Sunshine after the rain

I'm not sure what's gotten into me. I'd like to blame it on the pregnancy, but I think if I really look at it, I've had enough going on to make my two melt downs in a week understandable. I know right now my sisters and Mom are probably like, "you're lame. I asked and you said you were fine.". Well, that's how I roll. I'll tell you things are crazy or I'm losing my mind, but I won't tear up infront of you. That's how I work. I bet Brian could count on 2 hands the number of times he's seen me cry, and half of them have been this pregnancy. Ok, not really, just 2. That way, when I do let them fall, he knows I'm for real! Last night was one of those nights. I don't know what all it was but I just couldn't take it anymore. I wanted to run away, at least for a few hours. I feel like such a lame Mom. I can't find fun things to do with all four kids so I try to do one at a time and then I have 3 others at my knees needing a drink, or food or changing the movie or whatever it is and then my times is yet divided again. I try to do fun things and then ended up getting made or frustrated with behavior or lack of appreciation and I know, they're so little, what do they know, but to me, they should! That is my problem, not theirs and obviously I know how little Mom's get appreciated. I now realize how little I'm sure my Mom felt she was appreciated, although, I do like to think we did a good job. Brian asked me why I was in such a foul mood all day yesterday and I'm sure he wished he hadn't 'cause I let it out. And then..... he went downstairs to watch tv. I have to laugh about it. I think he was like, "who are you and what have you done with my emotion-less wife. Maybe she'll be back after Matlock." Just kidding. He did try to make me feel better, but it just wasn't going to happen. He said, "Monday I'll watch the kids and you do whatever you want." My response... " I don't want to do anything. I just want to lay there and do absolutely nothing. I don't want someone bugging me to get this or that or have to get up to do this and that, I just want to do nothing!". Mind you, all this was done calmly even though it may not sound like it. I mean really. It's not like I have all these great things I want to do, I'm just tired and worn out and I still have just under 3 months left of this pregnancy. Yikes! I ended up going on a walk. I love summer nights and this year so far I haven't really had the chance to enjoy them. There's always dinner to clean up or laundry to do or another box to unpack or a wall to paint. BLAH! But last night, I went out for a lovely stroll and came back and just sat on my sidewalk. I had a neighbor drive by and ask me if I was locked out. "I wish I was", I said. I'm sure he thought, "shut up and drive off NOW!". But he made sure I knew we could call him if we needed anything. Another neighbor walked by and asked me if I was okay. Luckily she was across the road and couldn't see my puffy red eyes and I maintained a fairly stable voice to say I was fine. I'm sure it looked kind of funny to see me sitting out on my sidewalk just looking at the ground with no kids outside. Oh well. She told me my neighbor had passed away that day, so I figured it was time to suck it up because my situation could be a lot worse. To make it better, I made myself some cookies. Yep.... I eat my sorrows, and they were good.
 Today was a great day. The kids were fabulous in church and after. Brian made dinner and he let me nap when I dozed off on the couch. He even offered to skip his song practice tonight, which, if you know Brian, that's a big deal. Of course I said he could go and the night has been just fine. Oh the dramas right?! I've had so many thoughts go through my head today. The lesson in church was one for me. The lady started it out by saying, " I have a hypothetical situation. There's a mother of 4 who's pregnant with her fifth. Her oldest is 8....." and I was like, "are you for real?!!!". She was trying to see what advice everyone would have to this lady because she was overwhelmed. I felt like yelling out, "yes, what advice do you have because I'm certainly out of ideas." Of course, these sweet old ladies (like 80% of our ward is) were saying things like, " I'd tell her to enjoy the journey", or, "enjoy it while she can 'cause they grow up too fast" and I wanted to say, " that's not advice and it's certainly not going to help. She needs some serious hard core advice, not sugar sweet thoughts." But of course I didn't. I still felt like it was a good lesson though and my own thoughts were good to ponder. I know I'm not over my drama in my head, but at least I know I can still have a good day after one that seems all hope is lost!
 On a happier note, Caroline was so excited today because she finally lost her tooth. I even had to take her to a neighbors house, she didn't care which one, and show them too. She's been anxiously awaiting it's departure for the last 2 months or so, well, ever since it got wiggly.

Elizabeth then said she wanted to take one of the two of them to show all their lost teeth.

And I just thought this was a cute picture of Isabelle. I can't ever really get her smile. She has the cutest full on grin. I do have a few pics from her birthday which I still need to get up on here. Next post, but until then, there's this one. And yes, that is another gash on her face. Not quite sure how that one got there.

And this picture just makes me laugh. He said I could only take one picture, but this was like #6. Tonight when I put him to bed, he curled up right next to me, put his head in my lap and wrapped his arm around my waste. That's the part of being a Mom I love. I do have some sweet kiddos.

