September FHEs

Chris had to leave again for a short conference to Dayton Ohio. Its so easy for me to skip things like Family Home Evening or family scripture study when he's gone, because he usually takes a large role in getting those things to happen. But this time, I did great and carried on without him. We made a bonfire and roasted marshmallows for FHE. 

Whenever Daddy is gone the kids always ask for special things 'because daddy is gone.' Like, "Can we buy these cupcakes to be special treats for our lunches because Daddy is gone?" or "Can we get ice cream after school because Daddy is gone?" "Can we get screen time without doing our 5 min job or homework because Daddy is gone?" "Can we stay up a little bit late because Daddy is gone?"  and on and on...  I don't know where they get that. .... but I used Chris' absence as a reason to buy Biscuit Lady biscuits...8 of them!

Here's a picture of Chris at his conference. He looks so handsome.

We took a break from our Lets-try-and-fix-all-our-sibling-fighting-with-deep-doctrine-Family-Home-Evening-lessons and had a 'fun' one instead. We packed up the golf clubs and went to the golf course for some driving range and putting time. Unfortunately the driving range was closed, but the kids hardly even noticed as they had the entire putting green to themselves. 

Freddy used a club for the first 2 minutes then dropped the cumbersome weight and just hucked the balls across the green. 

Another family activity involved composing and practicing this poem for Chris' grandma's 90th birthday! They are having a big party for her in UT but we couldn't make the drive in the middle of a work/school week. We enjoyed FaceTiming with her to recite it 'in person.' 

And why not. I'll post this next picture as evidence that Chris still has it! I've heard him talk about some competition he won at some church or school activity while they lived in Switzerland by being able to balance on a ball for as long as he wanted. 

Freddy just tears about my bathroom anytime I have to use it, or shower, or get dressed or do my hair or put on makeup. He loves to eat Chris' deodorant, hide mine, put on all my necklaces, drench himself in window cleaner, eat toothpaste, kidnap Chris retainer, and play with some powder bronzer-stuff. Crazy kid. This pretty much means I'm getting good at speed showers, often don't wear makeup and almost never do more with my hair than twist it back into a low wet bun. 

Frogs on our windows

One fun thing about September is the return of our window friends. We get these sometimes very little and sometimes medium little frogs on our windows. Mostly they hop on at night, but sometimes they'll stick around and sleep during the day. With our lights on at night and no street lamps or anything for a long ways, its a perfect spot to catch moths and other little light-attracted bugs. 

Saturday work and fun

We've been working on the drainage ditch in between the garage and guest house. The workers just dumped a bunch of rocks in it without shaping the dirt and so we continued to have standing water puddles that would back up and spill out onto the driveway. So we had to shovel away all the rocks and then using shovels slope the dirt downhill to the backyard. In such a tiny space, it was super awkward but after a few Saturdays we got it shaped right. We still need to lay some fabric liner to prevent water from messing with the foundation then shovel the rocks back on. 

In other, yummier news, we successfully made donuts! 

And then we went to a free MSU womens volleyball game. They were playing SUU and Chris noticed that one of the girls on the SUU team was a Provo high graduate. He's so funny and cute the way he's so loyal to his High school. He brought a Provo High tshirt and waved it around at the SUU team whenever they looked.  

We got there way early to watch them warm up since we knew we'd leave at halftime to get the kids inbed. A sweet older man walked around before the game with a big bag of treats, handing them out to all the early bird spectators.  Hurray for sticky hands and happy kids!

I know most sports are like this, but the announcer and music were SOOO LOUD!!! Especially every time State got a point. 

State ended up losing but there were some awesome ralleys. On our way out, Chris waved the shirt one more time toward the Provo High girl and she finally acknowledged it with a little hand up, but her face and body language seemed SO embarrassed and confused! haha. It was pretty funny. 

Before and Afters

Outside from the driveway BEFORE:

Outside from the driveway AFTER:

Close up outside by garage BEFORE:

Close up outside by garage AFTER

Inside the new garage BEFORE (the workers are installing the super awesome 10-12 person storm shelter):

Inside the new garage AFTER: 

Mudroom/Laundry Room BEFORE:

Mudroom/Laundry AFTER:

1/2 Bath BEFORE:

1/2 Bath AFTER:

 Storage room BEFORE:

Storage room AFTER:

Garage turned into Play/Storage/Mud/Laundry Rooms BEFORE: 

 

View of garage turned playroom from kitchen BEFORE:

View of garage turned playroom from kitchen AFTER:

Turning around we have the kitchen. I don't have a before picture, but we didn't change anything in the kitchen anyways yet, so it doesn't matter. :) 

Standing in the same spot, but turning the other way we have the old yellow room BEFORE:



The old yellow room AFTER:

View of the joining living room BEFORE:



View of the living room AFTER:

On the other side of the wall with the map we have the formal dining room - used as a craft room:



Again we have no BEFORE pictures because we haven't changed anything about this room yet. One day, it hopefully will be part of a nice big kitchen.

Spinning 180 from the last spot of the dining/craft room we have the entry way bath and front door. We haven't changed anything yet here but hopefully one day it will be raised a few steps and the door will be slightly moved to where the window is now and we'll have a little covered front porch.

Entry 1/2 bath.


Up the funny steep, narrow hardwood stairs off of the living room, we have a loft that we'll use for a library. No changes here.

Then below the library, off  a little doorway and down a few steps we have the master area. No renovation plans here:

Masterbath: we will hopefully update sometime, but for now the space, one sink, two closets, toilet room, shower and big tub are super comfortable!

Back across the living room we have an almost full length staircase going up to a landing area and the kids bedrooms. We had to lower the vaulted ceiling in the landing area to accommodate the new HVAC system to heat/cool the entire upstairs including the new bedrooms. We replaced the carpet and lowered some closet doors in the hallway that used to hang up in the air about 2 feet. 

Landing Area BEFORE:

Landing Area AFTER:

another view of the landing area AFTER.

We moved the corner closet from the first small bedroom to the other side of the room and joined it with one of the floating hallway closets in order to open up the bedroom so it could fit a bed bigger than a twin if we ever needed. 

First Small Bedroom BEFORE:

First Small Bedroom AFTER:

The large bedroom in the existing upstairs we didn't change at all. Hopefully soon we'll be able to replace the carpet to match the rest of the upstairs. This was the room all the children shared during the renovation. 

Large Existing Bedroom BEFORE:

Large Existing Bedroom AFTER:

View from the other side of the room:

The existing bathroom for all the kids bedrooms to share was one of the reasons for the whole addition. It didn't have a tub and is pretty tiny. Hopefully someday we'll update it but its not too bad right now:  

In order to connect the new bedrooms and bathroom that were built over the new garage with the rest of the existing upstairs we lost one of the small bedrooms and turned it into "the lounge" / a common room.

Pink Small Bedroom BEFORE:

Pink Small Bedroom turned into the Lounge AFTER:

View of the lounge from the other corner looking down the hallway to the new bedrooms. Eventually we want to do some built-in benches and bookcases:

The first door on the left is the new bathroom:

Then on the right is the brick room:

Then at the end is the big room: