House Update...by Scott...

I thought I would post a few pictures. One obviously is the house with our dusty dirt yard with touches of kosha, lambsquarter and redroot. Also, there are pictures of the boys working on the mainline for our future sprinkler system.

On my birthday, we moved into our new house. It has been a fast month. My grandpa passed away (which is the microscopic photo below of all my family)...miss you grandpa but am glad you are there with Ryan. Two weeks after we moved in I had 30 Chinese students come to visit for 3 weeks. I was in charge of finding homes for them and making sure the activities went well and that everything was okay. They are now gone and life is settling down. Mckenzie just returned from BYU Ballroom Dance Camp. She goes to EFY here next week and then Scott and I are off to Hawaii with his siblings and parents (thanks Loye and Vaughn :) )...my kids have made us promise that when they are all married that we will follow grandpa and grandma's example of taking the kids and spouses on trips.
My mom says that I should now have a second to post a picture of our house...here it is...come visit us. We miss our old house, ward and friends but are enjoying the space, getting to know new friends at church and love the quiet, peaceful sunsets. I have pictures to upload and will get to it eventually... :) Hope all is well. Peace. xoxo

I need to update badly. At least that is what my mom keeps telling me. Very briefly (I'll do more later...not sure if later today or later in the month or later in the year)... we celebrated Davis' 8th b-day yesterday. We had a fun day at Bass Lake and Scott and I took him to Sushi Ya for dinner (his choice). I can't believe he is 8. I keep asking him if it is great to be 8...he is becoming a little annoyed with me now. He gets baptized next Saturday at 5pm. Can't believe it!
Also, Reese has turned 11, Meili 5 and Lili 4 since my real last post. I'm getting old(and Scott turned 39). All are such a joy and give us much happiness.
Our house is coming along nicely, except we have been at a complete standstill for 3 weeks. Hopefully, we will have cabinets soon...that is the hold up.
Also, yesterday we signed papers for our current house!!! YEAH!!! They want to move in on July 1st...perfect timing!!! I feel so much relief! My house is not clean this morning and it does not have to be :) yeah!!! we can start boxing things up and not worry about how the house will look in the process. We hope to be able to start moving things in a few weeks.
Mckenzie has dance tryouts today. She is so worried about them. I'm not sure why...she looked so great at the school spectacular last week. I'm happy she loves to dance. She did a very cool pointe dance and looked very graceful during her ballroom performances as well as a great solo in her choir performance.
Scott was not re-elected to the board. Yeah! Lots more time with us! No, he did a fantastic job and I'm not so sure the lady with a forensic science background will be better but not our worry :). Unfortunately, he had lots of issues the teachers did not like...aka...their pay cuts and insurance and uniforms. I'm fine with it and so is he...not so fine with the rumor of our marriage not being able to handle another term...odd...but, guess the vindictive handful had to make up something to make him look stupid...odd...
Anyway, we are doing well. I'll charge my camera batteries and try to update some pictures.
I'm off to double check our plumbing fixture order and pack a few boxes.
Oh, yah... my parent's just celebrated 40 years together! They have such great, loving children...we all forgot...so sorry!!! We love you!!!! We will plan something cool for 50 years.
Hope all is well. Peace. xoxox

Wow...where does time go???

I am posting tonight just so I can see the color we are debating painting our house. I am out of space on my computer so this is the only way I can figure to get the picture larger :) pretty sad, I know...

Life is crazy. Our house is showing a lot lately. We keep getting the "their debating between yours and another" and then they decide on the other. I keep telling myself this is good because it is slimming down competition.

The boys are wrestling. They both wrestled last weekend and did well. I did not go and don't plan to go. I don't enjoy watching them wrestle...so, I choose to stay home and clean the house. Scott loves it and takes them.

