Room Transformation

When we saw this room during the tours of our house, we would always just laugh. It is in the back of the basement and there was very old wallpaper and poorly cut beadboard. If the board didn't match up (diagonally miscut), they simply spray painted the wall behind. We wanted to actually use this room someday and it turned into a labor of love that we both actually completely do love. None of the boys are brave enough or old enough to live on the opposite side of the house from us yet, but it's already been used by a few guests. After new carpet, removing wallpaper, removing poorly cut boarding, painting, adding new beadboard and molding and painting closet doors, here's our football-turned-blue room:

BEFORE

AFTER

Christmas and Snowflakes

We had such a fun, exciting and relaxing Christmas. We stayed at home for the holiday, except we did spend Christmas afternoon with Chad's grandparents. We had our own talent show. Kayden built a cup tower, Boston taught us a kung fu move with sound effects, I played the piano and Chad and McCoy did 'circus baby'. We dressed up and did the nativity together. We gave the boys new pajamas and ornaments. After putting McCoy to bed, the boys made cookies for Santa and then put them out for him and excitedly went to bed. The magic was alive in all of them still and as Christmas drew closer and closer, even Kayden's skeptical thoughts were gone.
(In their new pjs with new ornaments: Boston with Spiderman, McCoy with baby's 1st Christmas and Kayden with a dragon.)

Santa did come this year again bringing dino bones, Jazz tickets and a stand-up dancing toy. He filled the oldest boys stockings with light sabers as well, which Boston has been constantly carrying around ever since. The day after Christmas, we stayed in our pjs all day just spending time with each other and having fun.

Besides our Christmas celebrations, we have also tried to fill up our time off of school with things to do. We've been playing in the snow, sledding with cousins, playing lots of card and board games, getting good use of all the new toys and one day we made snow flakes. Boston enjoyed it for about 10 minutes, but Kayden took it to new levels and was cutting snow flakes for about 4 hours - not lying!! Here's some of his final product. We displayed them on the couch for a picture and then decided to hang them in the playroom for the winter.

All I Want for Christmas

So I had to blog this conversation that I just had in the car with Kayden. He's been having a rough time trying to figure out what to ask Santa for. So we were driving home from having lunch with Chad today and he says, "Mom, I know what I want to ask Santa for!"

"What?" I say

He responds, "A device that can change your DNA, not forever, but for a little bit so that I can become a dinosaur any time I want."

"You think Santa could get you that? It doesn't even exist."

"Oh yeah, I can ask Santa for anything! Have you ever asked him for something that doesn't exist? He could get it for you." I myself am not very imaginative in relation to him or my husband and the thought obviously never occurred to me, so he tells me that this year I should ask him for something that doesn't really exist.

We sit in silence for a while and I can still see the wheels spinning in his head and then he suddenly says, "Santa isn't real anyway." Of course I have to come back with the pat answer, "If you don't believe, he won't bring you anything." And he just responds that he's magical and that people just dress up to look like Santa.

Curse ye Kindergarten! I believed until I was 11 and the magic is still strong even today. Five years old is way too young to stop believing. So as I speak, the two youngest are sleeping and Kayden is watching the movie, The Santa Clause. He's telling me from the other room that the reindeer look like animation, but I have to make the magic last a little longer!

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On a different note, here's pictures of our finished living room (the lighting makes our walls look yellow, but they're really tan):

In sickness, in health

This past 2 weeks have really taken a toll on everyone's body - especially the mother! Last Monday I was basically bedridden the whole day and barely remember the children floating around the house or how they got fed. When Chad came home, he made dinner and I crawled in bed for the night. The next morning I was weak, but ready to go again. McCoy got it as well and slept a lot also and was uncomfortable when awake.

On Wednesday, Boston had some stomach issues and I attributed it to something he ate. Then, last night McCoy and I were up all night. I was busy hugging the white throne and Chad was up with McCoy to clean up all of his messes. I have to hand it to Chad - he was so patient and soft with little McCoy, even though they ended up in the shower together once after McCoy shared his dinner with Chad. Today, we both don't feel too up to eating, but things aren't nearly as bad.

Kayden and Chad have faired well through these episodes so far, but Kayden did start complaining about his head this morning, so who knows what's in store.

