Spring RECAP (Winter has been skipped)

We had an exciting and busy Spring around here. As usual, I have found it easier to just not think about Winter and move on with my life. I'm sure Winter was exciting too, but it was cold then, and I strongly prefer warm things. So, in May, Jackson turned 12 and was ordained a Deacon.

 Our family joined us for that day, and we had a nice time visiting and sharing Jackson's day with him.

 That suit looks kinda big on him, but he'll grow into it. He's been doing a great job passing the sacrament and helping to set up chairs (which he now understands is the most commonly called upon priesthood duty). So proud of you Jacks.

 For his birthday, Jackson had two requests: a flat-brimmed BYU hat and "cop" sunglasses. He's the pickiest of our kids BY FAR and NO we don't know where he gets his picky from. So he and I had a fun day shopping picking out some new clothes and sunglasses he wanted. We surprised him with a video game too. I can't believe he's 12 already. One more year, and I've got two teenagers in this house. BRING IT ON.

 London celebrated her birthday back in April and just HAD to have a Fijit friend which as far as I can tell does NOTHING useful, but she loves it. Clothes, girly stuff, and a new hat for my HAT-kind-of-girl.

I probably should have taken the ice cream cake all the way out of the box and at least pretended that I made it.

 She talked us into a friend party (no easy task considering I bribe heavily to avoid them). And we actually survived. She picked a movie party (courtesy of Alvin and the Chipmunks: Shipwrecked) complete  with popcicles, pizza, and soda.

 No fancy cakes around here. Cupcakes are the way to go.

 Jackson graduated from sixth grade. Way to go Jacks! The pictures from that night were so funny. In the one above, he got an award for academic excellence, and if you'll notice, he's the only boy up there. All girls and my boy (his father was so proud).

 Eventually another boy was called up there to receive his award. Of course, it HAD to be Landon, and does Landon go to the END of the line? Umm ... No. He buts right in there in the middle with Jackson and what do they do??? Same thing they ALWAYS do .... TALK!!!

      Even

 They denied it, but SEE .... I have EVIDENCE! And they wonder why Melanie and I devised a plan way back before they started kindergarten to keep them OUT of the same class .... EVER. They literally CANNOT keep quiet when they are together. But nice job boys on the award. We're so proud.

 Some lovely awards and a treat from a very generous person who made a bunch of cupcakes so each graduate could have their own special balloon name tag on their cupcake. Pretty cool.

 This is probably the only NICE picture we got of them all night without a bunch of retakes. See evidence below.

 And FINALLY. I hope the middle school is ready for these two.

 And in other exciting news: London takes after her dad when it comes to devouring the carcasses of dead animals. She was all over Buffalo Wild Wings. Loved it. Dave was beaming with pride. I refused to take a pic of that.

 Fun field trip to the zoo with T.J.

 Austin completed the Order of the Arrow with his friend Ammon for scouting. Don't mind his eyes, he hadn't slept very well and they worked them really hard. He was exhausted. Way to stick it out Aust!

 London was awarded Student of the Month, and I was awarded Employee of the Month on the same day in the same assembly. It's fun to be working at their school ... especially on days like that.

 Jackson had never received the Student of the Month award at Eagle Valley. He's a good student (sometimes talks too much in class) and a good leader but has never got this award. So, the last month of his last year at that school, he informs me that he started "trying" to get Student of the Month and sure enough, he was awarded Student of the Month in the final assembly of the year. Really Jackson? Wow.

 London did a fabulous report on Burkina Faso, Africa.

 Chillin with her friend Hayden on report day.

Royally THUMPING Jackson and the rest of the sixth graders at softball in the sixth grade/faculty game was definitely one of the highlights of my Spring. The score was 10-3. I wasn't planning on playing, but they needed a first base, and those kids were really talking some smack, so I pretty much HAD to play. So I played first base and got out a bunch of 12-year-olds, including some of my Young Women and several of Jackson's friends. Haha. It was AWESOME!! Nothing humbles sixth graders like getting caught out by ME.

 Dr. Suess day was fun.

Hiking the Y for the first time as a family. That is a steep hike! My calves were sore for days. We had a good time.

 And Easter. Love Easter. The one day of the year my kids don't understand what I mean by "Let's take a nice picture." Next time, I'm holding onto the candy til they DO IT!!

