Family pictures

We had family pictures taken at Pinkston Photography.  I think they turned out really well considering there are so many of us.  We haven't had a family picture in several years.  These are my favs.

Halloween

The kids had fun carving their pumpkins.  Grace wants to do everything herself these days.

 Megan just watched this year.  I'm sure if she was close enough she would have eaten the pumpkins.

 The Parry and Al-Darwish families went trick or treating with us this year.  It was fun to have so many friends.  Of course the older boys wanted to go a lot faster than Grace could so we ended up in two groups.  Grace loved trick or treating.  She wanted to go to every house.  Jack didn't go this year.  I think he's too worried about what other people will think if he's seen.  He passed out candy instead.

 We went to Kmart to look for costumes this year (gotta love the 1/2 off sale).  Grace picked out the ugliest costume I have ever seen.  It was a lollipop costume.  I tried getting her to pick a cute purple fairy or supergirl or even the cheerleader outfits - but no, she had to have the lollipop costume.  She wore it several times over that next week.  On Halloween day, she dressed up as a dog and said that was her costume.  Then, after dinner she picked out her Cinderella outfit from her dress up box.  She didn't want to be a lollipop anymore.

 Okay, this is a sad looking porch.  No decorations, no flowers, nothing.  Next year will be better.

 Here are the kids' pumpkins.

Kade

This is the only picture of soccer season.  None of Josh.  This picture was taken by my friend.  Kade's two friends from church were on his team.  Pretty cool.  They all kind of look alike I think.

California

The girls and I took a trip to California.  Here is my Grandpa holding Megan.

 Grace loves to color all the time.  I've decided it must be a girl thing because none of my boys would ever choose to color for fun.  She fell asleep in the middle of coloring.

 My cousin, Erin's, cute kids.  Grace had fun playing with Nathan and Michael.

My mom got out the dress my sisters and I were all baptized in.  Grace loved trying it on.

Dress up is always so much fun.  Cousin Lydia had fun dressing up as well.

Megan seems happier here.

Our Bathroom Drama

Here is my lovely bathroom.  Don't you just love the green walls.  I always joke and say my bathroom looks like a man's library with the forest green walls and dark paneling.    When we bought this house we noticed a big crack in the floor of the shower.

 Can you see the big crack?  We told them we wanted the shower fixed.  Of course they came back and told us that the floor cracked when it was installed when the house was built seven years ago.  They sealed the crack and had never had any problems with it.  They refused to do anything about it and we were in a hurry to find a house  so we wouldn't have to live in the tiny apartment (that only had two beds in it with all six of us) for too long.

 The home inspector said that everything looked fine so we dropped the issue.   The shower is all solid pieces of cultured marble.  It isn't what I would have picked out for a shower but I loved it once we moved in because it was so easy to keep clean.  Anyway, one day I noticed that there was water damage to the baseboards in the water closet next to the shower.  Big surprise, the shower leaks.

We brought in a contractor who spent 5 seconds looking at the shower and pointed out the rotten wood behind the baseboards on the half walls of the shower.  Now why didn't the home inspector see that when we specifically asked him about the shower?  It was obvious when the contractor pointed it out to us.  Well, we had to redo the shower.  This bathroom is not my style at all but I didn't want to have to change everything so we found something that would go with what we already have.

 The tile mosaic at the top of the shower is glass and marble.  It is really pretty.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  We had to replace all the paneling on the front of the shower.  Again, I was just trying to match what we already have to keep costs down.  We talked to our friend from church who is a wood working guy to take a look at it.  Turns out that paneling that I don't even like in the first place is mahogany paneling that was $200 a sheet (plus the cost of labor to duplicate the look of the existing paneling).  No way was I paying that much.  He ended up experimenting with other woods and stains to find something that would look similar.  He also custom made the top rail piece because we couldn't find that piece anywhere either.  The baseboards were another issue.  Nobody sells wood baseboards and if they did, they were nowhere near a match.  Our friend ended up finding another wood guy who gave us a good deal on wood baseboards if we bought what he had in stock.  That meant replacing all the baseboards in the bathroom instead of just around the shower.  What a joke.

We also had to replace the glass shower door because the old ones didn't fit.  I didn't mind that though because the old ones were brass.  It turned out nice in the end but so much work, money and worry over a stupid shower.  The paneling and baseboards look so good you would never know that it wasn't original.  As you can see, we still have the lovely green walls.  That is our next project.  I finally decided on a color so hopefully it will get painted soon.  I'll post a picture when we finish.

Jack's a Teenager

I am really behind in my blogs and I know if I don't start now, Christmas will be here and I'll be really behind.  Well, it's official.  Jack is a teenager.  I can't believe that my baby is that old.  He also likes to tell me every chance he gets that he likes looking down on me.  He wants to know why I'm so short.

 Jack requested an ice cream cake this year.

 Happy birthday, buddy!

Cub Scouts

I made this plaque to hold the arrow for a boy in our ward when he received his arrow of light.  I saw something like this online and thought it was cute.  I think it turned out cute.  

 Kade got his Bobcat.  He is so excited to finally be an official cub scout.

 Josh received his Webelos award.  He earned it awhile ago but he just got it.  This month he'll get his Arrow of Light.  He completed all 20 of the activities in the Webelos book.  What an accomplishment.  Way to go, Josh!

Some Pictures of the Girls

I had the girls' pictures taken back in August and I'm just now getting around to ordering them.

These are my favorites. I'll try and post some more when I have more time. I think they are cute!

Grace 3

Megan 2 months
This has got to be my favorite picture. I love the pouty face.

Flips

We got a trampoline this summer so the kids wouldn't complain that there was nothing to do when I kicked them outside. It has been so much fun. The boys play all kinds of games including dodge ball (with Grace right there in the middle of it all) and their newest one is called Rob. Tom explained that one of the boys throws the ball over the net and the other one has to jump up and block it (like in baseball - they got robbed of their homerun). They also love to turn the sprinkler on underneath and jump cause it's so dang hot and muggy outside.

Tom and I both were jumping on the trampoline this weekend and the kids are dying for us to do flips so we both did them. I was a chicken and worried about breaking my neck so I jumped, landed on my knees then flipped. Maybe next week I'll do a real flip. Sorry no pictures of that crazy sight.

First Day of School 2011

I can't believe that my kids are now in their 3rd week of school and we haven't even reached Labor Day. Here are the kids on the first day. Jack in 8th grade, Josh in 5th grade and Kade in 3rd grade. I can't believe how fast time flies.

Kade's Baptism and Megan's Blessing

Last Sunday was pretty busy for us. Kade was baptized, Megan was blessed, and the kids received their father's blessings (since school started the next day) all on the same day. What a great way to spend a Sunday.

Clark and Cala were able to be there. Since we live so far away from everyone now, it was nice to have some family there. Jack is getting so big. He is standing on a little curb for the planter so he really isn't this tall but it only made him a couple inches taller. At the beginning of the summer, Jack was excited to be the same height as me and now look at him. He is going to be one tall kid. Kade really wanted Jack to give one of the talks at his baptism so Jack gave the baptism talk. He did such a good job.

It makes my heart melt to see my baby baptized. I can't believe he's old enough.
Kade so desperately wants to be Megan's favorite brother. I think it's fun that they could share this day.



I think Megan looks a lot like Kade and Grace. These next pictures could have been Grace.