New posts

There are three new post below! Happy reading :)

Dress up

When I was eating lunch I hear "mom...LOOK at me." I turn around and see this cutie! I just love my baby girl...you just want to give her the biggest hug and kiss!

Spring

I love it when all the world starts to shout and spring comes out our way

sandcastles, cake, and kites

After church on Sunday the weather was GEORGOUS, so we took off for the coast. We needed the time off from remodeling and enjoyed the family time we were able to grab while celebrating Chloes birthday. We drove over to Newport and went to our favorite beach, "NYE beach." No that it not a joke...it truly is a beach in Newport! The beach was not over crowded, a little windy but perfect. The kids made sandcastles, played in the water, flew kites with Dad, enjoyed seeing the sea lions lounge on the docks, and the yummy candy store. When we got home our neighbors were out and about so we grabbed them and ate cake and ice cream in the back yard. A perfect Sabbath, birthday, family day!

Gilbert House

Last Friday Diana did not have school because it was parent teacher conferences. My neighbor Rachel and I packed up our crew and headed to the Gilbert House in S. I love the creative and hands on learning the kids are able to experience at the museum and the awesome playground that towers several flights. While we were there keith came home early and ripped out most of our kitchen underlayment and vinyl. It is so much easier to get renovating done when kids are not around :). Here are a few pictures of our visit.

Shadow Room

China Room

The Great Big Chair

Spider web

Chloe Nicole LOOOOVES to "DIG"

Playing with the water pump. He loved to think on all the different ways he could put the pipes together to make the wheel move.


Bubble Room

Using a hoola hoop to make a bubble

The end to a busy day

Heres what I came home to.... "Home Sweet Home"

Wood Floors

Remodeling! It never comes without hidden surprizes like pipes bursting in your face at 10:45 at night, water damage, underlayment under your kitchen vinyl that has ten million 2 1/2 inch long staples. Ahh yesss! These are the little perks you get when you rip up your floor.

Enjoy. These are the pictures so far from our living room. We are now currently ripping out the underlayment and vinyl of our kitchen. WHEW!!

New posts

There are several new posts below! Happy reading!

Easter

We had a easter egg hunt and brunch at church before Diana's Baptism. It was a lot of fun and full of lots of goodies.

Its great to be eight

" We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remissionof sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the giftof the Holy Ghost. "

Articles of Faith 1:4

"The person who is called of God and has authority from Jesus Christ to baptize, shall go down into the water with the person who has presented himself or herself for baptism, and shall say, calling him or her by name: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
"Then shall he immerse him or her in the water, and come forth again out of the water" D&C 20:73–74

This weekend I was privelged to witness my oldest child enter the waters of baptism. As it says in Mosiah 10: 8-10

8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?

As I watched my daughter get dressed in white I thought about my own baptism and the importance it holds in my heart. It was a day of rebirth, a day to covenant with my father in heaven special covenants. A day that I would be blessed with the holy ghost. As I thought about that I was overwhelmed with the spirit and the joy it brought unto my heart that my daughter was following the saviors example and listening to the direction of her parents and teachers to be baptized.

The spirit was strong that day. The day was filled with joy, peace, and assurance of our Savior Jesus christ. When Keith and Diana walked into the waters of baptism, my heart could not have been more proud of my husband and daughter. The spirit wispered unto my daughters soul peace and warmth. I was grateful for the presence of a worth priesthood holder in my home who was able to baptize his daughter.

I am grateful for my daughters choice and her testimony of the gospel. Ever since she was a little girl she has had the hunger and thirst for more. When she was 6 she read through all of our book of mormon readers and wanted to know more. I am amazed at the children that were held back for the latter-days. Their courage, strength and zeal for keeping the commandments is going to strengthen the already weakening moral fibers of the world. They will be a beacon in the storm, to all those who will want to learn of the Savior and his teachings. I am SO proud of my oldest daughter and the example she is unto she associates with. The best teaching we can do today is to be exemplars unto our peers. Diana rose, you did that when you were baptized. Your decision will affect many to follow.

We love you Diana rose and know with out a doubt you were a blessing unto our family. You WILL touch MANY peoples lives with that testimony and knowledge. You were blessed by your father with many special blessings and may you remember those all the days of your life to carry you through the storms and rainbows of life.