I so didn't miss the continuous sickness that we endured in Colorado. While in California, we got sick, but not as consistently. Hopefully we'll all be healthy for Thanksgiving. Still not sure what we're doing for that holiday, but would like to have everyone enjoy the food no matter where it's at.

Wishing each of our friends and family a Happy Thanksgiving and a winter of health!

We Pledge ...

This is later than I had planned, but here's our tribute to election day. They both have learned this at their schools and I LOVE it when they just start saying it in the car. (Sorry the lighting is so bad. It's just with our still camera, so not that good of quality)

Halloween

So here's the final costumes for Halloween. They all were happy and got tons of candy and are still talking about it.

Costumes ... almost

The older boys were super excited that they still fit into last year's costumes and McCoy fit into one that Kayden wore his first Halloween, so we went and had their pictures taken.

Then, we stumbled upon the CUTEST Goofy costume for McCoy that really shows off his chubbiness (may not be a Webster word, but it is in my dictionary). Boston also decided he wanted to be a ghost, but as of tonight is back to wanting to be Buzz Lightyear. So, here's them in cute costumes pre-Halloween and of course we'll post their actual Halloween pics here later. Wishing you all Happy Haunting!

The WOW Maker

Kayden has progressed nicely from documentaries to animation. The PTA was having an art competition and he wanted to do an animated movie. We told him we couldn't do anything (per the rules) so he did absolutly everything. the editing, voice overs and animation. We sat next to him and told him how to save things and such if he ever got stuck, but never touched the computer, camera or artwork. And here it is...The WOW Maker

It's beginning to look a lot like . . .

Our first snow at a new home was on October 12 and started with the boys waking us up like Christmas morning. We all got our snow gear on (what we could find anyway) and built a snowman, threw snow balls and enjoyed the snow together.

Pure Innocence

The title says it all. McCoy had his first bath with the big boys yesterday and he was just so pleased. The picture turned out perfect and completely clean (in all ways), so I had to pass it along.

Also thought this one was adorable of Kayden on the day of the Primary Sacrament Meeting wearing his dad's jacket from when he was a kid. Thanks for passing it along!!

I'm There

So this isn't a goal that I've been aspiring to reach. I haven't been sitting around dreaming of someday becoming this and as a matter of fact have not been looking forward to it. But here I am officially at another milestone in my life. This is not by my wanting -no one would ever admittingly choose this - but something that someone or multiple people bestow upon you. What you might ask is this? Well, let me give a little background....

My ward here has one official playgroup and another unofficial one - for those that feel a bit too old to fit into the other one. Well yesterday I was invited to the unofficial playgroup and I thought to myself that I'd go to both, as it would give the kids a lot of playtime and I would get to meet more people. And matter of fact, age came up in both events - not either of these conversations was initiated by me. The official playgroup was first and really only had 2 other people show up to it, but when the conversation turned me and and I was asked my age, upon finding out someone said, "Wow, I didn't realize you were that young!" Yes, I had done my hair and make-up and was in a cute outfit. Sure, I felt a bit bloated from eating a lot with company around over the weekend, but you "didn't realize I was that young," who says that!! Playgroup 1... done and well, maybe I am a bit too old!

On to playgroup 2. The kids having more fun because of a better turnout and I'm actually having normal conversations here. Then once again, the conversation turns to age somehow. Everyone says their age throughout the conversation somehow and I learn that here I am, not the youngest of the crowd or the oldest, but right in the middle.

Then, it hits me - not softly mind you - that I'm THERE! I'm no longer a young mom. I'm no longer the cute young thing with kids in tow. I'm now in the middle somewhere - where it seems I'll be for a very long time! It doesn't matter that I have a few kids the same age as the young moms. What does matter is that they don't have any as old as my oldest, so here I sit, happily in conversation with the people more my age and I realize that yes I have passed another milestone, but it's really not all that bad. It means I have more memories, have had more times to smile, to cry, to be comforted and to comfort, to love and be loved. How great is that!!

Another great memory...

Beth and Kayden at the circus together. (We even have nearly the same smile.)

Scoots, Circus, Touring and Mink - what more could you want

SCOOTS
Here's cute McCoy scooting around our living room:

CIRCUS
Friday night Kayden and I went to the circus and Boston and Chad (with McCoy) went bowling. Kayden won tickets to the circus from a coloring contest and was so excited, so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to take the two kids on their own dates and we all had a blast. We had really great seats and just had a fun time!

