Summer Week 7: The FINISHED Basement

Let's begin the tour: headed down the stairs

turn the corner, more stairs down

Entering the bedroom, view of closet

the rest of the room, bed comes Tuesday, stairs just off to left

the bathroom

another view of the bathroom

the bookcase/built-in between bed on left and bath on right

under the closet storage/toys/kid hiding spot

the craft area

the kitchenette part of the craft area

looking back from left to right: craft area, under-stair storage, stairs up, bedroom

looking from craft area to living room

more details of living room wall/hidden door to exercise room....

So the basement is finally done. After loads of workers for the past several weeks, minus our trip to Utah, we are free from some chaos. We are waiting on the glass doors for the small built-in, but that is it. We ordered a couch and a bed this past week. In the future we will get a table and chairs for the craft area, some bar stools, and maybe more decorations. Oh, and we bought a painting at BYU too, for the dead space on the wall between the stairs. It is soooooo nice to be done, and the kids are loving the space. Tristan is super-excited to move downstairs, but we are even more excited to have room for guests!

In other news: Tristan went to basketball camp and Mel to Adventure camp this week. Despite 100+ degrees for three days, they loved the camps and field trips and swimming. Mel came home hot, and muddy every day! Asher also took swim lessons at the Y and is doing great! School starts one month from today!

Summer Week 6: I am going insane

So, what did we do this week? Well drove all day Monday. Washed and cleaned all day Tuesday. Chased after Asher who chased after workmen all day Wednesday. Rode horses and saw the doctor Thursday for kids' check-ups. Had my glucose test on Friday and chased Asher some more....Saturday I spent 6.5 hours in the CPR/First Aide class I have to take every 3 years. Last night I hardly slept a wink due to CRAZY, loud weather with strong winds and tornado sirens. Seriously Saturday morning I woke up crying and cried all morning. I think Josh thinks I am losing it! Darn pregnancy hormones and NO sleep! Didn't help today either that I took a sleeping pill (Tylenol PM) last night and then didn't sleep. I think with my sleep deprivation over the past 2 weeks of travel and workers and camps and appointments and such; I can now be considered certifiably insane!

Summer Week 5: Melina is 7!, Stubblefield Family Reunion

Ok, so this post is a picture overload plus some.....but it is all about our Week 5 of summer. Josh had to work all weekend, so we headed out Tuesday after breakfast for our trip to Utah for Josh's Family Reunion. We had an extra day to play, so at the last minute Josh decided to turn northwest and follow the Mormon Trail from Ogallala, Nebraska to Salt Lake. Our first stop: Chimney Rock. So here it is. They say it is a bit eroded from when the pioneers saw it, but you can clearly see it is something sticking out from the rock. Turns out this side trip was in our favor, because just south of us some tornadoes hit Sidney and we would have been on I-80 around Sidney at that exact time!
After the night in Scottsbluff, NE, we crossed into Wyoming (so much greener in the north) and saw Fort Laramie, the final stop before pioneers of all sorts ventured out into the open west. We toured the barracks, saw some wagons, visited officers quarters, and just ran around.
From Laramie, we headed south to Independence Rock and Martin's Cove. I guess we happened on this by surprise because we really didn't know it was there **blush**. I have heard the story of the Martin and Willie handcart companies a bunch. In fact, my great something Grandma, Mary Davis travelled with the Willie company and survived. However, I was unclear about the sequence of events or the actual place.....we really enjoyed the spirit there and the kids loved pulling a handcart.

