Week 13 & 14 Recap

With the holiday I never got around to posting last week, so I'll just combine the two. Honestly, not much is different between the two weeks anyway. The inside is almost done - yea! The counter tops came, all but three of the lights are installed and those are on back order, the fireplace was rocked, the mirrors and shower doors are hung, and Travis finished the hardwood. Really the only things we have left on the inside is to finish the stone, the baseboards in the living room & office, paint touch up, carpet, and install the appliances. We have a ton of paint touch up to do, so I am working on bids for that. As most of you know, I have a huge hatred for painting. I used to love it, but I painted our last house - twice - by myself now I hate it! The appliances have been a bit troublesome. I ordered them back in November & we've had them in storage in my parent's barn. Travis tried to install the microwave on Sunday night and it was missing some bolt threads (??) that actually hold it to the cupboard. I took it back on Monday, spent two hours at Home Depot & got a new one ordered. Today he took the dishwasher over to install it, opened the box and it was white. It was supposed to be stainless steel. So I've been on the phone with Home Depot half the day trying to fix the order. Let's cross our fingers that the stove is the correct one & has all of it's parts.

Our real delay now is on the outside. It has rained or snowed for the past week and nothing is getting done. For my Utah friends, you know how cold it is this week so I don't see much getting done this week either. They have a big tent over the house but when it's only 12 degrees outside, I don't think that will help much.

Kitchen. We put can lights in, but there's not enough. You can't tell by the picture, but it is too dark in there. The two black circles are where the pendant lights go that are on back order. We are going to have to install a few more can lights after we get moved in & our energy star inspection has been done.
Front entryway. You can almost see the hardwood under the endless dust. I wish we would have put a window down the side of the door. It seems too closed in. Too late now.
Boys' bathroom. The shower door is way too tall! We had them add some height in our shower so Travis' head was not sticking up over the top. For whatever reason they added the height in this bathroom as well. It looks ridiculous, but I guess it will keep the water in better.
Master bathroom. We have two vanities, one about 2' longer than the other. Mine was supposed to be the bigger one, but for some reason I am more drawn to the smaller one so I am trading Travis. You can just see in the picture where I have tile under the mirror. Adding that tile is on Travis' things to do list one of these days.

I love the fireplace. I turn it on every time I go over there. As soon as Parker sees it he will be thrilled we have a rock wall in the house. Should keep him busy for hours!

Christmas

We spent Christmas this year at my mom's house. I thought it would be hard not being in our house, but it really wasn't. I actually liked that I didn't have to decorate, especially the tree. I have always hated decorating the tree. If there was a way that I could store it fully decorated, I would.

We did our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at my Mom's house, and put the boys to bed around 9:30 pm. Travis was sound asleep by 10:00 pm & I watched a movie then Mass from The Vatican. I got up around 1:00 am to do the gift delivery thing, then went to bed. The boys didn't get up until about 7:00 am, which totally surprised me. Travis and I were up watching The Today Show at 6:00 am thinking they'd be up any minute. We did the Santa thing when they got up & decided we'd do our immediate family gifts later in the day.

Normally we host a big breakfast at our house, but since we were at my mom's we went simple with the menu. For the first time ever my sister and Liam came. I assume that is because we were at my parent's house, and not ours. We'll never see her for breakfast again once we move.

After breakfast we exchanged gifts with my parents, sister & aunt, then sat around eating off the snack table being lazy. I could have very easily taken a nap, but didn't get one. The boys were up running around like mad men, making a ton of noise so we all sat & watched them. It was great to just sit and doing nothing, we didn't even get out of our PJ's all day!

On Sunday, Travis & the boys went skiing & I went to the house and cleaned. It felt good to be doing something physical for a change. We've all gotten lazy without yard work and house work to keep us busy.