Chloe Nicole

On April 19th three years ago I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Her birth was a very spiritual experience. The labor was very peaceful, serene and almost dream like, making me closer to my father in heaven. After she was born she cried very little; sleeping the majority of the whole hospital visit, a nice preparation for the two active toddlers I was going home to. She looked so fresh from heaven, full of secrets and knowledge I wish I could have asked her about.

That first year was a hard one with my daughter. She caught a cold at six weeks which resulted in a extremely painful ear ache. The ear ache was never able to be cleared up with much frustration and medication and until she was 14 months old, when after much prayer and priesthood blessings she was well and able enough to get tubes placed. When the tubes were put in, at her follow up appointment, we discovered with a hearing test my little girl had never been hearing much, if at all. The doctor said she was only hearing around 5-10% which explained why the vacuums high pitch noise would put our daughter to sleep and make her giggle.

She has made leaps and bounds from her difficult first year, gaining her speech back faster by the second. Chloe you are an active, fiery, "outspoken" little girl whom we all just want to catch and tickle. You make us laugh when you smile like a pirate ;) and you desire to experience it All.

Chloe we love

When you change your clothes for the 10th time to show everyone your new dress or outfit. We are doomed when you are teenager ;)

When we catch you quietly sitting in the library nook upstairs with another princess book

When you can dig in the dirt while wearing that church dress mom told you to put back in the Closet and your handbag

When you tell us to come look at your pretty picture upstairs and you have made us a

wall mural

When you want to sit and read books for hours

When you snuggle us every morning and give us lots of kisses

Your love for Jesus

Your desire for learning

Your love of your siblings

The drive for life that we see in those mischievous brown eyes

The constant thinking we see going on in your head

The way you love to be every ones helper

The way you are protective

AND most of Chloe Nicole we love the fact that we were SO blessed to have you apart of this family. It has been three wonderful years Chloe and your father and I look forward to the many more adventures you will lead us on in your life.

Tile and broken Pipe

Let me just say before I begin that we are renovating the floors in our house. It has turned out to be quote on quote more "fun" than we had planned and is making some pretty memorable experiences.

On Sat. March 28 at 10:55pm My husband and I had been ripping off the molding and removing the carpet tack stips in our living room to lay down new laminate flooring. When I went to go remove the final piece of molding, out came a such a blast of water that it knocked me over into the middle of the room. " KEITH!!! HELLLLP! There is water filling our living room!! I screamed at my husband who was brushing his teeth. He rushed in to see Old faithful out of our Living Room wall. 25 towels, ripped drywall, blasted off paint, and Minutes later with the help of a sleepy neighbor we found the water shut off valve in the street. When we looked at the damage, we had been blessed by the lord because we had over a $1000 in laminate flooring sitting in the living room. The water had some how gone around the pile of laminate :).

After some detective work and with the help of a WONDERFUL person from our ward at church we found that someone has forgotten the protective metal plate over the two by fours. People....cost of the metal plate at home depot...... .05! Can you believe that, so 9 years ago when my house was built the dipstick forgot to put this "metal plate" over my plumbing out to my water spicket, hence why there was so much pressure, resulting in a finishing nail being driven into the pipe while the molding was installed. When I ripped off the molding, I disturbed the the hole and Wa-La we had a built in water feature. Not what I was going for but hey it makes for a great story, Right?!?

Remodeling is never with out a good story. I feel so blessed to have found that pipe before we remodeled the flooring completely because in the future that nail and pipe would have burst. I mean come on the nail was so rusted it was almost completely gone.

Well this week we decided in our adventures to finish up the wall patch....tee hee I know how to install dry wall now....I know I am weird...but I love this stuff. After that I textured, painted and then sealed the floor for tile entry we put in front of out sliding door. I have not grouted it yet but I took pictures of the final product of "before" I put the grout on tomorrow evening. Now in a few years I can get me a set of french doors that go out to my garden (just have to convince the husband). Here are some pictures of the floor remodel so far.

Metal plate that could have avoided ALL of this

After Clean- Up

The beautiful New Pipe - "Nail Free"


He is going to hate me for putting this picture up.....Tee hee.

Keith cutting the tile for the entry way in front of our sliding door on our new wet saw.

My big helper

Giving the Big Helper a Kiss

The Tile Entry in front of sliding door. I think a Pretty Good Job for our first time tiling! Pictures to follow after I grout.