Home Life

The tile was finished yesterday and today, we wiped down the floor and sealed it!  The washer and dryer are back in their home!  We are very happy and are doing a BUNCH of loads of laundry to get caught up!  🙂

Last night a blizzard started that could end up being the worst in history.  I left early from work and as the snow was just starting and it still took over an hour and a half to get home.  When we got up this morning, there were snow drifts to the top of our 4-foot high fence all around the yard.  We opened the garage, and there was 3 feet of snow blocking it!  The streets are totally impassable and so I worked from home and school was canceled.  We spent most of the day shoveling snow and it was crazy!

It was crazy how much snow there was.  As you can see from above, we had drifts over 6 feet tall.  Our roads still haven’t been plowed.  We went over and helped our neighbors shovel out.  The kids had a lot of fun playing in the back yard as well!

After all of that shoveling, we are VERY tired and sore!  😐  Turns out that it was the 3rd largest blizzard in history for our area.  It just looked worse becuase of all the snow drifts 3-5 feet deep!  It looks like school will be canceled again tomorrow and I’ll be working from home again!  Our driveway is nice and clear, but that’s about it!

Construction still continues!  We have been without a washer and dryer for about 4 days now and Angela is getting tired of it being in the hall.  The good thing is that it blocks the running track that the boys use to chase each other around in circles and that has been a blessing on the side.  It’s been a little quieter!  🙂

Today I finished prepping the floor and getting it ready to tile.  Angela and I went out and bought the tile, new baseboard, and paint for the room.  I painted most of the day, and it looks really good!  It’s a bright yellow, (a little brighter than it looked in the store) but we like it.

Our friend is coming to do the underlay on Monday, the tile on Tuesday, and the grout and cleanup on Wednesday morning.  We are really excited!  On Thursday, we’ll be able to move everything back in, put in all the baseboards, paint them, and then work on cabinets!  Yea!

Happy 12th Birthday, Kirstyn!  It’s hard to believe that our little baby girl is already 12!  Time is flying by so fast!  With Kirstyn turning 12 on the 26th, we had a small family party for her which she loved!  She also, being the socialite that she is, wanted a little party to hang out with a couple of her friends.   That event happened tonight…

Instead of a cake, they made a giant cookie and decorated it.  They hung out, played Wii and other games, and watched a movie.

She had a great time and wore herself right out!  Did she go right to bed after her friends left?  Of course not!  🙂  She wanted to stay up even later!  🙂

Today, I started a LONG overdue construction project…  We are remodeling our laundry room!  I pulled the washer and dryer out in the hall (we will be without them for a few days so I told the kids to be sparing on throwing the clothes down if they are clean) and also pulled everything off the walls.  I then ripped up the vinyl tile pieces on the floor and ripped up the sub-floor.  After ripping up the sub-floor, I had to pull out probably 2000 staples out the floor.  I don’t think I ever want to see another staple again!  😐

We are going to have a friend of ours who is a contractor come in and lay new porcelain tile (no more of this junk vinyl tile for us)!  🙂  We are going to paint the walls and trim, and I am designing a new laundry room with new cabinets and lockers for each of the kids to put their coats, shoes, etc. in.  We hope it turns out great!  We have a LOT of work to do, and my knees are aching right now!

Tonight we had a great New Year’s eve party at the Thompson’s.  We at a bunch of food, played Just Dance on the Wii, and had a great time talking and hanging out.  We like these kinds of parties because they are always pretty “low-key” and a lot of fun.  The boys did really well and ben didn’t break anything!  🙂

Happy New Year everyone!  We’re looking forward to a GREAT 2011!

Today we had “split family” day…  Angela went with Julie and Abby Thompson and our girls downtown to visit the Chicago Art Institute and to have fun walking around downtown.  They drove downtown and had a great time.  They first went to the Art Institute and “became cultured young women.”  🙂  It’s always fun to see the kids’ reaction to some of the art there.  As usual, there are some that receive “even I could do that” comments, and then there are some of the very bizarre ones.  They always like the masterpieces by masters like Degas, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso, etc.

After the Art Institute, they went shopping at Macy’s (Marshall Field’s) and on Michigan Avenue.  They bought a bunch of bath stuff from a store called Lush in side Macy’s.  They enjoyed the decorated windows before all the decorations came down.

