2 brides-to-be, 2 bridal showers

This adorable bride-to-be is Josie.  She's one of my favorite former young women.  We have much in common and enjoy getting together and going for walks around the neighborhood and catching up. I loved reading her weekly letters while she served a mission in California, and I especially loved seeing her relationship with her husband-to-be Rick blossom.  And what a guy- he faithfully waited for her while she served her mission!  It was my pleasure to throw her a ward shower a few weeks ago with the help of several other women.  I had hoped the house remodel would be finished, but there were a few things that didn't come together.  Oh well, it was fun to show off what we'd done anyway.

The following Saturday I hosted a shower for my cute niece Madi who is getting married on March 16th.  Her mom and sister came plus her Dad's mom and sisters plus Jessica, Ann, Janet, Syd and little Rafe.  We had a fun time eating, playing a few games, and watching Madi open presents.

You've just had a sneak peak to what the house looks like now- and I promise a complete before/after post in the coming days.

Jake is a Eagle Scout!

(Let me start off by apologizing for the poor quality of these pictures.  I don't know what the problem was with my instant camera, but I got my good one out for the ones at home which you'll notice in the 3rd collage)

This past Sunday night Jake received his Eagle Scout Award!  We're so proud of him for working so hard to get it.  He did a great project during the summer of '10 (yes, it's taken us that long to get the paperwork done. . .) of collecting bicycles for Burmese refugees who live in Logan and don't have any form of transportation except the bus.  It was a very rewarding experience for everyone involved when we delivered the 60 plus bikes to them and to see the joy on their faces when they realized that they were getting a bike for free.

The top picture if of Jake and Ryan in the "eagles nest" with men in our ward.  It was impressive that so many came to the court of honor to support Jake and Ryan (notice cute Brad to Ryan's right).  The bottom right picture is of Jake and Ryan's little brothers taking part in the program before the awards were handed out.  Cam hasn't worn his scout shirt for a couple years- apparently he's grown a little since then. . . hahaa

The top right picture is our YM president presenting Jake with the award.  Jake really looks up to him (and not just because he's tall) and is happy he's in YM with him.  The bottom left picture is of Jake with our bishop, the YM pres. and the scout advancement adviser.  If any of you reading this are more into scouting than we are, you'll notice that Jake and Ryan are wearing their bandillos (is that even the right word?  It's the green thing with all their merit badges on them) on the wrong shoulder. . . who knew?  Ryan's was on the right shoulder (which is actually the right shoulder, not the left) but changed it so they would look the same.  We'll get it right for Cam!)

At home with the better camera.  It was nice of the Weyerts Grandparents and Jess and Brad to come and support Jake in this momentous occasion.

Way to go Jake!  You won't ever regret putting in the effort it took to become an eagle scout.

Phase 2 of Remodel

A lot has been happening since last I posted.  We're nearing completion of our remodel, but until everything is completed and I can show all the pictures of how amazing everything looks, I thought I'd show some more "during" remodel pictures. 

The first thing we had done was having canned lighting put in the kitchen to replace the hideous and noneffective track lighting I've hated for the past 10 years.  It's incredible how much brighter the room is now.

Luckily I only had one wall to tear wallpaper from.

We wanted to have more room when the leaf is in the kitchen table to move around, so we decided to take the french doors out between the living room and kitchen.  Brad's dad Bryce has done all the carpentry and handy-man work and has just been great with everything we've asked him to do.

Inspired by the Romney's remodel from a few years ago, we went with an arch between the two rooms. I love how it turned out.

Bryce also tore down the old banister and made a new, awesome one.  I'm so happy with how it turned out!

Lindsey and Ryan volunteered to come and spend one Saturday helping us with whatever we wanted them to do.  Ryan installed 6 light fixtures and taped off a wall for stripes, and Lindsey helped me paint in the kitchen.  Their help was invaluable!

This is what the snow looked like just outside the front door when the hardwood floor installers were done.

Goodbye old hardwood floor.  I will not miss you.

