Progress at the beginning of this week.

We have walls!! well, sort of

 As of Friday afternoon we have some walls!!! The basement has load bearing walls framed. The porch was poured this week. The trusses are all stacked up ready to go up next week.

Floor joists earlier this week.

 Foundation walls up at the beginning of November.

Breaking Ground

 

It is finally happening!! We really ARE building a house. We have already had unforseen set backs. The lot we thought we were originally building on turned out to have a large lien against the property. We knew we couldn't hold out forever waiting for the problems behind the lien to be resolved. We had to figure out a Plan B. A piece of property close to the first lot suddenly became available. Our builder quickly snatched it up and told us we could have it if we wanted it (for the same price :) We felt like this solution fell out of heaven just for us!!

What we've been up to: June

I found Dawson downstairs one day helping me with the laundry by putting dad's socks in the toilet. Mom has SO MANY HELPERS! Thanks little buddy!

 

We put our house for sale

 We had our first showing on memorial day. I had never imagined having a certain time for my house to be clean. What a roller coaster ride that was. We showed the house ten times!! I had to have EVERYTHING CLEAN AT THE SAME TIME. Whew!!! The boys cooperated fairly well. Towards the end of the ride they would ask why can't I play with (insert toy or friends name)? Because we have to show the house?

My brother got married the first week of June. I made the wedding cake and groom's cake. And I knew it would happen and it did. The day I was to start baking cupcakes and cakes in preparation for the wedding, you guessed it. We had to show the house. Talk about stress!! We showed it again the afternoon of the wedding. We had a lot of company at our house to help get ready. My Mom and my niece Kaytlyn came and helped the whole week before the wedding. They were life savers!!! They helped bake, decorate, clean up the mess and take care of the boys.

 The final product.

 The cake topper.

 The groom's cake.


During June we also had haircuts. Dawson's first haircut. I was a little sad watching all his curls get cut off. He looks like a little boy instead of a baby with the new cut.

 We also said good bye to Kellons cute little faux hawk. He cut his hair at least three different times this summer. He got a buzz cut a couple of times to fix it. The last time was a very short buzz cut. Knock on wood, he hasn't tried it again since the really short buzz.

Natives in the Neighborhood

I needed some chicken Thursday night to fix dinner so I put Dawson and Kellon in the car and headed to Lee's. These kids were busily making mud pies in the back yard. I told McCrae if he smelled smoke or saw flames to run the neighboors. I was gone for 15 minutes. This is what I came home to. "It was Ethan's idea" McCrae says. Ethan happened to be the only one of them that didn't dive all the way in. They dug a hole under my deck filled it with water, grass and sawdust and then dove in. I am SO glad I took Kellon with me!

Disclaimer: I do not make a habit of leaving my kids home alone. This is the first time (and by the looks of the kids and my yard...probably the last!!!!!!!!!)

Easter

Easter was not complete this year with out an easter egg hunt in Grandpa and Grandma's yard, a trip to the dinasour museum, a picnic and visiting all the animals at Connie and Dick's house.

 McCrae took off hiking while we were having a picnic. That is him at standing on top of the rock.

The easter bunny found us too!

Helping clean

The boys were helping me clean up the living room one evening. We were all working together so well. We quickly finished cleaning the living room and the kitchen. I walked upstairs and this is what I found in their room...

All I could do was laugh...and take a picture!

The lawnmower bandit strikes again!

Kellon has a REAL fascination with lawnmowers. Not the toy ones. He is only interested in real ones. During the rain storm we had a couple of weeks ago I went outside looking for him (he wanders off, he is one of THOSE types of kids). I looked at his two friends houses. One was not home, the other little 4 year old said he was at her house but didn't know for sure. I wasn't feeling worried at all. I noticed one of the neighbor's lawnmower and weed whacker were out in her drive way so I put them back in the garage and went back home. I found Kellon inside minus clothes. Not a big deal it was after all raining and muddy outside. We ate lunch and then headed to bed for a nap. I hear someone knocking at the door. It was a neighbor wondering where her lawnmower was. I asked Kellon and he pretended like he didn't know what we were talking about. I told him he was not going to get in trouble, and then asked where is the lawnmower. "Oh" he says, "its in my backyard". Sure enough he had pushed her lawnmower down the sidewalk 3 houses away and through the gate into our back yard. Thankfully the neighbor just laughed and said "oh Kellon! He is just so curious".

In the picture he is showing me the 'stamps' he drew on him self one night while Bryan was out of town and I was putting Dawson to bed. He says they are just like uncle Brandon's 'pictures' aka tatoos he has on his arms and legs. The conversation was then followed by our bodies are a temple that Heavenly Father gave us. I told him how Heavenly Father does not want us to color on our bodies. "Would you color on the temple?" I asked. He quickly replied "ya".

