Building a House: Rooms and Rockets

Front Door

There's siding!

Backyard

Living/dining/kitchen

There's insulation which means there are rooms!

office

Garage

There's a floor in the garage!

Annnnnnd a rocket. 

Our house wouldn't be complete without a rocket.

Firstest of the Firsts

First Day of 6th Grade

This school year is the firstest of the firsts. 

What is that you say? 

That means we have all kinds of crazy firsts happening all at once.

First the kids are starting school but not just any school, new schools. 

AND Madilyn is starting middle school. Not too unusual for a 6th grader except that in our old school district she would have been in elementary school for one more year. 

AND Garrett had his first day of kindergarten too.

AND we are moving...next week but not into our house.

Close but not quite. Close enough that the kids are close to their schools. Right now we are doing 2 hours of driving everyday. Nobody likes it...the driving that is.

AND Grant decided (not me or Jer, Grant) to start potty training this week. 

Why? 

I don't know. 

Everything else is changing might as well throw that in there too.

First Day of 3rd Grade

Worried little Emma had a best friend on the second day. 

First Day of Kindergarten

Garrett wasn't exactly excited for school but he said his first day was pretty good. 

He and Emma played together during second recess :)

The whole group on the first day of kindergarten. 

The middle school starts one hour earlier than the elementary and since we have to drive 1/2 hour to get there, everyone comes along. Leaving us with an hour between when we drop Madilyn off and the start of school. We've been going to a local skate park. The kids have a lot of fun and no ones there so early in the morning.

(Although the first time we went a little later in the day there were teens there smoking pot. No joke. Sheesh)

Building a House - Walls, Roof, and so Much More

YAY! The house is finally started.

Grant ends up looking like this every time we go to the house.

What is it with boys and dirt?

Our back door,

floor,

garage,

getting the trusses on,

living room,

windows, 

and the roof!  

The construction is moving fast now, 

a lot has happened even since these pictures. 

There is an end in sight!

Six

A handsome, funny, intense, sweet, thoughtful boy turned 6 a couple of weeks ago. 

Yeah its Garrett

Garrett is fun on his birthday because he gets super excited about every gift. 

Funny cake story, Garrett picked a cake mix that had an extra pudding pack to put in it. I made two  cakes and was planning on stacking them. Unfortunately when I did the pudding part started sliding all over. I tried to save it with 3 "buckets" (as Madilyn put it) of frosting but in the end I had to admit defeat. We bought his cake at Costco and let him pick a couple of transformers to put on top. Done.

I love that every time I tell Garrett to smile for the camera he makes this face.

Building a House: How Firm a Foundation!

At last! 

The foundation!

Everyone but phototaker, me,with the footings.

Annnnnnd when its done! Yahoo!

Here she is all backfilled...ok in this picture mostly back filled. Its all backfilled now.

The clock is ticking. There's an end in sight.

End of School Year

End of the school year craziness is over. Yay! We had final band concert and track meet for Madilyn.

Ballet recital for Emma. (Cutest fairy ever) 

Grandma and Grandpa Parsons came for the track meet and ballet recital. We took them to shoot archery. Grandma P. got a bullseye. 

First day of school photo on the top, last day of school photo underneath. I'm always happy/sad on the last day of school. Happy because...its the last day of school! I love summer vacation with the kids, but sad because another school year has gone by and they're growing up too fast.

I had to throw the pic of the giant pot in, just for fun. The kids roll around in it in the back yard. Keep your fingers and hair inside the pot at all times.

Let the summer fun begin!

Building a House - Well at last, Breaking Ground!

A second well has been dug and has passed inspection and water quality testing.

Woohoo!!!!!!

Which means we were finally able to break ground on our foundation a couple of weeks ago. Its hard to get too excited because we've had so many set backs. But I'm excited!

Madilyn standing in 'her room'.

Gotta love an excavator.

We're moving forward. Yay!

Camping/Memorial Day

Ok this wasn't camping or Memorial Day but it was a good picture of us making soap with Aunt Amanda. Uncle Chris played constructs with the boys. I love my radioactive soap, which we did take with us camping.

Over Memorial Day weekend we went camping with some friends to the coast. It wasn't very warm but that didn't slow us down.

This was Madilyn's creation, a turtle with crabs shells to make...its shell.

Garrett's creation using crab legs. I gotta say, I find it a little creepy although creative.

Emma's creation...using crab parts.

Annnnd Grant doing whatever it is he does.

The day after Memorial Day I took the kids to visit the my uncle and grand parents grave sites. It was a great opportunity to talk about the temple, genealogy, and forever families. Nice thing is the temple is only 5 minutes from the cemetery where they are buried. 

Grateful for my forever family.

Turning 11 or Sour Patch Cake

Madilyn turned 11 last month. E-l-e-v-e-n! Ugh. No, no, and no. It happened anyway. 

Madilyn and I got on pinterest to find cake ideas. She wanted the Sour Patch Cake, which, if you've ever been on pinterest, happens to have a lot of fails. But, thankfully, I think ours turned out alright.

I've told her the growing up must stop.

But she doesn't listen. Sigh

Love this spunky, responsible, determined girl.

Uh, also love this goof ball that wanted a box to wear at the party.

I'm not the only one that loves her.

Garrett insisted on the number candles. A fun time for our special 11 year old.