1st, 3rd, 6th and more remodeling

Our cute Kylee started 1st grade the beginning of the month. I was a little worried because she loved her teacher last year and her good friend is going to a different school this year. But she seems to really like it. She has homework every night! That part, I don't like so much, but we're really good at doing it. It seems like she is gone a long time, but it's so much better than 2-3 hours of kindergarten. One morning, Aaron came up all dressed ready to go to school himself. It was really cute and really sad that I had to tell him he couldn't go until next year.

Kylee also celebrated her 6th birthday this month. She got some princess toys and lots of cute clothes. She also lost her 3rd tooth the day before her birthday. Hopefully her bottom teeth can start to straighten out a little bit. Though, we have already told her braces are in her future. It's amazing how fast 6 years have gone. We love her so much and glad she is a part of our family.

And more progress on our house! After moving all the bedrooms downstairs, we converted our bedroom into the front room and the kid's bedroom into the office. We had the carpet put in about 3 weeks ago. It is so nice to have a front room and office back. We don't have couches yet, but the kids love to play in a big empty room. It's just nice to have more room to spread out. It is also nice to have the office back! For the past 6 months, our office was packed away in our kitchen pantry. I was so excited to get a desk and set up my computer. Sean was excited to get all of his books out of the boxes.

Now we can use our pantry for the intended purpose and start working on our food storage. We also got the stairs carpeted and a new railing put up. I've wanted to have that done for 7 years (at least the carpet part)! But it wasn't so important when we weren't using the basement. I always used to say "can you imagine looking down the stairs and seeing it finished instead of the ugly steps and cement at the bottom". And we are finally there! Last, but not least, we had our basement toilet hooked up this week (thanks Cody). We don't use it yet because we still have to install the sinks. But it's progress and it's one step closer to the end. Hopefully another week and the sinks will be in. I'm still loving everything we've done so far and am so glad that we've made it this far.

Finally!

After many months of wishing, hoping, dreaming, and praying, we finally made major progress on our remodeling. We spent the last few weeks working like crazy to get things ready for carpet. The kids were so excited, they started moving down 10 minutes after the carpet installers left. I was just as excited as the kids...o.k. probably even more excited. By bedtime, we had moved all the beds down. The next day, we had everything cleared out of the bedrooms upstairs. There is still lots and lots to do, but at least we now have room to spread out a little (four kids, one bedroom...made bedtime a little difficult). Although it took way longer than I ever would have imagined, it was worth it. All the planning in my head and on 3D Home Architect paid off. I'm loving everything about it and can't wait for the rest to get finished. Now I just need to find the energy to get it done. Thanks dad for all your help, we couldn't have done it without you!

Here's Sean priming the walls. I seriously can't even tell you how I dreamed of this day!

Kylee in her pink room. I actually think she kind-of misses sleeping with the boys.

Alyssa's little room. We don't care about the size, we're just glad she can sleep without the boys climbing in her bed.

The boys room. It seems like so much space when there are just two beds instead of four. They still don't go to bed good.

One and Walking

Our cute Alyssa turned one this month.

She is such a cutie and we are so glad she came to our family.

She stayed surprisingly clean for demolishing her cake.

She also started walking last month and loves that she can somewhat keep up with the other kids.

Summer Time Fun

It's been a busy summer and I haven't been very good at keeping up. Here are some pictures of the fun things we've been doing.

The kids enjoying the SSL parade.


Fireworks at Granite High.




We went to Thanksgiving Point on the 4th of July with Sean's family. It was so hot. I even wet my head in the fountain.





We spent last week with my extended family up at Pineview. The water was cold, the weather was hot, but it was nice to get away...even if it was for only a few days.

Camp Rocked and Camp Rock

Last Friday Sean took the boys camping for our Stake's Fathers & Sons overnighter. I was really surprised that he wanted to take them, but I'm glad they went. Aaron was so excited, he asked about every 5 minutes when they were gonna go. They had a really great time. They got to sleep in a tent and blow bubbles, at least that's what they told me. So, I got to spend the night with the girls. We went to McDonald's for dinner (yum, my favorite...Kylee's choice). It was also the premier of Camp Rock on Disney Channel. Kylee has been waiting for this movie to be on for months. She kept scrolling ahead on the DVR, waiting for it to appear so she could record it. It was on kind-of late for her, so we watched it Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon and probably again Saturday night. Yeah, we've pretty much watched it everyday since then. I think Kylee is trying to learn the songs. I thought it was pretty good, but I had a hard time with the style of clothes. Skin tight pants...yuck. Are we really heading back to the horrible styles of the 80's?

Seven Years

Today is our seventh anniversary. It's amazing how fast time has gone. I've been trying to think of all that we have done since we've been married and it's kind-of hard to remember (Honestly, I can't even remember what we did last week).

I do remember that Sean graduated, has been Ward Mission Leader, E.Q. President, in the Bishopric, High Council, and Stake Young Men's Presidency (is he ever home?). I've cleaned the house thousands of times, washed hundreds of loads of laundry, and have cooked too many times to count. We have wrecked one truck and killed one car and now we drive a cool mini-van. We are in the third round of remodeling. Best of all, we have four cute kids who we love so much. We have been blessed with a such a great family and I am very grateful for all of them. I look forward to the future and many more happy memories. I love you Sean!

Kindergarten Graduate

We made it through our first full year school! It's amazing how fast time goes. Kylee finished school last Thursday and I am excited for the break. Kylee...not so much. Every time I would ask if she was excited to get out of school, she would get all teary-eyed because she was sad to leave her teacher. Luckily, that has worn off.

She made her teacher a present and a cute card.

Wednesday was her field trip to the zoo. It was a rainy, gloomy day. When I asked her if she had fun, she said "only a little bit."