Phase 2 of the new carpet started last Wednesday night when we moved all the furniture out of the living room, (into the kitchen) family room and computer room (into the game room) and storage room (into Cam's room).  I mistakenly thought it would be a one day job, but 6 days later and the installer is just finishing up.  He spent Thursday and Friday laying the downstairs rooms, then had a job out of town and didn't make it back until today.  It's been a bummer living in a mess for that long, but all things considered, I really can't complain because most things have gone pretty well on schedule.

My plan to have everything done by Saturday is so close to being a reality, but not quite.  I'm hosting a ward bridal shower for a former young woman and great friend- Josie, and had wanted everything to be done.  What won't be done is:  back splash  (it's on back order), some of the carpet trim and under the counter trim (ran out and had to order more), some baseboards and trim on new staircase (Bryce will finish that when he comes to do the back splash), and new rugs for the kitchen and entryway (on order).  Hopefully everything will be done in the next 10 days or so, and I'll be doing some great after pictures then.

Phase 1 of our remodel

So we are in the thick of our kitchen remodel, and since I want to wait until we're all done and do a big reveal with before and after pictures, I did want to give a tiny glimpse of what's been going on here.  So I'll tell about the first phase of our new carpet!  We had all 5 bedrooms carpeted, plus the game room and sewing room.  Three days later, we all helped Mike move his office home into one of the bedrooms upstairs.  He is LOVING working at home and not having to go out in the cold, dark early morning hours.  

This is of all of us moving everything out of the bedrooms into the family room, living room, and guest bathroom (doesn't Cam look thrilled to be helping?)  It was a huge undertaking and we figured with the time all 6 of us spent moving everything, it totaled about 12 hours. 

 That was the easy part though as we learned the next day when it came time to put everything away. . .  Two carpet installers worked from 10:30 am until 8 pm laying the carpet, which I LOVE.  I'm so excited about it, and to have it in the other rooms as soon as we're done in the kitchen.

 Here's our bedroom with the new carpet.  I love it, and love that I don't need to vacuum nearly as often as with the lighter.

More fun family time

We continued having fun after Christmas with several more activities.  We all went bowling one night and Mike and I really enjoyed beating everyone with our great scores and many strikes. . . We should have been playing for money!  We had the Bundy's over one evening for 'fast and easy' pizza and monkey bread. That double batch was gone quickly.  We played both name games, then the game of 'things.'

On New Years Eve we went to the matinee "We bought a Zoo" and enjoyed that, then came home to eat a tasty Turkey dinner. I'd been feeling deprived of one since we'd missed out on one for Thanksgiving, so I had fun preparing the dinner and feasting on leftovers for days afterward.

Since the snow came in November before we'd had a chance to rake up any leaves, we took advantage of a 50 degree day and got them raked up.  Since we haven't had snow for about a month, what we did have is mostly melted. It's been a weird winter so far.  How long can it continue this way? 

Carol invited us out one evening for munchies and two new fun games.  It was fun to get together with her and her kids, Ann, and the Bundy's. 

We got several new fun games for Christmas including Just Dance 4.  We've had fun playing that, and I'm surprised at how much rhythm the boys have!

Ann and I took our girls to SLC for some shopping and lunch at Thaifoon.  We hit some great stores that had 50% off Christmas decorations so I'm excited for next year to have some new things.
All too soon it was time to go back to work and school, and for Brody and Kylee to leave for Colorado after three wonderful weeks with us.  I guess it's true that "all good things come to an end."  That's OK, because I have great memories of this Christmas season and now have our remodeling  to look forward to.  Stay tuned!

Family time

I have loved the past few weeks being busy with many fun family activities.  It's been awesome having Kylee and Brody here since the 17th, and having Jess and Brad around a lot.  We had a fun time at the Skeens having a party before Christmas.  We had an ugly lamp contest, played the newlywed game, and played around the world, 4 square, wall ball and dodge ball in the gym.

 I loved Christmas being on a Sunday this year.  I wish it was every year and that we could have an amazing 1 hour Sacrament meeting like we did this year.  It was great.  I actually liked just getting up and going to church at 9, then coming home, taking pictures, then opening presents and having a big breakfast at noon.  We spent the rest of the day going to the Weyerts, then hanging out at home playing the trivia game, hide the pickle, and several other fun games.  It was so wonderful to all be together for the whole day.

