Remodeling

Well, you know me...it's been too long since I've had a project, so I decided to do three at once! (Actually, it's more like 5, now that I think about it.)

1. I asked my dad to help us finish the bathroom in the basement when he was here for Kydee's baptism (it had the drains in the floor, that's it). He got the walls up, did all the plumbing, and most of the sheetrock. We have to finish the mudding/taping, paint, and tile the shower.
2. I decided that I wanted to tile my bathroom floor while I was doing the shower surround downstairs. I also decided that I needed to paint and refinish the cabinets in my bathroom before I tiled. (I've got the painting and refinishing done, still need to do the tile.)
3. I figured while I was refinishing the bathroom cabinets, why not do the kitchen ones, too? Oh, and I might as well add a microhood. (I actually finished all that and I'm pretty darn proud of myself for wiring an outlet and cutting down some cabinets so the microwave would fit!) (I have more ideas for the kitchen, but they require ripping out the hardwood floor, moving around a few cabinets, laying new flooring, adding more cabinets, taking out a door, adding a window, tearing down a wall, etc...I think I'll wait on that.)
4. I'm in the process of redoing my storage room, since the bathroom addition changed the size and shape of it...I've gotten things organized, but I would like to build more shelves sometime.
5. After losing some storage space downstairs, I decided I needed more in the garage, which would mean rearranging everything out there to build the shelving unit I want. I have the lumber for that and started to move things. That's as far as we've got on that one.
6. Oh, yeah! One more...While shopping for trim to go around the door in the new bathroom, I found some crown molding for my bedroom at a screaming deal (I paid $12 for all of it at the Habitat for Humanity Restore!--it's a construction thrift store where they have new and used construction items that have been donated). I do not know how to do crown molding; I've never even done trim, but I am hoping I can figure it out! (So far, I just have the molding for this one; in fact, I don't even know if I have enough, as I haven't even measured the room yet!--I just got all the matching crown molding that they had. I hope it's enough; if not, I hope that Home Depot or Lowes has the same kind.)

Well, I think that's it for my projects...at least for now. I still have some in mind (expanding my bathroom and adding a window, putting in new windows because ours are like trailerhouse ones; pouring a walkway and patio in the backyard, adding a new laundry/craft room upstairs in the attic; yes, that would require ripping part of the roof off and building a new one...), but I haven't actually started those yet. I'm only counting ones that are in process.

OH...I remembered one more thing. My wonderful friends the Young's came and tilled up a little spot of earth (yes, that's from the Secret Garden) for our garden, so I've got to plant something. I better wait a week...wouldn't want it to freeze! (Remember last spring; it snowed in June!)

So, after that list, you're probably all wondering, "If she has that much to do, why is she writing such a long blog?" Well, I'm wondering the same thing, so I better go do something! (By the way, I'm still in my robe and it's almost...11:30!? Crap! I've got to take Dalan to school in 10 minutes and then I'm supposed to volunteer at the school for and hour and a half! I better get going! When am I ever going to get this list done?!

Kydee's baptism

Well, I'm finally posting about Kydee's baptism. She has chosen to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we're so proud of her. We know that she wants to follow Jesus and make great things of her life and this is just one of the many steps she will take. Thanks to all of you who came. We were glad you could share this important moment in our lives.

Update on me and my life...

Well, I really don't have anything interesting to say. Life is pretty much the 'same ol, same ol' but that's good because theres SO many things about life that's great!
I've been learning about the settings on my camera and I'm going to try shooting most of my pictures (gulp!) on manual mode. I'm very nervous, so wish me luck. I still don't really understand apertures, ISO, light meters, zooming, and all that, but I'm experimenting with all of them and trying to figure out the best combos for different effects/situations. I read a book from the library that was over my head a lot of the time, but it really opened my eyes to the possibilities of photography. So, check back with me in a couple of months....I should be a pro by then, right?!
Um...what else? Kydee is still our little reader; in the past two weeks alone she's read The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, another one that I can't remember, and she started Eragon two days ago. Dalan also loves to read, but Calvin & Hobbes, The Adventures of Captain Underpants, and Junie B. Jones are more to his liking. He gets to go to 1st grade for math and he likes that quite a bit, but he's still getting used to having homework almost every night. Elora is still our girly-girl; she wears dresses or skirts almost every day and loves to play Barbie's and babydolls. Elias is growing so fast; he has definitely hit 18 months and throws temper tantrums to prove it. He also has discovered how to climb (and has the owies to prove it!) and he loves to make messes by getting into anything and everything. Dale passed one of four portions of his CPA exam, so the good news is he passed one! The bad news is he has to study more to pass the other three that he failed. Luckily, he only failed by a little bit, so he doesn't have too much farther to go, compared to the past 6 months when he studied 3 hours a day. Well, hope everything is wonderful for all of you out in cyberspace! Bye for now...

