Little Projects

We have finally gotten around to finishing off a few of our little projects around the house! It is always such a good feeling to check a few more things off the list. One that has been around the longest is putting up this picture and vinyl over the stairs. The main reason is because we haven't had a ladder that could reach. But we had a light put in when we finished the basement and Robert borrowed a ladder from someone at work, so we got the picture and the vinyl up. This hallway is complete - or at least for now! :) We also got the rods in the closets cut and put in and the handles on the drawers in the downstairs bathroom installed. But of course the kind of handles we have upstairs (and had to special order for the downstairs bathroom) stick out too far, so we are deciding whether to buy different handles or to notch the door just a titch so it will work. Annoying.
We were so excited to host the family dinner this month that Robert's aunt and uncle instigated. It involves Robert's other aunt and Grandma (when she is here) and any kids in the family that are at BYU-Idaho going to school. We had 17 or 18 people this time - it was a little crazy! But it was a ton of fun to have so many together and enjoying good food we all contributed to.

Now with that overwith we are ready to do our house party!! It is set for this coming Friday and Saturday, March 2nd and 3rd. Anyone in the area who would like to come see our house, our basement, or just us is welcome to stop by any time Friday afternoon/evening or Saturday morning. We will have some yummy munchies, giving the grand tour, and just chatting it up. (kids are welcome) Can't wait to see any of you this weekend that can squeeze it in!

Little of This, Little of That

So not a whole lot has been going on lately, just the usual run-of-the-mill stuff. Amy is really working hard on learning how to crawl.
Right now she does a mixture of army crawl/scooting and rolling to get to where she wants to go. One of the funniest things she does is when she is sitting up, she will use her legs to slowly spin herself around. She will stay in the same spot, just turning 180 degrees - very cute (but also very hard to capture on camera)

A picture of some fun Sam had the other day. I taped a big piece of contact paper to the table and let him use sprinkles to decorate. Problem was he likes to just dump the entire bottle on the picture (kinda like when we have the kids do cupcakes, right Julie? :)
And then last week we decided to make a quick trip to see our good friends the Southwicks at their home in Meridian, Idaho (right next to Boise and where they are also building a new temple!) I went to nursing school with Ashlee and we were also some of the first ones to get married, so we hung out alot. We really miss having them close and doing late night games like Mega Monopoly, Settlers of Zarahemla and The Farming Game :)
The kiddos both fell asleep in the car on the way down, but Amy woke up fairly early and started to scream, waking Sam up. And she proceeded to scream for the last hour and a half of the drive. Same for the drive home. We probably won't be going on any road trips for a while, that back seat is NOT big enough for an adult between the carseats.
We had a blast with our friends and Sam and Ian learned to be friends as well. They both really liked going bowling and then visiting an aquarium where you could touch just about every fish in the place (it wasn't THAT big, but still pretty cool to be able to touch so many!)
Silly boys!
And the girls, Amy and Lilia. Thanks to the Southwicks for having us for the weekend, it was a great quick trip!!

Short-Lived

Need I say anything more? In the family room of all places.

(no, it wasn't Sam - I just wanted him there so you can get a feel for how large this hole is)

Completion Feels Wonderful

The family room just as you enter it from the stairs. The tile in the corner is for the pellet stove which will be our secondary heat source.
And a quick gander at the rest of the family room with the wiring for surround sound
The craft room all ready to go
Under the stairs area (where Sam wants his new room to be ;)
Craft room looking on the mechanical room and the hallway leading to the two bedrooms and bathroom
Bigger bedroom
Sorry this one is kind of blurry. Two hall linen closets, bathroom and other (much smaller) bedroom.
Shelves in one of the linen closets (the other one has them, too)
And the bathroom with the granite countertop with undermount sink. I had to special order the drawer pulls, but other than that everything is done! It began to feel like it would never be finished, but here we are three weeks later with the size of our house doubled! Robert just has to weld some escape ladders for the other two windows and then we can have our final inspection, but I am planning on getting started on cleaning and moving stuff downstairs today!