Remodeling

We're doing a little remodeling at our new house. It's a little scary and after you tear it all up you have the thought of "Oh man, I hope this works out!" Kind of like when you play Rummikub and move all of the tiles around hoping your move comes together with no leftover tiles.
 
We've been looking at our backyard since we moved in and were trying to decide what would make it ours and our big plan. A family moved in the week after we did just around the corner that is the same age as us. We actually looked at the house they bought, we liked ours better. One downside of their house was the backyard. They have a big hill. We can just see their backyard between two roofs and he had a little tractor and was making some terraces on the hill so they can use more of it. At church I jokingly asked if he wanted to come work in our backyard. He said, "Sure!" So that started it. I brought home a level and rod from work to take a few survey shots in the backyard to see what we would end up with. We had talked about making enough spaces that we could play volleyball. A quick internet search turned up that a volleyball court is 30' x 60'. After some quick grading design we figured that it would work out okay in our backyard. On Friday Jake brought the tractor over and started on tearing up our backyard. He did a pretty big part of by noon when he had to leave. He left the tractor and said to keep working if I wanted to. I spent a couple hours that night and some on Saturday working at it. See the photos below.
 

 This is where Jake got to. We'll take some more photos when we get finished. It's remodeling, a work in progress!

 

 The kids loved the tractor.

 

 Whee!!!!

 

 We couldn't resist a little bucket ride. If you notice, Reagan is the only one looking at the camera. What a good example the baby is setting for the rest of them!  

 
So now that we've got it mostly tore up, we need to put it back together. We'll probably do a block retaining wall at the back and we need to plant grass. I have no idea how or when to plant grass. If anyone out there reading this is  a grass planting expert please contact us and give us some tips. Erica is determined to get it planted this fall. I'm not so sure that is going to happen. Again, some advice would be welcome and may save me some marital strife.

It was great doing some "MAN" work. Engineering is interesting, but you don't feel super manly while typing on the computer and filing things. Moving dirt with a tractor is manly. Some of you reading this may have a regular manly type job, building houses, welding stuff, driving a big truck or other heavy equipment, farming, etc. You may not have quite the same perspective that I do. I look forward to digging a hole with a shovel, pulling a trailer loaded with something, or any sort of physical work. Erica thinks its funny, but I think she understands. She was talking to Jake's wife Amber, and this exact subject of "MAN" work came up. Jake is a dentist and Amber was saying how much he enjoys getting out and moving some dirt.

We also dug up a garden spot. We put it up in the very top corner of the yard so its sloped quite a bit. I put three terraces in to level it out. We got some manure from a friend at work so we should be good to go next spring. Erica is really excited.

 

You may have noticed the pine tree squarely in the middle of the garden. We decided that we don't want a big pine tree right there, so it will be our Christmas tree this year. We'll cut it down in December and dig the stump up next spring.

That's about all I guess. There is almost always something going on around here. When winter sets in we'll get back to painting inside.



 

Gavin's birthday.....a long time ago

My boy turned 6! He is getting too old for my liking. He's such a good boy. His birthday was a very long affair. We went to Salt Lake for my nephew's baptism and went to the zoo for Gavin's birthday. Then his Grandma Janean and Grandpa James came down to give him a present a few days later. Then the next Saturday after the baptism, his actual birthday, we had a friend party.
I made devil's food cake from scratch. I don't like chocolate cake. It was yummy! He had a rocket ship cake, although nothing else about his party had rocket ships in it. It was really a nerf gun party. Party favors for all the boys were palm size, single shoot nerf guns. Matthew had an old calendar from work that was full of wild life pictures. He cut them out and hung them on the wall. The boys had a heyday "hunting". It was pretty low key. Here are some pictures.

The cake, baked in a 9x13 glass pan, sunk pretty severely in the middle. Matthew always tells me to fill it with frosting, but I think frosting is not very tasty. So I crumbled the cut out parts and mixed them with frosting and used that to fill the gap. Since I piped the décor, it worked out nicely. No one knew it was sunk and it had a better cake tasting flavor instead of frosting.

Me, McKinley, Michael, Gage, Jaxton, Gavin, Cody, Jamison.

 

Its kind of blurry, but I love the excitement on their faces when they all opened their own presents.

Gavin with his hippy hair. Its short now.

The happy party.

Love having a patio to eat outside.

Happy Birthday, Gavin!

These are not from Gavin's party, but I wanted to blog about it. This is McKinley's idea of trying to hide the fact that she was sneaking icecream. She continues to be a thief at home, but luckily she doesn't do it anymore at school. Just ask, Child!

And this picture is very blurry....but Matthew and I are very excited about this achievement. We paid off Matthew's truck. Even though my name is clearly on the title, its still his truck. What a nice feeling! We are now debt free, except for a couple of very large home loans. Sigh. Wish we could get out of our townhouse. Maybe in a couple more years.
Adios

Sweet Baby Reagan

Our sweet little baby Reagan is growing up. She is starting to parrot what you say. She loves to eat salsa and that is one of the words she likes. She whispers it and replaces the "s" with a "th" sound. "Thaltha!" She can say puppy and apple. There are a few others that I can't think of right now. It's just been in the last week or so that she has started. It makes Erica sad to see her grow up. 18-24 months is such a fun age when they can feed themselves, start to talk, and do really funny stuff. They haven't learned how to throw obnoxious fits and be old enough to know better.

Erica has been bottling apples with a couple of her friends. They did a bunch of applesauce and then decided to do some apple pie filling because they had so many apples left over. Reagan looks like she is practicing to be a 'Price is Right' showcase girl.

I'll  be glad when they're done and can have my kitchen back. The apples will be delicious this winter though!