Paint, carpet, and color!

We've been sprucing up our house lately.  

Nothing too drastic, but enough to freshen things up.

 

Our living room walls had really deep (and sloppy) texturing that swallowed up the light 

and was difficult to clean.  

We sanded it down and repainted the main living areas.

 We got new carpet!  Hooray!!

(at least in the main areas and master bedroom)

The previous carpet was much too light for this family.  

It was in really bad shape -

so bad that I was embarrassed to have people visit. 

The rugs in this picture are remnants of the old carpet, 

cut from the never-walked-on area under our bed.

 We also got some curtains that add much-needed color to our very neutral-toned house.

In a moment of impaired judgment, I painted our dining room door a vibrant blue.  

I can't get a picture that does it justice.  

It is the same color as the top left corner of the painting in the picture above.

In other news:  Clara's dream finally came true.

We got a pet bunny.  His name is Marshmallow.

The kids enjoy playing with the William.

 He plays pretty hard on his own too. 

 Christian often gets buried in the sand box.

 David and Nathan were playing with the leaf blower one day...

Winter

Ten years ago this month, my roommate tricked me into going on a blind date with her boyfriend's roommate.  I'm so glad she did!

 

 

We've gotten more snow than we did last year, but not enough to satisfy David.  Until yesterday, each storm this winter had skipped over us and dumped snow on neighboring towns.  For someone who regularly checks the weather in Siberia, this has been quite upsetting.

 

 

Here's one way we deal with the lack of snow in our yard:

Head for the hills!

Here we are at Battlecreek Falls on Christmas Eve.

 

 

Another way to get our snow fix is to visit Grandma and Grandpa in north Idaho. 

Take your pick: sledding, snowshoeing, skiing, etc.

Nathan loved having cousin Josh there.

 

 

Nathan is getting old enough to join us on some adventures. 

This year was his first time skiing and snowshoeing.

 

 

Storytime with Aunt Mel!

 

 

Handsome guy!

 

 

Two handsome guys!

 

This is what happens when you consistently stay up late, get up early, and run around like crazy all day.

 



Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Field Trip

 Handsome William on a little day hike to Battle Creek Falls in Pleasant Grove. He does very well in the baby backpack.

 

Halloween is always a fun party. Here's the breakdown of the costumes: William (bear cub), Christian (cowboy), Clara (mermaid fairy princess - she came up with that by herself), Nathan (pirate), Sherrie (bridesmaid from 1973; her mom made that dress to be bridesmaid in a friend's wedding in 1973), David (who knows...?). Trick or Treating was a hit and we're still finding candy wrappers all over the house and the kids are still on a sugar high, just in time for candy cane season.

 

Jack-o-Lantern Fun

 

Nathan was baptized in early November. He did great and felt the Holy Ghost very strongly. He had lots of support from, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.

 

We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving up in Taylorsville with Grandma and Grandpa Manwill. It was really mellow and really pleasant. 

 

The day after Thanksgiving we went on a little outing to the Hill Aerospace Museum on Hill Air Force Base. It was amazing...and it was free! We would recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in airplanes.

 After the museum, we went over to Antelope Island. What a pleasant surprise! It was really beautiful and we saw all sorts of wildlife: lots of buffalo, antelope, mule deer, jackrabbits, coyotes, and a porcupine. There was a nice little visitors center, some nice hikes and picnic areas, and an old ranch with a lot of old farm equipment. It only cost $9 for the entire family. We would also recommend this for a fun day trip.

 This big buffalo was right on the trail on our way up to Buffalo Point of all places. Luckily he kept his distance (somewhat).

 Being carried by daddy is exhausting. William really was a great trooper throughout the day.

 The kids loved climbing the rocks and formations on one of the hikes.

 There were some very picturesque views from the island.

 What a sweet boy!

It snowed a few weeks ago and we decided to make a snow bug instead of the typical snowman. It has since melted.

Fall in Full Swing

 Sherrie and the kids went up to This is the Place Park in Salt Lake with Sherrie's mom. One of the highlights was riding ponies. I think Clara would have taken off to the hills if the horses hadn't been tied up. 

 Nathan is becoming quite the breakfast chef. In the last few weeks he has cooked french toast, German pancakes, and waffles. While we might gain 500 pounds, it's been fun to have so many tasty breakfast treats. We'll have to see what's next on the menu.

 Our four little chillins. William is a good sport.

 We went on a short hike a few weeks a ago with Uncle Michael and Aunt Mel. We were originally going to go to Stewart Falls up by Sundance Resort, but there were abou5 50 billion cars and people and we had gone up to the mountains to get away from the throngs. We drove back down the canyon and hiked up to another waterfall (not sure of the name). We were the only ones there and it was beautiful.

 Here are some of the amazing fall colors surrounding Mt. Timpanogos.

 

We've been trimming a bunch of the trees on our property. This Chinese Elm was absolutely out of control. Uncle Michael misses using a chainsaw on a regular basis, so he is a willing helper whenever there is chainsaw work.

30 days hath September

 A victim of Nathan's sand escapades.

 



Brotherly love 

 Our 2nd Grader and Kindergartner

 

What will Kindergarten be like?

She discovered it's pretty good. 

The big slide at Hee Haw Farm.  So fun! 

Vegetable Art: A way to dispose of excess garden produce without feeling like you're being terribly wasteful. 

Our wild garden.  Mostly weeds and out-of-control zucchini and cucumber plants. 

Big gardens and new babies don't go together.  I was true to my vow that I would not keep up with weeding or make good use of produce.  Check out our 12-foot-tall sunflowers. 

Here's our "live doll."  Much cuter than the other dolls, I must say.

glimpses of our summer



Now that school has started and life is settling down,

I can post a few highlights of our summer:

 



 We read books...

admired baby William... 

 and admired baby William some more...

 

 visited David's parents in Sandpoint...

 

 spent time with family...

 

 posed for Grandpa's cowboy paintings...

 

 picked huckleberries in the mountains...

 

 and ate huckleberries...

 

 took naps...

 

 trimmed trees with the new chainsaw

 

and sold juice for 25 cents a cup...

 

...And tried to keep up with our vegetable garden...and failed

 

...And tried to keep our house in order...and failed

 

...And tried to keep our sanity in our noisy, messy house full of kids, surrounded by zucchini and cucumbers...and nearly failed

 

...And tried to have a great summer anyway...(We succeeded in that!)