A before & after

Since June I've been meaning to post a few before & after pictures of our house so I can track our progress and all the work we've done on our cute old house. But June ended up being too busy.... and apparently so did July, August, September and October! :) But now that we officially have snow outside and it's too cold to be out much I am going to do some house before and afters! Up first is the most used and probably my most favorite room, which was not part of the original house, but added on sometime in the 80's. And thank goodness it was added on or we wouldn't fit in this house!

Here it is the week we moved in. It was all white paneling with brown wood trim (in this picture my mom had already primed the trim). It also had an extra door to the bathroom by the lamp in the above picture, which was really lame. Our awesome friends the Johnson's came for Thanksgiving last year and Timmy and Brian took out the door and filled it in. Hooray!

During Christmas break last year my mom and step dad John came and he and Brian tiled the dining portion of this room. This was spectacular because who wants to have white carpet underneath their dining room table? No one. Well, not anyone with kids anyway. Brian also changed the ceiling light in here after Sophie broke the one in the kitchen with a bouncy ball. We moved the one that was in here to the kitchen and got a chandelier for the dining room.

Brian put in this ceiling fan (we paid an electrician to run the wires to the location) and it definitely is a great addition to the room as well. I spray painted our stove in the corner black. It was a dark green and looked horrible so I found some high heat black spray paint and it's held up really well.

This is the newest addition to the family room (this is where the 2nd bathroom door was). It's just a giant piece of pegboard with some old wood I had framed around it (I also attached some 1x1 boards around the back of the pegboard to make it more sturdy... pegboard is pretty flimsy). This holds all the kids school paperwork and their clipboards hold any charts, homework, etc. that need to be done or signed. Wesley's is holding an empty potty chart, since he still has zero desire for potty training! It also has our Family Home Evening chart and the kids' weekly schedule. That white trunk holds our games (still looking for a cute/fun latch to add to the front) and that small box on the trunk holds the kids' math fact stuff like flash cards, dice, etc. that they all have to do after school. Having kids in school is so much work!

This is the "drop zone" where the coats, backpacks, shoes, etc. get put after school. And our current chore chart system (which we've now been using for over 2 years). Basically they each have a list of responsibilities and a chore to do and I mark off at the end of the day if they did their chore. They earn an allowance based on how many days they did their chore and how well they did their responsibilities. I circle the days if they didn't do it that day. I always thought giving kids an allowance wasn't a good idea. I figured they should expect to help without getting paid for it. But then I realized they also need to learn to use money wisely and pay their tithing, how can they do that without getting money? The kids (except Wesley) are really good about not asking for things at the store because they have a way to earn money and buy things themselves.

I had to show Miles' chart so I could save his cute handwriting that says "Miles is amazng" :)

We just had this new patio door installed last month, the one we had broke so although we didn't want to pay for a new one we just had to do it! It's a very nice door. That red dresser holds legos and puzzles in the drawers and our scriptures in the basket. We read scriptures here in the morning by the fireplace. We've found it's easier for us to do this in the morning rather than at night, the kids are too tired but do anything more than lay there :)

Next on our list of updates for this room will be new carpet and staining the kitchen table darker.

 

Of course this room is often littered with toys, has kids jumping on the furniture, coloring and game playing, doing homework, or having a snack at the table. And daily it has two superheroes wrestling, but that's when it's the funnest place to be!

Weekend togetherness

I love the weekends. We get to spend most of our time together and since we have a lot of fun this is a good thing. Saturday was spent cleaning, raking leaves, doing home repairs, letting the kids play and bottling applesauce. Brian went to the UW vs. BYU game with a co-worker who had an extra ticket. I was glad he was able to go since he loves it and it's the only game he goes to! On Sunday the weather was gorgeous so after church the kids and I played outside in the leaves and went on a walk while Brian was out doing church stuff until dinner time.

Sophie thinks it's great fun to ride Miles' little bike.

I was telling Wesley to not throw leaves at me... which of course meant he would.

When Brian got home he played 4 rounds of chutes and ladders with Miles, while playing with Scooter and letting Wesley climbing all over him - Superdad.

 Nora and I made mini hand-pies. They were tasty.

