Family Gathering

Last weekend, the kids and I went down to Utah for a chance to hang out with my whole family. That doesn't happen very often anymore since my brother, Kevin and his family, moved to Indiana. But they were able to make a trip out, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see everyone. My kids had so much fun playing with cousins! We even had a big birthday party on Saturday for everyone's birthdays in the last month and the month to come. It happened to be my Mom's birthday that day as well. I was so glad we could all be with her on her birthday. She was trying to think of the last time we were all together for her birthday, and she figured it must have been about eighteen years ago when we lived in Georgia. And now that I think about it, that was the only time, until last weekend, that we have ever been all together for her day. Before then, my youngest brother, Nathan, hadn't been born yet and after that, my oldest sister, Lynae, went off to college. Hmmm...interesting.

Anyway, we also decided to have out Christmas gift exchange then as well. That was lots of fun and I'm excited to think that I'm already half-way done with my Christmas shopping! This year, my mom made these amazing books for all of her kids to be able to use for our families. There were ideas for each letter of the alphabet for things to do on Sundays. Not only would these be great ideas for Sundays, but for FHE as well! She also put together folders of how to draw pictures (which Austin has already gone through all of them and LOVES it!!) and another folder of trivia questions and answers to use for games. ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT, I have to say!!! I love that my mom keeps coming up with ingenious ideas of how to keep her children and grandchildren in line with what Heavenly Father wants us to be doing. She's pretty great!

While all together, we were able to take some pictures of most of us all together. Unfortunately, Brett wasn't able to come, nor was Dave, Jenny's hubby, along with two of his girls. But other than that, we were all there. Here are some pictures I snapped or had snapped...

Brynn & Ben (they're two months apart)

My sister, Shauna, and her boyfriend, Rob, playing with Brynn

A group of cousins

(From Left: Jared, Aubree, Emily, Austin, Daniel, Samara)

Brynn & Ben again

Me and my sister, Diana

My cute kids

My mom and her 9 kids

Almost all of us!

Funnies

When we got to Bear Gulch (this is my third post for the day; read the previous post for details), the kids had been sleeping and this is what we found when Aubree woke up...

WHOA!!

While we were driving, we came across this sign that I found rather funny. It's for an ATV/motorbike/snowmachine store - a man's store, really. But I can't imagine any men being excited to go to this Grand Opening...

Just so you know, the acronym stands for Performance Motor Sports.

Hee, hee, hee!

Fall Is Here

Yesterday, Brett decided he would take us out for a Sunday drive for Family Home Evening (I've decided to have them on Sundays since Mondays, he's so busy working on the house). He had heard that the trees were absolutely gorgeous in Ashton, so that's where we went. After not seeing very many in one part of Ashton, we went to Bear Gulch on the other side of town. Wow! What a difference! It looked like the trees were on fire! We then headed up to the Lower Mesa Falls and decided to get out and walk around since the weather was not too hot and not too cold. Looking at all of the beautiful scenery, we all had a great talk about the beautiful world that Heavenly Father and Jesus created for us. Take a look at these pictures and see how truly blessed we are...

This is my FAVORITE picture!

Our Roof

Our roof is now done, along with the plumbing. The heating/venting guys are here again today, but I suspect that they'll be done soon! Yay, yay, YAY!!! Oh, and Brett finished the stairs going down to the basement Saturday night. They'll be nice to have so we don't have to keep going all the way around the house to get up or down stairs. Here are some pictures...

Here's the roof and just in time for all of the wet weather!

These are our stairs!!

The Latest

Someone once told me that building a house goes in spurts. Lately, I've found that it's so true! All of a sudden, we have people putting on our shingles, a crew doing venting and duct work, the plumber has been working here, and Brett's brother, Justin, was here yesterday measuring for our cabinets! WOW!! Can you believe it?! There's been so much going on; it's so very exciting!!! Here are pictures I took today...

The roof is almost done!

Here's my kitchen opening into the Formal Dining Room

This is the Family Room

This is the main bathroom

This is Aubree's bedroom

Here is the formal Living Room and Austin's room next to it

This is part of the Master Suite

This is part of the Master Bathroom

Here is our Laundry/Mud room

This is the main room in the basement along with the two bedrooms and stairs

This is actually two rooms - the guest bedroom and the storage room

Here is the bathroom in the basement

And this will eventually be our theater or game room or maybe both

Pretty neat, huh?! We'll see how things continue, but for now I'm pretty happy!!

My Food Blog

I am so excited to announce the debut of my very own food blog! ALL THINGS DELICIOUS features recipes I like to use for me and my family and I can't wait to share them with others!! Please give something a try and let me know what you think, and if you like what you see and try, feel free to pass the word on! Go check it out!!!

By the way, this is my third post for the day. So to read what else I've written, scroll down...

Poor Austin

Austin came home from school on Wednesday and while he was talking to me, I noticed something in the crease of his eye. I told him to come closer so I could look and saw that it was blood! I asked him what had happened and he said that someone kicked him while he was climbing up the slide. Poor kid! He always seems to get hurt at school, whether it's scraping a knee, a hand, falling, or getting kicked in the eye. Just about every day he tells me how he got hurt that day. He's really got to be more careful!

Oh, and by the way, Austin just found out that he has TWO loose teeth! He is soooooo excited! He can't wait until they come out!!

Read on for an update on the house!

Updates

Our house is now completely sheeted - walls and roof. YAY!! It is so exciting to see the actual shell of a house. Our plumber was here yesterday and is here again today putting in piping and I think once he is done, we can get the roof shingled. I am so excited!

Brett and I were talking yesterday about the order of what needs to happen still. He had mentioned that if things keep moving the way they have been, we could be in by Christmas. But things won't be moving that fast anymore, so he's thinking we'll probably be in by January or February. That is amazing to me since I was planning on like May-ish. I guess we'll see as time goes on.

Here are some pictures of the house...

See our shower and tubs in the garage? They just got here!

Another Cake

Today is my brother, Nathan's, birthday. He turns 18!! An official adult - wow! Since he's up here for school, I decided to have him and several friends come over for dinner, cake, ice cream, and games. It was a lot of fun. He has some very funny, entertaining friends. Anyway, Nathan is a pro when it comes to using a rubic's cube. He can do right in about thirty seconds! Crazy!! So since he's a whiz at that, I decided to make him a rubic's cube cake. It didn't turn out nearly as cool as I had hoped, but he liked and appreciated it. So I'll be adding this to my list of cakes I've decorated. Here it is...

Happy Birthday, Nathan!!!

Scroll down to see updated pictures of the house!

So Exciting!!!

Friday our house changed by leaps and bounds! Brett decided to hire a crew to finish the sheeting around the house and to put up the trusses. I think there were eight guys who came and it was amazing how fast they worked! They'll be back Monday to finish things up. Here are some pictures of the work in progress...