children of the forest

The sun came out and warmed up our day so we went to the forest to take advantage of it. OK so we don't actually have to "go" anywhere, we live in the forest but we did drive to a new place we haven't been before. Ky and Johnny are at their happiest when they are in the dirt and rocks.

Ky was singing at the top of her lungs as she jumped!

I love his crazy halo of white hair, when Beave saw the pic he said John needs another hair cut. NO WAY

My handsome boy.

We were there two minutes before Ky had dirt all over her face... :)

not quite flagstaff...

Steve had a quick business trip to Utah this week and talked us all into going along. It was a really quick trip but we fit in a cousins lunch one day and a trip to the temple another. We went to the Logan temple and got to drive through the famous Sardine Canyon... we were a week or more too late for the best of it but the canyon is still beautiful!! While in Logan we went to the spot where Beave proposed... it was fun to think back 6 years ago... so much has changed and so much is still the same!! The swing set in North Logan where Beave proposed, twice...

"THE SWING"

Ky and her cousin Erika ENJOYING their icecream cones. I bribed her out of McDonald's playland to avoid climbing in after her and making a big old scene... :)

Beave's grandma Hansen.

Not quite Sardine Canyon...

I have been super spoiled when it comes to fall color watching... Sardine Canyon on the way to Logan, Utah has the best fall colors ever! We went to Flagstaff's "best" spot last Saturday, Lockett Meadow. It was beautiful and the kids had fun playing in the leaves. Ky loaded her pockets full of leaves and we spent Johnny's nap time today making fall pictures with them. I love fall, I used to love it more, now it also means too cold to go outside and play... Still it is beautiful and I am more of a red, orange, brown kind of person, fall colors, than a pastel spring color person.

Beave in Alaska

I went through Beave's pics and found a few to share, he only took 958... He had a great time fishing with his brother, dad and group. They went to Yukatat, Alaska. I am jealous of the beatuiful things he got to see but... it rained the whole time and I am not up for fishing everyday for 10 days... Fishing in an icey mountain lake

The fish... yummy.

They took a small plane into the "back country," it happened to be named Beaver... Beave said the landing strip was a SHORT dirt road. Fun!

This is where the jealousy comes in!! So beautiful!

Beave's dad John, his brother Brian, and Beave at the local surf shop... seems a little out of place to me but I guess if you can get past the cold the waves are pretty good.

Into the ocean.

They took another small flight to "go see a glacier." This is an ariel view with no reference point to show how massive everything is, so I am told...

Pretty shot from the glacier flight.

back track

I am back tracking with some Utah pics. I got together with a couple of high school friends and their kids. It is still weird to see them with kids and think back to the days of skipping school and lunch in Tooele... Riding on the "beast", Tara's basement and the canyon... yep crazy! And so great!! Thanks Girls.. um Chicas! Madeline and Zoey

Johnny, Isabella and Kyla jumping off the deck, you can't see the ground in this pic but it is only a foot down, really.

Ky and Isabella, Ky is the one who is making friends everywhere we go, leaving the park or library gets traumatic because we are leaving her "new friends" too...

The bunch of us. Johnny, Me, Kyla, Isabella, Melissa, Zoey, Madeline, Carly, and Tara. Johnny was the only chico there!

We spent most of September in Utah. Beave worked in SL one week and went to Alaska fishing with his dad and brother for 10 days. The kids and I hung out with family and friends. It was a great trip. We saw all of our Utah grandma's, all 5! And lots and lots of cousins and aunts and uncles. We miss them all and wish we were closer but are glad we can see them a couple times a year. I got some cute pics of our fun...

Kyla had a birthday party with her cousins while we were in Utah. She is all about princesses right now and wanted a pink princess party, she has been talking about it since Johnny's birthday in May. This is Johnny and our cousin Sawyer at Kyla's Pink Princess Party... There were 2 princesses and 8 princes...

THE 2 princesses, Kyla and Erika. Ky loved playing with her cousins and loved the party grandma did for her!

We went to Thanksgiving point with Christine and Liz (two of my sisters), the three of us all have kids within a couple months of each other. Here is Johnny, Coulten (Teen's) and Isabelle (Liz's). Belle loves Johnny and calls him Boy. It is so cute to hear her ask for John Boy, "Boy da Boy da Boy" By the end of the trip she was saying "Millie Millie Millie," I have an in because I am Boy's mommy!

