Kitchen Remodel

Here are a couple of pics of our kitchen. It is almost done, Yay!!! We started out with blue swirl Formica counter tops, flower wallpaper, orange cabinets, a creamy yellow sink, and all different colors of appliances. We put in granite tile counter tops, a new sink and fixture, newer appliances that my aunt gave us, and we stained the cabinets, stripped and painted the walls and put in Mosaic tile back splash and new outlets. We are going to stain our bay window, and put in new flooring. I am so grateful for Matt and all his hard work! He has been so awesome to help me get it done! The pics don't do it justice! I am so glad that he knows how to do so many different things!! Thanks babe!

Locks of Love

My little Tay cut her hair today. She was excited, I thought I would start crying at any moment.

It's just hair right? She has always had long hair. I have never cut it short for her because I loved it long. But it's not my hair, it's hers. She should have a voice in how she looks. So my awesome little girl decided she wanted to cut it short and donate it to Locks of Love. She has witnessed her brother and other men (and a woman), shave their hair off to support one of Matt's old co-worker's wife who had cancer. It made a huge impact on my kids. I am so proud of her for making this choice! We cut it really quick this morning before school so she could show her teacher who leaves on Maternity Leave today! Good job Tay! You look so cute!!

Mother's Day

Aww what a fabulous day! I was spoiled with cards from the kids! Taylor's class made their Mother's a cookbook with their own recipes in it. Taylor's recipe was wheat bread. Here is her recipe: 7 cups of wheat. Heat up the wheat and you will have bread. How cute is that? She also gave me a pretty card with flowers she colored on it. Parker gave me a card that said I was the best cook and so nice to him:) All 3 of the kids also gave me a card after church with a magnet that had their picture on it. I also got 2 pair of exercise outfits, a pair of shorts and a planter with flowers. Matt was so great! He made breakfast, lunch and dinner and let me take a Sunday nap! Doesn't get much better that this:)!!!

Random Thoughts.......

We went to my aunts house and she has painted all of her upstairs. I love it! So I go home and decide I need to paint. I bought some paint awhile ago to do Parker's room, so I pull it out and get going. Parker helped my move all his furniture out, and then we ripped out the carpet and pad. I will miss the beautiful red, yellow, orange, shag carpet! NOT! The room is full of wood paneling. My solution?? Paint it! So Parker is getting a red and blue room because he loves the Utah Jazz and the Utes. Red AND Blue??? Yep. Not great for resale, but fabulous for my son who is the only one downstairs and needs to have a fun room that he wants to be in.

I am painting and I hear Tay throw a fit. I hear Matt put her in her room. She screams for awhile. Not once does he come and get me to make me deal with it! Love it~!!! He starts to put them to bed and still doesn't bother me. Who is this?? I would be bugging him like crazy asking for help! Fabulous night!

Parker and 4 of his friends are playing and one of the boys gets wrestled to the ground by another boy. He thinks he could have been "Killed". Seriously!! No joke. All the boys go home. Next thing I know there is the dad of the hurt boy wanting to talk to Parker and find out the story of what happened. Parker goes out and tells the dad what happened. I am so proud that he is not afraid or intimidated by this father. Also it helps that the dad handles it so great and talks about everybody's side of how they felt. To Parker it wasn't a big deal. He didn't do anything, so he has nothing to worry about when he tells his side of the story! I am so amazed that he is growing up so fast! What a great kid he is!

Church yesterday- Our lessons are on Self Reliance and Serving. I love my class on Service! What an amazing group of people! I am in awe with how cool these people are! We laugh (yes in church we are allowed to laugh), share stories and just have a really great discussion. I learn how much more there is to Service than I thought before. My goal is to put myself out there more. Be aware if people need to talk ( I have a problem with talking too much so I guess I need to listen more), be aware if they need help, understand that it's o.k. to ask for help.

With all these little things going on, I am so grateful for such a great life. Matt has a job and works for a great person and has great coworkers. Our kids are doing great! They are healthy and happy. Their needs are met more than I would have ever thought we would be able to provide. We have a fun, old, charming house that we love. We have such great neighbors and friends. We are blessed! Life is great! We are happy! Isn't that all we really want in life is to be happy?


