Oregon: Day 1

On Friday, June 19th we left for Newport, Oregon. Derek’s sister and her family moved to Albany, Oregon last summer and we had wanted to go and visit. We got out there just in time to help move them back to Utah! We were glad to be able to spend some time with them, Derek’s other sister and his parents.

Ready to go!

I was a little worried about the 14 hour drive with four boys. But we survived! They actually did a really good job. We left mid-afternoon to beat rush hour traffic and were able to go 3 hours before stopping for dinner. We went to Papa Kelsey’s Pizza and Subs in Burley, Idaho.

So happy to be out of the car!

Jeffery was a better traveler than any of us! He was as happy as could be.

Best buds

After devouring a couple of pizzas, we found a park for the boys to play in while I fed Jeffery. When their wiggles were all wiggled out, the boys put on their pjs and got back in the car.

We hoped they would fall asleep during the last 2 hours before getting to our hotel in Boise. Unfortunately, Carter was the only one who obliged. Isaac had napped earlier and so he was having a hard time sleeping. Cooper really likes sleeping in his own bed and refused to try and lay his head down to rest. We discovered that being away from home, over-tired and confined in a small space are not a good combination for him (and we were only 5 hours into our trip!!) He was READY to be at the hotel. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites/Spectrum. It wasn’t until we arrived that I realized it’s right across the freeway from the Boise Temple! Seeing the temple is what finally helped Cooper calm down a little bit.

Of course the second we got into the hotel room (around 11 pm), the last thing the boys wanted to do was sleep. They wanted to explore every nook and cranny, try out all of the light switches (woo hoo!!) and stomp back and forth across the room as loudly as possible. We finally got them settled and asleep around midnight.

October and Halloween

I love Halloween. I was feeling ambitious this year and the boys were pretty excited about bats and spiders and things so we spent all month making decorations and costumes.

I should have taken this picture when it was really dark out. Oh well. The witch silhouette was pretty awesome.

For Fall Break my mom invited us down to Palisades State Park for an overnight trip. We had a fun time playing with cousins and the boys loved the cabins complete with bunk beds. Here’s a picture of the littlest boys playing on the big rock.

I love coordinating our family’s costumes every year. My kids are still fairly easy to convince young so we’ll see how many years I can indulge in matching attire. The boys are old enough to have somewhat of an opinion so I gave them a few matchy options and let them vote. I thought Toy Story would be fun or Monsters Inc. I was also keeping twinner costumes in mind like Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum and, of course, Things 1 and 2 were options. The boys unanimously voted for Mario Brothers. I don’t know why that was the top of the list (we don’t play it all that much) but I have to admit I was super excited to make a Princess Peach dress.  I was also really lucky to find some awesome tutorials for Mario and Luigi hats and even a Hammer Brothers outfit (adapted from this Bowser costume). Isaac was super insistent on his choice of character.

I was working on costumes until the minute we walked out the door for the ward trunk or treat. I still had finishing touches before Halloween night but I think they turned out pretty cute. At least they were a fun challenge for me to make. (Derek is a good sport to put up with me.)

We went down to Jaker’s in Springville for a pre-school field trip. I should have gotten a picture with all of the boys but here’s me and my boys at least.

My friend Anna from high school invited us to go to Cornbelly’s for a family date night one Saturday night. I forgot jackets but it was a beautiful night and we had lots of fun.

Our friends hosted a Halloween party the week before Halloween. Look at all those boys! We forgot to get a picture of the kids before all of the families with girls left.

On Halloween night Derek took the boys around the neighborhood trick-or-treating while I stayed home to hand out candy. I should have just gone with them. We only had two groups of kids knock on our door. That happens every year. You’d think I would learn… After trick-or-treating we went down to Springville to show off our costumes to Grandma and Grandpa and the cousins.

Basement Remodel: Update

We hired Ryan from RC Drywall to come and hang the drywall the last week of April. They were great to work with and I’m happy with how it looks. I really wanted smooth walls and ceilings like we have everywhere else in the house but we saved some money (and time) by having them do a light “hand texture” on the wall and a “stamp texture” on the ceiling.

They finished on a Saturday which meant we couldn’t spend the whole day painting the office like we had hoped. Instead, Derek and Curtis installed our three new window wells and *mostly* filled the huge holes. We still have some finish work to do on them but at least there are no giant pits of despair in our yard for small animals and children to fall into.

The next Monday we primed the office, Tuesday we painted, Wednesday we did trim and Thursday we did finish work. The carpet installers came Friday morning to put a remnant in the office that we had been using in the den.  Friday afternoon I rented a carpet cleaner from Home Depot, used and returned it just in time to run off to my choir concert that night. Busy week.

