Friday, July 24, 2009

Update...

My idea of a perfect day would be some fun family activity invovling water, beach, and sun; then when we are all exhausted from the constant fun, a beautiful, relaxing evening with an awesome, powerful thunder and lightening storm. A couple nights ago was just such a night! One of these days I will get an amazing lightning shot, but this time, out of about 150 shots this was the only one that turned out. Not the greatest quality, but still pretty cool.



Here are the pictures I promised of the almost finished deck. We have loved it so far but can't wait until it is finished so we can use it without guilt!

Before...



After...








These are my first cute little tomatos coming in. I decided to buy the "Topsy Turvy" to grow my first tomatos and I get so excited to see it grow and to see the little tomato buds bloom!





Lastly, on Saturday we decided to take some friends and family down the hoback for the first time this summer. Devin loves rowing and does a great job, we had a blast. We went with Demi, her friend Lexie, our friends Josh and Brooke Grover, and some of Devin's family. There is a company who takes pictures of groups going through lunch counter rapid and this is one of the pictures they took of us.

Monday, July 13, 2009

50's...A decade to celebrate!!

Well, the lying and scheming has finally come to an end! We actually pulled it off, pretty seamlessly, with the help of a lot of friends and family.

Mom's SURPRISE 50th birthday party!!

It always amazes me how, when in the line of duty, I am so capable of being such a successful liar!! One of these days Demi, Dad, & I are gonna sit down and try to remember all the different lies we had to tell Mom to get around the truth of the surprise. Anyway, it all turned out great! We had a pretty good turnout, with lots of good food, great entertainment, good company, and awesome costumes! Even Chris and Cody dressed up, that's saying A LOT!!!

Sky sang a few Elvis songs for Mom and sounded great! As a family we had a musical number to dedicate to Mom, Summer Nights from Grease, which was more entertaining than great, but it was a blast!


I just wanted to thank everyone who came and ESPECIALLY everyone who helped! You were life savers!

































Friday, June 26, 2009

Something to Post About!

It's been awhile since I have been able to slow down long enough to share what has been going on in our lives! When we think we have a free minute something always comes up and if I really do find time to myself I haven't been able to convince myself to spend it blogging. Not that I don't love it, just that there are lots of other things I love to do too! Anyway, enough with the excuses...

First of all, we FINALLY got a PIANO!!!! I am so excited about it too! Devin's mom is a piano teacher so Devin has grown up with a piano in his home and has really yearned for one our entire marraige. He is a beautiful pianist but has not had the chance to practice as much as he wants, or at all really. So for Father's Day I decided I was going to do my best to find some used piano in our price range.

Well, it just so happens that a couple years ago when a family was moving into a house just about a mile from their old one the husband decided that since it wasn't too far he would just carefully drive the (family heirloom) piano over with out tying it down...I am sure you all can see where this is headed.

Anyway, a few tears and words later the husband (aka Dad Jeff) decided that someday down the road he would have the piano restored. Since they have no room in their house for the piano anymore, I asked if I could go in on the restoration of the piano, my only term being that it stays in our house. Mom and Dad were up for the deal. So now, not only do I get to enjoy the sounds of beatuiful piano music, but I also get to enjoy the piano that I grew up with, carting memories such as my days of being caught in the lie of pretending I really did get my practicing done. (Sorry about that one, Dad. :)You were always one step ahead of me, putting tape on the piano pedals and all...)




The kids have also been doing a lot of playing outside, at least when the weather has been kind enough to cooperate. I believe a lot of it has to do with the big project we have taken on (which is coming up a few pictures down) out there, giving them more reason to be back there.






So here it is, our summer project, or should I say projectS. We decided to put and awning and deck on the house so that we can better enjoy our beautiful, spacious backyard. Our house faces north so it seems like the sun is always bearing down on us back there with no relief, ergo, the awning. And what good is an awning without a deck to sit on and enjoy it, right? Or at least that is what I used to convince (and believe me it took a LOT of convincing) Devin that we should do it NOW. It is actually a lot more done than the pictures show, we have benches, hand rail posts, and the floor, just have a few finishing touches to do before we stain. I will post a pic of our current progress soon. It looks really good and I am so excited to use it! Oh, and a little shout out to my awesome hubby who has worked so dilligently to make this happen, and to everyone else who has helped, THANK YOU! BBQ for you all when it is done!






A few weeks ago we went to Devin's grandparents cabin in Island Park for free fishing day. We decided it would be fun to take the kids fishing. We made a party of it and invited all of Devin's family to come as well. It was a blast as usual. Pounce parties, games galore, nature walks, 4wheele rides, smores, tree swinging, etc. On Sunday we decided to stop by Mesa Falls on the way home and take some pics.

This is Calyn with her cousin JJ. In the next pictures I was surprised she actually touched the fish, last year they just scared her.





These are all from Mesa Falls, it is beautiful there. It was a rainy weekend (fancy that huh?) so everything just seemed so much greener and fuller, it was awesome!