New do's

The girls have been begging me for a while to cut their hair but I just haven't wanted to because I love their hair long, but Caroline's has been in a pony for like 4 days straight, and often times is because the curls just get in so many knots that I can't brush it, so I finally gave into her. I figured if I was going to get hers cut, I better let Elizabeth do hers too, so I did. We got it cut on Saturday and they are loving it, so here are a few pics of their new cuts.

I loved this one of Elizabeth. Totally shows her funny personality.

A little story to share, this morning the girls told Brian that they climbed out of their window last night and went outside for a little bit. I didn't believe them so I had them show me and sure enough, they had figured out how to get out. That made me nervous. I thought there were locks on all the windows so I'll have to double check. For some reason their screen was off, but it's on now, so hopefully our sneaking out days are still a few years off!

Life

Oh man it's been crazy! We've been in our house 2 weeks now, although half of it we've been in Salt Lake playing. It's been a lot more work this time than any other time we've moved. I had someone ask me the other day what my favorite thing about the house is and I immediately said, "the backyard". And it is fabulous. Here are a few of the surprise flowers that have been showing up in the back yard.

Then there are the 11 fruit trees which are starting to show their fruit. So far as we can tell we have several apple (not sure if they're apple or crab apple), peach, pear, cherry and then raspberry bushes, red currant bushes, an amazing grape vine and rhubarb. Those were all here when we came. We've planted a garden but I don't know that we're going to get much out of it. We haven't had the time to tend to it and it's struggling.

There are some pretty cool things about this house and it's really coming together. Bri hung some pictures in the living room and cleared out everything in there. While I was at the DMV he got the living room cleared, the kitchen mostly done, all the chairs in the entry emptied and moved downstairs and the two hutches cleared off. He is AMAZING!!! I was thinking the other day that if there were a major disaster, I'm so glad he's my man 'cause he gets so much done so fast and just doesn't stop until it's done. He's still amazing me with everything he's getting done on the house and it's looking great. Today it actually felt home-y and uncluttered. We're getting so close. I'll post some pics of it soon. Maybe. That's another problem. See, with this amazing backyard we have, no one can get us internet because of all the trees. This one guy said, "there's no way I can get reception with that forest you have back there". And it's not really a forest, but we do have a few gigantic pine trees back there, so we still don't have internet. It hasn't been so bad except for that I've been wanting to update the blog.

Anyway, so as I said we've been down to Sandy the last 2 weekends. The first weekend was my bday/Fourth of July celebration. I thought it'd be fun to make our own shirts this year, so we did. It was fun. I even got some glow in the dark paint and that was a hit when it got dark.

Here's the picture of everyone who made a shirt. And no, Jill's shirt is not pointing to Cooper (he was made in Mexico. Ha ha!), it's pointing to her belly.

We had fun at the parade, well, most of us. Cooper slept through 90%  of it. Then we hung out for the fireworks at Sandy City. It was a fun night. Fourth of July is my favorite! We had a good time hanging with my family. Jill, Paul and Maya surprised us by moving out here. The girls have been having so much fun playing together. It's fun to see them together. Love the Kool-Aid mustaches!

The kids have adjusted really well to the new house. I haven't noticed any extreme behavior, aside from the normal extreme! Before we moved into the house the girls said they wanted their own beds, but to share a room. The first few nights here they slept in the same twin bed, then one night they asked me to push their beds together. I walked down to check on them before going to bed and they fell asleep holding hands. One of those tender moments I was so glad I saw. They are becoming the best of friends and I love seeing the love they have for each other.

We've had more happen since all this, but that will have to be another post. Time to go relax!

Another week goes by...

Well, we made it almost another week and things are starting to move and feel like we're accomplishing something. Before I get into that though, I realize I haven't said anything about our ultrasound a week ago. We weren't going to find out because I thought it'd be fun to find out in delivery but the girls wanted to know so I was easily persuaded to find out. It was quite obvious that it was a girl. I really thought it was going to be a boy. I thought  I was getting divine messages that we were supposed to have another boy so I felt a little tricked. It wasn't that I was upset it was a girl, just more or less upset that I was so sure it was going to be a boy because I felt we had another boy waiting to join our family. Oh well. If we only get one boy, I'm sure glad it's Cooper. He's so sweet and loving and I'm glad Isabelle will have a little sister closer to her age, so we're happy about it. Here's a lame-o picture I took of myself to show my "progress". I'm 22 weeks in this picture. I tried to get Elizabeth to get one of my but I looked like a freakin' giant, so I tried myself and this is as good as it gets for now! I feel like I'm in that awkward in between stage where people can't tell if you're pregnant or just chubby. I figure the nightly ice cream will catch up soon and push me out a little more, not that I want to, but I hate the in between stage.

