Friends

Monday some friends of ours came up from Heber to visit us. It was so great to see them and meet all 10 of their kids. The boys had so much fun playing with the other kids. Every day they ask me if all those kids are going to come and play with them again.

This image at dinner made me laugh. We had 10 of the 13 kids lined up on the bench. Tiff, you are SOO amazing! Miss ya.Brandon, I am very impressed with how many diapers you changed in such a short time, without complaining.

I know you can't see the kids faces very well but I wanted to see if I could name them all. Macky (the greatest baby sitter ever), Tristan, Eva, Amelia, Porter, Michael, Paul, Zack, Morgan, and Kaiden + Trayton and Kade. (baby Miles and Jordynn weren't in the picture)

And here's the whole gang. Tiff, it should be illegal to have that many CUTE kids.

Twin Falls

Tuesday we had the great opportunity to go to Twin Falls, Idaho. It's a little over an hour from where we live so the drive was pretty easy and SOO worth it. First we stopped at Shoshone Falls. They are nicknamed the 'Niagra of the West' and according to the plaque I read they are actually taller than the Niagra falls. So pretty. The boys thought it was really cool but were sad that they couldn't go swim in the water. We had a nice picnic there and then let the boys run in the grassy park next to the falls while Jonathan took a little nap. Our next stop was definitely my favorite. We took the kids to the Twin Falls temple open house. Wow. I was a little worried about how the boys would behave inside the temple. First we sat down in the chapel next to the temple for the video introduction and Kade was bouncing in his seat. I was worried that he wouldn't be able to be reverent in the temple if he couldn't even sit for the video. Then all of a sudden he burst out with 'We're going to see the TEMPLE! ' Apparently he was so excited he couldn't contain himself. As we were standing in the lobby of the temple I asked the boys not to speak louder than a whisper and to keep their hands to themselves. Hah, what little boy keeps his hands to himself...MINE!!! I was so impressed with them. They folded their little arms and walked so reverently the entire 40 minute tour. Whenever our tour group stopped I tried to explain what room we were in and why the temple was special. In one of the sealing rooms I told the boys that Dad and I were married in a room like this one so that we could be a family forever. Trayton whispered, 'I love you too mom.' My favorite room though was the celestial room. It's such a great feeling to hug your babies in the celestial room, knowing that you can be an Eternal family.

Dishes in the tub?

So one might ask, "Why is Mandi washing dishes in the tub?" I have two words for you. Kitchen Remodel. Let me start at the beginning. (We have had a busy week this might be long). Jonathan has spent the last couple of weekends and this entire last week remodeling my kitchen. It has been SOO much work but it is looking SOOO very nice. I've learned a LOT about things during this process. Here are a few things I've learned (in no particular order).

Lesson 1: Yellow paint is Ugly.

2. The washer and dryer need their own separate room. This house was built in the 60's and the washer and dryer were set up in the kitchen. Fortunately I have a husband who happens to be an excellent plumber and carpenter and he converted part of the second living room into a laundry room. I LOVE having a separate room to do my laundry.

3. Measure everything TWICE. We ordered cabinets on our own (and installed them on our own) but didn't consider the window. Jonathan drew the kitchen to scale on paper and on paper everything looked right but then when we were going to install one of the wall cabinets we realized the cabinet would be flush with the window and that doesn't look very good. The down side is I have to wait till Thursday for the other cabinets to come in and then we can install them, BUT on the up side I'm going to use the extra cabinet in my new laundry room.

4. Mice are disgusting. In the 8 months that we have lived here we have never seen any signs of mice. So we weren't expecting what we saw when we tore the counter and cabinets out under the window. The previous owner must have had a mouse problem we found a box of de-con and mouse poop EVERYWHERE (so filthy disgusting). And under the sink cabinet we actually found the mouse's nest. EEeeEEeek! Don't worry we wore gloves and masks and ripped out the old flooring and even the drywall and replaced it with untainted materials.

5. I am SOO lazy. Or as Jonathan so kindly puts it, I'm SPOILED. I did dishes all the time as a child but modern amenities has made me lazy. For the first couple days of remodeling I didn't have a stove so I cooked on the griddle that I have and used my toaster oven. It was inconvenient but I didn't mind. BUT the last several days Jonathan tore out the kitchen sink and dishwasher. Wow, I hate doing dishes by hand. I think about our ancestors who not only did dishes by hand but all of the laundry too...How did they have time to get anything done? I can't even begin to describe how relieved I am to finally have my dishwasher and sink back. I put off doing dishes for as long as I could (and used paper as much as I could) but then had so many dishes piling up I finally took them to the bathtub and washed them.

6. I'm lucky my house hasn't burned down. I mentioned before that this is an old house and we knew that because of its age it needed certain upgrades. However, we didn't realize the extent of some of those upgrades. Apparently all of your main appliances are suppose to have their own circuit to run off of. Well, all of ours were on one circuit. Jonathan, being the perfectionist that he is, took it upon himself to rewire the kitchen and make sure everything was done right. The more wires he exposed the more we realized how lucky we are that the old electrical wiring didn't start a fire. I don't understand electric terminology so I'll just say it was bad, Really bad.

7. Last, but certainly not least, my husband is He Man!! All of the old cabinets were built ins and they were connected the entire length of the kitchen. My husband ripped them off the wall with sheer brute strength. I'm still in awe.

I know this is a really long post but this kitchen has dominated our lives the last few weeks and it is so nice to be near completion. Thanks Jonathan! I love my kitchen.

(I could only upload a few pics so once I get my last cabinets in I will do a final before and after picture. In case any one is interested...)

Lions

Yesterday the boys were pretending to be lions while they were playing outside. They turned the camp chairs upside down and turned them into dens. Jonathan and I were watching the boys from inside and eventually started wondering why Kade wasn't moving. Apparently one little lion got tired and decided to take a nap.

Sleeping Beauty!

I don't think I can say enough how much I LOVE this little girl. Jordynn is 12 weeks old today and she is such a good baby! She has been consistently sleeping through the night for several weeks now and it makes life so pleasant. Last night she slept a record breaking 10 hours!! She laughs all the time and has the cutest smile. (She wrinkles her nose when she smiles...so cute.) I can't believe how fast she is growing up.

Honey

The other day Jonathan mentioned that he thought his bees were a couple of weeks behind where they should be at this point in summer. They were still just working on the second brood box and didn't seem anywhere near producing extra honey. Then all of a sudden.... Honey!

They still don't have the frames completed, which means the honey isn't quite ready for us to harvest. But WOW! that hive is one sticky mess. Jonathan had to remove two random pieces of honeycomb that the bees built and he let the boys suck the honey out of it. They LOVED it!