Amos' wedding

Well, I'm a little late blogging about this, but oh well. Amos, my brother, got married last month to a lovely girl named Tasha. Here's some pictures of their reception.

Here's Ariane's cute little girl, Hazel.

Kydee and Grandpa dancing.

Elora and her soon to be cousin, Kaydence, had a lot of fun dancing together. (Micah is engaged to Kaylee, Kaydence's mom. They're going to get married in June.)

A day in the life of a Barbee...

Here's pictures of some fun moments from the past few weeks at our house.

Kydee's best funny face

The kids found a dead lady bug and insisted on having a memorial service, complete with the following plaque. (For those who can't read the small writing, it says, "In memory of Princess Ladybug. Died in 2009 when she was two. 2007-2009") How they decided how old the lady bug was, I'm not sure. I thought it was so cute that I had to take a picture. They did it all by themselves; in fact, I didn't know about it until after the 'service' when I saw this in Kydee's room.

Here's the kids watching a movie with popcorn.

My cute little punk rocker! (It's kind of hard to see, but he has a faux-hawk.)

The girls dressed up Dalan and Elias like little girls.

Elias was less than thrilled, but Dalan didn't seem to mind!

Here's what Elora looks like every time she bends over.

I can't find a pair of pants that fit her waist.

Elora did my hair for me one day. Isn't it lovely?

Elora wanted to take pictures of us making silly faces.

I hope everyone who sees this first, realizes we're not all crazy, and second, remembers to have fun with life and enjoy the silly little moments!

Brag about my little Brownie...

I just had to add a little blurb to brag about my oldest daughter, Kydee. She is a Brownie Girl Scout and wants to go to camp this year. It costs $330 for a five night camp. She's been selling her toys and books, saving her allowance, and selling Girl Scout cookies like crazy so she can pay for it. So far, the cookie count is 318 boxes, plus whatever her share of the booth sales is and she's saved up $40 of her own money. Way to go, Kydee-girl!

Facebook Tag--I know, I'm taking the easy way doing two-for-one, but oh well!

well, I got tagged by Tamra on Facebook and I figured it would work for my blog too, so here we go!

25 Random Things About Me
1. I get really, really annoyed with bad drivers! Pay attention people!
2. I love to play games with friends and would do it every weekend if I could find any friends that would actually want to come over that often.
3. I am so SICK of the cold
4. I like to stay up late--if I'm in bed before 11:30, I lay in bed thinking that I must be forgetting to do something because I got to bed so early.
5. I've been really frustrated with my post-nursing breasts lately--can anyone else relate?
6. I like to eat junk food way too much; I can't have it in the house, or I pig out.
7. I am a total coupon/clearance freak!
8. I HATE shopping for swimsuits.
9. I would love to travel the world someday.
10. I am so glad that I have the kids that I do--they're wonderful and I love to watch them grow up!
11. I love my husband SO much, even though he annoys me SO often!
12. I don't have cable (just rabbit ears with a digital converter box) and I rarely watch any TV, but I really don't mind.
13. Having said that, I do enjoy mystery shows, especially funny ones, like 'Monk.' (We buy the seasons on DVD, watch them, and then sell them on ebay)
14. Speaking of ebay, I made $300 profit on ebay in December--it was awesome!
15. I LOVE Collective Soul; I have loved them for about 14 years now--wow, has it been that long?!
16. I always forget how old I am.
17. I love to dance, especially to 80's music and swing/big band.
18. I think I'm addicted to shopping.
19. If I think about it, I get scared of the dark.
20. I think I'm a really organized person until I look around my piled up house!
21. I'm glad to be good friends with my sister; there were quite a few years that I didn't ever think that was going to happen.
22. I wish I lived somewhere warmer, like San Diego.
23. I think feet are DISGUSTING (unless someone is under 2; then their feet are cute and I can actually touch them; older than that? Forget it!)
24. I know that Jesus loves me!
25. I wish I had more friends (in real life, not facebook!).

Christmas

For Christmas this year, we had "Christmas morning" on the morning of Christmas Eve at our house in Idaho with all but the Santa presents and stockings, and then we headed down to Cedar City to surprise my parents for Christmas. They were expecting us a day later, so when we rang the doorbell at 9pm Christmas Eve, they weren't expecting us! We all thought is was fun to surprise them like that. We had Christmas morning and dinner at my parents and a couple of days after Christmas, we went down to Vegas to visit Dale's family. It was good to see everyone; we even decided to have a family reunion at our house this summer! I brought my camera on the trip, but somehow didn't manage to take a single picture, so all I have are pictures of the kids opening their presents at our house.

