April

 Instead of trying to blog, Dec, Jan, Feb, and March before I got to April, I just decided to begin in April! We had all 32 of us here in Dec/Jan and I absolutely loved it, but too many photos, so I have that in a separate folder. If you want to see it, email me and I'll forward it to you. The photo above is Liesel at the City Easter Egg Hunt.

 Ariana

 Ben with the camcorder, Alex, Elann and Cassidy

 Cassidy

 Cenna, Allie and Alex

 Max. The funny thing about his candy hunt is everything was just lying on the ground and he would walk by, pick up the item, look it over and if he didn't like it, drop it back down to the ground!

 David and Jen's kids helping Papa with digging the last few fence posts. As you can see, they enjoyed themselves after they moved rocks! Seem familiar guys?

 Allie is taking sewing lessons from me and this was her first day of lessons.

Remembering Dad

Dad and Mom tried to go to the temple every week. Sometimes I would go with them. I brought my camera once and took these photos while we were walking from the parking lot in March 2008. Dad would always open the car door for Mom and then take her temple bag and put it with his own, then take her hand and walk up to the entrance that way. It always touched me. Still miss you Dad.

Tah Dah!!!!

 The finished Brent designed, a one of a kind, original bench!

It's perfect! Exactly what I wanted.

Oct etc....

 Halloween 2013...the last Elementary school parade from this school as the new school opens and they move in Jan 2014. Max is Scooby Doo, his Grandma Boswell found this costume and Allie and Liesel's too, they are all from the Scooby Doo cartoon.

 Liesel

 Allie

Dad is making a bench for in back of the couch since we don't have the fireplace to put things on now. He designed it himself. We hope it says in Chinese calligraphy 'take a load off" but we don't know. We just hope it isn't something rude! It is being glued here and is lying on it's side. The top part is being made out of our left over cork floor. The bench looks so good!

Sept 2013 finished living room/dining room

 Here is the end result! The paint is a buttery yellow, the trim is white.

 I love the finished arch!

 I am putting family photos on the wall above the piano.

 love the new chandelier

The entry way is so much more spacious! Rene now has the curio cabinet. Also I don't know how many of you remember a light switch over by the swamp cooler and the bare wire light fixture at the bottom of the stairs, but it never had any power to it. We tried to find the power source, but failed. Our friend Mike Christensen (who Garrett happens to work with in Moroni) is an electrician and he came over and ran a new power source so we now have a light at the bottom of the stairs!  I LOVE, LOVE our new look! Thank you so much Becky...she worked hard and long and we really appreciate her help.

September 2013 living room/dining room renovations #2

 the completed arch after it was mudded and primed.

 now it is time to do the dining room

 if you ever wondered how we painted over the stairs....this is how

 Brent moved the dining room light fixture wiring to center over the table. It was a real pain! We used wire coat hangers to go 'fishing' for the wires, through insulation and studs.

 the arch in the hallway by the bedroom doors

 new chandelier....Brent's hands are too big to screw in the light bulbs.

The new cork floor entryway. So easy to install. No curves, just straight lines!

Sept 2013 livingroom/dining room renovations #1

 We thought we would take advantage of Becky being with us for 3 weeks to renovate the living-room dining-room. Here is a photo history of the steps we took. I call this first step demolition of the fireplace.

 Brent had to move the front door in an inch and a half because of the new sheetrock. Clever Brent!

 Brent designed and implemented this new arch in the livingroom and also in the hallway down by the bedrooms.