House Happenings

We completed several house projects this month, though sadly there are still a lot more to do. I have a feeling that we'll be done just in time to sell our house. Ha!

We fixed the retaining wall that was practically laying on it's side. We still need to anchor it to the ground and then fill it in with some dirt and sod.

We removed all the rocks around the tree and re-did the railroad tie edging. We still need to build up a second layer of edging at the bottom and then fill it in with mulch.

Here we got rid of the black mulch around the trees (seriously, black mulch - it looked like it had been burned!) and added the rock border. They're just waiting to be filled in with mulch now!

The main level/kids bathroom! It is the one room in the house that is 100% completely done! There was tile on the walls (that's right, on the walls?!) that got ripped down and beadboard got put up in its place. There was also some drywall patching and lots and lots of painting. I absolutely love how it turned out and frequently walk in just to admire it. :) Btw, the second picture is more true to color.

Other things we've done, but didn't photograph... Painting the fireplace. Drywall patching. Hanging and painting our new front door. Chopping down dead trees. And loads of other little things that you probably wouldn't notice unless you were living in the house. I've decided that I need to start taking 'Before and After' pictures so that everyone can see the huge improvements we've made.

The Denver Temple

It only took us 8 1/2 years, but we finally made it back to the Denver Temple! Since moving back to Colorado the kids have been asking to see where we were married so we took them to see the Denver Temple for FHE. The kids really enjoyed walking around the temple grounds and Laura walked right up to the doors determined to go inside. :)

The Denver Temple - love this special place!

Family selfie (we really could have used a selfie stick).

Me with my cute babes.

It was so fun to be back on the temple grounds with this guy. Next time we'll have to do a session. Love him!

Cute kids enjoying the flowers...

...and the fountain.

Nameless

Ever since moving back in January, I have found it difficult to get back into the groove of regular blogging. We'll chalk it up to being really busy, though part of it may be that I dread coming up with blog post titles. In an effort to make blogging easier, this post will remain nameless. :)

We couldn't let a good ColdStone coupon expire so we went and got ice cream for FHE one night. The kids loved it!

While in Utah, Uncle Brian became the human toy. After about 20 minutes of this, he was pretty tired; the kids on the other hand still had a ton of energy.

Gracie thinks that daddy's RC car is a fun toy.

Fort building. It got pretty warm under there, but they wouldn't leave. Now they ask to build forts everyday.

This is how Gracie looks after 99% of her meals lately. I don't know how this girl gets food everywhere, but she does. Good thing she's dang cute.

Laura loves chupit/checkup! (Her two names for ketchup.) Here she is doing her thing, drinking ketchup. I really don't get it.

We found Laura eating cheese like the kitties do at Grandma and Grandpa Bird's house. Hahahahahahahaha!

The kids love this new castle; Gracie's face shows just how excited they are to have it.

The kids LOVE the minions. Any time they see them they go nuts. Gracie couldn't contain her excitement here.

We found a penny horse at King Soopers and now the kids ask to ride it each time we go there. Except for Grace, who just repeats "down, down" the whole time she's on the horse.

Some of my recent plantings. We turned this old tree stump into a planter for my front porch. We just planted a very small garden - tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and beets. It will more than triple in size by next spring, but we've got a lot of work to do with the dirt (it's more clay than anything).

While Grandma and Grandpa Higgins were here visiting, the kids spent tons of time playing in the motorhome. Here they are pretending to take a nap with Grandpa; how he slept through them climbing all over him I'll never know.

Cayden recently had his last day of school. Here's a comparison of his first and last day of school pictures. My little dude has grown and learned so much and has handled being in three different kindergarten classes like a champ. Love him!

 

 Cayden with his third teacher at his third school of the year, Mr. Candelarie - what a mouthful!

This little babe loves her sunglasses, but almost always puts them on upside down. What a little goofball.

Today

Today...

...we woke up early from naps and spent lots of time in the basement during a tornado warning. Cayden was a little disappointed he didn't get to see a tornado despite me telling him a tornado isn't some thing you want to see.

Today...

...we celebrated National Donut Day with yummy chocolate donuts. Too bad they weren't Krispy Kreme. :(

This girlie gave us a pretty good chocolate mess to clean up.

Today...

...this little dude lost his very first tooth! It has been loose for several weeks and after asking us to pull it out for him tonight, he wiggled it loose on his own. He was pretty surprised and excited! Hopefully the tooth fairy makes a visit. ;)