Running Club

Albert, Hog and Super all participated in a running club at school this year.  They have the most dedicated PE teacher who truly cares about the kids and goes above and beyond to teach them healthy habits.  They went to school early twice a week and ran about a mile each time.  Some of our children were a little more enthused about the running than others, but, overall it was a great experience.  (Let's just say that some favor their mother's hobbies and some favor their father's.)  If they accumulated 25.2 miles, they qualified to run in a one mile race for kids that was held in January the day before the PF Changs marathon.  All three of our kids qualified and had a great time at the race.   

Here they are getting ready to run.  Super and Hog were the youngest kids from our school running, so we stuck them in the fourth grader race so all three of them could run together.  It was crowded with lots of people and they just grabbed hands and walked to the start line together.  I almost cried when I saw them all together.  It was a sweet moment for their mother.

Sweet Potato (formerly known as Cupcake Princess) was not very patient waiting for things to get started.

ASU athletes and cheerleaders gave the kids high fives as they crossed the finish line.  I loved that they stayed together for the whole mile.  

 Here are our racers with their coveted medals after they finished.  They got great goodie bags, too.

And yes, here is the outtake from our post race photo shoot, where Super insisted on sticking his finger up his nose.  Does anyone teach classes on how to pose for a picture?  My kids need it.  They all take after their father in this respect!

Roy - The story of how our bathroom got done

We finished our master bath remodel almost two months ago and have been basking in the joy of not one, and not two but THREE shower heads in our very large shower, a door on the toilet and massive amounts of area for me to pull out my tools to make myself look presentable. We are in heaven.

Here is the piece of tile and our shower door that started the whole "Let's gut our master bathroom" story.

 There was a leak in the shower pan and the cultured marble in the shower was buckling.  When the tile outside the shower started coming up and cracking we knew it was time to get this project started.  We were very fortunate that our insurance company came out and agreed that this was a problem.  We figured that if we could do-it-ourselves we could totally revamp this bathroom with the money we got from the insurance company to redo the shower. 

We are DIYers but we really can't take much credit for this redo. Tim did the demo and our friend Ben helped us again with the plumbing at the beginning of October. And then, we did nothing. Nothing happened for over two months. We just shut the door and pretended we didn't have a master bath anymore. And, well, we didn't because it looked like this:

Shortly, after Christmas it was apparent to me that my husband who I think can do just about anything was having a hard time wrapping his brain around this project and all the details that needed planning to build a bathroom from the sub-floor up. And, of course the time involved, which he has little of because he's out making a buck or two. The day he ripped it out I knew it was going to be months, but I was getting very worried that it was going to be like this forever.

This is where Roy enters this story. This is Roy, a kind-hearted car dealer from South Dakota who has been a great friend to Tim and who also happened to have a lot of time on his hands.

















Look at this picture of Roy and sing the Mighty Mouse theme out loud. "Here I come to save the day." That is what Roy did for us. Seriously. About a week after Christmas, Roy showed up one morning and went into our bathroom and shut the door and didn't come out for eight hours. He did this same thing every day for two weeks. When he emerged, Roy had become a part of the family and the shower was in, the drywall was up, tile was laid and cabinets installed. Roy is amazing.

So, here is a little before and after.  As you can see from the pictures above the entire bathroom was gutted.

The garden tub and the large window above it were replaced by a large double shower with three shower heads  (I can't remember what it was like to shower with only one.  I love it!!!) and a smaller window (which happens to allow more light in than the old large one that had a nasty blind on it.)

BEFORE

AFTER

The toilet was moved to the spot where the small one headed brass shower used to be.  And, one of the most exciting new features is that the toilet room/closet now has a door.  As Tim put it, we now have two doors of defense (the bathroom door and the toilet closet door) between us and our children when nature is calling.  Peace and quiet.  Ahhhh!

 BEFORE

AFTER

 With the toilet gone, we now get to utilize the whole wall for the vanity.  Tim really wanted some extra height on the cabinets, but, the higher cabinets were expensive so before Tim and Roy installed the cabinets, they built a platform out of 2x4s or something like that and then put the cabinets on top.  Roy tiled up underneath the cabinets to cover the platform.  Our budget was saved and we got the height on the cabinets we wanted.   We bought the cabinets at wholesale from my brother, Dan, who works for Wilsonart.  We also got the countertop material from Dan.  The countertop is a discontinued color so we got a steal on it and paid someone to fabricate it for us.  One day Dan called me because they were throwing out some sinks and he wanted to know if I wanted them.  I was all over free sinks and didn't hesitate to say yes.  When we opened them we realized they are very shallow and are made to be handicap accessible or something.  But, we didn't care.  They were my favorite word:  F-R-E-E.  And, I actually really like them.  They are super easy to clean.  Who knew?

One evening Roy was leaving for the day and he told me that he hoped I had my tile picked out because he was installing it the next day.  I didn't have tile picked out but I was not going to let that slow down our progress.  Tim walked in from work at 8:00 p.m. that night and I headed out the door to Lowe's to get some tile.  I am really proud of the tile I picked out all by myself.  I am color challenged but I couldn't be happier with the tile.  Having a tight budget and being at Lowe's, where the selection wasn't very large made choosing pretty easy.  We are going to use the same tile  when we redo the floors in the kids' upstairs bathroom (no we are not done, yet) and the laundry room. 

