36?!

Yes, it's official. I turned 36 yesterday. I had a great weekend!! My whole entire family came down on Saturday and we went to out to our traditional dinner (pizza and salad buffet) and then everyone came over to our house for awhile. It meant so much to me to have them all drive 1-2 hours (and most of them with little kids) to come and spend time with me. I love them all so much!!

Sunday was pretty good too. Jarren woke me up at 7 and I could not go back to sleep. We don't have church until 1, so we just lounged around all morning. Jenna was beside herself because we weren't celebrating. She wanted to open presents and have "fire on the cake" from the moment she woke up. She wanted lots of balloons and decorations. She just can't understand how I don't care about all that. She never wants to get old because she wants to love and play with toys forever--not just care about books and makeup. Yes, she knows me so well. :)

My mom is the absolute best!!! Without an oven (I don't even have a stove anymore), it's been hard to cook. My mom didn't want me to have to cook on my birthday, so she brought down a complete dinner that I just had to warm up in the microwave!!! And she also brought a cake so we could celebrate last night. She is the sweetest, isn't she??

Jon....he always surprises me and does the most heart-felt gifts ever. I told him I wanted a new purse and he said there was no way he'd get me one. But he did!! And it has two zipper pockets inside. In one of them, he put an iTunes gift card and in the other he put 3 custom cards. They look like the Monopoly "get out of jail free" card, but he put "get out of dinner free" on them. He also bought a picture frame at Tai Pan (WoW!) and went through our picture files and printed some pictures in sepia to put in the frame. It almost made me cry--and I HATE to cry. Isn't it bad luck to cry on your birthday?? And I got some good 'n' plenty licorice pastels--one of my favorite candies. Jenna was furious with Jon because she thought I should have had more gifts. She had to help open them and blow out the candles. Kristen was worried because I didn't have 36 candles. I had 12 and told her we could just blow them out three times. :) We didn't, but it was the thought, right? Kendall's at an age where I feel like he's embarrassed of me. I guess I can be goofy. I was trying to give him a kiss on his cheek and he was having none of that. Pretty soon, I'll have to get a step stool to try and reach his cheek.Jenna's already planning everyone's birthdays for the year.....sounds like she'll be quite the party planner. Anyway...thanks to all for the birthday wishes, cards, emails, gifts, etc. Love you all!!

Kitchen Day 4

Not much changed on Day 4. The crown molding was finished. It was discovered that the shelving was forgotten and will hopefully be brought today so we can start putting things away. And...we found out we're going to have to put a vent in for the microwave. So...more work to come during this week. I can't wait until it's done! I am loving it.

Kitchen Day 3

The workers were working on building some drawers and shelves and the granite guy was cutting the granite, so we had no one here on Wednesday and Thursday. They all came yesterday and worked until late again. It will have to be "finished" today. There are a few shelves and hardware parts that won't be in until Tuesday and the floor won't be refinished until the end of next week. Then there's the stove....and we need to replace the fridge. And paint, which I am TOTALLY kicking myself about. They told us to repaint before the cabinets went in but Jon thought we'd be fine to wait and now it's going to be a complete pain to do! I don't like that green anymore, but we still want a green. I found a dark sage (more natural) green that I want and then we'll keep the tan. I found some curtains in almost the exact shade in JcPenney that I want for the family room and then we can accent with other colors--dark red, gold, lighter green, etc. Now I want a new kitchen table and chairs--these so don't match any more and are about 10 years old. Outdated. Haha. Anyway....coming along.... We feel like the niceness of it makes up for its size. :)

Kitchen Day 2

Ah!! I wish we could add a few feet to our kitchen AND our dining room---I really do. We're doing pretty much the same setup because an island just wouldn't give us enough counter space. One way, it would be super small and the other way? I doubt we could get the dishwasher opened all the way. So...we're stuck. I cannot visualize things very well, but with the kitchen looking like a skeleton, I think about--what if we did this? Or that? If we cut down on the "bar" area, since we don't really have room to use it, we would have about 4-5 inches in the dining room. Or...if we pushed the kitchen out 4-5 inches, we'd have more room in there. But it's really not enough room to make it worth re-doing the design, when it's ready to go in. So....we get to just deal with a small kitchen and dining area. Today, the granite is being cut and the doors are being finished up and all that will go in tomorrow. Then on Friday, the sink and plumbing will be done. The floor won't be refinished until late next week. It's looking good!!! The differences?? Very minor, I guess. We had them do cabinets right up to the window, since we felt it was wasted space and could use more storage. We're also doing a microwave above the range, so that cabinet was pushed up. The other cabinets are all taller too--again, the wasted space issue. We're going to have a wood panel on the side of the fridge so things don't fall down there. A lot of the drawers and cupboards will be bigger because they won't have that "face." They're also putting a wood valance and shelf above the window. We're also doing an under mount sink. So....minor, but good. Our oven died 6 1/2 weeks ago and we ordered one online. I just found out that it won't be here until late next week. :( Then a new fridge and we should be good.

Jarren's FINALLY loses a Tooth!!!!