So just over a week ago our wood came in and is still sitting until this weekend. I can't wait for Brian to start putting it in. I'm anxious to say the least. However, he hasn't just been sitting around.

On the main floor we just had our bedroom and then a large room that used to be 2 rooms. The lady turned it into one room and put this fireplace in and used it as her tv room. Well, I said it would be better for us to have 2 rooms than one big one. I told Brian I'd like to put a wall up, well, for him to put a wall up. I didn't think he'd do it for a while, if he did at all. I mean, we have enough bedrooms downstairs, but one day he went over to work on the house and he said, "you're not going to believe what I did" and I didn't. He had already knocked out half the fire place.

It was no easy job. He had to chisel off a bunch of the cinder blocks to be able to flatten it enough for the sheet rock to go over and what not. I was amazed when I saw how much he had done. The bricks went all the way up to the ceiling. I think he probably has a brick worth of dust in his lungs. The crazy head won't wear a mask!

So Saturday he put up the framing and yesterday did the wall. I couldn't believe how he just knew what to do. I was kind of freaking out like "how are you going to do this" and he would just say, " I don't know yet. I'll figure it out." And he sure did. By the end of yesterday he had the wall up.

He got the other side completely done, but now there's this challenge. I have no doubt he'll figure it out though. He is amazing me and how fast he's working and how much he is figuring out on his own. I'm so impressed. My Mom keeps saying, "that Brian. When he puts his mind to something, there's no stopping him." And it's true. He's a mad man working so hard and I love him for it.

Now that today is supposed to be good weather I'm hoping to finish up this forever long project of cabinet doors. Well, I probably won't finish them, but I should get at least half of them done and ready to hang. They

are at the house we're living at now outside. I haven't been able to do anything on them 'cause of the wind and crappy weather.

 I almost wanted to cry yesterday when I saw we still hadn't done anything with the drawers and Brian said there are like 15. It will NEVER end!!! And then I keep freaking out that I'm going to give this baby brain damage with all the painting I'm doing. It is well ventilated though, so Brian tells me I shouldn't worry... but I do. But I feel bad 'cause there isn't much else I can do. Well, there's the progress for now. More this weekend!

Free time? What's that?

What were we thinking? For some reason we thought redoing a house would be fun and I don't know... stress free under no real time constraint, but we, well, I, was wrong. I guess I didn't factor in being pregnant, trying to now keep up with 2 houses, keeping the kids happy while painting and what not.  Ugh! However, today we have hit a major point in that we are nearly done with a room. Just have to touch up the floor boards and touch up paint and I think we're good. Our living room got carpet today and not only that, it was 2 days early! A first. So here's the original:

And here are 2 of the nearly finished. I'm happy with how it's turned out so far. I realize that I haven't put up many pics, so you can see out the one window there's a side porch. It's  a nice size and covers to the back of the house. It's well shaded too which is nice. I just love all the big windows in this room.

This is our kitchen. It was the main starting point. All the doors off and are all ready for, if not already, painting. We removed the amber glass above and will leave that open. We need to get a stove/oven to replace the cook top. I painted the countertops white and the bar area black with light glitter in it. It turned out okay. Not as great as I would have hoped, but it'll work until we get the new ones. Now we just need to get the doors on, the drawers sanded, primed and painted and the floor in. That should take, oh I don't know.... forever!

This is a built in that's in the dining area (which is open to the kitchen area). My sister Caroline took this on as her project. I painted the countertop black like the bar. The blue parts on both the kitchen and this piece will stay open. And yes.... the intercom does work. :)

This has been a familiar pose for Brian lately. He's amazed me at how much he can get done and so fast. He always does though. He spent a few hours taking out all the staples out of the particle board, and the just 2 days ago started ripping up that same board. Realized now that it was a waste. Oh well. You learn as you go right?!

Amidst all the house work, I realize that I just wasn't going to be able to get as mu;ch done as I wanted to during the day. I've managed to paint a little here and there or plant a few things in the garden, but my patience is already so thin that trying to do all the things I need to and being constantly "interrupted" just isn't worth the frustration  and getting upset with the kids, so I've cut back. It'll all get done eventually.  We went down last weekend  and picked up our hardwood flooring. My parents came back up with us and as we neared the house to drop off the wood, the kids got a little ride with Papa John on the trailer. Highlight! Even if they don't look like they were having fun... they were.

