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...

Oatmeal and a haircut

Johnny had a good time with his oatmeal this morning... He likes to do it himself and it has to be his way. This morning he decided he needed a big spoon, not the baby spoon I gave him, bigger spoon bigger mess! So then since he was already in the sink with wet hair and Kyla was still sleeping I decided to cut his hair. Steve has been saying he needed one for awhile but I wasn't ready for my baby's first haircut. I finally broke down and cut it. He played with the water the whole time and didn't even know I was cutting his hair until he noticed the scissors on the counter, then he wanted to play with them and it got tricky. Since scissors are "not a toy" I gave him a break instead and finished the hair cut upstairs which he was fine with since he was playing with the camera... until I wanted to take his picture, then he is crying because I took them camera away... I thought Kyla was strong willed... I think Johnny beats her out. Maybe I have changed. I let more things go if the don't "really" matter. Anyway we made it through and now my handsome little guy has a slick hair do, no hair over the ears and no mullet. :)

For Grandma and Grandpa O. (Hermana and Elder Oliver)

We were in Kolob this week with my sisters and their kids, oh and one husband... the rest of us left ours home... It was great to be in that beautiful place with my sis'. I got some video and pics for grandma who is far away in Mexico. I hope it doesn't make you homesick, mom... :)

My kids are going to be so bored with just mom to play with, we have had cousins for two weeks now and they are so much more exciting than me...

Pretty Princesses

A rare moment unleashed...

Johnny and mom

GRAND Canyon!

While Jess was here we kept it pretty low key. We ventured out to the grand canyon one day, it was amazing! We had Arizona monsoon weather with mostly clouds and not a lot of rain so the day was not too hot. I got a little nervous with Ky and Johnny and the "big crack" (that is what Beave calls it...) The first look out Ky was so excited she ran towards the edge yelling "the grand canyon!!" I kept the monkey leash on the rest of the day and Johnny in the backpack.
I talked Jess into making Ky a "pink princess dress" and she had enough material with what I bought to make two so Ky and Lea have twinner dresses. The cousins had a lot of fun together, Ky thought 4 was too many names to remember and list off every time so she just called them "my friends."

while dad is away...

So Steve is gone this week to our ward's scout camp, it is just Tuesday through Saturday but with no nightly phone call it seems much longer. Luckily Jess and girls got here late last night so we won't get much of a chance to get lonely. This is what I came downstairs to Tuesday afternoon, it was a new thing for Johnny. I am embarrassed to show you all my kid in nothing but a soggy diaper but you saw the good pic already so I guess this is the bad. He is on a no clothes streak, literally. I insist on clothes outside but that is as far as the battle will take me.