Basement addition!

So it's been almost a year since I blogged but we've been so busy!  The biggest addition we've had in the last year was our new basement!  We hired a friend, Frank Zafir to finish our basement.  It was all cement but the rough plumbing was done for us.  The kids never played in it longer than the tornado warning kept us there.  Here is before, minus all the baby toys we stored there.

We were so excited to see each step.  Next comes the frame and to set the bath.  That actually went really fast.  We wanted a dry wall ceiling and the studs for that took forever.  We were also going from a couple lights to a lot of lights.  Frank hired out an electrician, a plumber for the bathroom, an HVAC guy to do the vents and on occasion a young man to help with bringing supplies up and down the stairs. 

Here you can see the electrical in and the ceiling studs.  He had a lot of piping to do to run all the electronics.  Rick also wanted the ethernet cables and TV cables run directly to where the TV would go so we would have a fast connection.  Rick and Frank worked on that for several days.

Next was the dry wall!  We were so excited to see the rooms appear!  We could hardly wait for all the taping and mudding to be done so we could start painting!  We had Frank prime everything and do the finishing coats of the trim, doors, and ceiling.  I made every minute count of Jaina's naps and painted the colors on the walls.  Here I am in the stairwell. 

Once the painting was done we were ready for carpet!  I had thought it would be fun to allow the kids to write on the floor before the carpet was down.  So for family night we had at it!  I told them they could write what they wanted but I had a few scriptures I wanted my boys to sleep over.

Once I was done I turned around to find all the kids writing Articles of Faith and other scriptures on the floor.  Proud momma moment!

Andrew's picture at his toes.

 

And then there is Rick, he quote a line from his favorite movie right before the character is impaled. "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar."  So proud.

The furniture finally came. I had found a full twin size pull out sofa that was nice and comfortable to sit on.  I had really wanted it for our guests as a extra bed.  We have siblings come occasionally or grandparents visit us.  We also couldn't fit a regular couch down the stairs because of the turn.  So we got a sectional sofa with pieces that make into a 3 cushion couch.  Between them all of our family can sit down, which was important to Rick.  

Finally the day came when everything was done and we moved in!  We love our new basement.  It's so much more than we thought it would be.  

Here's the family as you come down the stairs.

The double doors on the left are a game closet.  We love that!  The next door goes to the furnace/storage area for luggage, old clothes and home storage, not finished.  The door on the right is opened and inside there is a "club house" for the kids' toys.  We finished all the way under the stairs and they love to play in there, especially Andrew and Jaina who fit the best.

Here you see the bathroom door and the middle door goes to the food storage area shown below. and then Anson's and Aaron's room.

I love my food storage area.  It is a long small room kept cool from not being insulated.  It holds 3 four foot shelves and my freezer perfectly.  Mom and Dad's rug from Mongolia fit perfect in front of the shelves so our feet don't freeze.

Here's the boys' room!  It's a huge room, 13 x 16.  We kept it a very neutral because they were thrilled at the idea of having a huge world map on the wall.  Hopefully that'll be for Christmas.  I think Rick was just as excited.  I think it's a guy thing.

Here is looking out from their beds to the closet.  It shares a wall with the food storage.  The freezer fit perfect where the closet was set back.

And lastly here is the bathroom.  We needed a third full bathroom desperately.  It takes a long time to bath 5 kids in one very small bathroom.  Now the boys have their own.

We had lots of requirements of what we wanted and Frank was able to give us everything and put so many beautiful touches on it.  It took about 2 1/2 months but we are done and love everything about it.  We hosted Rick's bishopric on Memorial Day for a picnic and it worked wonders to keep the kids entertained in the basement and the adults could talk on the main floor.  It will really help as we have friends and family over and as the kids grow they will have more room to play.  We want to show it off to everyone!  Yay for us!!!!!

Summer Fun!

So this summer has been a wild one, just kidding.  I've had half a brain this summer with the baby.  She is sleeping better now but it's hard having 4 busy kids and 1 not so sleeping baby.  Although we've had low expectations I've tried to do a few fun things throughout the summer.

Rick's Dad, Tracy and Emily came to visit us in June.  Here we are waiting to see planes take off at the Clow Airport Diner, it never happened but we had fun eating while we waited.

Here is all 6 of our grandparents.  We had everyone here for Jaina's blessing.  I don't think all 6 of them had been in a room since the wedding,

 oh so many years ago.

Our lovely Aunt Kristen was also here for the blessing.  Our "take my picture too" kid is always ready.  Jaina's blessing will be another post.

 Here is Grandma and Grandpa DeMille during their stay in June with Baby Jaina.

 Anson and Aaron went to a day camp at the end of June, Kati Kani.  It was pirate week and they learned lots of camping skills, did crafts, went fishing, swimming and so much more.  Here they are in the last skit of their week.