Jarren woke up this morning and told me about a dream he had. I was watching his mouth and noticed that his front top tooth looked funny. It's been a little loose. He went in the bathroom to look and it pretty much popped out--with very little help from Jon. It's the first tooth he's ever lost on his own!!! His other two teeth had to be yanked out by the dentist because they grew up behind the other teeth and the baby teeth never got loose--the roots were as long as (or longer) than the baby tooth. And he never had a hole because that other tooth was already there and so big. He almost immediately went to tell Kristen and yelled, "Krithen! Whoa--I can't say eth's (S's) very well." He was trying those S's out all morning.

Kitchen Day 1

I've decided that we have about the smallest kitchen ever!! After they ripped everything out yesterday, I found that I love having more space and wish soooo much that we could use the kitchen AND dining room for the kitchen and the family room for the dining room and add on to make a new family room.....along with a mud room and a laundry room.... Hahaha!! That's a pretty funny (expensive) dream! But I really do wish we could have more space and openness in the kitchen. Maybe someday....

They're supposed to come today and put the lower cabinets in so the granite guy can come tomorrow morning and lay a template. Then he's supposed to install on Thursday. It's pretty snowy and I haven't seen them yet. One of the guys also runs a snowplow business so they're not always here when it snows. I'm not giving up hope yet....

Kitchen---Before...

Here are some *before* pictures of our kitchen. We're remodeling it and have just started. Jarren is quite upset about us changing the light fixtures. Everything is a cheap oak and cheap laminate (white) counters. We're doing a knotty alder wood with a nice medium stain to match the bookshelves on either side of the fireplace and a darker granite counter top. We're also going to have the floor (real hardwood) refinished to a darker shade when it's done, and of course, replace the oak trimmed light fixtures. :) Poor Jarren....

Klondike (Scouts)

Kendall and Jon went on a Klondike winter scout camp last weekend. I don't know how they do those, although last weekend wasn't too cold. It was a little snowy. Apparently, Kendall and a few other boys jumped in the river. Brrr!!! They are crazy scouts, for sure. They had sled races and had a lot of fun not sleeping (aka staying up all night chatting).

Random Pictures December Pictures

I couldn't find the pictures of the Nativity, but just did. Jenna's not one for babies, but she loved being Mary and having a baby Jesus.I forgot--Jon was the shepherd, with Toby his sheep.Happy Mary. :)

Kendall waiting to come on as the wise man. The sheep went and found him off in the East. Haha.
Kristen pulling one of her famous poses as the angel.


We have this weird little curly wig. Jenna put in on one day and it looked like an '80s mullet!! So funny!!
Jarren got the tree skirt and a "beard" (plastic bag) and a hat and dressed up like Santa.
Toby Claus--he was pretty tired (hence the yawn) of being out delivering gifts all night.

Christmas Morning 2010

Kendall and Kristen were up off and on all night. We told them they had to sleep in until 7:30 am. Jenna would NOT line up, so she's not in the picture. I think she was lying on the floor.

We got home from Grandma's party the night before and reenacted the Nativity. Jenna was Mary, Kristen was an angel, Kendall was a wise man, and Jarren was Joseph. Toby was the sheep. :) Then we sang carols, watched Christmas cartoons, and got ready for bed. They each got to open a gift--pillow pets for the girls, a SpongeBob pillow for Jarren, and a really nice memory foam pillow for Kendall.

Christmas was a little different this year. First of all, it was hard to get into the spirit of things. Secondly, I had no oven--so no homemade sugar cookies, no turkey dinner (which is what I usually fix for our Christmas dinner), no brunch casserole (which is also a tradition), etc. And lastly, no snow. It was pretty warm and there was no snow on the ground. I guess it would be different if we were in Hawaii with green, flowers, palm trees, warm ocean breeze, etc, but here??? It just didn't add to the ambiance to have everything warmish, gray/brown, and snowless. But, regardless, we made it a fun day. We had omelets (Jon's specialty) and a ham (via the crock pot). And the kids really enjoyed their gifts. Well....eventually. Kendall had his heart set on a PS3 or XBOX or a cell phone and was told that none of them were going to happen---but he still held out hope. He ripped through everything faster than fast and then ran to his room, upset, for a couple of hours. After he got that out of his system, he had fun with his stuff. I was very emotional--I just wanted the kids to love what they got and to be happy and felt like a failure. But it all worked out in the end.A new airsoft gun for Kendall.
A new itouch for Kristen.
Lord of the Rings figures for Jarren.
A Squinkies gumball playhouse for Jenna (BIG HIT!!). See the tears? Kristen got a pack of Squinkies and Jenna thought she didn't, so she was very, very, very upset. We had her open a gift and she was very happy to get this.

Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve was a fun day! We went up North to my grandma's annual party. A special visitor had been arranged to visit and Grandma and I were keeping an eye out for him. No, we were not eating this entire platter of goodies by ourselves. :)

Even Grandma got a gift from our special visitor, Santa!!
Jenna was very surprised and a little nervous, but she went right up to sit on 'Ole Santa's lap. She was the first one.
I think Santa liked Kendall's hat almost better than his own.
Jarren was very embarrassed. He does a funny little thing with his mouth when he's embarrassed and he kept doing that. He and Kendall got some of those Star Wars Beanz.
Kristen was happy to see Santa too--she and Jenna got a new littlest pet shop.

It was fun to get together with aunts, uncles, siblings, parents, grandma, and cousins again. We had pizza and salads and lots of visiting and treats.