Memorial Day '12

For Memorial Day we went on a little hike -- it was very crowded, but nice anyway.  1/4 mile hike to a tall waterfall.  Eric said "This is the best day ever!" several times on the hike.  Tanner wanted to walk the entire way, but it was too rocky, so although he enjoyed it he was pretty mad when we carried him.  Andrew wanted to take lots of pictures to remember the hike. Here are some great ones:

After working in our ridiculous yard (seriously, it's pretty much just dirt and tree roots and weeds.  It's going to be a lot of work and time.....)  Anyway, after working in the yard, we went to the old city cemetery to show the boys the graves of some relatives.  Andrew was happy to find several "Squires" headstones (his middle name) so Eric had to find some "John" headstones too.  Luckily, in addition to "John Squires",  Pres. John Taylor was very nearby.  (:  It was a nice evening, despite Eric's complaining of a stomach ache, which I thought was just complaining....but the next morning he started throwing up the next morning.  Poor guy has been sick ever since.  He's so sad to still be sick.  He just cries every time he needs to throw up again.  

And below is a picture of our finally finished master bath -- I painted the light oak vanity a dark brown, added hardware, and put up some shelves to help with the fact that we have no linen closet.  Sounds like it could be done in a day -- but for me it took weeks.  Literally.  I pretend to be a "do-it-yourself-er" but really, I'm just learning so everything takes me so long!  Argh.  

  

The Remodel - Bathrooms

We did some work in all the bathrooms.  The master bath still isn't finished (I want to refinish the new/second hand vanity) so maybe I'll show that later.  But here are the others:

Main Bath

Before

During

Today (not the greatest picture :))

Before

 During (gross toilet -- construction workers!!!)

Today

(Looks like I didn't take that picture!  Will show you later!)

The Remodel - Kitchen

And here is the finished kitchen -- hooray!  As much as I love it, I have found that a great desk does not organize the papers on it's own.  Darn-it!  It is a kitchen/dining room -- but I have yet to refinish the second hand table we have....so maybe I'll post a before/after photo of the dining area another day.

Before

 During

Today

The Remodel - Entry and Living Room

I have been meaning to take some pictures of our house for months now.  I've been waiting for a day when it looked nice and clean and well decorated.  Well, it's not clean often, and I keep rearranging furniture and haven't hung much on the walls.  But today we actually had a play-date with a new neighborhood friend -- so I had to at least pick up the toys and clear the counters.  So lucky you, here are some pictures of our new home!

The Entry

Before

 During

Today

The Living Room

Before

 During

 Today

Tanner - Age 1

Just wanted to post this cute picture of Tanner -- taken just the other day on our back porch.

One year, many changes

So here I am, blogging after a year -- mostly so I won't fill up your mailboxes with the numerous pictures I'm about to post. We purchased a house a few months ago. Since then we have been remodeling -- by "we" I mean the people we hired. We can barely keep our dishes done....we aren't about to try and do this stuff by ourselves. :) Anyway, I'm excited that it finally looks like progress -- instead of tearing down, we'rebuilding. Hooray!

So I'm just going to give you a small glimpse of the place:

The Living Room -- this front room was darkened by a lava rock wall fireplace. This was Brian's least favorite thing about the house I think (unfortunately the exterior of the house still has this rock.) We had the lava rock removed and a new mantel and fireplace put in. We are going to have a brick surround, but haven't gotten that far yet. Also, I was very happy to cover up the Crayola Orange-Red wall -- I am typically drawn to the color orange -- but not this one.

The Kitchen -- what started as a laundry/kitchen/dining area with dark gray cabinets and a drop ceiling, is a beautiful, much brighter kitchen. Tomorrow we will be getting the countertops "templated" to be installed in a couple of weeks. Also, there was a wall full of small closets that we knocked out and turned to a section of coat closet/lockers/pantry. Not a mudroom, but as close as we could get!

Lastly, I'm not sure you can tell much from these pictures -- but let me describe because I think this might be the best change we made. The original stairway to the basement was right off the small entry. It was a "U" shape stairway with a weird cupboard in middle. Brian was not fond of the turns in the stairs (perhaps too many E.Q. service projects moving furniture???) Our smart Realtor suggested that we ask about having them straightened. Well, we did....thus eliminating one bend in the stairway, the weird cupboard, the hall closet (unfortunately) and opening up the entry. I think it was a great change -- the entry is much more inviting.

Oh, and don't worry -- the floor isn't pink. (I know you are surprised given my lifelong love of the color pink.) It's actually wood flooring now. The pink is just the painters paper.

Hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll be completely finished and moving in. I know everyone says that construction always takes longer than it's supposed to -- in our case it's taken more than twice as long. Luckily (and not so luckily) we haven't yet sold the house we're living in. But now's the time -- if you know of anyone looking, let us know!

September Highlights

This month has been mostly consumed with the new baby, of course. Tanner is doing well -- and I'm attempting to live off of not enough sleep without being too grumpy. I find my mood is very affected by how tired I am. Ugh.

