart made out of stone, let me inform you that Ben's eyes were nearly swollen shut for hours after his "play date" from allergies.)
2. Soak for hours in our JETTED TUB. I've ALWAYS wanted one. Now I have one. W.O.W.
3. Drag main and hit Kent's, Shopko, the Dollar Store, and Walmart-which by the way is surprisingly clean and quiet. All I need is a Target and I'm set.
4. Watch the kids play outside in a half acre of fenced in bliss, complete with a play set, climbing trees, and vegetable/fruit bearing garden. Which leads us to:
5. Eat fresh veggies that I don't have to plant or water. All I have to do is weed (which I find therapeutic) and hand the kids a bucket to pick them. The kids finished off the peas after only 2 days but we have an abundance of corn, tomatoes, onions, peppers, raspberries, and later pears and apples. The whole garden has a drip system which is on an automatic timer.
6. Spend lots of time running up and down the street to visit cousins and new friends. We also love having cousins come play at our house. It's weird how we don't feel that there are 10 kids in the house sometimes.
7. Send all of the kids to the play room to play. The mess in contained. The kids are happy. We have room.
8. Watch a movie on the big screen tv that's hooked up to the computer. So fun. Jason and I have spent several evenings rediscovering our movies.
9. Plugging our ears as the many trains go behind our property. I'm very grateful for the fence. Liam thinks he needs to be outside to see every single train.
   
10. Waiting for internet/phone service.
11. Enjoying how the whole of main street gets shut down for days for the peach festival.
12. No Traffic.
13. Cooking with my own dishes.
14. A hundred BAZILLION loads of laundry as I try to wash things that have been in storage for over a year and keep up on our current dirty clothes, bedding, and towels.
15. Setting up my OWN SEWING ROOM. I'm using it for homeschooling and crafts as well. It has many uses. Basically, everything I do in there, I love to do!

We feel so blessed to be here. It's wonderful to be on our own and working hard to pay down debts. We plan to enjoy every day we spend here in this home!!

PS Does anyone have a love seat, oversized or wingback chair, or deep freezer chest they want to sell or get rid of?

Devil's Kitchen

One of our favorite activities in the summertime is to take the kids to Devil's Kitchen on the Nebo Loop. It's a very short walk along a (kind of) paved walkway. There are tons of wildflowers and great views.

Blue Chairs

A few months ago I found a killer deal on KSL. Chairs for $10 each. They needed to reassembled/repaired, reupholstered, and painted. I'm very pleased with the finished product. You really can't beat 8 chairs for $100.



We tortured the kids and made them help with the sanding and priming. Thanks to my mom who did the blue coat while we were off on vacation. She also purchased a stapler that attaches to the compressor which made the seat covering really fast and fun! I LOVE projects.

Gravy

I figured I'm waaaay behind on this blogging thing so I'd better blog about SOMEthing. Here are some of my happenings/thoughts of late:

About 5 months ago I gave my mom $400 to put away for an upcoming expense we thought we would have. It didn't come, however, and I forgot about the money until this week. The problem was that neither my mom nor I could remember where we hid it. It prompted my mom to clean out her closet and dresser-very thoroughly. She didn't find it, but found lots of other good stuff. After 2 days of praying, she thought to randomly look in a decorative gravy boat that is displayed on a shelf above the kitchen sink. Random. But there it was! Now I remember we laughed about it when we put it in there. Because it's "gravy". Get it? Gravy?

Moving. Yes we are still planning on moving. No, we haven't found a house yet. Amazingly, we feel quite calm about it all. We check listings daily, have contacted a handful of real estate agents, and nothing is moving along. At all. The only one in the works is our favorite and the best deal for the house. However, the homeowners are waiting to hear back about a job and since it's in Hawaii, everything is vague, relaxed, and well....slow. So we're still waiting. The biggest news on this is that we know we're not leaving until September, which has eased some stress but created another kind. I am really sad, though, to be leaving my singing group. It's been so long since I've been able to just relax and "talk shop" with other moms. Overall I'm excited about the move. The kids are only concerned that it have some sort of playhouse or trampoline. Go figure.

I am currently in the throes of designing a new bedroom. I'm going to make a padded head board and have already recovered a cushion for a chair I'm putting in there. I've picked fabric for the curtains and I'm now trying to decide upon the PERFECT comforter/duvet cover. I think I'll go with blue. It's a fun distraction.

I'm also trying to take care of all of our medical appointments before we move. Liam is due for his yearly checkup at Primary Children's. Sometimes, I wonder if it's even worth it. What can they do, really. But I did my customary research and this year, there seem to be some new treatments available that don't include chemotherapy. Liam also failed a hearing test which worried me until we got to the ENT who gave him another test which he passed. He has perfect hearing in BOTH ears...when they're not filled with fluid.

Home school is going well and I am having fun with the kids. It's been an adventure but every day I realize again that this is what Heavenly Father wants for my family right now. Today, I got to bear my testimony about tithing and see that they were ALL listening. On Sunday, my oldest 3 bore strong testimonies about the Holy Ghost. We had spent the last 5 weeks talking about the 4 principles of the gospel. I didn't know that they had absorbed so much of what I had been teaching. It was worth EVERY SECOND of my time and effort.