Oh...I guess I should document my dumb story...so someday Scott can say, "see this is how it was". I have been cleaning and purging a lot. We have a storage unit (thanks Lisa and Darren) full of "stuff". Our house pretty much looks like someone elses house. Anyway, I have been asking Scott to clean his closet. It has been a few years and was the last thing we I felt we really needed to tackle. So, I decided to help out. He's a bit busy right now. I wanted to be a nice wife. Well, I took 10 boxes to the storage unit and 3 items to DI. I boxed everything thinking he could DI what he did not want when we moved in and he had more time. Not sure how I chose these 3 items to take to DI. I was so proud of myself because I put the items in the van and took them directly to DI...didn't even wait a month or so. In fact did not really even look at the "items"

Tracey and Chris gave Scott some suits that had not been used and we planned to take alter them to fit Scott. They had been in the closet for a few years so these are the items I decided to get rid of....someone else can use them, right?

Well, Scott woke up early for his bishopric meetings. Standing in his closet asked, "where are my suits" My reply...I don't know... I did not touch them... S - "well there not here so you must have" Me "nope" (we did this over and over) finally, I said, "I only took your 3 suits to DI that Meyerhoeffers gave you and I did not take any of your suits to the storage unit".......Scott's reply, "I only had one suit of Meyerhoeffers in my closet"...OOOOOPPPPPPSSSSS....

I took his nice, expensive (300 and 400 dollar) suits to DI!!! I am sick. He is being kind... I woke up early and met the workers at DI before they opened, explained the story and they were kind to let me look. They have been so slow that they are able to get shelves stocked as items are turned in...

His suits were sold. The nice guy told me as I was crying..."don't tell him we only sold them for 25 bucks..."

SICK...I AM SICK!!! THIS IS SOMETHING THAT WILL ALWAYS HAUNT ME!!! Lesson to be learned...slow down and look at what you are throwing out. This is so unlike me...

is

Reese's Pinewood Derby

Last night was our Pinewood Derby. It was a great success and everyone seemed to have fun. Scott and the boys made cars. Reese won the Webelos heat and came in 2nd overall, so he now gets to go to districts at the mall. His record for the past 2 years: winner as a Wolf, last as a Bear, and 2nd as a Webelos. He designed his car (red, of course) with a hole in the middle. It turned out pretty cool and fast too. Davis' car was red with black splatters. He raced in the sibling heat after the big race. His car was also fast and a winner. It was a good night. We have a great ward with lots of great friends. Reese is ready to receive his Arrow of Light next month. He has been working hard at this (actually been ready to get it for a few months now but since I have to plan it we've been waiting for a few more boys). We'll do this at the Blue and Gold Banquet. He loves scouting and enjoys working on it. Davis is ready to turn 8 so he can officially be a scout. He has been a "blueberry" (term used when Scott was growing up) scout for a couple of years now and enjoys it as well.

As a side note... I've been accused of having a "main character on the blog" by child #2...he is right... child #5 does appear on the blog a bit more than the rest. He'd like me to equal things up - so I'll give it a try :)

Also, I just had my past 3 years of blogs printed in books. They are really cool!!! What a cool journal...now I don't have to feel guilty for sitting down and writing.

Two Years Ago

the most beautiful 20 month old little girl was placed in my arms. I can't believe two years has come and gone since Mckenzie and I ventured to China to bring home our baby. She is such a blessing. She is independant, curious, brave, funny and just a joy to have. We love you baby and are so happy Heavenly Father sent you to our home.

You know your church meetings start too early when...

you wear one work shoe and one church shoe. Scott made it to the front door of the church when he realized his mistake. He headed home for a quick chuckle and shoe change and back he went. Fortunately, Scott received the obsessively early for every meeting gene and so he was not late even with the shoe problems (in fact, he was still the first one there...obsessive).

The afternoon naps with early morning church are heavenly :) I was laughing last night when I told Scott, "you know it is pathetic when you look forward to the nap before you even go to bed"

Siding and Shingles

One positive thing about building a house in a very slow market is that prices are really affordable. The crews are ready and willing to work at a less price than a few years ago. I keep reminding myself of this as we try to sell our house and have to adjust the price accordingly. It will all wash out. It is exciting to see the siding. Scott really wanted hardyboard and because of the lower prices it worked out. We are going to paint it a light yellow/brown, with white trim, a black door and black shutters. I've decided to take the window above the garage out and replace it with a vent. There just does not look like enough space for shutters. Someday, that room will be a media room and we were planning to cover the window but this change will make things much easier in the future. Anyway, lots of fun decisions.

On a different note.... 5 guys opened yesterday...yeah!!!