Sitting by the Sweetwater river
We of course had to conclude our journey with a stop at the "this is the Place Monument." After spending the night in Park City, we headed out early Thursday monring to see Salt Lake. It was amazing to look over the valley and see Brigham's prophecy fulfilled! We all feel blessed to have the Gospel in our lives.
Rooftop of the Conference center
Thursday was also Melina's 7th Birthday! We arrived at the cabin in Heber about 3:30pm and after some burgers and dogs, we ate cake!
She got clothes from Grandpa and Grandma Price
Flip-flops and a Moomoo from Grandpa and Grandma Stubz
AND, her own Ipod from Mom and Dad...her sibs bought her a stereo to go with it.
Friday Papa and Grandma rented a huge blow-up waterslide and the kids played all day! No kidding, we had the slide from 9 am until dark and the girls were on it the whole time! Especially Mara who is tan, tan, tan! Asher went down a few times, but he liked the rockets best. Papa built a rocket launcher a few years ago and he brings all the materials to make plastic rockets and the kids (ok the boys mostly), have a blast shooting them off over and over again. I had to laugh though at how much Lacey Stubblefield loved the rockets. While the girls had a dance party in the house, Lacey launched rockets with the boys!
Saturday we went to Provo in the morning so some could run in the Hobbler half marathon. Nuts! The rest of the sane ones went to BYU. Josh and I purchased another painting from the Museum, this time a Maynard Dixon, for out basement. Just before dinner we took pictures in our tye-died shirts, we worked hard on on Thursday night.
Papa and Grandma posed with the grandkids. 22 kids made for fun times! 3 were unable to come, 1 has passed away and 1 is on the way. They are: Kendall 15, Sam 12, Sara 11, Caemlyn 11, Zephram 10, Tristan 8, Kezia 7, Melina 7, Gabriella 6, Kelman 6, Ada 5, Ciomara 5, Hannah 5(missing), Carter 4, Brechin 4, Jackson 4, Asher 3, Benjamin 3(missing), Tyghe 3, Amanda 2, Lacey 2, Gianna (in Heaven), Delaney 1, Brielle 1, Rachelle 4 mo, and Caleb 3 mo(missing).
Our Family

Sunday after Sacament meeting we packed and headed home. We had an awesome time and we were so sad to leave, especially a day early, but Josh had to work today, darn it! The drive home was exhausting mostly because Laney screamed the entire time. She did not sleep or eat well all week and it caught up to her! We drove to Sidney Sunday night and finished out the drive yesterday, getting home about dinner time. Today I was busy unpacking and cleaning....and we are back to basement finishing...floor will be here Monday!

Summer Week 4: Happy 4th of July!

I had my kitchen faucet replaced to match the one in the basement, plus the old one was leaking.....I LOVE it!

Bottom of stairs to the left. Door to bedroom, bookshelf, toy storage area, bathroom is to the right (Walls are painted Full Moon, a pale yellow)

Bathroom cabinets. Yes, green walls, romaine to be exact. Shower. toilet and more closets are on opposite wall. All the counter tops are Corian.

Kitchenette/craft area.....

the staple

Seriously, does school start soon?! This week has been sooo tiring and BUSY. We have been working on nothing but the basement. Which, I am proud to say, is almost all done, except for flooring, and shower doors and mirror and a few minor details. But, we should be living down there by the end of July!!!!!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I had carpenters and electricians, and plumbers and painters all coming in and out of the house. I was worn out trying to entertain Asher so they could work. He just wants to be right in the thick of it and I KNOW he drives me nuts so I can only imagine what they were thinking. Every time I changed a diaper, used the potty, ran upstairs, he snuck down there to "help" them! It is looking quite gorgeous though!

We had a minor accident Tuesday and Tristan did end up with a staple in his head after hiting it on a fan. Of course it was in the midst of me trying to get Mel from the tutor and take her to the ENT, run to Menards to get lights and a ceiling fan for the electrician, pick up the babysitter for the younger kids......thankfully, it didn't keep bleeding, so the staple had to wait until the afternoon! (Such a bad Mom to make my kid wait, but in my defense, I did call Josh, and I cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and put some antibiotic cream on it....then just made him hold pressure until I got done with all the morning mess! :o)

Yesterday Tristan walked in the parade so we were outside in the heat from 4pm until about 8pm. I am totally exhausted today and there is so much more to do in the coming days.....oh the life of a Mother.....I need a vacation!