Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

The Living Room

Well, it has now been four long months since we finished our remodel project, and I'll admit, I have been VERY lazy these last four months. I have never finished cleaning up and putting things away, and so have never taken pictures to show the final product. The only other time that I got my living room clean enough to take pictures of it was the day that we put up the tree, which made a disaster all over again.

Here is the before picture, although I think that the wall paper
has been stripped off the far wall by the time I took this picture.

This is an "in the process" picture of the wall that had wallpaper on it.

And this is the finished product.

Our living room did not have a light in it, and we have had to use lamps. I have always hated that. But from the time that we moved here, there was a light switch in the living room that went to nothing. Not even an outlet. So Brian was able to use that switch, and put in an overhead light and a switch that controlled one outlet that we have been able to use for a lamp and the Christmas tree lights. I love it.

This is the entry from my living room/stair/hallway area into the kitchen/dining room. Again, I have never loved it. I think that a room needs a real doorway, not just a place where the wall ends.

So we built and installed an arch to fill in the space, and make the doorway look finished. It was frustrating, heavy, and even caused a few days of not talking to each other, but in the end, I won, we built it and I LOVE IT!

You can see it on the left in this picture from the other end of the living room.

There is still several little things that need done to finish up. We have a few molding pieces that need tacked in place because we had to wait until the carpet was in to know exact placement. We also ran out of time and money to finish the banister, so for now my couch is filling in. And I didn't get to replace the chandelier over the entry, but that shouldn't be far off. I am also not in love with my curtains. I am not good at decorating, and not sure how to do it, but I will keep playing.

I will continue to post other pictures as each room is ready, but with the Holidays coming, I'm not sure if that will be soon, or not.

And the Winner Is...

Amber entered the science fair at school with her friend McLayne.
They won first prize for 5th grade.
Their project was to see if a greenhouse always grew plants (lettuce)
better than open air in cold weather.
They did a great job.
Congratulations Amber & McLayne
or is it McLayne & Amber? :)

Lights on Temple Square

As you know, my kids are huge 2News fans. When we went to Salt Lake we parked down on 4th South, and rode the Trax train up to Temple Square, because parking was free down there. On our way by, Sterling Poulsen was outside about to do the 6:00 news, so we stopped to watch. He asked us to be on his little news segment, and we got a picture too. You would have thought that my kids met Brad Pitt or something. The 2News people are famous to them.
I always love the lights on Temple square. We usually try to go on a weeknight when the crowds aren't as bad. This year, we went on a night that we knew was going to be warmer than the temps we are having right now. We were grateful there were no car accidents or other things to disturb our night this year. I like uneventful.

The Lobby of the Joseph Smith memorial building is beautiful.

And so is the tree.

Every year we see this bag piping Santa.
He is fun to watch. The kids are always amazed by him.

Visit with Santa

Amber had to sing at the Roy City Lighting, and inside the Fire Station, we all got a quick visit with Santa to give him our wish lists.

Amber wants a Wii.
Les and Zak both want RC cars.
Sounds simple doesn't it?

Wii with Aunt Lisa & Matt

Aunt Lisa invited us to spend the night at our house, and let the kids play Wii all night.
The kids were in heaven.
(especially since I have been the video game Grinch)
Here they all are practicing ski jumping.

They all had so much fun.
And I had fun too. The Wii is a whole different way of thinking about video games.
(I'm sure that all of you knew that, but I've never played one before)

Thanks Aunt Lisa & Matt.

Thanksgiving

This year, thanksgiving was at my parent's new house. The night before thanksgiving, Zak threw up, so we weren't even sure that we were going to stick around for the big meal. Fortunately it was a quick thing, and he even got to eat some of dinner with us. But we did end up canceling on the Turkey Trot race that we had planned to do on Thanksgiving morning.

It was nice to have a little more space this year in my parent's new house. Before the night was over, we managed to get a picture of all the grand kids. As you can see, they are all boys except Amber and Heather. It's a good thing they are the same age and enjoy spending time together.

These are just some fun pictures of the youngest three kids.
Mark...Peace dude!

I finally got Isaac to smile!

And Ty enjoying every minute with his sippy cup.
As soon as he saw me getting pictures, he held his cup like normal.