downstairs bathroom

I took a couple of pictures of the downstairs bathroom. I cannot say it is completely finished, because I still need to put in a mirror and do some more painting on the shelves my brother built, door frames, and little touch up on the walls here and there. But for the most part it is finished and is fully functioning.
So here are some pictures...

This is the hall that lead to the room that you had to go through to get to the bathroom.
This wall has been taken out.

Through the room, and into the bathroom. A new wall was put in basically right next to where you see the wall jut out. The entrance door to the bathroom now is right next to the toy room and right next to the door to the guest room.

A little glimpse at the old bathroom. We got it completely ripped out and taken to the dump before we even moved in (except the shower, which was tackled during Christmas vacation.

New wall framed in, making room for a tub, instead of just a shower.

New insulation put in. This is where the vanity will be.

View from a different angle.

Walls and ceilings retexturized.

Layer of primer and then paint. We used the same color that we put in throughout the house (which is the same color we put throughout our last house.) Keeping things simple :)

(Dave hates painting, but you can't tell. He is being a good sport.)

Finished...
The toilet and tub are in a separate room from the vanity.

To save money, we bought a used vanity off of KSL. I don't know if it ended up being cheaper or not, given the finagling my brother had to do to get the plumbing in. But oh well, it's done now. This will be a nice bathroom for guests and for the girls if they ever move downstairs.

Easter

We love Easter. We love the warmer weather that comes, the flowers, birds, and everything about Spring.

We had a family Easter party at Dave and Elaine's new place. The girls absolutely loved their big backyard.

 Easter morning...

 Did the Easter Bunny come?

 Easter Sunday wearing matching Hawaiian dresses. They LOVE their new shrugs!

 Having fun decorating eggs with Dad.

Yard work, and more yard work

I am just laughing as I read my last post about getting my blog updated. Ha! The weather warms up and I am suddenly completely addicted to being outside every minute the sun is shining. It has not been good. We are not coming in to eat dinner until like 7:30pm, and then my kids are not anywhere close to making their bedtime. Not good.

Saturday we took a dozen or so trash bags full of dead leaves and plants to green waste, as well as a bunch a tree limbs. I keep saying to myself, as soon as I get _____ done, then I can take a break from working in the yard. Well, it turns out there are like ten more things to do. Last week we got the garden area completely cleaned out. On Saturday, Dave tilled it and we planted grass seed in the areas that we are turning from weeds, I mean flower beds, to lawn. We got all of the random bricks that were strewn throughout every area of the yard, probably like 50 or so. I planted a few cute flowers. The daffodils are all in bloom. It's coming together...

We are working on getting ready for concrete in probably a month or so. We will be redoing and extending the patio and widening the driveway.

Here is Audrey picking up bricks from the patio area, and moving them to the back of the house. 

It took us less than a week to get the bricks moved, creating a pathway lining the back of the house. Now we have a nice little area to store some of our outdoor things.

 Gotta have a snow cone after all that hard work!

Last Saturday, I noticed a big raccoon in our neighbors backyard. Luckily, it was caught in a trap (and there was a fence between us). It was fun to watch it off and on throughout the day as we did our yard work. We left to run errands and it was gone when we got back, so we missed the exciting part of watching animal control remove it from the trap.

March Events

We had some more fun events in March.

My parents were able to come down for Grandparents Day at school. They did an activity in the classroom and then ate donuts in the cafeteria. They even brought Maddi! She feels so grown up when she gets to come to school.

Kimee had a big project for school to demonstrate her knowledge of simple machines. She had to make a leprechaun trap. It took us several days to figure out how to put it together, but it turned out really good. Kimee loved explaining and demonstrating how it worked.

Audrey went to a fun butterfly birthday party for Ashlyn, a friend from her Kindergarten class.

I put the girls in the rec center gymnastics for a couple of months, just for fun and exercise. They had a good time. This was Maddi's first time. She loved it, but she had a hard time staying with her class. Their last day was the end of March.

Kimee was not happy to have to stop for a picture.

cousin fun

We had some fun times with cousins. On Friday, Jan. 27, we were able to have a late night with Jeremy, Jackson, Sarah, and Grandma and Grandpa. (James was invited, but he didn't come because he said there were too many girls.)