I think Preston looks a bit like Ron Weasley in this picture. In either year two or three at Hogwarts, Ron has a hat just like this one.
Parker got a Paper Jamz guitar from Santa and he's been putting on a daily concert for us.
I've been trying to talk Preston into letting me redo his room when we move and use a bit of U of U stuff. I want to do it a bit more grown up, get him a full sized bed, etc. He wants to keep his firetruck stuff. Dude, you are too old for firetrucks!
Parker sat on Jessa's lap half the morning so she could help him open presents. To him the helping part was letting her throw his wrapping paper in the garbage sack. Lucky girl!
The annual get to open one present on Christmas Eve PJ's. Neither of them has figured out that the one gift they get to open is PJ's. Parker wondered all day what was in the box.
Grandpa & Preston on Christmas Eve.
Liam, Grandpa, Parker, Preston & Grandma on Christmas Eve. It was impossible to get a good picture of all five of them. My dad is worse than the kids when it comes to pictures. He can't hold still and won't look at the camera. I'm not sure what face Parker is pulling.
Me, Parker, Cricket and Preston on Christmas Eve.
Preston, Cricket, Liam, Parker & Sonny on Christmas Eve.
This is one of the few years that I like my mom's tree. She and I have very opposite taste in decorating. I like very traditional Christmas decorations. I have a village, snowmen & my tree is always red & green. Each year she does a different tree, and it is almost always colors like black, gold, turquoise, pink, etc. Not my style at all. I love the red & green this year with the snowmen hats. She also collects nutcrackers. Preston tried to count, and it is somewhere in the 200 range.

Snow, snow & more snow!

This picture was taken on Christmas Eve up at Alta Ski Resort. Something like 4' of snow fell in two days. I am not sure how much snow they have total, but Travis is over 6' tall so there is a lot.

To all . .

Three Words

Parker came running down the stairs at my mom's the other day excited as he could be. He came into the kitchen yelling and laughing, "I have three words for you, 'San Ta Claus'".

Dog vs. Dog

My aunt in Boise sent a picture today of her dog ready for the big game. Naturally, I had to get Cricket ready. I will say that the Boise cheerleader looks much happier than the Utah cheerleader!

Cricket barks, "Go Utes!" Ok, she is really saying, "get this stupid jersey off of me so I can walk around."

Abby cheering for the Broncos!

May 2011

April 2011

I am not happy with how this month turned out. If I had more time, I'd start over with it.

Look Closer

Look closer at the cover for the kids' calendar.

Cricket Claus

I found this Santa Suit the other day in my mom's sewing room. My Grandma used to make these all the time for the various family dogs. It seems like that in any given year when everyone was together we had 4-7 dogs around, all with Santa Suits.


Anytime we put clothes on Cricket she won't move her body. She just sits there looking around waiting to be freed. With this suit on, she sat for about an hour with us trying to talk her into walking but she wouldn't. That was not very nice of us, but it was funny!

W is for. .

Friday at school was Parker's kindergarten Christmas program. My mom and dad came to watch it, and Parker was thrilled to have them there. Behind the kids on stage, they had a screen set up with a projector and on each slide they had a letter of the alphabet with a little saying that one of the kids would read. It was things like "A is for Apostle who . . (did something), B is for Bethlehem where Jesus was born, C is for . . (something), D is for Donkey who carried Mary . ." etc, etc. After maybe 5 letters they would sing a song then keep going with the alphabet. They got to "W" and my dad leans over and says in a totally impatient voice, "Are they going to do the whole alphabet?" Yep, Jer, I think they might just keep going with X, Y, and Z!