BEFORE

AFTER

I chose a Dunn Edwards color called Rusty Orange for the walls.  I initially picked a different color called Market Melon.  I painted the toilet closet in about an hour and then stepped back and realized that the Phoenix Suns would be at home in my bathroom.  It was bright!!!!  So, in my usual fashion I went back to the drawing board and picked a much better shade of orange and repainted.  I am still not very good at picking out paint colors but as my mother-in-law pointed out at least I can recognize when it is all wrong.  That I can do and I love to paint so I will just keep plugging away on my painting projects.   I am obsessed with orange these days and I figure there is no better room to put it in than my bathroom.   I like bright, fun colors.  I still need to accessorize, another one of my weak areas, but I know with a little trial and error it will all work out. 

Thanks to Roy, the man who got it done!!  We are so grateful for his help and for his friendship.  I knew he had been around awhile when the Cupcake Princess started following him out to the garage to chat while he was cutting tile.  

Thanks also, to Ben, who made all those shower heads possible, to Parker and Rand, (our nephews) who worked for a little cash and lots of Krispy Kreme donuts on demo day,  to Dan for hooking us up, to Christin who convinced me that my wall color was going to work and to Tim, who saw it through to the end and finished all the details. 

I was really grateful when the dust was settling from the bathroom and I felt like I could breath again because I wasn't sleeping next to the shop vac and electrical supplies were not littering my dresser.  But, apparently, Roy still had time on his hands and Tim still had ideas floating around in his head because three days after the bathroom was completely done Tim and Roy were ripping up our family room/upstairs loft.  Yes, people, it's not over yet, but it's getting closer. 

200,000 Miles

I kept my camera in the car for a week to capture this moment. I timed it just right so I could pull off the freeway and snap this picture. Personally, I am going for another 100,000. Woohoo!

Valentines Day for the kids

I have four first cousins total, both sides of my family put together and I never lived anywhere near any of my extended family, therefore, was never really close with any of them. When I was growing up, I was always a little envious of my friends who were related to everyone and had cousins for best friends.

One of the things I LOVE about living where we do is that my kids are surrounded by family. There are a total of 11 second cousins at their school and 18 of the 19 (soon to be 20) first cousins on Tim's side of the family live close by. Even, three of the cousins on my side live here, too. Needless to say my kids have "roots" and they love it (and so do I).

We had our annual cousins Valentine's Day party a few days before Valentine's Day. I started hosting this party for all the cousins on Tim's side of the family several years ago. The party doesn't change much from year to year. I bake 5 or 6 dozen heart shaped sugar cookies, the kids frost and decorate them with a smorgasbord of candy and sprinkles, we decorate bags and exchange Valentine's. Every year I think I might change it up a bit and every year I ultimately decide it's great just how it is.

We had a great time being together. I especially loved hanging out with my sister-in-laws and catching up. It's rare that we are all together at the same time. I am so blessed to have them in my life. (We missed you, Mom!) It was a great party with perfect weather and even a little tether bowl thrown in. (One of the aunts really got into this sport!)

An hour after the cousins party ended, we did it again with all the kids from our babysitting co-op. Between school parties and both of these parties, we celebrated Valentine's Day big around here. Can't wait for next year.

Christmas Day...A Month Later

I have all of these ideas for things I want to post but I told myself I can't post them until I get the Christmas on here. I don't know why I have been putting it off.

We started some new traditions, continued some old ones and eliminated some traditions and the holiday season was busy but fabulous. Christmas Day itself was my favorite part and, in my opinion, one of the best Christmas days I have ever spent. After 12 years, I have finally convinced my husband that staying home and enjoying the day here is the way to go. We are finally on the same page.

Here are a few of the highlights in pictures. (And speaking of pictures, my sweet husband surprised me with an awesome new camera for Christmas. Maybe I won't complain so much about the quality of my pictures anymore! YEAH!!)

Band Hero was going all day around here and was fun for big and little cousins alike.

My cute nieces.

Lots of food.

Video cameras from Santa for all of the kids were the hit of the day.

Tim and I gave the kids tether ball for the backyard. I stink at it, but I am getting better. The kids were well entertained watching their parents play together. Fortunately, there are no pictures.

Tim took the kids on a little shopping trip two days before Christmas. They went to Big Lots and he gave them each a budget and told them they could buy presents for anyone they wanted. They picked out cute things for some of their friends and puzzles for their grandparents. They were so excited about the present they picked for me.

Here is my reaction when I opened it. I laughed so hard to find that my children just knew that I would love a chocolate fountain of my very own.

We pulled out the fountain on New Years Eve. This is going to be a special treat that only comes out once in awhile because you have to add about a CUP OF OIL to the chocolate to get it to flow through the fountain. Uh, yeah, a cup. It was fun though. We dipped everything we could find in the pantry.

Christmas was fun, but most of all, I ended the day and the entire season feeling so blessed. I am grateful for the time to remember the Savior and enjoy my family.