Happy Birthday Cole!!

Yesterday my little blue-eyed boy turned 3. Three!! What in the world, where does the time go? I LOVE this little boy...even though he is generally sticky and regularly strips down to his diaper no matter where he is (at home? Yes. Someone else's home? Yes. Any business establishment? Yes).

Even though our house is all torn up, we wanted to have a little party for him. I thought of having a little drive-in movie night where all of his friends could make their own 'cars' out of cardboard boxes. Here is the invite:

I included this little film strip how-to to help guests create their cars.

I was so impressed by everyone's creations! It was awesome that everyone got involved.

Here are the license plates I created for the boys. "Birthday Boy" and "Cash Money", one of Cache's nicknames.

The boys loved their cars and are still using them to watch movies, matter of fact. I highly recommend making some for your kids, you'll be a hero.

We had dinner on the deck and Cody's sister made super delish cupcakes (thanks, Steph!). After we sang to Cole, it was present time.

He got some great gifty's and was especially excited about...

A new bike! He loves this thing, rides it all the time.

Happy Birthday to my darling boy! We are so lucky to have you in our family and we love you so much...now put your clothes back on.

Family Rules

My Grandparents have lived in the same home for as long as I can remember. Their home is filled with so many memories of family parties, dinners, my bridal shower - we spent a lot of time there.

Years ago Marty and I spent a month or two of early mornings there to do family genealogy. My Grandmother worked so hard to make sure that her family's Temple work was done. Marty and I would enter names into the computer for a few hours...and we would sometimes laugh about some of the names we came across. "Needham, Dewey....Dewey Needham....'Do we need him?' Hahaha!" Then my Grandmother would come in and tell us to respect our ancestors.

It was such a great, beautiful home! Rich was asked to take some pictures so everyone could remember exactly how the home looked. I stopped by and took some pictures, as well. It was weird going into each room and walking around the yard knowing that there wouldn't be any reason to come back there. It was also made clear how completely amazing my Grandparents were.

See? I told you she was a glamorous woman!

My Grandparents were so devoted to the Gospel, I loved this huge Book of Mormon in their living room.

My Granddad's collection of National Geographic magazines. Think that's impressive? He also has every Ensign since 1976.

How tender is this? My Granddad's hat was hanging in the garage.

..he was a handsome chap.

So fitting - this was on my Grandmother's fridge.

Their backyard was something to behold. It used to be filled with fruit trees when we were younger that we used to climb...my Granddad wasn't too happy about that.

The living room filled with my Aunts and Uncles, some of the greatest people on the planet.

The funeral on Saturday was so beautiful. My Grandmother was referred to as a "Lady of Ladies", so very true. It was great to see so much of my extended family (there's like 300 of us...seriously) and catch up with cousins that I don't see very often.

My beautiful sisters.

It's no secret that I love my family - I think it's the most important thing in the world and I'm so grateful for them. What a blessing that families are forever! What a wonderful, eternal promise. I'm really looking forward to sitting down and having a chat with Dewey Needham.

Grandmother

My sweet, fantastic Grandmother passed away on Tuesday. Words cannot express how deeply I adored this woman! She was a gem, a wise and wonderful lady and I will miss her terribly.

She is truly the classiest woman I have ever met - I never saw her without her lipstick, eye lashes or her nails done. I think every article of clothing was bedazzled with a bead or a sequin. She worked hard to take care of her family and had such a great sense of humor. Her family was her crown jewel, she always stressed the importance of family relationships. She had 9 children, 50 grandchildren and 85 great-grandchildren! We had so much in common...we would talk about movies and music, she was marvelous. I am thrilled that she got to see me perform on stage and that my boys were able to know and love her. It's going to be hard on Cache that she's gone.
While I will always miss her, how wonderful that she is now with her beloved husband! A tender note - she passed away on the 24th, 21 months to the day after my Granddad. She missed him so much and would often joke about how she didn't know why she was still here, why she was left behind. I am grateful that she stayed a bit longer, just so I could spend a little more time with her. I. Loved. Her.

Until we meet again!

There is Beauty All Around

...when there's love at home.

The boys and I sat on the front porch to watch the rain. I love watching the rain with them.

These little moments are important, says me. Especially when our house is torn up and nothing is where it should be. But we are on our way to a kitchen! Behold! The paint color!

It's called 'Grape Leaves', but does that color look like grape leaves to you? It's more of an...avocado mint, or something (which in reality would be nasty, but in a paint color it's divine). When I put on the first coat I was pretty scared, it was so lime-y and bright. "We've made a horrible error!". It changes intensity during the day, being pretty bright and 'Granny Smith Apple' in the morning, drab olive when it's cloudy, ripe avocado in the evening.

It looks so crisp, I love it. And it looks like a room!

We are putting together some cabinets (!), finished the drywall in the living room that needs to be mudded and taped...it's actually coming together, we're getting our home back.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

What am I loving?

These boots. Don't get mad.

I know. Cowboy boots. Rootie, tootie, aim-n-shootie, get along lil' doggies, cowboys boots. I am sorry, but I dig 'em. I mean, with a skirt? In the Fall? I'm a fan, ya hear?

BK Update

We have had some time to work on the kitchen this past week and we've been making it count! We also cleaned out the garage, took a load of sheet rock and kitchen debris to the dump and worked in the yard. I love it when we can get so much done! I want to ride this wave for a while, goodness knows we have a lot to tackle.

After we had textured the ceiling and were getting ready to prime everything, we noticed some hairline cracks along some of the seams of the drywall. UGH. We repaired 4 of them on the ceiling (by 'we' I mean mostly Cody) only to discover 3 more on the wall. UGH. Cody took care of those quick, even though it felt like the mud was taking longer to dry the second time around. We finally got everything plumb and put some primer on the walls and the ceiling. It was so weird, it actually looked like a room. It's like we could finally see the whole space.

I'm getting so excited!! It's really coming together! Cody finished up some wiring and hopefully this week we'll finish up the drywall in the living room. Today however, I'm working on getting this on the kitchen walls.

Fish Lake

Last week we met up with Cody's parents to spend a few days at Fish Lake. It was SO much fun! They have a sweet trailer which has now ruined me for camping forever. Not that I was ever primed for camping, but that dreamy trailer cinched it - no more tents. We found a cherry spot and set up...trailer.

Cole LOVES 4-wheelers. If he heard one start up he would start running and panting, desperate for a ride. Before dinner, Gary and Cody took the boys on a quick run.

How handsome is my family?

We had a delish dinner (Kathy fed us so well) and watched a few movies. The next day we loaded up the 4-wheelers to ride some trails.
Gary was very patient with me while I tried to master the skill of 4-wheeling...now I'm awesome at it. Meh, sort of. It's so pretty up there, I took so many pictures and we saw some amazing things!

Stopping at a high overlook for some snacks (or, as my sister-in-law Jess would say, "Sneeyacks!").

On the way back we ran into some hail and rain, but what kind of master 4-wheeler would I be if I let that stop me? Look at those dark clouds!

We got back just before a huge thunderstorm hit. Kathy and I kicked back to watch a few movies while the boys went shooting. After dinner we built a fire and roasted some marshmallows. The sunset was beautiful.

Gary and Cole were sporting matching hairstyles after the rain...

The next morning we started out on the 4-wheelers again and hit some more trails. The boys loved riding and Cache even drove for a while. Cole drove, too, if you count him grabbing the throttle and pressing it all the way down. Good times.

The trip ended too early and we were sad to leave. We're hoping to go back next month and see Fish Lake in the Fall. I love Cody's parents, it was so awesome to spend that time with them and my little family. Maybe next time we go back, we'll actually fish!