Kylee and Brody are here for another week, so stay tuned for another post of more fun activities!

Mexico!

 Our family had the wonderful experience of spending a week near Akumal, Mexico (70 miles south of Cancun) for a week over Thanksgiving break.   It was the best vacation ever, and we'll have memories of our time there to last a lifetime.  The first pictures I'm showing have to be one of my top three favorite things about the trip:  THE VIEW.  This is what we got to look at everyday.  I couldn't get enough of it.  This is what I call paradise.

Me, Mike, Jess, Brad, Jake and Cam journeyed together from SLC to Cancun, meeting Ky and Brody in Mexico as they'd come from Denver.  One of my other favorite parts of the trip was how we spent every evening.  We would start off with "topic presentations."  Before arriving in Mexico, everyone picked a topic that would teach us something, then they'd present it, and we'd discuss it for awhile after.  For example:  Mike taught us how we get water in Logan, Brody talked about space, and Brad talked about gratitude being a part of having a winning and successful attitude.  It was very informative and interesting, and fun to discuss topics we wouldn't normally. Then we'd either play cards or watch home movies.  Both activities were very amusing and fun.

We spent Thanksgiving Day at a park called Xel Ha.  We had a blast riding bikes, snorkeling, cliff jumping, going on zip-lines, rope swings, enjoying the beauty,  eating the delicious buffets which were included in our entry, AND swimming with dolphins!  It was a perfect day.

Friday we enjoyed a lovely, relaxing day at our beach house having fun going kayaking, laying out, swimming and snorkeling, playing a little volleyball, lazing in the hammocks, getting covered head-to-toe with sand (something only Jake would do. . .) climbing coconut trees (something only Brody would do. . .), and going out for dinner that night at a quaint Mexican restaurant called La Buena Vida. Does life get any better than this?  I submit that it does not!

 Saturday was spent at a park called Xplor.  It was amazing!  We went on these zip-lines that took
1 1/2 hours to get through all of them, and because it wasn't crowded at all, we were able to do them twice.  It was so much fun to go flying through the air.  We also rode the rhino jeeps twice, swam and rafted in the underground river (which was so cool and pretty) and enjoyed two more tasty buffets, again included with our admission.  We all loved this adventurous day. 

 Sunday we went to nearby Akumal to snorkel at Turtle Beach and swim with turtles!  It was so cool!  Jake and I saw one with three gold fish on it's back, and when it came up to the surface for a breath, we touched it!  It was probably three feet long.  It was awesome.  Also seen were swordfish, stingrays and various colorful and huge fish.  Jess and Brad made a cool sand castle.  The picture on the left is the back of our beach house, and on the bottom right is the front of the house.  I absolutely loved that the house was right on the beach.  It was literally 40 steps from the back door to the water.  SOOO cool!

 We all got cleaned up and spent a little time taking some family pictures right outside our beach house.  I'm so happy with the way they turned out.  Kylee had borrowed a friends tripod and remote, so we just clicked away!

 These are some of my favorites of the kids:

 We then headed over to the town of Tulum to check out the Mayan ruins.  It was so cool to walk around and see everything in such a beautiful setting.

 Monday we spent more time relaxing on the beach, then in the late afternoon went to our last park- Xcaret.  It was mostly a zoo and aquarium (nothing exciting like the other two parks) , but still cool to just walk around looking at all the exotic creatures in a beautiful setting.  We had our last delicious buffet (again, included with our admission) then headed home to enjoy our last night in Mexico.

More pictures of the boys having fun and keeping themselves entertained.
 My last favorite part about the trip was seeing my kids all enjoying being together and having fun with each other.  I loved that there were no distractions like we have at home: school, jobs, friends, electronics, etc. and that we just had each other to enjoy and make memories with.  I will end with the sight I can't get out of my head and wish that I could wake up to every day here like I did for 7 days in Mexico.