And Sophie finished Harry Potter 7!! I was so excited for her, but a little sad because now it's all over for her, I was kind of sad when I finished (but then again I'm now reading them through for the 3rd time so I guess it's okay!)  Now she and I get to watch the last 2 movies together.  I'm thinking of making some butterbeer and pumpkin pasties to go along with it.

Love this happy face. What a great weekend!

Cave of the Mounds

Nora has been wanting to go to the Cave of the Mounds since last summer when her friend went and brought her back a rock and told her all about it. It's kind of pricey for a family of 6 so we told her we'd go for her birthday this year. Well, we were in Utah this summer but of course she didn't forget that we had said we'd go for her birthday. Through our library summer reading program all the kids got a free pass so we finally went last week. It was only about 30 minutes away and a pretty fun place. They had a "fossil dig" where the kids could dig for jewels, bones and fossils. Of course they were all for sale, but the digging was free. They loved it. And our kids are learning to be like their parents, they thought the prices for the rocks were outrageous (which they were...) and were happy to dig up the rocks and then put them back, which made Brian and I so proud. :) 

The cave tour was about an hour long and Wesley was.... less than delightful. About 5 minutes in to it Brian and I knew it was going to be rough. But since we'd paid we decided to stick it out. He didn't seem scared or anything, I think it was more that we were walking slowly, not touching things and supposedly listening to the tour guide - all hard things for a three year old!

Luckily the older 3 kiddos had a great time. They all love rocks and thought this amazing cave was pretty cool and they loved learning about the formations.

Brian trying to keep Wesley happy.

Grumpy Boy.

Nora brought her money she'd been saving especially for this trip and bought a bag of sand and rocks to "mine". She loved every second of it.

One happy girl!

Me and my girls.

Daddy and Miles (Wesley wouldn't be in it...)

Such a pretty day!

Wesley by the mining area.

He was adorable after we got out of the cave and he could be crazy again!

It was a fun day together as a family. And since it was so close we still got a lot done on that Saturday. Hooray!

Halloween Festivities!!

We had a great time celebrating Halloween this year! Wesley got lucky and had a lot of great costumes given to him. He had Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Superman and Ironman. He wore at least one or two of them every day! On Halloween night he was Ironman but it was dark and raining so I didn't get a picture. He wore this Buzz one a lot as well.

 

Miles really wanted to be Captain America. I didn't want to buy him one. When Wesley got a bunch of costumes given to him none of them fit Miles that well. The day before his school parade I asked Miles what he was going to wear for it and he so sweetly said, "Well. I really, really wanted to be Captain American.... but I guess I'll just be Thomas again." It kind of melted my heart so when we went to the store that night to pick out pumpkins to carve he saw this costume and his eyes lit up. How could I not get it?

Of course Nora was a Care Bear.... what else would she be?

Sophie wanted to be something scary, unique or funny. I didn't want a scary one so she chose to be a One eyed, one horned, flying purple eater!

Our primary was in charge of the Ward Halloween party and I spent the whole day decorating, driving around for things and cooking cake and chili. We had a huge turnout so it was fun.

 

Classic doughnuts on a string.

 

This is my friend Charlotte who was Alice in Wonderland. I went as an "Airhead."

 

I had to document that Brian went in his classic blue suit. And that is my friend Shelley who is the Primary President and lover of Halloween.

 

Buzz and Woody reunited at our ward party

Last year I started carrying on the tradition my mom started of having my family eat dinner at "The Goblins Platter", I was their host Helga the Horrible. They dined on such delicacies as; mummy brains, goblin snot, ghost pee, fresh earthworms, rotten teeth, etc. The kids love this and I love doing something that I remember loving as a kid! Thanks mom!

We carved pumpkins a few nights before Halloween. It was pretty fun. Sophie just drew hers on and started cutting by herself, she did a grim reaper and tombstones. I helped Nora with a Care Bear belly badge and Miles with Captain America's shield while Brian did a Buzz for Wesley.

Scooter was terrified of the pumpkins. He would not stop barking at them. Brian chased him around the house with a pumpkin for a while and we had a good laugh!

The girls showing off their loot. We only went around our block and it was raining the whole time. Then we came back and watched The Croods. What a fun night! The kids also had a school parade and class parties. A fun filled week...  but I'm kind of glad it's over!