Meanwhile, I took the boys and went sledding and  had a bunch of fun!  We got all bundled up and went to a nearby hill (one of the only hills in the county) and went sledding.  The boys just loved it and had a great time!

After sledding, we came back to the house, had hot chocolate, watched a movie, had nap time, and then waited for the girls to come back!  It was great lounging around not doing much!  🙂

Tonight we had a GREAT (but very cold) night!  We went with our friends, the Thompson family, out to dinner and then to Brookfield Zoo to see the Christmas decorations and light shows there before they took them down for the season.  It was freezing but we had a great time!  It was down in the single digits when we go there and we had to bundle up!

We first saw a guy doing ice sculptures and they were pretty amazing!  He had bare hands while doing it and we told him he was nuts!  His creations were cool though…

After that, we walked around the zoo, saw all the lights, and went in a bunch of the animal houses (when we were numb and needed to thaw out)!  🙂  When everyone went into one of the places, I took Ben over to the kids area, went inside, and painted his face.  He thought that was MUCH cooler than looking at animals!  🙂

Right before we left, we all went inside and got some hot chocolate to warm up our insides.  We were pretty cold but had a great time!  On our way out, we took a picture of all the kids by the Bookfield Zoo lion statue.

We’re pretty tired now and will sleep very well tonight, I think!

Merry Christmas everyone!  What a wonderful day!  This last year has gone so fast and it’s hard to believe it’s Christmas day again!

As usual, the kids got up early and woke us up.  They were so excited to go downstairs and were very temped to leave mom and dad behind!   They were very good, however, and just sat at the top of the stairs while we rolled out of bed, threw some water on our faces and got ready to celebrate!

The kids (and mom and dad) were very excited to see what Santa had brought and dropped off!  Ben was the most excited about his dump truck and loader, Zach screamed out loud when he saw his Indiana Jones had, bag, and other props, and the girls really liked their stuff: sleeping bags, books, shoes, movies, candy, etc.  Sarah even liked her ACT prep books!  🙂

After we played with the Santa presents, we had a little breakfast and then opened the presents under our tree.  We love opening gifts from family.  This year was great because the kids made things for  each other and it really meant a lot (especially for mom and dad)!  🙂

After cleaning up, we lounged around the rest of the day, eating junk food, watching movies, playing with toys, etc.!  We love relaxing when we get a chance!  🙂

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve is always a memorable time around our house!  As in years past, we got together with friends for a great and also spiritual evening of food, service, acting, and fun!

This evening, we got together with 2 other families for our 4th annual Christmas Eve festivities.  We started off having a wonderful meal and ate a ton of food!

After finishing up our dinner, we sat down and determined which families we would go Christmas caroling to.  We each bring 3-4 plates of goodies and then we caravan around the neighborhoods, piling out of cars, tramping up the sidewalks as a big herd, and then singing really loud when folks answer the doors.  The kids really enjoy doing this and it brings warmth to our hearts on such a cold night.  This year, we went to a family who are BIG Utah Ute fans.  When they answered the door, we all sang the BYU Cougar fight song at the top of our lungs!  🙂  He went and grabbed his Utah flag and started waving it in the door!  We all had a great laugh and continued on our way.  We went to 10 homes before going back to our house to finish up the festivities!

Every year since I can remember, we have acted out the nativity play every Christmas Eve.  We have included these friends and the more we have the more fun, spiritual, and humorous it is.  This year, we had all the roles covered and we got a bunch of great pictures!  We even were able to add Isaiah as well as Simeon and Anna.

When we were done with the nativity play, we went upstairs and finished off the evening together with hot chocolate and a bunch of treats!

As we were eating and enjoying each other’s company, Sarah and Brittany played a Christmas flute and violin duet for everyone.  They did a great job!

Once we were all full, tired and ready to go to sleep, our friends left, we cleaned up, left a plate of cookies out for Santa, and the kids went outside with their reindeer food (oatmeal), and spread it out on the lawn in anticipation of Santa coming.  We all then went to bed!

Whew!  What a fun but exhausting day!  🙂  Good night everyone!  See you on Christmas morning!