The Best Part Of Fall

On the kid's day off from school we went to the Orchard.  Because of the "drought" we couldn't pick any apples, but we still had a blast!

I think I have just as much fun as the kids do!  We've been coming here every year for about 7 years and it's fun to see how this place changes and grows.  It's one of my favorite traditions.

Happy 3rd of July!

Sometimes Neal and I think our little Iowan town is a little weird.  That being said the fireworks for the 4th of July were held on the 3rd of July. Nuf said.

Adam doesn't like noises.  Keep in mind this is 1 hour before the fireworks started and other fireworks are banned in Iowa.

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Pretty

My favorite fireworks shot. It was a full moon too.

We played frisbee, baseball, and soccer while we waited.  Besides the fact that Ryan was throwing his 100th fit for the day and Adam wouldn't move or keep his fingers out of his ears it was fun.  Good thing Coby was there to have fun!

Trestle Bridge

We took the fam to go walk to the trestle bridge in Madrid, IA.  (By the way you pronounce it Mah-drid not Ma-drid like you think it is) It was way cool!  Nice exercise, it got the kids' energy out, and the lights were fun!  Nevermind that we didn't get home until after 11pm and had church at 9am.

Adam's Baptism

I can't believe my baby is 8!!!  I am so thankful that Grandma Laurel, Uncle Reid, Grandma Kristie, Grandpa John, and Cousin Coby were able to make it for his baptism!!  What a special day.  And I didn't even cry.  Out loud.

Wainscot

Ooooh!  Ahhhh!  Yes I know that is what you are saying because the bathroom looks absolutely fabulous.  We are actually done now so I'll have to add the finale pics later.

Paint me Peacock

We started painting...

The color is peacock blue and next (besides paint touch up) we have the wainscot to put up.  Almost there- I think we can, I think we can, I think we can...

I'm Walled In!

Bathroom here we come!  We have the walls up now and are just finishing them up while Neal started tiling the bathroom.  Yee-haw!

Bathroom Update

We are {slowly} moving along on our bathroom.  Let me just say I will be very excited when there is light in the laundry room so I can see if there are any stains, and when I don't have to worry about sawdust and cement dust getting all over the clean clothes!  But patience, patience... it will all be worth it.

Wall frames are up and Neal is finishing up the electrical work.  That is a light Neal put up in the laundry room- yea!

Sometimes I feel like I need to escape the chaos of our house {or you can just call it mess}, but the only problem is that here in this little Iowa town, the summer means a TON of the roads have construction and right now a lot of stores are under construction too.  Where to go, where to go?  I cannot wait until the pool is open because that is where we will be escaping.  This is the boys last week of school and then we have the freedom to do whatever we want.  Or the problem of us all stuck at home with the {mess}.  Let us not think of that right now.

Garett's Birthday

Our little guy turned 2!  Why do they have to grow up so fast?

We decorated at night so when he woke up there were streamers and balloons.  When he walked into the room he yelled "BALOONS!!!!!".  I think he liked his surprise!

Reading Elmo (he got a lot of Elmo stuff) on his new beanbag chair.

It was a rainbow theme.

Make a wish!

Marble rainbow cake- not my forte, but fun for the kids.

Happy Birthday Garett!  You brighten our day!

What We're Up To

Things have changed a little at our house lately.  I recently signed up to be an independent consultant for Close to my Heart (a scrapbooking and stamping company) which has been very different for me but also has been fun [see: whatmecraft.blogspot.com].  We have also started building a bathroom for the basement!  It is very exciting- we already have been in need of 2 bathrooms with tubs/shower so it will be so nice to have that.  And with family visiting for Adam's baptism it will be even better than everyone using 1 bathroom.  Yea!

The plumber came and did all the piping then Neal took down the ceiling.  We just need to put up our walls, do the electrical work and then the plumber will come back and install the tub, toilet and vanity.

Putting up walls will also give me a laundry room which means less space, but hopefully a quieter basement.

I am also excited to actually get to decorate and plan how we want things with these 2 rooms- I haven't been too into what the previous owners decided.  While we were in California Neal put tile in our master bath which was really nice since the previous owners had purple/blue linoleum with grey/pink tile on the walls.  Who knows why they put tile on the walls and linoleum on the floors.

This is a prototype of what I'd like to do with our basement bathroom.  I redid the photo from a blog that shows you how to put up your own wainscot with the colors I want.  And I really like the shower curtain she used.  We weren't sure if we wanted to go with a dark vanity or white, but I think with 3 boys we'll end up getting dark.

So that's what we've been up to!  I'll keep posting pictures as we finish more.

Kansas City!

We were so excited for the Kansas City temple open house we headed straight down there the first weekend they started offering tours.  It was such a great experience walking through the temple with the boys.  Adam and Ryan both loved the Celestial room and loved the mirrors in there that look for "eternity".  I am so glad we were able to go there and I am so thankful that Neal and I were able to be sealed there so our family can be together forever.

We were also able to do some other fun things- like go to a model train museum, go to the zoo, and eat at Fritz's (where they have trains deliver your food).  What a fun weekend!

V-Day

Here is what the boys made me for Valentines Day- aren't they so creative?!  I had to spray grape juice onto the paper to make the message appear and the green to show up on the flowers.  Love it!

And here is what I made for the boys- angry birds!  Really we usually just give some candies, but I saw this website obsessively stitching where this lady made these for her boys for Christmas.  The boys (including Neal) are obsessed with angry birds so I thought they'd like them.

Since my boys are not into mushy stuff and to go with the angry birds, we did a grouches' valentines.  For dinner we had heartbroken pizza, bleeding hearts (strawberries), and "no body likes me everybody hates me" worms (jello worms).