Tad is Five!!!

My baby is five!  FIVE!!!!  I told him over and over that I wanted him to stay four for a little while longer, but he went ahead and turned five anyway.  It honestly makes me so sad that my kids are growing up so fast.  I don't understand these moms that can't wait to get their kids in school.  Tad is going to spend the next year in preschool, instead of going to Kindergarten, because I just can't give him up yet.  So, in honor of my little five-year-old, I am sharing five pictures from his birthday celebration.

The above picture includes the rather sorry attempt at making a train cake.  I made the same one for Drake a couple of years ago, but this time, I had to try to get it made super quickly because Jeremy only had a few hours at home between when we returned home from the ASA conference in Tucson, and then heading to Colorado with the Young Men.  Luckily Tad didn't notice all its flaws and loved it anyway.

After cake we opened presents.

He had asked for more Angry Birds Plushies.  They are expensive, but I mentioned in an earlier post that he and Drake play with them every day, so I think they are definitely worth the money.  He specifically asked for King Pig, and was very excited when he opened him up.

He also asked for Terrence.  So this was pretty exciting too.  Terrence is huge!!

He also got ice-bird and another blue bird because they only had two.  In the game the three little blue birds are always together, so we had to correct that little error that was made in the first set.  The boys had to bring out the rest of their plushies and take a group shot with the new members.

Tad had a very happy birthday, and we are very happy that he is in our family.  Love you Tad!!

Catching up and some house pics

I have been so bad about pulling out my camera lately.  But, today I decided that it was about time to get a post up, so I imported the few pictures I have taken, and snapped a few pictures of my house to share.

In February, we took a quick trip up to see the beautiful Provo City Center temple.  I was so glad that we were able to make this trip for the open house and have the opportunity to walk through this beautiful building.  After growing up in Orem, and attending BYU, I just couldn't miss it.  It was truly amazing, and extra special when you consider the story behind it.  As an added bonus, it was really nice to spend a little bit of time with my family while we were there.

Drake had his Patriotic program at the school last week.  He and the other kindergartners did a fantastic job.

This is the only other remotely interesting picture I have taken in the last four months. Sad huh?  My boys love playing with their blocks and Angry Birds plushies.  Those little plush toys are ridiculously expensive, but my little boys wanted them so much I broke down and bought a set of twelve.  It was totally worth the money.  They spend hours playing with them creatively pretty much every day.

I am going to share a few pictures of a couple spaces in my house now that we are in.  Please keep in mind, that these spaces are not even close to being finished, but I thought it would give you a little better idea of what the house is like.

First up - the kitchen.

I really love this room.  I know it may not be to everyone's taste, but I am a firm believer that you need to make your home a space that you love and where you feel great.  It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

 I love my new gas stove.  It is actually dual fuel - so the cooktop is gas and the ovens are electric.  I wanted double ovens in the kitchen and the original design had them, but when it came down to it, double ovens and a separate cooktop put a real strain on our budget, so I settled for this stove which has a convection oven and then a lower baking drawer.  Surprisingly the baking drawer works great, and I have been really happy with this choice.  The vent hood was another compromise.  I wanted something a little more built-in, but that was a bit too costly, so I went for a more industrial looking hood.  I think it goes great with the stove and it is of such good quality.  I didn't know what I was missing before with my little standard hoods, or over the stove microwave vent systems.

This area was another compromise.  I really wanted my island to be all one level.  I also wanted quartz countertops.  Since quartz was too expensive, we went with butcher block, and the cheapest easiest solution for the island with butcher block was to make it two levels.  I like the butcher block  and eating bar, but I don't love them.  Hopefully someday we will be able to upgrade.  I do, however, love my farmhouse sink, faucet, dishwasher and pendant lights.  Everyone comments on the pendants.  I will have to take a better picture of them someday and post them, so you can appreciate a little better how pretty they are in real life.

Finally, I also really love all my big lower drawers.  I was a little afraid that after moving in and using them I would decide that they weren't all that I thought they would be, and wish I had saved my money, but happily, they are awesome and I am so glad that was an upgrade that I didn't give up.