Ky riding ponies at Thanksgiving point with cousins, Devon and Ryland. She was her usual self, drama queen and acted like it was a wild stallion!

We went to the Dinosaur Park with Grandma and Grandpa Seamons and some cousins... Johnny makes a really good dino roar!

Erika and Kyla at grandpa's water park, it is a great set up, the kiddies all love it!

Of course we had to go on grandpa's boat... he has a new tube that is super kid friendly. Beave is the big kid in the middle with Johnny on his lap and Kyla and Owen on either side. Ky got bored when Johnny was out there because it was too slow so she got on her knees and leaned over the edge to add some excitement. I am super excited about my dare devil as a teenager!

TWO THINGS...

I feel like I have been out of it for awhile, and there are two reasons for it, we went to Utah for a week, lots of fun with cousins and grandparents. And #2 I started reading the Twilight series... I am totally addicted, the unhealthy kind... Luckily there are only 4 books in the series and in 4-5 business day I will have book 4, read it in less than that and be done, then I can get back to the real world... I have been slow to jump on the Twilight band wagon but I am fully on board now, at least this way I don't have to wait long between books. My only problem with them is that they are suppose to be "teen" books but I would never let me teen read them... oh and I can't stand the Jacob story line, one love of your life and vampire drama should be enough... too much detail I know... I'll be back when I get my happy ending... :)

Living Room Before and After

There was wall paper in EVERY room... this was probably the worst. Worst, only because I don't like wallpaper... This one we did in stages. The wallpaper came down the day we signed, before we moved in. We painted right away too. Steve did the floor and crown molding two summers ago when I was in Utah for a month. He did the railing on the stairs sometime before that... The fireplace was the last thing, I think it was a year and a half ago, I was pregnant with Johnny...

Main Floor Powder Room Before and After...

Yet another bathroom... This one only took a couple days; just paint, a new sink and new fixtures.

The kid's bathroom BEFORE

Not sure what they were thinking with this color... to each his own. The best was the crazy wall paper border that matched the shower curtain.

The Kid's Bathroom

We painted over the crazy green the first month we were in the house. Then about a year ago we turned the single sink vanity into a double, there was plenty of space for two and the single sink in the middle with mirrors on either side was kind of weird!

solar tube

Since we lost a window to the big mirror (and because we like them...) Steve put in a solar tube. The removal of the old window was an adventure... Beave had it out when he had to stop and go to a meeting... when he got home it was dark... we didn't want a gapping hole in the side of our house over night so he climbed his two story ladder and fixed it in the dark. Tall ladder, power tools, dark... yikes! Then he ran to the neighbors for 20 minutes in the middle of it all without telling me, I looked everywhere and was getting pretty scared by the time he got home. Ky went around yelling STEVE really loud for a couple days after that... :) The LAST thing to do in this room is to replace the 80's lights...

the floor

We really like tile around here, we took out the carpet and wood flooring and put down this slate. I love the different colors and textures you can get with natural stone. We have a good friend here in Flag with a tile saw and an inability to say no.... it works to our advantage when projects like this come up! Thanks Max :)

Before and After

So I have lived in Flag for 3 years now and people have been asking for before and after pics of the house for that long... SLO... Steve's current project is the master bathroom, I am going to post the before pics but you will have to wait along with me for the after...
It was interesting looking back at the old pics of the house. Two thing stood out, Steve has been one BUSY guy and I used to keep up with the mess a lot better when it was just me and one mess maker. ;)

The Original BEFORE

Steve bought the house without me seeing it in person so he took lots of pics. This one was from a walk through, before the wallpaper came off...

the bathroom in the bedroom

And this is why we are remodeling the bathroom, down to the bare studs... The vanity in the bedroom was so not ok with Steve. He said I woke him up a couple times a night with pregnancy potty trips. :) We had it like this for 2 years though.

the RED room

The first time around we just painted and updated fixtures... We went with this crazy red in the shower toilet room, it was a fun color. In our wet monsoon months the paint ran a little and looked scary in the shower... red...

Tree House Fun

Steve (as usual) has been up to lots of construction projects this summer. This one is my absolute favorite, I think mostly because it didn't mess up my house!!! It was fun to watch Steve with this project, he is such a big kid! This is the back corner of our yard, the house you can see behind it is our neighbors...