"Whatever it is you are feeling is a perfect reflection of what is in the process of becoming" Author unknown

Great Influences

I am so grateful for such amazing people in my life. Today I had my Visiting Teachers come. I have new ones, and I have to say I was so excited to hear it was them. These two are ladies who I noticed right away when we moved in. Not only are they beautiful on the outside, but they are equally stunning on the inside. They are the type of ladies who go out of their way to make people feel welcome, special, and unique.

They were so kind today to ask how I do when Matt travels. His traveling is a whole new thing to our family and it has taken some adjustment. We love having him around and doing things as a family. So as we were talking they told me that if I ever need some "ME" time, that they would take my kids. One of the ladies just had her 6th child not too long ago. She is a wonderful talented mother who takes such great care of her kids and who also plays the violin in a orchestra. The other lady has 2 kids, and somehow also manages 3 part-time jobs. What amazing ladies!

Here I am with 3 kids and I get to stay at home with them. I don't have as many commitments as they do and yet they offered to take on another! Serious, how kind can you get! They really made me look at myself a little more today. I often feel like I should help out my ladies more often than I do. The other day I went to visit one of my ladies and I asked her if I could do anything for her. She asked if I could take 2 of her children next month for the day while she did an activity at the kids school. I told her I would check my calendar and get back to her. Honestly, I was hoping that I might have something that day! How sad is that!!!! I thought of all the things this person has done for our family and then called to let her know I could take her kids. I shouldn't even have to think about it. I think so often we are so consumed in our own lives that we forget to give a little too! So thanks to my V/T ladies! Your 1 visit already have taught me so much:)

A Day at the Dentist

Taylor and Parker saw the dentist a week ago and they both had 2 cavities. One in a baby tooth and one in a permanent one. The dentist also mentioned that Parker needed to see a Orthodontist soon. Happy Happy Joy Joy!!! So Parker went to the Ortho and we found out that he needs a bumper on the bottom, and a palate spacer on the top. Poor kid! He will have that for 6 months and then braces on his top four and bottom four teeth for a year. THEN he will get full braces when he is 11 or 12 once all his teeth are in! And we also found out he has TMJ really bad and may need to do something for that if the spacing doesn't correct it. Just for his first spacers and mini braces we will be shelling out $2400.00 and who know what we will pay when he is 11. Who knew kids were so expensive:) Actually I am grateful that he is getting all this done while he is young and before it gets any worse.

So here is the best part. I was really worried about Taylor getting her cavities filled. I love her, but she is a HUGE wuss! She freaks out when she has a loose tooth! When she went for her check-up she kept blocking the girl from brushing her teeth because she wanted to know if it was going to hurt. So when I picked them up from school I brought their children's liquid Lortab from when the girls had their tonsils out. I thought it might help take the edge off for Tay. We also didn't know if they would give them much for the pain. So we got there, Tay was first. She had this really cool visor with earbuds that she put on and picked out a movie. She also chose Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream Flavor for the gas (thank goodness they had that!). She got all numbed up and the dentist took all of 10 minutes to do the 2 cavities! While it was being done, Tay started saying "Hi Uhh" and doing karate moves. She was using her arms and legs!! It was SO funny! I guess the gas felt really good. I was trying not to laugh, but I couldn't stop. There was a intern in there and the poor thing was laughing so hard she was crying! Tay would also reach up and touch all the instruments and go "OOOHHH". It was awesome! She did so great! Parker thought Tay was crazy and he said he wasn't going to act like her and he didn't. He said he didn't feel a thing! I am so grateful for that dentist! She did such an amazing job!

Box Houses, HAB, and Easter!

Box houses during Conference. It was so nice and quiet for hours!

P,T, and O at Hill Air Force Base.

Oakley in her seat ready to blast off!

Tay blasting off!

Parker ready to go!

We had so much fun at the Eater Egg Hunt at Franklin Covey Field.

O saying "Hi" to the S.L. Bee. She also got to hug the Jazz Bear!

She was so excited about all the eggs she got!

O at G & Grandma's Egg Hunt.

T, P, and Matt hunting.

Tay filled her bucket and then some!

P trying out the stilts grandpa made for him.

O with some help from Grandpa.

T and Grandma

Matt right before he jumped off. Good thing we have insurance:)

The kiddos on Easter Morning before church

O,T, and their girls walking home from church! Such a hot little group of ladies!

We have had alot of fun these last few weeks going to the Clark Planetarium a few times, visiting with friends and family, and playing at home.