House Progress

I am just posting a few pictures of recent progress on the house.

We have trusses and some sheeting.  We are obviously still waiting on the trusses that will form the roof peak and the trusses behind the front gable.

This is a picture from one side of the house that shows some of the back as well.

This is a picture from the kitchen area of the house giving you a peek into the family room and its vaulted ceiling.  It should be pretty.

Finally, a picture from the front.  It is starting to look like a house!!

It will be a few weeks before there are any more updates on the blog.  The boys and I are heading up to Utah to take a break from our little apartment and, most importantly, spend some time with my family.  We are so excited!!  Jeremy, has to stay here and keep the work going on the house.  We will be excited to see the progress when we get back.

Catching Up

We have had a busy Summer so far.  Here are some of the things that have been keeping us busy.

Dallin finished up his baseball season.  He is getting to be a pretty good player.  Here he is at bat.

Here he is at his favorite position, catcher.  He also played a lot of infield and some center field.

Dallin on base, about to steal home.  We also took a session of swimming lessons during this time, so it was extra crazy, but I didn't get any pictures of them.

A picture of some of the progress on the house.  It is all sheeted and ready for trusses this weekend.

The interior is framed.

We took the three little boys to Tucson this last week.  Dallin and Thomas got to go to the Oregon Coast for Spring Break, so they had to sit this trip out and stayed with GG and Grandad.

We went to the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson.  I thought this was a great little zoo.  You could see all of it in less than two hours and the animals would come right up close to you, so it was really fun.

They also had a fun little splash pad there where the kids could cool off.

Surprisingly, this little Otter was my boys' favorite animal that they saw at the zoo.  He was cute and really active.

We spent a lot of time at the pools at the resort.  I didn't get any pictures of them on the waterslide or in the big pool since I felt like I always needed to be with them in the water in those pools, since they are still pretty little.  But, here are a couple of pictures from the kiddie pool.  They had fun here too.

And finally, here are a few shots of the resort where we stay during the ASA conference.  I don't think I have ever shared these before and we really enjoy the pretty atmosphere when we are down here every June.

It has been a busy, but fun summer so far.

Tad is Four!!

My baby is four!  Can you believe it?!?!  Those years went sooooo fast!  I miss having a baby sometimes, but I must admit that Tad is a super fun kid at this age.  Here is a list of ten of the things I am enjoying most about my four-year-old Tad . . .

10. He comes in to snuggle with me and Jeremy every night for a few minutes before he goes to bed.

9.  He loves to sing, and I overhear him singing the primary songs a lot as he plays.

8.  He has a bunch of stuffed animals that he loves dearly.  He takes good care of them and usually has at least one of them with him at all times.

7.  He always puts his clothes in the laundry hamper when he takes them off.  (Sadly, he is my only boy who does this without a reminder.)

6.  One of his favorite expressions is "Mom, Do you know what?"  He then follows it up with some interesting fact that he has picked up or an observation he has made.

5.  He folds and neatly stacks dishrags, dishtowels, and washcloths like a pro.  He then puts them away without any prompting.

4.  He loves primary and is always excited when Sunday comes around.

3.  He has become a good playmate for Drake.  They are finally getting along really well 90% of the time.

2.  He loves being outside playing on the swing set, digging in the dirt, riding his bike, pushing his digger around, or hanging out at the new house while mom and dad work.

1.  He tells me multiple times every day that he loves me and that I am his best friend.

We love you Tad!  Happy birthday!!!

A Visit with Cousins and House Updates

 Last weekend, my dad, sister, and two of her kids came down for a quick visit.  It was so fun to have some visitors in Arizona. While they were here we took a quick trip to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert NP.  Here are just a couple pictures of that little excursion.

Paige and Tad in a crevice in the rock.

All the cousins on the Long Logs Trail.  The kids had a great time together and we are excited to head up there in a month and have a few more weeks of fun!!

Now, onto the progress on the house.  Things are starting to come along, and I am starting to believe I might actually have a house where we all fit someday!!

Jeremy told me I needed to take a shot from the front of the house for good before and after pictures. So, this is a view looking at the front of the house, when we just had a slab.

My cute boys hanging out on the sheeting.

