Tools of Choice

I may be able to paint my own house without hiring a professional, but with my tools of choice, I couldn't get a job with a contractor:

Touching up with a 1/4'' paint brush and a baby wipe? (both worked awesome BTW)

Yeah, I can't help making it look perfect, even though there's no house that is perfectly painted - yes, I even looked closely at your house the last time I was there ;)

And we did save a lot of money painting it ourselves! Just takes a lot longer :o(

Before photo.

Cedarcrest Football Game

The boys got all decked out with painting their faces and decorating shirts for the Homecoming game:

They were going for the 'tough' look, but it just makes me laugh because they are very silly boys and this serious look isn't fooling me! =)

Cast Away Day

It's Cast Away day at school, I made t-shirts from iron-on transfers:

On the front it says 'Hello! Anybody?', wording 'Cast Away' on the volleyball, tally marks on the sleeve, 'Don't worry Wilson, I'll do all the paddling. You just hang on' on the back and found a great volleyball of the bloody hand print online. The boys said everyone was talking about just being 'dirty' and wearing torn clothing. They have an original =)

Pirate Day

Spirit week consisted of one day being 'Pirate Day' - good thing it was so close to Halloween so we could find something in the stores for a costume!

Brady woke me up at 5:30 to put black eyeliner on him, his eyes watered the entire time and it was tough to do - poor kid. Maybe he'll appreciate what girls go through =) They wanted me to take a photo after school, but I insisted on taking one before they left for seminary at 5:50 am - I didn't even ask them to smile, but maybe I should have ;)

New Exterior 2nd Floor

Here it is - we finished 3/4 of the 2nd floor, now it just needs to stop raining so we can get the last bit done:

Very updated look - can't wait to finish the rest of the exterior. . . .so it all matches - hehe

Look at the cute visual interest of the white beams - Jonathan's touch!

Before photo. After photo.

Window Seats

Look what I did. . . . all by myself ;) With a little instruction at the beginning from Jonathan =)
I measured, scored, cut & screwed in a piece of drywall:

I measured, cut (with a chop saw) and nailed in a frame for a window seat:

And it's sturdy! So, we'll be getting some nice wood sheets to finish them and we'll be making it storage inside too.

There's one of these in each of the 2 smaller bedrooms.
I had to cut the 6 pieces that aren't resting on a 2x4 at different heights than the 6 pieces that are and I figured out the top frame part too - it's beautiful =) It was a lot of work, not really, but I don't do this sort of thing regularly. . . . so, yeah - I'm proud!

Hummingbird

I love hummingbirds, in May & June they visited the feeders & flowers in our yard 5 or more times an hour. In July & August it was a rare thing to see one - maybe once or twice a week. Taking a photo of a hummingbird is tricky without a proper camera ;)

So cute and they make the cutest noises too!

We could spot a hummingbird as early as 6 am and just after 9 pm. We have 1 feeder that sits right on our window and we can watch them easily. It is hilarious to watch the males chase other males away if they tried to feed on the same flower or feeder. Hummingbirds do chase other small birds away too - but I did notice that hummingbirds are scared of bees!

Flowers

Roses from my garden:

More Dahlias:

It's fun to have a new bouquet of flowers in my kitchen every week!

Work Party

Since our house flooded, our ward threw a work party for us! Thanks to Jody who organized it all - got the tools and people there =) It was incredible - people are very giving of their time, about 40 people served us by demolishing all the walls and 2x4's. Thank you EVERYONE!!! But now, our whole upstairs looks like this:

3 bedrooms went to 0, and no master bath now either - it is craziness, but hopefully it will done soon - at least it will be all nice when it's finished =)

Thanks for all the birthday wishes from so many friends & family today too!

New Windows

Jonathan riping out 2 aluminum windows out front:

New vinyl windows and an updated look for siding:

We stained cedar shakes and will put those up soon, as well as paint the siding dark brown to match our studio colors - check back........in a month? I hope it's not that long! Our neighbors probably hope not either ;)
After photo.

Calendar

I designed a calendar for my friend Stephanie who is doing a co-op preschool with shapes, colors, letters (and vowels), numbers, sounds, weather and holidays - some which are printed on the calendar itself and some are printed on circular labels that they can peel off and add to each month.

Bingo Markers

I made Bingo Markers out of Family Quotes by designing the quotes into Word Art & printing and gluing them to those flat marbles:

I made a card with the date of her birthday - 9.4 - but Jonathan couldn't remember the year or how old she was, so I used this year '08

Happy Birthday Lynda - Jonathan's mom! She LOVES Bingo =)

Back-to-School Present

I never had a math class in High School (or college for that matter!) that required a TI-84 calculator - AND they cost $130? That's definitely a back-to-school gift! haha

Funny thing is, that when I thought Keaton was doing his Math homework so diligently, he showed me his screen - who knew you could draw on a calculator?? So, this is ALSO an investment for his artistic skills!

Orcas Island - Camping

It rained off and on Thursday, but Badminton kept everyone happy the entire weekend:

Cayden jumping above in one game and on the ground in another:

Ethan keeping us stocked with firewood, or more like keeping him occupied with an activity:

And if Ethan wasn't chopping wood, he was recruiting people to play Skipbo:

Was that smoke in their eyes or are they just not morning people:

Jonathan made a ladder from a fallen tree trunk:

Jonathan raising the tarp over the picnic tables:

Grandma got there on Friday and brought 'yum, yum bags':

Everyone was excited because junk food seems to go with camping and we only brought food for the meals:

Yup, I got a snapshot of a squirrel - the tiny ones are Jonathan's favorite - those suckers are fast as lightening!

Keaton caught the 1st fish (trout) of the trip:

Brady caught a trout the next day:

Brady also caught a few Bass too.

Moran State Park on Orcas Island

Deer Frenzy

There were 8 deer all together for 1 photo, 2 of which were fawns:

The doe that is walking towards us in the photo above came right up to the car:

The deer seemed to really enjoy being scratched like a dog or cat:

Two bucks butting heads:

They all wanted what Jonathan was feeding them (peanuts):

Keaton feeding the deer carrots:

Brady feeding the deer corn tortillas:

Jonathan feeding a buck an apple from his mouth:

Grandma feeding a doe:

Sarah making out with a buck:

Just teasing - she's feeding it from her mouth too!
The deer liked grapes, strawberries, apples, peanuts, wholegrain bread, carrots, tomatoes and even Pirate's Booty ;)

We didn't stay at the Rosario Resort, but that's where the tame deer are! It was a lot of fun =)

A bigger buck visited us in our campsite twice a day - we named him Mr. Velvet Horns - his antlers were SO soft!

Hiking and Water Falls

We went hiking in Moran State park and saw 3 water falls.

The boys got their clothes wet while adventuring.

This fall was a bit off the path:

and the one that a few went swimming in:

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Koby!
Jonathan braving the chill:

Was that a dare or did Jonathan really enjoy that? ;)