We took a little hike, and it was quite little. I should have left the kids at home. A few minutes after walking the girls were upset with rocks getting in their shoes, so they took them off and complained the rocks were hurting their feet, so we carried Caroline, Liz toughed it out, and then a few minutes later Bri ran back and got the car and met up with us to take the kids home. Good thing the trail is only a 2 minute drive up the street.

Thought this one was cute. This sweet little girl seemed to have been abandoned on the trail, so we took her with us. Okay, just kidding. I just didn't do anything with Isabelle's hair for like 2 days.

Caroline found a beautiful "flower bouquet".

At one point, I came home and this is how I found Cooper and Papa John. I thought Cooper was asleep, but I'm assuming they just took a break from wrestling.

This one was cute.

And so was this. :)

Well things are going  well, and eventhough slow, we are making progress. Brian is such a hard worker and I'm impressed with his handyman skills. Some day this will all be worth it! At least that's what everyone keeps saying. Brian read something online where this lady was talking about redoing her cabinets and the guy was like, "you either have only 3 cabinets or you've been watching too much HGTV". We're one of those who watch too much HGTV and think we can do it all! We'll see.

Because I just can't help it

I love scaring people, it makes me happy. Sounds bad I know. One time I dressed up as a stuffed newspaper dummy for Halloween and sat on the porch to hand out candy. I had a sign on me that said "take one" and if they tried to get more than one I'd grab their hands and freak them out. Another one of my faves was hiding in my Dad's closet a few years ago. He was getting out of the shower and I had to wait for like 15 minutes and just sitting in the dark in his closet I was laughing at how funny it was. Well, just to make sure, I closed my eyes when I jumped out at him and thank goodness I did! A towel doesn't do much good on the floor. JK. I have no idea if it fell or not.... my eyes were closed! So I set up the webcam to video the kids watching the video. I'd seen it before so I knew what happened. It's one of those dumb videos where something jumps out at you, and do you know who sent it to me? My Dad, so I don't feel so bad jumping out at him! For some reason the sound is off from the video, but you get the idea.

Busy busy busy

We have been busy! We had 4 milestones in less than 24 hours. #1- I put Bella down for bed and she wouldn't have it, so.... she climbed out. Twice. Hasn't happened since then but now she knows she capable. Not a great milestone for us, but one none the less.

#2- Cooper had his first night in underwear and stayed dry. To top that off, it's been almost a week and he's done it every night. Yay!

#3- Caroline "graduated" from preschool. She was pretty excited and it was a fun few minutes to celebrate her accomplishment.

#4- Elizabeth had her 2nd piano recital, but first one playing a song with 2 hands, and not only with 2 hands, but both hands had a different note going and at times different tempos. I was AMAZED when she learned it. It wasn't easy learning it and in my opinion, extremely early to learn, but she did and plays it fabulously!(She was also embarrassed I made her take this picture.)

Other than that, we FINALLY got our house. We closed on Friday and Saturday morning we were at Home Depot just after 8:00 spending away our checking account. Well, not really, but I assume that will be our most shopped at store over the next few weeks.

I realize that after going through my pictures, I haven't taken a picture of the front of the house, so I'll post that later. It's an older home, built in 1968. There is a lot of work to be done. The house is in great condition, just not to our taste, so we could live in it just fine, but we won't. :)

So as I said, we woke up Saturday morning and made our first trip to HD. We didn't get too much, but amazing how this little bit could add up to $160. Mostly the paint I think. I know we'll be spending much much more. I'd rather a trip to Hawaii or something like that, but I guess a nice house will work too. :)

So here is the glorious kitchen. It's a great size, but we have major plans for it. And look, matching seat covers. :)

I had to run back to the house we're living in and grab a few things and when I got back, Brian said he electrocuted himself a few times while pulling the fridge out. Luckily he wasn't laying on the floor when I got back. Then, he had to disconnect the water from the fridge and ended up flooding underneath the sink. We'd only been there a few minutes and already one reason to NOT have carpet in the kitchen. And 2 to NOT leave Brian alone!

There were no other major problems. Brian got the most of the issues. He kneeled on the nail strip and sliced his knee up a little and ran into the chandelier in the kitchen a few times so by the time we left he had blown out 3 of the 5 bulbs.

So our near future check list:

Tear up carpet in kitchen/dinning room

Tear up carpet in hall/living room

Remove cabinet doors in kitchen

Remove hardware from cabinets

Paint counter tops

Put in garden

Paint Cabinets

Paint kitchen and living room

Redo floorboards

Install wood floor

And on and on it goes. That's just near future, but we're making progress and excited about seeing the transformation. I'll take more pictures and put them up as we go. My last picture is just 'cause I thought it was funny. Caroline and Elizabeth came upstairs and Liz had put these balls in their shirts. Oh the things they come up with!