It is Brian's birthday this month too. The one thing he asked for was a DVD learning course about probability. If anyone wants to come over for a movie night, let us know! :)

Brian also took Andrew and Eric to the Barnum and Bailey circus. They went with some friends and had a great time. The highlight seemed to be the motorcycles in the circular cage, and the cotton candy of course. Andrew insisted on saving me some of the cotton candy - so they brought me home a handful. So nice! :)

Baby Tanner

Most of you already know this given the email I sent out, but for those of you who didn't get the message....Baby Tanner was born on September 5. The labor was long, and unfortunately ended in a 2nd C-section. But he and I are doing well so I guess I shouldn't complain. Mom's here helping out -- doing housework, cooking, and being a great support as we adjust to having 3 kids. Dad was here for several days too -- the baby would fall asleep almost instantly if grandpa was holding him. He has a way with babies -- which is why I have a picture of each of my babies in the arms of their sleeping grandpa. Below is a picture of Tanner in one of our favorite little outfits (compliments of Uncle Dave and Aunt Allyson.) He's 5 days old here.

The boys LOVE the baby. I don't know that they love me not being as available these days, but they do think the baby is really cute. And he is. He weighed 9 lbs. 9 oz. Big Baby. Thus the C-section. He's adorable and sleeps a lot. (My other babies didn't sleep so much, so this is a welcome treat.)

We're back

I stopped blogging some months ago, made this private in hopes that I'd someday transfer it to a file offline. Never did that. So now I've decided to give it another go. We'll see how I do.

Here are a few highlights from the couple of months:

1. I'm pregnant. Due in 1 week. Ready to have the baby...sort of. Scared to have the baby, both the actual having of it and the taking care of it afterward. I just can't imagine waking up multiple times a night again. My body has taken this pregnancy harder than the last, maybe that's why I feel so tired. But, last night after waking up a bazillion times because of my aching hips I figure, guess I could just be up feeding a baby instead! Oh, and it's another boy.

2. Andrew started Kindergarten this week. It's all-day Kindergarten so I was worried the long hours would be hard on him. I underestimated the little guy, though. He's doing great and seems very happy. Below is a picture of Andrew and Eric on his first day -- it was rainy and almost cold. What a nice change!

3. In preparation for the baby's coming, Andrew and Eric are now sharing a room. So far it's gone okay. We painted the room, painted Brian's old dresser and bed, got new mattresses, and put up some things on the wall. Mom made the quilt from her scraps -- love it. The room is not finished, still a lot of bare walls -- but it's better than before. Andrew has asked more than once, "Why did you put so many (3) pictures on the wall, Mom?"

Before:

After:

4. We also took a great vacation to Idaho -- my sister took care of the boys for a couple of days while Brian and I went to my parent's cabin. It was a very quiet, happy couple of days. We went into Yellowstone Park and just enjoyed the time together. We walked down to the lower falls -I think I scared a few people -- this big pregnant person walking down the mountain. I got a few comments..."You're crazy" was one of them. but I made it back up the mountain just fine -- even if I did have to stop 4 times.

Then, my parents brought the boys up and we spent time with them and the boys. Dad took the boys fishing. I was tired and stayed home, but Brian and my mom went. Of course the "little hike" ended up being quite the trek. Dad's such an optimistic outdoorsman. So when they finally got to the stream, Dad got a bite right away. A small fish -- "Let's go a little farther down, maybe we'll get a bigger one." After a while of moving downstream to look for bigger fish, Brian finally said "I think the boys are good here." (hint, hint.) The boys caught some fish and we had them for breakfast the next morning. The boys were troopers and Brian was the hero as he helped the boys and Mom climb over logs, carry lunch, etc. We'll have to see what they think about going fishing next time. (:

And of course we had to spend a day in my Rexburg. We went to the Splash Park with the boys and one of their cousins. They had a great time.

5. Lastly, a lesson I learned this summer is that there are a lot of really nice people out there. Andrew begged this summer to do a lemonade stand. I was too shy as a kid for this activity, and I'm afraid I still am. But Brian came to the rescue and kindly sat at the lemonade stand with Andrew. Seriously, it brought tears to my eyes looking at the boys and Brian sit under the tree in the sweltering heat. Andrew stood out there waving his arms "Lemonade for Sale!" I just hoped they would get at least one sale.

Well, our neighbors came through! The lemonade probably lasted an hour or so -- several people stopped, often paying more than the 10 cents they were asking. And it wasn't even very good lemonade. They would talk to Andrew and ask what he was saving his money for. (Wish we had some great response....I think he probably said candy.) Several of the customers were strangers just driving by, others were neighbors down the street we'd never met, and of course there were a few neighbors we did know. So I just wanted to let you know that there are a lot of nice people out there. Sometimes I forget that, I think.

So that's a long post, we'll see if I ever post again! (: Hopefully we'll at least manage a post about the baby.

I know it's harder to follow blogs when they're private, so I'm just going to put it out there again.