We used Benjamin Moore Aura paint. So. Amazing. We did one coat on each wall and we were done! It was worth paying the extra money for the high end paint. We tried to save money by using a mid to low grade paint upstairs but we ended up having to paint everything 2-3 times. So annoying. The girl at the hardware store told me after using Aura I wouldn’t be able to go back to anything else. I think she’s right. I’m hooked.

The office colors are Benjamin Moore: Old Navy, Wedding Veil and Annapolis Gray.

We got Derek’s desk and computers moved back in on Saturday and I bought these awesome chairs on KSL.

Oh and I LOVE having my hubby working from home again. I feel much lighter and happier again. The last two months have helped me to appreciate how truly spoiled blessed I am. You wouldn’t think a 15 minute commute would make such a big difference but it does. We have so much more TIME together when he’s here. When he’s home, we get a whole extra hour at lunch with him, plus all of the water breaks he takes during the day. When he was driving to work, sometimes I only saw him a total of an hour a day. He’s not allowed to get a “real” job ever again.

A Nerdy Thirty Birthday

If you know Derek, you know how appropriate a nerdy thirty party was. It was even his idea…. kind of. 🙂 He wasn’t a big fan of the bow tie but he was a good sport.

Here’s the Invite I sent out: DerekBdayInvite (2)

We had Derek’s favorite snacks: Doritos, popcorn, Red Vines and on the other table we had nachos and soft pretzels with soda.

My three smallest nerds:

These two… We sure are going to miss having these cousins around.

Aunt Linda was the favorite! I’m not sure how many books she read but the kids just kept them coming!

I think he had a good time and felt loved. Thanks for coming everyone!

Basement Remodel: Fireplace

I spent all week trying to figure out what to do with those *awful* green bricks.

I found a tutorial on pinterest about how to stain brick using concrete stain, but the problem was that green paint (or whatever it is) wouldn’t let the brick absorb the stain. I tried concrete paint thinner. That did nothing. I talked to the guy at Standard Masonry Supply and he recommended trying hydrochloric acid (with all kinds of warnings about how the fumes would melt my face and ruin my lungs). It did nothing.

My dad suggested that we try his sandblaster. He hauled over his huge air compressor and all of the sand blasting equipment only to have it flip our breaker. He got to work on the fireplace anyway using the smaller air compressor we had here. One hour later he had only gotten about 10 bricks done. The next day during nap time I gave it a go. I didn’t make much more progress than him: about 10 bricks in an hour.

Meanwhile, Dad had tested out the big compressor and it was working again so we gave it a second try. It was SO MUCH FASTER. In another hour I was halfway done. Saturday morning I put in another couple of hours and was finished by lunchtime.

The brick color is a little dull but I think after a good cleaning and a coat of sealer, it will look really nice. (Much better than GREEN!)

Derek, his brother and dad finished framing over the rest of the brick Saturday afternoon. Hooray! Almost ready for drywall! A few more finishing details and some new wiring to finish up this week. We’re getting close!

Basement Remodel: Windows and Framing

Hi. Remember how ever remodeling project is full of little projects that you didn’t plan or budget for? They give me (the stay-on-schedule-plan-maker) anxiety. I thought the windows would be easy because my dad is the (Carter’s Glass) window guy. Yeah, well. First we had to hire an excavator (who cost more than we wanted.)

The boys loved watching the excavator from the windows.

And then we had to hire a cement cutter (who cost WAY more than we wanted).

Then we had to break up the cement block that came out of the house (because the expensive cement cutter was only a cutter not a measure-er or a jack-hammer-er or a hauler away-er). After all that we finally got the new windows. And I do have to say they were worth all of the trouble. I LOVE them! They let in so much light and they are so white and pretty! Thanks Dad!

New windows in the office and game room.

Our second unplanned project was framing. When we pulled the wall paneling down, we discovered that the exterior walls weren’t framed with 2x4s. We had known that we’d be framing in a closet and a couple of new doors but we weren’t expecting to do the whole basement. We could have just put sheet rock over the top of the existing 1x2s but we wanted to install insulation so we decided to frame.

Derek framing the den.

Bedroom with new window and framing

We aren’t quite done. I decided that I wanted to cover this *beautiful green-brick* fireplace as well. So we are in the middle of framing over the brick and we still need to do the closet and the doors… So many detours. By the way, I got my inspiration for my new fireplace from The Lettered Cottage. I’m excited to see how it turns out.

Happy Halloween (Two Weeks Ago)!!

Flo, Red the Firetruck, Tow Mater, Lightning McQueen and Ramone

This is all of us on Halloween day. I made everyone (read:Derek) dress up just to get this picture since the twins decided to get sick that day. 😦

We were hoping to all go trick-or-treating with some friends and then have a sleep-over-game-night-super-fun-party. Instead, Derek took Isaac around the neighborhood and then we put kids in bed early and watched a movie.