 

This year Aaron was on a coach pitched baseball team.  He had a great team, the Yankees.  We all enjoyed going to the games.  They made it all the way to the Championship game.  We had Amanda's family here that weekend so between our family, her family and both sets of grandparents, and Isa Aaron had quite the cheering section.  Here are a few pictures of the Championship game.

 They won the Bolingbrook Championship! Go team!

We also went to Cantigny with Amanda's family.  How many Blackhams can you fit on one tank gun!

 

We had girls/boys cousin swap.  Jacob came and watched Star Wars and slept over at our house.  Rachel went and watched a girl movie with Sarah at Grandma's house.

We also went to Brunswick Zone with cousins.  Here is Anson and Andrew fighting off the bad guys.

Sarah had an amazing influence over Rachel and she actually went on rides!

Cousins Andrew and Nathan loved playing together.

We had a friend get married in the Nauvoo, IL Temple in June.  We took advantage of the trip and took everyone down for our first visit there with kids.  There is such a good spirit there and the kids are old enough to know Joseph Smith and the important role Nauvoo played in our church.  For those who don't know Nauvoo was a town our church founded and built up in the 1840s.  After a few short years the Saints were again kicked out but while they were there it was a wonderful place to live.  Our church has restored many of the buildings there and you can go and see what it would be like to live there in the 1840s-1850s.

Here is Rachel dressed in pioneer wear.

  

Here we are watching the band play on the street outside the Red Brick store, their grocery store.

Last year we went park hopping the last day of summer before school started.  This year the kids wanted to do the same.  For park hopping we just set the timer for 30 minutes at each park and see how many parks we can hit before we are worn out.  This means we can hit all those parks we've wanted to try or see again or whatever before school starts and it just too hard.  This year the kids continually voted for new parks we had never been too.  Jaina wasn't a huge fan but the big kids love it.

We had a relatively slow summer.  Anson and Aaron made huge strides with swimming lessons.  We'll work on Andrew and Rachel next summer.  ;) 

"Oh, what do you do in the summertime?"

Branson 2013

We love Branson, MO!  This was our second trip to Branson, Missouri.  There is so much to do there we will probably go again.  We love it because it is a great Christian town full of talent and so much to do.  There are very talented entertainers and they all are clean acts.  We can take our kids and grandparents and everyone enjoys a good wholesome show or activity.  They always recognize God and those who serve or have served in the military.  This time we took Grandpa and Grandma DeMille and Emily.  We love having grandparents so we get extra help and even a night out!

This year was full of fun.  We arrived on Saturday, August 3rd, and stayed at French Quarter right on the strip, great location.  We went to church on Sunday and spent the day enjoying being with family.  Early Monday morning Rick, Anson, Grandpa DeMille and Emily went fishing with a guide. Here are some pictures.

They caught something like 60 fish in 4 hours but they were only allowed to keep 4 each, 16 total.  They also had to throw back any that were really big or too small.  We fried some of them up that night for all to enjoy.

Tuesday we went on the Branson Belle, a showboat.  This is our second time seeing it and it is a great dinner and fun dinner show.  This year Rachel was asked to help the magician with his act.  It was hysterical.

 

 

Wednesday we went to White Waters.  It was so much fun and the best part is finally after years of swimming lessons Anson and Aaron finally went down BIG slides.  I was amazed that Anson was so brave to go down some major slides.  He seemed to really like the tube slides.  We couldn't get him off!  Unfortunately, we had to split up to keep someone with Jaina so we didn't get any pictures of the boys on the slides but here is Rachel going down a small slide.  Andrew also found water cannons and between those and his pool toys he stayed busy the whole time.

Thursday we went and saw the Acrobats of China.  It was great!  Rick and I went last year and wanted the kids to see it.  They are so much fun to watch, everyone loved them.

Sorry blogger won't flip my picture correctly.

Thursday night Rick and I got to go out for date night and we went to see Shoji Tabuchi, the violinist.  He had a quick wit and was very talented.  The bathrooms were crazy amazing.  It was almost worth it to see them.  It was a great show and great company!

Of course we also fit in as much pool time as we could.  It was VERY rainy the week we went.  We got around 8 inches of rain in one so many of our plans were delayed.  Our resort had a great pool, although it was freezing, the kids loved it!

Friday Rachel wasn't feeling well so Anson, Aaron, Emily, Rick and his Dad went mini golfing.  There was a great dinosaur place we passed several times that week.  

Our last night we wanted to go out somewhere nice for dinner together.  We went to Olive Garden for the first time with kids.  We had a great meal.  Jaina tried so hard throughout the trip but it was pretty difficult nursing her on the fly and getting decent naps in. 

 

 

What a cutie!

We had a great trip and have already made our list of what we want to do next time.  It is great to be able to spend quality time with each other and family.