MINK
Saturday was free state park day here in Utah. We decided to venture to the closest state park to us, Antelope Island. As we packed up the car for our adventure, Chad went to grab the baby backpack out of the garage while I buckle the kids in the car. Suddenly, I hear "Beth, you should come see this." I went back to see what looked like a black ferret in our garage hiding in the corner. We discussed calling animal control, but would have to wait for them to come and we were on our way out, so we propped the garage door open with a ball and hoped that he would find a new home while we were out. When we were returned, there was no sign of the creature and we talked to the boys (and ourselves) that we should always keep the door closed so we don't have the problem again.

Then in Sunday's paper, there was an article about how some activists secretly released 6,000 mink from a Kaysville farm and it had a picture of them and the description was basically a black ferret. We were thankful we've seen only one!! Here's the link to the story: http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_10581217

TOURING
So we did make it to Antelope Island State Park and saw buffalo, antelope, coyote, lizards and birds. We hiked up a hill for a nice view and the boys did not complain or asked to be carried!!

Our family
Boston followed his dad and ventured up some rocks

Keep Rolling Along

Enough house pictures for a bit, life keeps moving along besides house upgrades. Kayden loves school, but had a bit of a rough transition. Moving to a new house with new everything and then new school was just not a good mix, but he has come into his own at school and is doing very well. He is currently working on creating an animated film that he's so excited about. It's for an art competition at school and he has just run with it. When it comes to projects and big grand things, he gets so excited and focused.

Boston is just hilarious with preschool and acts like he's so big. He loves singing and comes home with all the songs memorized and just sings them as he wanders around during the day. It reminds me of my grandmother and her humming and whistling as she goes about things. He makes friends easy, but is very nonchalant about them and doesn't care to learn any of their names. He calls them 'The Tall Girl' or 'Blue shirt boy' to describe what he did that day. In terms of food, our little pig must be between growth spurts, because he now eats like Kayden used to - nearly nothing. He just says, "No, thank you" and just plays with his drink and picks at the food during dinnertime.

McCoy is scooting everywhere, so we are making sure the house is baby-proofed, especially from the boys little toys! His first tooth is popping through and he thinks everyone should know about it. He has been really uncomfortable lately and takes short naps just waking up crying and sad. He is happiest when I carry him around everywhere, but even that doesn't always help.

Sorry for not posting any pictures of our cuties. I'll try to get some up soon.

Before/After of Laundry Room

The laundry room was an overhaul. It is in the shape of an 'L' and had cement floors, beat up walls with large holes and a wonderful view of the heater and other machines that you got to enjoy on your way to the downstairs bathroom (door to bathroom is in picture below). So we updated with new paint, new flooring, new shelves, new curtain to hide the machines, a picture and our tiles from our travels. Now we have a nice to place for food storage, a comfortable place to do laundry, and an enjoyable walk to the bathroom.

Laundry Room View 1 Before and After:

Laundry Room View 2 Before and After:

New Chandelier

Look at it... look at it!!! This is probably the hardest things we've done in the house so far. Not hard in terms of know how, but oh my goodness we both about collapsed while holding it up as the wires were getting connected. Nothing was dropped or broken, but we couldn't feel our arms or legs for hours. So when you come and visit, we'll definitely show you the new chandelier!

BEFORE:
AFTER:

Before/After of Master Bedroom

We've completed 3 rooms so far: the kids rooms, the master bedroom and the laundry room. All the other rooms have one or more things we still want to do. So here's the pics of the master room and we'll try to get the other completed room pics up soon.

BEFORE: Green Master Bedroom while the previous owners lived here.
AFTER: We turned ours into a brown/tan room:

School is in Session

Kayden is now in Kindergarten and Boston in Preschool. They both started school last week and were so excited. They both really like their teachers and always have fun stories after their mornings away. Kayden is gone daily in the mornings and Boston just 3 days a week. They've been having a teddy bear theme in Kayden's class and yesterday had a teddy bear movie and then a picnic. Oh if school were always like Kindergarten - always fun and entertaining! They both go to school about a block away so it makes life for me very easy.

Designing our house to our style is coming along nicely. The kids room and master bedroom are complete (for now) with pictures finally on the wall and furniture in place. We have quite a few projects left to go, but we continue to take it one step at a time.