I went out to check on our house today. It is looking great! It was a bit troubling to pull up and see 6 trucks parked around the house...the crews are all really ready and willing to work. We have plumbers, electricians, drywallers (sheet rocking the firewall), heating and air guys and the crew putting up our hardy board all ready to work...and they were all working hard. The house is messy inside so I'm sure we'll be heading out this weekend cleaning up after everyone.

Hair Days

Meili loves doing hair and I received quite the treatment tonight- notice the bracelets hanging. She is a bit rough but really knows how to do a wild piggy tail (where is the advil?). Also, Mckenzie has a new hair style. The place that has done all of Lili's laser treatments gives free cuts with money spent...so, I guess that is a positive for so much money going towards the treatments. (post continues below...how do I cut and paste to put them together?)

I need to add...there is a much bigger perk to paying all of the money for the lasers and the proof is right here. She was beautiful before but wow... look what technology and fantastic doctors can do!!! We had an appointment with the drs. last week and they think her eye looks as good as it will get but her cheek will need further treatments (even though it is barely noticable to us). again...today's post continues on below.

Steve posted this darling picture of Lili on the Hunsaker blog. I love her sweaty pigtails and chubby fingers. She loves looking at the picture because it reminds her of corn on the cob and horse riding. It's that time of year for me to start reflecting on Mckenzie and my trip to China. Man what a hectic time. I remember telling Scott I could not do it. I believe at the point I received a blessing. And, we did do it. There were many miracles along the way (great travel partners, Gayle and her girls who took us to dinner both nights in Beijing, and a constant angel with me helping me out...but, I dare say the most amazing miracle has been watching this cute little girl transform into the most fun 3 year old and become one of us. I say it over and over but she is a huge blessing in our lives and we are grateful Heavenly Father trusts us to take care of her. I'm grateful for all of my children and for the trust Heavenly Father has in me as a mom.

Anniversary

I'm not sure what is the proper thing to do on a two year anniversary death day...??? My heart aches and my emotions are close to the surface but life goes on. I've tried to keep myself occupi

ed. I think my kids sense something is not just right because they have been exceptionally trying but hopefully, a little pizza and down time with the family tonight will be the cure. My mom just sent this picture of them getting ready for their big game. I was so glad when I heard this game was today because I knew it would be the perfect distraction. Aren't the snuggies cute (sarcasm...) My mom's boss gave them to them for Christmas and my parent's were thrilled!!! Miss you Ryan! Love you tons!!! Peace XOXOXO!!!

All grown-up.

It seems like my kids are all grown up. Lili enjoyed her first day as a Sunbeam in "Mr. Buffalo's class"(Sister Buffalo). I can't hardly believe that we don't have a child in nursery anymore. Wow....how time flies! We switched to the 8-11 time which is a huge change from our 3-6 time. It took Reese about 2 seconds of being home to get back into his pj's :)

Christmas play 2009 - late post

The first week in December our ward primary president (mostly...I think) put together the most amazing Christmas play. Reese played Nathan, the lead, who had a dream and ended up back in Bethlehem. Scott played his dad. His friend, Landon, played his friend Jessie (thanks Ashley...I stole your pictures). It was an amazing night. They worked very hard and memorized many lines and learned to talk to the audience saying lines loudly. Sister Steward did an amazing job on the stage decorations and putting it all together. The primary kids and choir sang many beautiful songs, we had great wise men and Mary and Joseph and a darling baby Jesus (the Wards)

updated photo

The framing should be complete today with construction doors in place tomorrow. It is really taking shape. We are very excited!

Christmas 2009

We had a great day! We have a tradition that the kids sleep in our room Christmas Eve. At 5am the boys started to nag us about going downstairs. I told them wake me up at 6...and they did. We had a good couple of hours enjoying the surprises the day brings. We then had a fun breakfast (Butterbraids...mmm) and just hung out. The boys and Scott got airsoft guns so we went out to our new house and they ran around for an hour or so playing. It was a lovely day. I love the family I've been blessed with. (also...love the rubber boots Santa brought us all (aren't they cute :))...they will be so nice to have with 5 acres of mud...great idea Lisa!)

Before...at 6:08 am....