Finally, I have to share my cute bar stools.  My brother, Russ, was here with his family last week, and asked if the bar stools were assigned seating.  Honestly, I just saw the idea on Pinterest a few years ago and thought it was cute, but when we moved the bar stools in, the boys automatically assigned themselves to the stool with their number.  It has been nice and has definitely cut down on the fighting over which bar stool they want in the morning.

Obviously, I have done nothing with this room except move the old, beat-up dining set into it.  I have big plans for this space though, so I am sure you will be seeing it in the future.

This is the family room with our old beat-up furniture in it.  I picture a nice, comfy sectional in here, but it will have to wait until the house is all the way done and the budget recovers a little.

Here is another shot of this room.  I am surprised I didn't try to get more of my beloved ceiling in the shot.  At least you can tell that the wood floor did finally clean up.  It takes some maintenance, but I am happy with it after all.

I am sharing this shot of the front room.  I wasn't lying about having no furniture for it.  The stuff on the piano, is just sitting there mostly to keep it off the floor, so don't judge my poor decorating choices here.

This is the entry.  The light fixture for it is my favorite in the whole house.  I need to take a close up of it to share soon too. Obviously, our front door rug is just a remnant of carpet.  Our front yard is still not landscaped, so a lot of dirt and mud still gets tracked in and I don't want to get something nicer until we at least have a front walk.

That is it for today, and honestly, if you have read all of this, you are a dedicated friend.

Pinewood Derby

Last week was the Pinewood Derby for my boys.  This was Thomas' last and Jack's first.  As usual, we didn't plan on our cars being very fast, so Jeremy and the boys worked hard to make them look nice, to try to place in the show category.

In the end, both cars ended up being pretty fast.  Jack took third place for speed.

Here he is with his trophy.

And here is a better (but blurry) look at his car. If you know Jack at all, you would have been able to tell that this was his car with no trouble.  The kid loves Legos, and he loves green, so this car fit him perfectly.  It turned out very cute.

Thomas was pretty mad that his car took fourth place in speed, so this made him the alternate to go to disrict and took him out of the running for a trophy in the Show category.  His last two years he won first and second in show and was hoping to make a clean sweep of show trophies for his pinewood derby years.

His car turned out really cool.  It was a Star Wars speeder and this picture does not do it justice.  I am confident it would have taken show if he hadn't taken an award for speed. Oh well.  It is good for kids to deal with a little disappointment now and then.  I would have thought he would have been glad to have a car that was winning more than losing for a change.

Every year I keep the tally running of how many cars we still have to go.   With five boys, that means Jeremy had 15 cars to help with before he is done.  We are down seven, only eight to go.  We are almost halfway there.  After three years of doing two cars every year, next year he will only have one, so it will seem like a piece of cake, I'm sure.

New House

Well, it has finally happened. We started moving into the new house on January 1st.  We are still in the process of getting boxes unpacked and things situated, but at least we are in.  We also still have a lot of things to finish before the place is officially done, but it was done enough  to move in and we jumped at the chance to get out of our little rental.

Before we moved in, I walked through the house and took a few pictures.  I will share them today, and I will share more pictures as the house starts to come together a bit more.

My new kitchen!!

The living room.  Those chairs don't go in there.  I currently have NO furniture for that room, except the piano.  I am hoping I can afford to furnish it soon.

The family room.  Obviously the fireplace needs to be finished and the floor is a complete mess in this picture.  The construction dust loved to stick to this particular flooring.  I went over it numerous times. My awesome sisters-in-law came over and spent hours helping clean up the construction mess, and they went over the floor a few times too.  It still looked like this.  I was seriously worried that I would never be able to keep this floor looking even close to decent, but after a few more cleanings it was finally clean enough to move in, and it has stayed looking pretty good.  So, I think it will work out after all.

This room belongs to Thomas and Tad.  Since Thomas didn't get his own room, we let him have first choice of roommates, so he chose Tad.

That left Jack and Drake to room together.  This is their room.  Very green!!  They chose the color and they love it - so I love it too. ;)

The main bathroom - minus mirrors.