Catch of the day

I saw this in the easter isle a few days before Bryan was leaving on another business trip. I sneakily put it in his back pack the night before he left thinking he would find it at the airport. I had to let my catch of a life time know that I would be thinking about him. He didn't find it until I asked him about it and told him not to leave it in the hot California sun all afternoon. The fish just looked so cool I couldn't pass it by. Bryan I hope you liked it! Love you!!!!

Junior Jazz

McCrae joined the Junior Jazz kindergarten league of Hyde Park this season. I don't know who enjoyed it more: Bryan and me or McCrae. This was one of the best forms of entertainment I've had in a while. These kids were so funny to watch! They did not keep score or enforce any rules. They encouraged the kids to dribble as they ran down the court. Some of the kids would dribble but mostly they would get the ball and run to the hoop.
He was so proud of his 'first trophy' they gave all the players after the last game.

They gave the kids arm bands based on height so they knew who to guard on the opposing team. Check out #24. He is almost half the size of McCrae. He'll be a point guard for the NBA.

He got the 'guard your man' concept down from the very beginning. He would stand in front of his man and stare at him. So funny!

This was a fun exprience and first taste of sporting events for our family.

Lovers day

We were missing Bryan the biggest lover of all this valentines day. He was out of town for work so we had to fill the day with other lovely things.

Ding dong/oreo bouquets. My achievement day girls made these for one of our February activities. I thought they were cute so I made some extras for some friends.

My little heart breaker rockin' his valentine bib.

These lovers each had fun at school with valentine parties and passing out valentine cards. They both had to sort out their loot once the got home.

No lovers day is complete without some 'I love you' cupcakes and a heart baker pizza from Papa Murphys. Hope your v-day was as fun as ours!

Sleeping and... silly putty!

We were at church a couple of weeks ago and Kellon saw the kids sitting behind us playing with silly putty. He thought it looked really fun so I told him we could get some for him. The next day we were at the store so we picked up a couple of 'eggs'. The rest of the day and the next couple of days he played and played with his silly putty. Unbeknownst to Bryan and I the he took the silly putty to bed with him. The next morning Bryan came into our room (I was still in bed) and said "Hayley you have to see this" he turned on the light and there was Kellon covered in silly putty. I started laughing and that made him mad. It was pretty funny though I couldn't hold it in. His pj's, blanket and thumper had silly putty on them. We threw out the blanket and Bryan used goo gone to get it off the pjs and thumper. It is a good thing because we tried to buy a new thumper and they were all sold out.

Can anyone guess what this is?

I found this in my diaper bag last Sunday morning. Can you guess what it is?

Life as a single mother

Bryan travels a lot for work. I don't love being a single mother while he is gone. Most days we manage. Some days barely. Yesterday was one of those barely days. I don't think I have ever felt as sick as I did yesterday with more than just myself to take care of. I ran a fever all day. My. body. hurt. I was wishing my mom lived accross the street. The boys were all sick as well. We had to venture in to the pediatrician for Kellon all four of us. As we were getting out of the car in the parking lot, I tried to put Dawson's coat on him and kind of forced his arm in the sleeve. I heard twisting and popping followed by screaming. He was really favoring it and I was worried. We waited for the doctor. Kellons diagnosis - ear infection. I had him check Dawson while we were there. I had dislocated his elbow. The doctor twisted while the baby screamed. I am glad we were already at the doctors office! Kellon's full boar energy is back today, Dawson and McCrae are still coughing but fine. I finally feel like I am going to live. The best part of this saga....Bryan will be home tommorrow!!!

Creating...

Karma gave me some 'how-to' books for christmas. I had to try them out. I made this for my totally awesome friend Mandy.


This fruit bouquet I made for my neighbor Deann.
These two friends share Bryan's birthday. I made a 'tres leches with dulce de leche' cake for Bryan. Even though it was not picture worthy (so I didn't take a picture) it was delicious!


This cake I made today for a friend and neighbor Joanne (with McCrae's help). Now if she would just come home so I could deliver it to her! I love to have reasons to make sweet treats!

He will survive...

Kellon loves his baby brother. He loves him so much he is the guinea pig in every experiment. Tonight Kellon tried out his dad's electric shaver on his brother. The result... baby hair that is long enough will twist very tight very quickly and will create a screaming baby with a bald spot. Thanks Kellon!!!

Another post worthy experiment: during October when we had just decorated the house for halloween, I was upstairs vacuming and had a thought to check on the baby. I turned off the vacum and could hear a muted scream. I went down to the living room and found the baby in his saucer where I had left him with a black plastic cauldren on his head. NICE!!! I pulled it off thankfully before he passed out due to lack of oxygen. Brotherly love is THICK at our house!!!