Outside play, finally!!!

The weather is finally starting to get a little better outside, and we have taken full advantage of it! Here are Tucker and his buddy Carson throwing the football back and forth before basketball practice. Tucker wants to try and play football next fall and I'm super excited!

 

 

 

I loved the boots and short shorts combo. Sweet Taylor helping Jackson make a basket. The poor boy just wants to play basketball so bad, but he can't quite reach the hoop, but he is seriously obsessed with any type of ball in any form. I just love that about him!

 

Tucker getting the big boy basket ready to practice a bit:

 

 

And Jackson has to have his basket right there while Tucker practices. I love his enthusiasm.

 

My sweet beautiful Taylor Rae:

 

I love watching my babies on the trampoline having a great time:

 

Tucker perfecting his front flip:

 

 

 

 

 

And Taylor perfecting her front flip:

 

 

 

 

I love these kiddies of mine!

Finishing the Basement...

We also decided to undertake the project of finishing the basement this month. I didn't realize just how much of a project or how much work it would be! First we had to clean and organize all the junk down there, take out all the big furniture, with the help of the missionaries, thank you so much! :)

And THEN we could begin!!! Juan and Ramiro Soto from our branch came over and created a wall in the bedroom to separate a closet and storage area. Then the finished the ceiling and covered the vents with walls. Then we hired a young dude to paste and texture the walls. And they turned out SOO good! I was so impressed with Juan and Ramiro's work and also with the texturizer dude's work. It looked so good!

 

Maybe because it was just such a difference as to what it was before, but I think that they did such a great job, and I was so happy to see the progress!

 

 

Once the walls were done, then Ben got to work on the painting, and did that on his own. Most of the time, my job was to keep the kids from going down there, but a few times, we all got to go down and help. The kids loved feeling like they were helping finish the basement.

 

Making designs in the paint...

 

This little lady was especially excited. Not only is she my creative little lady who wanted to paint SO badly, but she is our big helper. She always volunteers to do anything we need to help. She really just wanted to help out with the basement SO bad! I just love her!

 

And that other little turd wasn't really a helper at all, but, of course, had to be involved and do whatever his older siblings did! :)

 

Then the carpet guy came. I LOVE our carpet. They were having a clearance on this nice thick plush carpet that we normally wouldn't have spent so much on, but we were afraid it was going to be a little too dark. We decided that it was worth it because the carpet really was awesome, and after it was all in, we were SO happy! It is the best carpet ever, I really do want to sleep on it every time I'm down there! :) That room that you see back under the stairs, that is going to eventually be a bathroom, it's all plumbed in and everything but we didn't finish that part, we are using it as storage right now. (And yes, I have cleaned it out better than what you see.) :) And yes, we have doors now, too! :)

 

We got the light fixtures up and Juan came back and did the baseboards. I love them. They are thick and white and I can't wait to do it for the rest of my house!!!

 

 

And the doors. I LOVE the doors, can't wait to also get those doors in the rest of our house, too! :)

We also learned during this process that we decided to finish the basement at the exact right time. Right after my dad and Kathryn moved into their new house. They were very generous with us and we were the recipients of many many great pieces of furniture. Like this beautiful entrance table:

 

And these awesome leather chairs and the sofa:

 

And many many other pieces of furniture; a dresser for our room, a desk and bookshelf for Taylor's room and tons and tons of decorations. :)

Anyway, I LOVE the way our basement turned out. It is a perfect and beautiful space for our family. We have a family/living room area. There is a little nook off the living space that I had the toys in at first, but now have changed it to a crafting area for me. And there is a bedroom that I was going to make as a spare bedroom, but we have made it into the toy room. The spare bedroom will have to wait a bit. (sorry, mom...she's the only one who ever would use it) A toy room is just more reasonable and necessary for our family right now. But that couch is SO super comfortable, I think that I'd rather sleep there anyway!

 

 

 

We broke in the basement with a movie night on the Sunday night it was done, and we had Kathryn and Papa over for Big Hero 6. It was a perfect family night for our perfect family space!

 

Now, just to see how long until these kids of ours destroy it! :) haha

 

I mean really, lets get a close up of that nasty face! :)

 

One day the rest of my house will look like our basement! :)

The Taylor's come to visit...

Alicia and Josh and their family came to visit us. :) They were here for a gymnastics tournament for Amarae, and it was actually at Northwest Gymnastics where Taylor practices, but it was too expensive and the thought of sitting for hours in that gym with Jackson made me want to throw up! :)   

So, we met up with them at the park after, and played for a bit in the beautiful weather.

 

 

I had promised my kids that I would take them swimming that night, and so we still did. Amarae and Jackson just joined us. Ben met up with us at the Y and we had a fun night just swimming and playing. Alicia and Josh were actually staying at dads house because it was empty, but the beds were still there, so they had the perfect set up! :)

Anyway, we took the kids swimming, and then the rock wall was open, so all the kids went up. Here are Amarae and Jackson climbing the wall.

 

 

Then we all played basketball for a bit before heading home. It was a perfect night with the kids and their cousins. I'm glad that my kids are close to their second cousins. They think of these kids as their cousins (and they are) But really, they are their closest cousins and I'm glad that they know them and love them.

Date nights...

I got another haircut. So, I had do document it. I love it and I love that I have a great hairdresser.

 

I've been testing it out, curling it. I actually love it, even though it's a lot of work sometimes! :) We'll see how long this lasts! :) ha ha

 

We've had the chance to go on some fun dates lately. I usually don't think about pictures during dates, but we went to Casper Frye's up on the south hill. We had heard to much about it, but it wasn't as great as we had heard. We went with Papa and Kathryn. It's always fun when we go with Papa and Kathryn, and these two bozo's together are always a riot:

 

We also went to PF Changs with the Mortensens recently, and as usual, it was a good time. I'm so glad that we have friends good enough to just be ourselves, and that we can be together and we know each other so well, we're like family.

 

As Cole says, 'the Mortensens and the Papers are Best Friends!'

 

While my mom was here we snuck out with the Wibergs for a date night. It was SO much fun. It started out like any other date, but then we went to Fro yo after and just sat there chatting for hours! It was the best. We love the Wibergs!!! So glad they are in the branch with us. He is the Young Mens President and Ben is his counselor.

Somehow Ben always finds the dudes that get him and love him. It's not hard, but I'm glad that these friends of ours get him, because sometimes he can be tough, but they love him and get him! :)