The last of Dave's house update

I took some pictures of the finished bathroom and wanted to let you see them.  I hope that what we did helps the house to sell quickly.  I also put another one of the counters on.

 Door caseing is done!

window seal is done!

Do you like the color?  Love you all tons.  Mom

Skye: Showing gratitude for our veterans and keeping them humble at the same time.

I found this little gem among piles of other school work.

Apparently, for Veterans Day Skye's class wrote letters

to veterans. It's evident that while Skye is appreciative

of our veterans, she felt the need to put them in their place (we

wouldn't want them getting too cocky, right?). Thankfully, the

teacher corrected her on the side. I noticed that this was actually

a photo copy, so they must have really sent the originals off.

I'm hoping that whoever received Skye's had a good sense of humor.

New update on Dave's home

Last night Richy, dad and I worked on Dave's home some more.  We finished painting the girls bedroom and boy does it look better.  I wanted to take of picture of Richy painting but got this instead!  Do you like the color?

Then I took a picture of dad putting a coat of primer on the bathroom.

Dad and I were the ones to prime the bathroom.  The last thing that I did was to put another coat of sealant on the counters.  Tonigfht we will go up and paint the bathroom and I will seal the counter again.  I also took up some stainlesssteal cleaner and cleaned the stove and fridge they look great!!!!!  I will clean the sink once we are finished washing out brushes.

Heres a hug and a kiss for all of the ones I love.  Mom
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Dad's & my life

Hi one and all,

Dad & I

have been working on getting Dave & Adrienne's home ready to be sold.  Dave asked that we try to do something with the counter tops in the kitchen, paint the bathroom and finish the wood work under the window and around the door.  Here is what I did to finish the counter tops in the kitchen.  First dad sanded them, then I painted where the black was chipped out with black paint.  Second I sponged them with gray and painted some lines in various places with the gray.  Then I sponged a rust color on them, then a dark forest green color on them.  Now I am putting the clear finish on them.  I have put two coats of the clear finish on so far and they look great.  I am really pleased with the way they turned out.  Plus it has lightened up the room for them to not be just black.  Kari & Rich came up for FHE to help paint.  We were able to paint the small bedroom and it looks a ton better.  Tonight I will go up and paint the bathroom then dad will work on the wood work.  Our plan was to get the rooms that we could do for very little cost finished so that the rooms that were livable looked good even great.  Then maybe it will sell.  I plan on taking more pictures.  I wish that I had thought of doing a before and after picture of the counters.  I will take a before picture of the bathroom and a after.

Love you all tons.

Fun with Friends

(Note-this is also on our blog)
The kids still miss Utah-especially their cousins and friends. Actually, both of the girls' teachers brought it up in our last parent-teacher conferences.  But we have made some terrific new friends we want to share with you!

First, the rockin' family home evening that led to the friend picture you will see:

Nola is helping Jack put on the Armor of God.

So of course, when Jack's friend came over, we needed more shields:

Lucy had the chance to fulfill one of her dreams and play ballerina:

Nola has had lots of fun playing with her good friend Ashlynn and their 'pets'. Can you guess who wants a pony?

Finally, well, Dalton is REALLY difficult to get pictures of, especially now that he and his friends are more indepedent. But I did get some from a Hermiston pool visit with one of our favorite families:

There's my handsome guy!

Isn't this SO Lucy?

King of the Rollarena

I had grand plans to post a "Trying New Foods" series of videos that we've been filming over the past several months.

Not surprisingly, these grand plans went awry.

But I think this video makes up for it. Jack goes roller skating with his preschool every few weeks and I get to pick him up at the Rollarena and see his progress.  I was attempting to film his turns on this video, but I got something else entirely.

Unfortunately I didn't catch it on tape, but this ended with the guy saying to his friend, "Dude, that little kid just laughed at me." Classic.  

We've been taking more videos with my camera and the kids all love to watch them(mostly they love to watch themselves).  Here's a video of each of the kids, I hope they work and I hope you all enjoy them.

Claire loves to sing and dance(almost as much as Eden).  Here's a song she made up around Christmas.  Let's see if you can understand the lyrics...

(If you want to wish me a Merry Christmas, if you want to wish me a Merry Christmas then you've got to do it.  If you want to have a Merry Christmas you've got to do your home-work!)

You've got to love Claire.  She is a hoot and brings us lots of laughs.

 Richy's always full of fun ideas and ways to get the kids active.  We had my brother Tom and his family here  for Thanksgiving and this is something we did one evening.

Here's Porter.  He tried and tried and tried until...

Now you can understand why he was so "tough" at the end.

Paige had a different idea...

I don't know how many times she went over, but they all looked almost exactly like this(she's always so fun).

Lincoln's such a handsome kid!  He LOVES to be active and use up all his energy.

gotta love background noise!

This video of Eden is from Christmas 2011.  I know it's old, but we just love the video.

I get a kick out of her.  We have another vid of her ripping off the wrapping paper with her teeth and sounding like Stitch, but I just had to share her reaction to her gift from Jonas(hope I got that right).

Last is Bella Boo.  The full video is one and a half minutes of Lincoln and Eden putting on a show.  This is what happened during the middle of it...(keep your eye on Bella)

Ninja Vanish.
Bella's ninja instincts kicked in the moment she noticed she was on camera.

We hope you've enjoyed the show!!!