2 years in the making!!!

As many of you know Kirk and I bought a house almost 3 years ago. We took 7 months remodeling the house and moved in 3 days before Christmas 2006. The remodel was of course bigger and more expensive than we had originally planned and we ended up running out of money. We were able to get the house into a livable condition and continued to do the little jobs that were left. Well there are still little jobs to be done but the biggest thing of all was recently completed. Yes we ran out of money prior to our kitchen being done. For 2 years we lived with what I liked to call a high class camp kitchen. It worked and I was very grateful that we had what we did. But let me tell you this, it in no way compares to a real kitchen. First I will take you down memory lane before showing you the final result.

Here is the cooking area and the pots and pans "cabinet". Nice, huh? We didn't have a full size stove and oven. We had the toaster oven and the single burner. It's hard to see but it's there right in front of the tea kettle.

This is our sink and where we stored the canned food and such.

Here is the computer area and the door to the basement.

Well now that you've been reminded of where we came from allow me to introduce you to NOW!!!

Here is our new cooking area and our real cabinets for pots and pans and all sorts of other things!! It's totally awesome!

Our new sink!! And yes that is a DISHWASHER!!!! It's awesome!

And here is our pantry. I love it. It is so nice to have so much space.

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the desk area. We have 2 large cabinets above the desk and a new desk that isn't falling apart. It is so fantastic and truly a dream come true. I still find myself going and standing in the kitchen just to look at it. I also open and close the cupboards just because they are there. I love coming home from the grocery store and being able to put the things away and not just on the counter. Before on the counter was put away. I am so grateful that we finally saved up enough money to make this dream come true.

Pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

Okay, we finally got our camera program back on the computer so here are the last few months of our lives. I am not going to write a ton. Just a few explanations. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The kids helped Kirk rake the front yard. As you can tell by their faces they were having a BLAST!! I love these pictures. I had such a hard time narrowing them down. That's why there are so many.

Paden was almost a pirate instead of Batman for Halloween. The whole thing was so cute on him. He still wears it now.

We FINALLY got our kitchen!! This is a teaser. I am not actually going to show any kitchen pictures yet because this is going to be my next posting. Sorry Lindsey.

During the kitchen install the kids had many a picnic in the living room. They loved it, my carpet suffered.

Ellie and Daddy started having dates at Home Depot. This was their first project. These activities are the first Saturday of the month and they are free. Kids ages 5 to 12. They let Ellie sneak in a little early.

We went to see Santa at Mall 205. He is a great Santa. We actually got in trouble for taking this picture because we didn't pay for them to take a picture. You can only take your own pictures if you pay them to take a picture too. Personally I wasn't going to pay 20 dollars for a picture of both our kids staring off into the distance. I'd rather take my own for free.

We too were hit by the "Winter Blast 2008". Here is Paden all ready to head outdoors.

This was just the first day so things really hadn't started yet.

Here was after a couple of days. Apparently our ducks a really stupid. They forgot to fly south!

Here are the kids sledding in our yard. It is hard to see but our patio actually has steps up to it. It is not level with the ground. Just to give a little idea of how deep things were.

Ellie's snow angel.

Paden's

You can see a little easier how deep things were. My car was completely snowed in. We couldn't get it out for a week or so.

Just some of the pile up on our water jugs.

Here are some Christmas pictures. I won't talk about every one.

The kids had so much fun with the snow. Unfortunately they both had pretty good cold through most of it so they didn't get to play in it as much as I would have liked to. They both ended up getting ear infections.

Paden was unfortunately allergic to the antibiotic. He was covered head to toe in horrible hives. The Dr told us to use Zyrtec because it was the best antihistamine. Although Paden looked horrible he didn't itch. He would just start to get itchy when it was time to give the medicine again. He cleared up in 3 days. I was so grateful!! The pictures don't do them justice.

He stayed in good spirits the whole time. I was so happy that he wasn't miserable.

And last but not least here is a picture of the belly. This is 24 weeks!! I don't know what the face is that I am making. Oh well.

There you have it. I am hoping that our computer doesn't crash on us again. Not that this very long post wasn't fun and all but I like the fast ones better!!

What?

Today I was putting Paden down for nap and the following conversation took place.

Me: Paden get your finger out of your nose.

Paden: I have to get the bees out.

Me: You don't have any bees in your nose.

Paden: They are trying to get the honey.

Me: What honey?

Paden: The honey they put in my nose. They want it back.

Me: You don't have honey in your nose. Please get your finger out.

Paden: They put the honey in there. They are buzzing.

Me: Just go to sleep. We'll get the bees out later.

Paden: There is honey in my mouth too.


What? Where did that whole thing come from? I know he talks about bees all the time but I have no clue what gave him the idea that he has honey in his nose and bees that are after it. He is so weird. Where did he come from? I blame Kirk.

On a side note we finally have our camera program back on the computer. Get ready for a very long and picture filled post. I have pictures from November that are still on the camera. I can't wait to get everything downloaded onto the computer. Maybe I can do it tonight after the kids are in bed. Check in again tomorrow!!

Family Pics

We had some family pictures taken while my brother and his family were in town. It was pretty entertaining. Enjoy!! Sorry some of the pictures are small. I clicked the wrong button and couldn't figure out how to fix them afterward.

This is the ENTIRE group.

These are my parents. Yes, my dad was pretty doped up that day with a dislocated knee. He's still cute though.

This is my oldest brother Derek, his wife Carrie and their little girl Hannah.

My second brother David, Sara and their kids Bailey, Wyatt, Jada and Ella.

My sister Cheryn, Brandon and their kids Jerrin, Dallin, Tamsen, Breanne, and Kyleen.

Myself, Kirk, Ellie and Paden.

My kiddos

My brother Anton, Jennifer and their little girl Madilyn.

My sister Danielle and her husband Clinton.

All the grand kids. I named them above. I don't wanna again. ;o)

My parents and their kids.

All the boys.

All the girls.

All the boys and girls.

Reflections of the "Yucky" Mommy

My friend Lindsey always refers to our angry or mean times toward our children as yucky mommy. I think it is a great name. You don't want to call yourself mean mommy or mad mommy or anything truly negative like that. I think yucky fits perfectly. Well I have once again been yucky mommy. I hate when I do it. It always makes me feel horrible about myself. Can I really not control myself when I go and find that the kids have taken everything out of the cupboards over the computer? I know they aren't supposed to get in there and they know they aren't supposed to get in there, but they also know some of their toys are in there and mommy was in the bathroom. Did I have to get mad though? It only took a few minutes to put everything back. No harm done. I hate that I can't always control my responses to them. I could use the excuse of hormones right now but that isn't a fair excuse to me. It's more like a cop out. I feel even worse about the way I have reacted when I see them sleeping. Like perfect little angels. I stand there watching them sleep and think how was I able to get mad at that sweet little face.

This last Summer a really good friend of mine lost her 14 year old daughter in a drowning accident in Utah. I was haunted by the idea of losing one of my children. I couldn't think about anything else for weeks. It made me feel horrible when I had to discipline because I couldn't stop thinking, "At least I have them here". I haven't really done any resolutions for this year. I normally don't. But I think this year I want to really try to remember what a huge blessing my children are. There are too many people in this world that can't have children or too many people that lose their children. I have been truly blessed to have these little miracles. The least I can do is show a little more appreciation and a little more patience. I think it's time to say good bye to yucky mommy. She'll still be around for the big things, but she doesn't have to be around for everything. Wish me luck!