Family Pictures

Last fall we went up the canyon with the Hunts and took a few pictures. By "took," I mean the amazing and talented Michelle took them, and once again, she did a great job. I'm tellin ya people, there is literally nothing this woman can't do. It amazes me.

There were some truly beautiful colors up American Fork Canyon that day. Thankfully my kids are old enough to be bribed/threatened into behaving for pictures, and they are getting old enough/smart enough to not even mess with me when it comes to family pictures. I can't exactly say the same thing for Dave or the other adult male who was with us, but somehow they redeemed themselves, and Michelle and I did not make good on our threats to leave those two in the canyon to walk home.

Love Jackson's beautiful blue eyes.



It hit me with these pictures that Austin is just not a kid anymore.

My handsome baby. There's just no one who doesn't melt with that smile.



All our handsome boys.

Our little firecracker.

Surprisingly we got a few good shots of me and Dave. Only one problem ... is anyone else worried Dave might have a Vitamin D deficiency???

I had some seriously good leverage for pictures this day. As they say, "I'm no dummy." Waiting at home for us after our lovely trip to the canyon was a BYU football game on the DVR and a football party feast complete with wings, nachos, and of course peanut M&M's. Being that my wonderful husband has been married to me for nearly 16 years, he knows full well what happens to his game if I'm not happy with the picture-time behavior. It's possible that in the past I may have accidentally "forgot" to record a game, locked down the satellite dish with a password, or turned off the power to the house during a game when I couldn't get his attention. I'm not admitting to anything, just saying it's possible. Needless to say, he was all smiles.


I don't love this picture of me, but I do LOVE the lighting and the color in this one. It's my favorite from that day. Too bad I was holding back a snotty comment instead of smiling, or this one would have been perfect. I would say "Lesson learned" ... but I'm guessing probably not.

I guess you all probably knew, but I didn't realize I had such a pointy chin. Good to know. Haha

Love this one too. Thanks again Michelle. You are amazing.

Check this OUT!!

I have a good excuse for being a blog slacker these last few months. A LOT has happened since I posted last. Namely, thanks to our amazing, talented, generous-with-their-time, couldn't-LOVE-them more FRIENDS, the Hunts, we FINALLY finished the BASEMENT!!! We've got a few things here and there to finish up, but it is basically done, it's definitely functioning, and we are VERY happy with it!

Michelle was the project manager and I was her first assistant. We needed the guys on a few occasions and made sure to get our money's worth out of them ... a task that sometimes proved a little difficult and involved a LOT of pizza and Dr. Pepper.

Now that's what I call TEAMWORK! One holding the sheetrock, two with drills, me with the camera. :) Do I know how to get out of heavy labor or WHAT???

Michelle REALLY loves a good project. She gets VERY excited. Wasn't that nice of me to provide her with a massive project that went on for months and months. I'm nice like that.


I got SO dang tired of the sheetrock dust. It was EVERYWHERE in this house!


Don't these two make such a CUTE team?

Uhhhh .... well this is awkward. Not really sure what he's doing, but I do recall having to remind him to stay on task a few times.

I promise I helped most of the time (see above picture for proof). In fact, I don't even think Dave or Sterling had a drill in their hand in this picture. They are just posing.


Dave got delegated to do most of the sanding ... too messy for me.

Michelle is basically a sheetrock expert and I do not get in her way when she is holding a power tool ... or sheetrock knife.

This is a LIVE action shot. I was actually WORKING in this picture.


Poor Dave, he drew the short straw and had to sand the ceilings after Michelle and I mudded. The sunglasses were a stroke of genius if you ask me.


Not bad for vinyl tiles. I LOVE the way the bathroom turned out.
The strangest thing happened. Just a day or two after Sterling and I both strictly FORBID Michelle from balancing on top of the ladder in my stairwell, I came home from work one day and the stairwell was textured ALL THE WAY TO THE CEILING which is very high, and the ONLY person here with her was a 4-year-old. Does anyone else find this VERY interesting?


Is it even POSSIBLE to hate priming any more than I HATE PRIMING? It's so annoying! Painting twice? Really?

Anyway .... drum roll please ...

The finished product. I realize this picture isn't very exciting, but it is informative because everyone knows CARPET is the FINAL step. There you have it folks ....that is in fact CARPET in my basement.