Happy Day - 3 years old

Yesterday our Boston turned 3. Thanks to commercials, he knew exactly the present he wanted and also knew that he wanted to go bowling for the big day. So we invited the cousins and went to a bowling alley and then the park for pizza, cake and presents. We even had another cousin visiting Utah from Oregon, so all the boy cousins from one side of the family were there!

He picked out his cake, as we didn't have time to make anything spectacular with all the moving and prep for moving. At the store, they had sports cakes, Thomas cake, etc, but he was sure he wanted this one that looks like ants are eating a watermelon. BOYS!!!

The cousins bowling with Aunt Christina.

The beloved 'Better Batter Baseball' that he's been dreaming of for months.

Seven Years in the Making!!

The papers are signed and we get the keys to our new home on Friday evening! What a long strange trip this has been. I know I just stole that quote from someone, but it was what popped into my head when thinking of our house-hunting adventures. We are so excited for this house. It's been 7 years since we've been married and we've been apartment living for the entire time and dreaming of one day becoming homeowners. It's finally here and we feel so blessed that we were able to have the years to save money so that our mortgage can be less than any rent we've ever had (except for student housing at CU). Boston is especially excited about our yard and Kayden likes to dream about how to paint his room and even picks our paint colors when we are at the store. More adventures to come in this new realm, I am sure, but for now we're just dreaming of all the possibilities!!

A whole new BLOG world

A bit overwhelmed (and of course mesmerized) by my son's production of drawings and the gigantic pile that keeps accumulating, I've decided to give my 5 year old his own blog. He's still learning to read and thus can't type, so I am his typist and he is the artist. Enjoy . . . http://kiddrawer.blogspot.com/

Blessed Sarcasm

Yes, we are truly blessed for all that happens in our lives and love to share it, hopefully with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor. This blog (Seriously, So Blessed) takes the whole notion of sarcasm to a new level, skewing the whole genre of "Mormon Mommy Blogging" much to laughter of yours truly! You know you know someone out there who sounds just like this. WhuaHahaha.

p.s. in case you are still wondering if this thing is even real, here is an article about it in the Deseret News

Lazy Days of Summer

Summer has been good to us here. We have enjoyed nice weather for numerous days in a row and continue to dream that it'll stay like this through Oct as it did in our previous residence. However, I have a feeling we'll all fall in love with Fall as soon as it arrives as well. Not thinking the same about winter, but one step at a time.Boston enjoying Liberty Park.

McCoy catching some zzzs at Rockport State Park. (Chad fishing with the older one's in the background)

Kayden blocking the sun poolside at our complex.

Swimming Pastimes

Water is on the brain! We have spent almost every day the past month or so in the water. We've taken full advantage of the pool here in our complex and have also been in swim lessons the past week and a half. Both of them swim well and even Boston looks like a little dolphin as he sticks his head under and moves his arms and legs to get to me. Kayden does strokes and would spend all day in the pool if he could. I haven't attempted to take my 5 month old in. I'm waiting until at least 6 months old, as I still feel like he's so fragile to go in a public pool. The early hospital episode probably gave me a complex, but he manages well as long as someone is paying attention to him. Being outside is good for all of us and we have a lot of fun splashing and laughing together and making wonderful memories.

Are you good now?

Yesterday, it was nearing naptime and our realtor calls. House hunting is a sore subject for me right now as we wait for a LONG "short sale" process and are also starting to look elsewhere. Thus, talking to our realtor puts me a bit on edge. I've asked the boys to pick a book and get ready for nap, but of course, they decide to rip all the covers off the beds, throw random toys around the room - all in fun to their 2 and 5 year old minds. When I entered the room after the call, needless to say, I was not a happy camper. In a not so nice voice, I had them clean everything up and soon they were ready for naptime. Boston gets really distraught when people yell at him and just starts balling. After getting things in the room in order, I shut the door and left Boston to cry in bed while I went to cool down. I went back in and was calmly ready to read his book and sing a song so he could drift off to sleep like he does so well and he says to me, "Are you good now?" Then it clicks, they weren't being bad - they were just being silly kids. THEY could care less if their room was in order. It was ME who had the issue and the question really sunk in. I smiled and answered him with a kiss, a 'sorry', an 'I love you' and a simple, "Yes, I'm good now." Thank goodness for my children in my life to bring me back to what really matters!

