Winter Randomness

Here is a funny picture with commentary that Derek came home with one day. On the top is a picture of the school. If you follow the arrows carefully, you will read, "I am the smartest kid in my class I bet that I know some things that my teacher dosent know". Lindsey decided to dress up her baby sister with Lucy's headband. I think this will be something that Kara is just going to have to get used to.

Here's our preliminary design for our home addition. Things will be changed a little (br#4 will have a walk-in-closet, and a large storage closet will be accessable from the family room). We aren't adding the bathroom yet- probably a few years down the road.

"Hello...My name is Inigo Montoyo, you killed my father... prepare to die!"

Actually he's suppose to be prince, but whatever.

Larry took the kids to OMSI while I went to our Stake Women's Conference.

Spencer and Lindsey in one of the few peaceful moments they spend together.

Miranda taped these apology letters to our front window after Larry got the brunt of one of her "freaking out" episodes the night before.

Hide and Seek...

Renovated bathroom

This will give you an idea about our "new" masterbath. I don't have a before picture because it was just too ugly- all white with a really bad wall texture and holes where all of the towel bars had fallen out. We replaced the shower, towel bars, faucet fixtures, lighting fixture, and added the new cabinet over the toilet. The wall color and flooring are also new. Basically all we kept were the toilet and pedestal sink. Of course, this was all done in order to get it ready to sell-but it is nice to enjoy it just for us. Everytime I open the door, I feel calmed and relaxed because it is beautiful and actually turned out how I envisioned (instead of most of my home projects).

Cute Video of Kara and the kids

Things are calming down

Well, we've decided to stay put in our house and add on to the back. This addition will be a little over 900 square feet. It will be two bedrooms and a giant family room (part of which will eventually become a new bathroom), and a large storage closet. It will connect to the rest of the house through the dining room (which is currently a sliding glass door). We are very excited to have more space and especially that Kara will have a room to call her own. It is very nice to not have to worry about selling our house in this economy. Luckily, because of the economy, construction workers are hungry for work and material costs are down. We meet with our architect on Friday to draw up the final plans.
In other news, Kara is almost 6 months old and is now sitting up on her own to play with toys. She also likes to suck on her toes and lick her feet- it is very funny to see. She is so happy and generally content. It is so nice! She has such beautiful, large eyes- I love it.
Lindsey is potty training and doing VERY well. She even stays dry during naps and nighttime.
I will post pictures and more later- once I get things unpacked...

House Hunting Drama

Boy, the past few weeks have been exhausting!! I have painted every room in our house except for the living room and one bathroom. We painted all of our baseboards white, all of the doors white, and now we're just touching up trim around the house. We boxed up about twenty boxes of stuff and put some furniture in the garage. We even had our master bathroom completely remodeled (new shower, floor, lighting, cabinet, and fixtures). All of this was on a crazy schedule to get our house ready to sell by next weekend. We were very interested in a house in our ward, saw it four different times, and just about put an offer down on it. BUT- we didn't. Larry and I didn't both feel good about it, so, as of yesterday, all of our efforts came to a screeching halt. At the same time that we were house hunting, we also had a couple bids to see about adding on to our house. On Monday, we are looking at some architectural plans. We both feel like maybe that is what will be best for our family. There just wasn't a house out there that met our needs.
I am feeling a little sad about it all. I was excited to move and have a change, but I think it's more important that Larry and I are unified in our decision and both feel good about it. I AM getting excited about designing a space that will help us function better in the house and neighborhood that we love, though. We are planning on adding about 900 square feet off of the back of our house, with a giant family room, 2 large bedrooms, and eventually, an additional bathroom. Our yard will still be big enough and the price seems right.
So, now I've got some boxes to unpack! At least the craziness of painting several hours each night will be relaxed and we can enjoy the fruits of our labors. Oh, and we don't have to try to sell our home in this crazy economy...

House Hunting and more...

These past few weeks have been really interesting around our house. Basically, Larry and I finally decided that now is the time to really get ready to sell our house and upgrade to a bigger house with more space for our family. We've been thinking about doing it for the past year or more, but it finally feels right. We have already looked at two homes of people that are planning on selling in the near future. They both let us have a walk-through- and both are what we are looking for and in our price range. Maybe Larry and I are just easy to please- It is exciting to think about a home where our children will grow up, become teenagers, and then leave the nest for college and missions. (After that, I want to move into the country).
We've already begun fixing up our house to sell with painting and hiring a contractor to remodel our master bath. I think this is also the only time that I've been excited to deep clean. Of course, I get to sort through everything we own too (which I love to do- I LOVE throwing things away). Larry and I also moved some things around last week to make our living possible for the next few months- we set up Kara's crib in our office and moved the bookshelf and other things that were in that space to other locations. We put the boys bunkbeds back together and moved them to the other side of the room and put the bookcase in there for the boys to store their toys. I was AMAZED at how hard it was to find different places to store the items that got displaced! We really DO need more room. I also cut down my college textbooks to just three. And I think I own less than a dozen novels and church books now. I think it's really freeing to get rid of stuff.

Randomness

There has been a lot going on lately, so I thought I'd just share a few tidbits:

1. Larry and I got all motivated to paint our room after getting a new bedspread. After getting all the painting done- it appears that the paint color should have been called "Fry Sauce". It is a weird peachy-brown color. I guess we'll be painting again soon.

2. We had a contractor come out to see about fixing our bathroom and adding on to our house. I think we will fix the bathroom, but the add on probably won't make much sense. We're hoping to find a 5 bedroom home maybe this summer. We may even move just across the street- our neighbor took us on a walk-through of their house and they say they want a family with children to live there. I'm not sure they're ready to move, though...

3. Derek informed me that the kids and his teacher at school call him "the scientist".

4. Larry's work is getting VERY busy right now.

5. Miranda is all excited to start a 6 week basketball club with her friend next week.

6. I am back to the gym now that Kara is old enough to go to the childcare there. Yay!

7. We have been listening to books on tape with the kids at night. We recently heard, 'How to Eat Fried Worms', 'Frog and Toad', and we're now on 'Mr. Popper's Penguins'.

8. My mom and sister just recently came for a visit. We did lots of shopping, facials, and a trip to the Shanghai tunnels under Portland.

9. Spencer was in a Christmas program at his preschool. He did all the songs and actions just right. It was so cute.

10. Derek got a "real" camera after we returned his junky Clone War's one he got for his birthday. He likes to take pictures of everybody in our family.

11. Due to the snow storm, our recycling cart FINALLY got emptied this week! Four weeks of recycling materials accumulating around our house= one disgruntled mother!

12. Lindsey likes to eat raw carrots now. She begs me to open the frig so she can get the baby carrots out. The only other fruits of vegetables she likes are cooked potatoe chunks and cucumbers.