In March, we got to have Sarah for the weekend while her parents were out of town. We did matching hairdo's for church on Sunday.

 Silly girls!

Where to start...

Where do you start when you are this far behind on your blog or scrapbooking? I am 7 months behind on this blog! I can't believe it. I am really disappointed in myself. Things are starting to settle down at the house. There is still lots to do, but none of it is extremely urgent. Plus, so many things cost money to do, and we are out of that. Things at school are pretty much under control as well. SO, I might start having time to get my blog updated. YEAH!
Well, I think what I will do is start with the present and then catch up on the past a little at a time. I will most likely post date all of those to January sometime so that they will be somewhat in order.
Here goes!!

Lost Teeth

We had some exciting days of loosing teeth in February.

Kimee lost a tooth on Feb. 1.

Audrey lost her first tooth on Feb. 11.

Audrey and Maddi having fun in the bath together. They love to do CRAZY Hair.

 Feb. 26

February Events

We had some exciting events at school in February.

On Valentine's Day, the 6th graders deliver Valegrams to the kids. Kimee and Audrey were excited to get their suckers, balloons and pencils from mom. They were excited to buy some for their friends with their own money. When we went to pick up Maddi from Cathy's, we told her there was a surprise for her in the car. When she got to the car, she opened the door, saw all the balloons and asked excitedly, "Mom, is it my party?" Very cute!
You can see in the picture, Dave got all of his sweethearts flowers. What a special day.

In February, we had the Patriotic Sing at school. Kimee and Audrey wore their flag shirts. So patriotic and cute!

Kimee has a really good memory, so she has always done very well on her spelling tests. Her teacher encouraged her to study for the 3rd grade spelling bee. She practiced off and on and got 1st place in her class and was able to move on to the grade level bee on Feb. 24 (in the library). (It just so happened to be pajamas day.) She tried to cram in some last minute studying that morning.

 And she ended up winning!! I was so proud of her.

This was one of those moments I was so glad to be teaching at the school my kids attend. Her teacher ran in to me a few minutes before and told me Kimee was in the final round. I got to hear her spell her last couple of words to win. It was awesome!

moving Dave's mom

We had a really neat experience with Dave's family on February 4. His mom was getting ready to move in with Carol into their new house. All of the siblings in Dave's family were able to come to an all-day event going through the things in mom's house. It was really neat to have Mom there and hear all of the memories and stories shared about so many items.

We were each supposed to take the things that we were interested in. It was funny, because someone would find something and say to the others, "Does anyone want this?" Someone would reply, "Sure, I could take that." Then it had to be clarified that the asker actually wanted the item, but was wondering if anyone else really wanted it. So we came up with a saying something like, "I am interested or would really like to have this item. Is there anyone else who is interested?" Sometimes we had to choose numbers. Some items were set aside for a later date. Of course, mom kept all of the things she could fit in her new living area at Carol's. Some things were left for the grandkids to choose from. It was such a lovely day and the spirit was there. I bet there would not be another family on Earth that could so respectfully and kindly divide up belongings.

We had to take a break during the day for someone to come look at the house. We went over to Doug and Debbie's and visited and rested for a while.

David S. sitting in the back of Doug's truck.

There were a few big items that had to be decided upon. Mom's china was one of the first items. All of the sisters had their own set. They were starting to discuss which granddaughter would like it when someone asked if I had a set of china. I did not. So it was decided, then and there, that I would get mom's china. I was so excited! Especially since in our new house we actually have a place for it.

That was one of the things I kept thinking throughout the day, that we wouldn't have had a place for much of these things in our old house. I am so glad we moved!

Mom got her set of China in Samoa. The Chinese silk wall panels from Samoa were also a big item. However, there was no discussion there. Mom and Dad had already discussed a long time ago that they wanted David to have them. And we had the perfect spot for them! I just love these.

We also got a glider chair and a bookshelf that we have put in our guest room, 

which we call "Grandma's Room". It fits perfectly in more than one way.

A side note, we went out for dinner with everyone the following week for Mom/Grandma's birthday at Chuck-a-Rama. It was a blast!