 The main bathroom's tub/shower.  I love the tile in this surround. The accent tile is actually a dark blue, but it looks more black in this picture.

A picture of the whole room.  The four younger boys will share this bathroom.

This is a quick shot of Dallin's bathroom.  Obviously it still needs a lot of work.  I didn't include a shot of his shower since it isn't finished.

This is Dallin's room.  He gets his own as long as he keeps it clean.

This will be my sewing room/office.  Currently it is full of boxes and making me feel completely overwhelmed.

This is the dining area.  It is really a good size and I love it.

I didn't take pictures of the laundry room, mudroom, storage room, or master suite.  I will just have to share those when they are a little more ready to be seen.

We feel overwhelmed with all we still have to do to finish the house and get completely moved in, but we are so grateful to be in and we love this house.  It is perfect for us.

Thomas is Ten!

Thomas had a birthday a few days ago, and is now officially a decade old.

Our celebration was a little on the sparse side, since we are still in the middle of moving into our new house and cleaning up the rental so we can get new renters in there ASAP.  But - - we did manage a few fun things.  We surprised him by picking him and his brothers up early from school and took them to see the new Star Wars movie.  We also took him to his traditional early morning birthday breakfast at Trapper's.  He got to request his dinner and type of cake (Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie), and he opened a few presents.  All in all, I think it was a good day.

Thomas is a great kid, who works so hard in school and tries to do his best.  We love him.

Jack is Eight!!

 Jack turned eight a couple of weeks ago, and was baptized into our church.  It was a special day that I hope he will always remember.

It was a short and sweet service and Jack did such a great job.  Jeremy also did a great job with the baptism and confirmation.

Continuing with tradition on this special eighth birthday year, I want to share a few pictures of my Jack Jack through the years.

Jack is such a sweet kid, and as you can see from all these pictures, he just radiates sweetness.  We are so grateful to have him in our family.

House Progress

It has been awhile since I posted any pictures of progress on the house, so I am putting up a few pictures I snapped the other day.  Please ignore the mess, construction dust, painter's plastic that hasn't been completely ripped down, etc.

Here is a picture from the kitchen looking into the family room. I am loving how this room is turning out.

My favorite part of this room is the ceiling.  We decided to use tongue and groove lumber on it, rather than sheetrock.  I think if you have a vaulted ceiling, you need to do something to highlight it, and this treatment goes perfectly with the feeling I want for the house.  When we were installing it everyone told me I was crazy for painting it.  I get it, I really do.  Once you paint wood, there is no going back, but I am not building a cabin.  I did not want a rustic look or feel.  This look is exactly what I wanted and I am so excited about it.  It looks even better in real life.

I also want to take a moment to say that I helped Jeremy install this ceiling.  The peak is 18 feet high. I have never thought I had a fear of heights, but let me say that standing on the top rung of a wobbly 12 foot ladder with my arms all the way above my head holding lumber in place while Jeremy is using a bowwrench to force the tongue and groove together was a little daunting for me.  It is a good thing I wanted this ceiling so badly.

Here is a peek at the kitchen.  We hadn't finished installing the hardware on the doors yet when I took the picture, and we also hadn't installed the  raised bar top yet, so that is why it is looking pretty crooked in this picture.  I have always wanted a white kitchen.  I have loved them since I was a teenager.  I designed this kitchen, so I was nervous about it looking like I envisioned, but I love it!  I also love that all of my bottom cabinets are drawers.  They are so much more practical and easier to deal with than deep, large cupboards.  I also love that my little photobomber made it into this picture. It will be fun to look back at these pictures years from now and see how little he was when we built this house.

Another shot of the kitchen from a different angle.  We haven't installed the sink yet, but you can see it in the background there, sitting in the dining area.  I also haven't peeled the ugly white protective film off my vent hood yet.  I will wait until construction work is completely finished in here.

We ended up going with butcher block countertops in the kitchen.  I really wanted quartz countertops, but the price tag was out of our price range by the time we got to this point, so butcher blocks were my second choice.  They are actually a lot prettier than they look in these pictures.  I hope they hold up okay.

That is all I have for today.  I will try to get some pictures of other areas of the house soon.