Parker is in the top row, fifth from the left (leaning forward.) I need a new zoom lens so I can get better pictures from far away. My friend Kathy keeps telling me, no, I "want" a new lens but I am pretty sure I "need" one. I am also pretty sure I "need" a new DSLR to go with that lens. I "need" to keep finding pennies on the ground because my coin jar is not nearly full enough for either one. ;-)

Week 12 Recap

Things are cruising right along this week. The cabinets were delivered on Monday & installed on Tuesday. I like how the color turned out. We cut some corners in the bathrooms and in the laundry room to reduce costs. I don't think anyone would ever notice what we changed on them & I'm not telling. I'll just say that it was over a well over a thousand dollars worth so I could get the color I wanted. :-)

The electrician is there today hanging lights. It will be so good to have lights installed. Right now there is one flood light that we carry from room to room so we can see. The plumber is also there putting in faucets and toilets. This build has been so many decisions that it is about to push me over the edge. All along I have said, "I swear if he calls to see what toilets we want I am going to lose it." Sure enough he called this morning. I pretty much said, "one that flushes, and it's not pink." Enough already!

Travis is in the process of putting in the hardwood floors. Poor guy. All he does is work at work then he comes home and works at the house. We are trying to do as much as we can ourselves to cut costs. We've said all along that this move will only be worth it if we can keep our house payment the same as our old house. We were on board until the interest rates took record jumps this week. UGH!

Laundry room
Master Bathroom
Kitchen

March 2011

One more down. Nine to go, plus binding & laminating. Hmmm ... me a thinkin' these will make some nice January gifts!

Calendar

Each year for Christmas I make the grandmas a calendar with the kids' pictures. Being the anal, organized person I am, I normally make one page a month, at the end of the month of the current year. i.e. The end of January 2010 I would make the pages for January 2011. That way the pictures are fresh in my mind, and I don't have to rush and do it all at the end of the year trying to get them done in time for Christmas. This year, my organization is right out the window. I can't get anything done, can't remember to do anything, and I can't ever find anything! So here it is, December 11, and I just made the January & February 2011 pages. Two months down, ten to go! Christmas is in how many days?!?!

Week 11 Recap

A lot of work got done this last week thanks to Dan, Dave and Travis. They got all of the tile done, and all of the painting done. It was a lot of work to complete in that amount of time, and they all worked so hard. Thanks, guys! The pictures are not great. We don't have lights in yet so it gets dark in there, and there is a lot of dirt, mud & dust all over everything. I hope this weekend to spend some time there just cleaning before next week when the cabinets come.

The kids' bathroom (upstairs.)

This is Parker's closet (Preston's looks the same.) When he saw the shelving he was so excited and yelled, "Mom, they put a ladder in my closet." He was to the top before I could say, "wet paint."

This is the master bathtub. Travis did the tile on the front of the tub, and the glass tile on the back. It was great that Dan taught him how to do it so he could work on it while Dan painted.

Close up of the glass tile.

Kitchen and dining area.

Dave (left), Dan (right) painting. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the ceiling in that room is really high and not easy to reach.

Tall

The Three Tileateers! This is Travis (middle) with our brother-in-law Dave (left) and his brother Dan (right). The thing I really notice in this picture is how tall they all are. Travis is just shy of 6'4". Dave is right there with him, and Dan is just a hair shorter. As Travis has gotten older he looks more like Dan, and they both look exactly like their Dad. There have been times I've walked into the house and walked right by Travis thinking it was Dan. I'm glad I've not said anything inappropriate or slapped his butt as I've gone by!

Week 10 Recap

Wow, our weeks are in the double digits now! Tile has been going great. Travis' brother, Dan, got to Salt Lake early Monday afternoon and they got busy! By Thursday night, all but a few edge pieces in the kitchen were down. We have about 750 SF of tile, so they made really good time.

As you know, picking the color was a huge stress for me, but I really like how it turned out. It is lighter than what I am normally drawn to, but it has a good mix of tans in it that I hope will look great with the dark carpet & dark cabinets. I keep telling myself that I can't have everything dark, dark and darker.

Today they will finish up the few edge pieces then start the grout and my decor tiles around the tub & showers.

It has been great having Dan here to work with Travis. It is wonderful to see him, and he is teaching Travis so much. I hope he doesn't regret coming down after seeing how much work there is to do!

Kitchen and dining area.

Kids bathroom upstairs.

Master bath