Our Little Kitchen "Ta-Dah!"

So after much planning, shopping, spending, procrastinating, cutting, installing, painting, and worrying, we are officially CELEBRATING!

We finally switched out our old yucky linoleum for some laminate flooring. We picked it out months ago. It was our combined and pooled Christmas and birthday presents. The installation of the floor was my Mother's Day present. I am so proud of Spencer because he did it all by himself. He had never done it before and was quite nervous, but after a couple of really grueling days/nights he got the floor done.

Our next task was to put in all the new floor boards in the kitchen. That one took us a little longer. First because, the kids were home now and so night was the only time we could do it. Second, Spencer was a little worried about starting the cutting process since we didn't have much wiggle room. Lastly, we uh sometimes put things off. SO after a pep talk, the work began. I primed and painted the doors and door jams during the day. We put the door casings up at night. Then Spencer got brave and realized he could cut the boards with relatively little problems. So he cut them, I painted them, and then he put them up. Everything looks so good.

Unfortunately we realized that this might be an ongoing project. We hope to extend the trim into the playroom and the living room. We also decided to repaint the bathroom while the toilet was up, but uh we haven't gotten around to finishing that room due to a wainscoting dilemma. BUT we are on our way to having the house look like we want. It has only taken us 2 1/2 years to get here.

I also wanted to include some "before" pictures. Unfortunately, Spencer forgot to take before shots of the floor and I forgot to take some of the doors and trim. So I took some pictures of places in the house where that stuff is still in place (for now!).

EWW GROSS!!!!!

Welcome Back Aunt Melissa

So Spencer's sister Melissa got home from her mission in Hong Kong this last week. Her flight was originally supposed to come in Friday night at 11:00, but she didn't make her last connecting flight so she got stuck in Chicago! Everything turned out okay, although you all know me and I was ready to pack up the car and drive to Chicago to get her, but everyone else calmed me down. The good thing about her flight being delayed until the next day was that the boys could go with us to pick her up.

Jack was only two months when Melissa left on her mission, so he obviously didn't remember her at all. We made this cute sign for Jack to wear and surprisingly enough, he kept it on the entire time.

Cole was carrying another sign and we put them right where people come out, so that she would see her signs right away. Cole remembered her so getting a hug was no problem. However, Jack had to be bribed with a sticker and some candy. He warmed up soon enough, okay well as warmed up as Jack gets. We had a great
weekend with them.


It is always fun to be there when a missionary returns home. I can't even begin to imagine it from their point of view. I will say this though, that Melissa was one of the less "weird" return missionaries. She seemed to adjust to life around her pretty quickly without too much shock. Although Spencer thought he was funny to suggest that the first movie she watch was I am Legend. Yeah right! I don't even want to see that one again!

So here is to Aunt Melissa being home. We know
she was a great missionary, and feel blessed to have her example for our family. We love you Aunt Melissa!

Mmmm...Strawberries

Oh what fun to pick strawberries. I had been wanting to take the boys and go for a couple of weeks, but I didn't want to go without Spencer so we had to wait for a free weekend. Spencer was such a good sport about it because he was actually starting to get sick.

We went to the farm and got our flats to fill. Cole seemed excited at first and had trouble being patient enough to just pick the ripe berries. Jack didn't enjoy himself in the berry field so Spencer took him to go and see the animals. Horses are Jack's favorite animal right now. Cole might have done more eating of the berries than picking, but that is okay we still had fun. I tried to explain to him how cool the experience was and that people used to get all their food this way, but I must have overkilled it because he let me know, "yeah mom you already told me that!" Jack and Spencer eventually came back and we couldn't give Jack strawberries fast enough. We would give him one, he would shove it in his mouth and then yell, "more, more". He had a good time just laying on the flat demanding berries.

After picking all the berries we took them home, ate some, cleaned and cut some for jam, ate some more, froze some, ate even more, put some in the fridge, yup ate more, and then actually made jam. I didn't realize how much we actually picked. We made tons of freezer jam...Nanny you would be so proud. We had enough berries left over to actually make a pie. Don't be too impressed, it tasted great, but it did not look great. Oh well I will get the pie thing down eventually. So if anyone wants some jam, come and visit us!

Have Green Thumbs, Will Cook

That's right, I cooked something using an ingredient from our garden. JUMP BACK! I was pretty stinking proud of myself. We will only mention briefly, that it is a good thing I had Spencer look up online what spinach looked like when it was done or I probably would have missed it and let it go to waste. I feel like this gardening thing is one big guessing game for me. BUT on to better stuff. The spinach is growing well, I picked a whole bowl full and then found a recipe for chicken breast stuffed with spinach and pepperjack cheese and then, that is right, rolled in bacon. I can't express what kind of giddiness comes from using something you grew. I know it sounds nerdy, but I was just so happy that I didn't kill everything. Our little gardening is going pretty well and I look forward to just increasing my knowledge and garden in the future.

PS the recipe is on the Not Just For Kids blog because it was super yummy. I also know there have been a lot of posts lately, but I am going to be pretty busy over the next couple weeks, so these might have to hold my adoring fans over!