My Boston

Reunion and Dino Week

Last week we went to the Kent Hutchings Family Reunion in Flagstaff, AZ. We camped, road a chair lift at a ski resort, went to the Grand Canyon, had a night of skits and games, played and chatted every minute. The boys say the highlight of the trip was the fire and the playground they had in the campground.

Chad with McCoy and Boston on the chair lift.

The sunset at the Grand Canyon. (We have better pics on our 35mm camera!)

This past week has been dinosaur week in our house. My sister and I came up with a theme schedule for every week this summer and plan ideas for that theme and a field trip. This week is the one that Kayden has been anticipating - dinosaurs. We've created dinosaur tails (see picture), dino dioramas, played and watched all things dinos and yesterday took our field trip to Dinosaur Park in Ogden. In between our dinosaurs, we have been to the pool every day and the boys have quickly turned into fish again. Woohoo for SUMMER!!!!

Boston-saurus, Kayden-saurus, McCoy-saurus

Boys will be boys

Yesterday was Father's Day and we had a really nice celebration for the father in our little family. He got breakfast in bed, his favorite clam chowder, a giant yummy cookie (which I opted to buy after doing so much baking for his 30th birthday a couple weeks ago), and he got 30 movies in a collector's edition to satisfy the movie bug for a while.

Kayden was such a big help in getting ready for the day. He loves to get presents, but also has a big heart when it comes to giving them as well. He knows what people close to him like, for instance it makes me smile everytime he gives me all the blue candies from a bag he's eating, because blue is my favorite color.

We're so grateful to have a righteous father and husband - someone who honors his priesthood and truly takes care of us. He loves each of us with every bit of himself and I would never doubt that he would give up anything for any one of us. He is the one who gets us all to smile (even if it's after he attacks us with a fake cockroach!), he just knows how to bring joy to every situation he's in and to keep me from being so serious all the time! Happy Father's day to my husband and the father of our three sons!

Spring Has Sprung

This week finally feels like the first week of spring, finally. Good thing too as the family is planning a camping trip next weekend. Hooray for the holidays. We will be going into the Wasatch mountains and enjoying some time together. From what I hear, there are probably still snow drifts and whatever, but I looked up the weather and it says it should be fairly warm...for mountain weather. We'll see how my 4 month old does. Down here it's nice and balmy as you can tell from my picture of the flowers. I didn't know it, but they rip out all the tulips here in the spring so they can re-plant them again next year. go figure.

Weather or not...

#1 main gripe about Utah, the weather. I am constantly reassured by everyone around me that "It's usually not like this" and "It's never this cold this late" but it doesn't matter. I just want spring and I can't even get that. On May 1st we had a snowstorm, and now we are reaching all the way up to almost 50 degrees....IN MAY! So I expected a little winter when I moved from southern Cali, but this is out of control. I made a promise to myself after I came home from living in Russia that I would never live in a cold climate the rest of my life. Guess what, never make promises to yourself. I am now just a big softee that's been acclimatized to tropical weather...so sue me

Fishing on the brain

My son is officially a fishing fanatic. He has always enjoyed it, but convinced me to take him on a sport fishing trip on the ocean before we left California. After hauling in about 15 fish including a 20in sand bass, he won't stop. Literally. Every time he sees me he reminds me of the trip, or upcoming trips, or even speculating on some time of behemoth leviathan he will eventually catch. To appease some of his incessant talking, my wife promised to take him. Since our pole was packed away some where, she bought a launching one that works awesome....when it works. It's like a spring loaded gun that shoots out the bobber and line. They sorta had fun, but after about the 20th time the line got tangled and it was all done for the launcher. Because he was so adamant, I promised to take him today. Of course, today its sleeting, hailing and snowing at maybe 40 degrees. Not cool

Under Contract

We're brand new to the home buying world but have been looking ever since we moved to Utah. There;s a lot of ins and outs to the whole process and honestly, it's a little overwhelming. We aren't loaded so things in our price range tend to be dilapidated or just plain run to the ground. We found one home we thought would be a good investment opportunity but the owners were stingy, so we backed off. We recently found another house in an awesome neighborhood. It's in pretty good condition, but there is still enough to do that we could make it feel like our own. So we made an offer that was accepted so we are currently under contract!! which means we're on our way, haven't bought it but most likely will get it depending. Yay! Whew, told you it was exausting.