Having fun on a makeshift teeter-totter of their own creation.

The first wall went up!  This was pretty momentous.  My father-in-law reminded me that I should probably get a shot of it.  After all, there is only one.

Our house has required that the electric company come out and switch out the old rickety wood pole, with a steel one, so this is the linemen working on it the other day.  See, we are already improving the neighborhood and our house is just started.

Another shot of framing progress from the front of the house, we are a little further along than this now, but I have not been able to get out and get a shot since it is raining again.

One last look at the framing!  We are sooooo glad to be moving along, and we are so grateful for all of the people in our neighborhood and ward that have offered their help.  We are feeling truly blessed and are excited to be a permanent part of this awesome neighborhood!!

House Progress

We finally have a slab!!  The rain let up enough for us to pour concrete, and the framing package was delivered yesterday. So, here are a few pictures of the latest progress on the house.

Everything prepared for concrete.

I actually helped lay and tie some of the rebar.  Thankfully they have some nifty tools that make the tying pretty slick.

Our slab was so big we had to hire this big pump truck to come pump the concrete from the concrete truck into the house.  It was kind of cool to see.

The finished slab.  We will prepare the garage and porches for concrete and get them poured in the next week or two.  But, in the meantime we can start framing!!!  Hooray!!!

I'm not sure that the kids are all that keen on getting walls put up in here.  It has provided a great place to run and ride bikes.

They have also enjoyed jumping around on all the stacks of lumber and sheeting.  We have at least this many bundles at the back of the house as well.  A good week of progress for sure!!!

Rain Rain Go Away

Normally in Arizona we are over the moon about a good wet season.  We are so water deprived that we have been known to just sit at the window and watch the rain pour down with huge smiles on our faces.  But lately, the ample rain we have been blessed with has been a sad sad sight for me.

You see, heavy rain makes it impossible for the plumber to do his underground work, or for the concrete slab to be poured.  We were planning on getting all of that done last week, but the rain has caused us to push the slab back a full week.  If we keep having delays like this, I think it will be 2018 before we get into the house.  :(

On the bright side, it did dry up enough for the plumber to come and put in the underslab plumbing.

Remember that nice level lot?  It has now been trenched and the plumbing has been put in and covered.  It passed inspection and now we have to level it all out again.

I would never have thought a sight like this could bring me such happiness, but any kind of progress on this house brings me hope.

Now we just have to get it prepared for the concrete and pray that it does not rain next Saturday.

Why I Blog

 (This was the first picture I ever posted on the blog in 2008)

When I first started blogging I did it because I lived so far away from my family and friends and I thought that they might be interested in getting a little glimpse of what we were up to every now and then.  At the time Dallin and Thomas were preschoolers and Jack was a tiny baby.  I had a lot more time then (even though I thought I was insanely busy), so it was also kind of fun for me.  After several years of blogging, I have accepted the fact that the reason that I started blogging is not the reason I have continued.  My parents are not great about checking it, but my sister, one of my sisters-in-law, a few of my friends and some cousins mention that they read it on occasion.  I guess it keeps some of them in the loop, and I am happy that they are interested in knowing what is going on with us from time to time.  But - - the real reason I have continued to blog, even when almost everyone I know has abandoned their blogs, is because I love the record of our lives that I have inadvertently created.



Every once in awhile I will go back and read through some old posts and I am so glad that I have taken the time to get on here and write and share pictures when I can.  I love looking at those pictures of my kids when they were so little and reliving old memories.




So, for those of you who actually do check my blog, you have surely noticed that there are lots of spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors in my writing and my pictures are never edited.  Sometimes when I take the time to go back and read a post I am pretty embarrassed by some of the mistakes I have made in my writing, but at the end of the day, I can assure you that you will continue to see them.  I am lucky to get a post up and I don't have time for picture editing, or proofreading.  If I tried to make every post perfect before I published it, this blog could not continue, and I personally need it to continue so that seven years from now I can look back at the posts from this year and appreciate how little my kids looked and all the memories we made.

These boys are the light of my life and they are growing up way too fast - so I had better document these times the best I can.  With all of the challenges and frustrations that come along with raising a bunch of boys, I still  cannot imagine another period of my life being better than these years of raising my family.