Dalan's and Elora's birthdays

Dalan turned 6 in December. I'm finally getting around to updating the blog, so I'm playing catch-up. Here's Dalan with his car and number 6 cake.

Dalan loved the transformer shirt and skateboard that Grandma Linda gave him.

Elora also had a birthday in December; she turned 4. I wanted to make a princess cake for her. I asked Dale to make the frosting (I left a recipe for him and everything) while I went to the store. When I got home, this is the color he had made. Brown! I tried to explain to him that I needed white (which is the recipe I gave him) so I could make a pink and white dress, but he said he liked chocolate better, so what's the big deal?!
So, Elora ended up with princess with a dark brown dress with pink accents. Oh, well!

She wanted to be 'fancy' for her birthday party, so she wore this dress (and two others--she couldn't decide which she liked best, so she changed periodically; kinda like the announcers on the Academy Awards).

Christmas in the Nighttime Sky

At the beginning of December, Pocatello has a bonfire, free chili, and fireworks at the county fairgrounds, called "Christmas in the Nighttime Sky." We went with some friends this year and it was really fun. So, here's some pictures of the fireworks, my kids watching them, and the bonfire. Hope everyone is almost ready for Christmas--it's only 13 days away!

Hooray for Thanksgiving!

I LOVE THANKSGIVING! I've recently decided that it's my favorite holiday. I just love thinking about all the blessings we have and I like that it's a pretty low-stress holiday (compared to Christmas), and it involves lots of food, naps, games, and family.
A couple of weeks ago, I was counting the days until Thanksgiving with the kids when Elora asked what Thanksgiving was. I told her it was a day that we think of all the things that Heavenly Father has given us and everything that we're thankful for. She looked at me with a funny look on her face and said, "We do that every day, Mom!" (Like, "That's silly that we have to have a holiday for something we should do every day!") It was so profoundly cute and sweet! I am so thankful for my children and for the times when they say things like that!

Halloween

Elias was Winnie the Pooh.

Elora was a princess.

(I made the dress. It took me forever. My machine kept messing up. I was ready to give up and just have her wear dress-up clothes, but I finally figured out what was wrong and finished the dress half an hour before we went trick-or-treating.)

Dalan was Luke Skywalker. Well, he switched between Luke and Anakin, but whatever. I made his outfit, too, but you can't see it very well in this picture.

Kydee's costume was the biggest hit of the school and Halloween party. She was originally going to be a princess with a dress just like Elora's, but you know about the troubles with my sewing machine. The night before Halloween I gave up on making something and decided I needed to throw something together that did not require sewing. I looked at the local thrift store, and although I didn't find a costume, I saw this tablecloth. I remembered seeing a costume like this in a magazine, so I decided we could do it.

(She's an ant at a picnic, by the way!)

We went to a straw maze a couple of weeks before Halloween with some friends of ours and had lots of fun getting lost. It was so cold, but we brought some hot chocolate and dressed warm. It was in the 30's that day, but luckily Halloween was really warm. We didn't even need to wear coats, just warm clothes, even at 9pm. It was so great!


Hope everyone had a great Halloween! We're looking forward to Thanksgiving!

Birthdays

Here's some pics of recent birthdays in our family that I'm finally getting around to posting. My birthday is Sept. 28, Dale's and Elias' birthday is Oct. 2.

We always let the kids have their own star-shaped cake on their first birthdays. Elias wasn't too sure about what to do at first. Then he had lots of fun crumbling up the cake and throwing it on the floor. He ended up eating only about two bites, but he did really well at making a mess.

Kydee's play

The Missoula Children's Theatre came to Idaho Falls a couple of months ago. They have kids from the area try out to be in the play on a Monday, practice all week, and do the play on Saturday. Kydee wanted to try out so bad, so we let her.

She got a part as a dust bunny. Isn't she so cute?!

She's the oldest kid in our family, so I always think of her as being more grown up than she really is. It was fun to see her with all the other kids in the play. She was one of the youngest cast members. It reminded me how little she is. (She's on the bottom row, 3rd from right.)

She had a lot of fun and is looking forward to trying out next year. Look out Hollywood!

Camping at Mesa Falls

We went camping with some friends at Mesa Falls. It was really pretty. We drove over to Big Springs (one of the biggest freshwater springs in North America--it puts out 120 million gallons a day!) The fish there are gigantic, but you can't go fishing or wading. The camping trip was so fun and the water was so pretty that we took my parents and brother there last week.

Lower Mesa Falls (isn't this such a pretty picture?! I took it.)

Upper Mesa Falls (yes, I took this one too and I think it's pretty dang good)

Playing in the water at Big Springs with Grandpa

Elora dancing around the fire

Elias helping unload the camping gear

Dalan found plenty of sticks to play with

Kydee on top of Sawtelle Peak

Grandma, Uncle Eli and the kids at upper mesa falls