Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Rebuilding my Faith....and my Driveway.

I think I'm finally in a place where I can talk about it without crying now. Last month, Emma goes down stairs and discovers that the basement floors are soaking wet. We run downstairs to find 4 rooms flooded! We found water coming up through the drain in our storage room. It was awful! To make a very, very, very long story short, we found that a sewer line was improperly installed back before we bought our lot. It had caused the line to cave in and thus began to back up into our house! What began as digging a hole in the back yard to repair the broken pipe, ended in digging up much, much more than that. Much to our luck, the line happen to run right under our driveway. In the end, half of our driveway was dug up. I'm talking a 12-foot gaping hole in the middle of my yard and driveway. The workers were all saying that we will never find anyone to take responsibility for the mess and that we would be responsible for all the expenses. Our insurance paid for the downstairs but wouldn't even touch the yard. It was the worst week of our lives. It was the biggest nightmare. But, in the end the people that installed the pipe took responsibility for the mistake and paid for everything. Everything! It was an answer to many prayers.
As they were repouring the concrete for the driveway, Josh and I decided to etch a scripture in the concrete that helped get us though this whole ordeal. It was, D&C 122:7, "...that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." You know how people always say they are grateful for their trials, well, I can honestly say that I am grateful for mine. And that is saying a lot. We've had a lot lately. I'm grateful for this experience in that it not only rebuilt my faith...but also my driveway.




Katelyn Turns 11

Katelyn just celebrated her 11th birthday! Holy cow...that's almost 12! That means Young Women's and Middle School!! But, not yet, I still have another year so I'll try not to get too ahead of myself. Her birthday party was a lot of fun. She decided to have a "Minute to Win It" birthday party this year. Our family is a huge fan of the T.V. show, so she thought it would be fun to do a lot of the same games they do on the show. The girls had so much fun doing the games, but I think it was even funner to watch!
The friends...


The games were hilarious to watch. This is Katelyn doing the "Elephant March"...


Riley tring her best at "Worm Diving"....


Katelyn concentrating while doing "Movin' on Up"...


Riley really got into "On the Nose"...


The oh so yummy Reeses Peanut Butter Cup Cake...



But one of the highlights of the night was watching Katelyn open up her gifts. One in particular...


She got tickets to see Justin Bieber in concert in Salt Lake next month.


She gets to go with a couple of friends, her mom (lucky me), and yes...her little sister who earned a ticket as well, for getting straight A's every quarter this last year. I decided it was well deserved. I had two little girls bouncing off the walls all night!




Riley Gets a Haircut

I finally took the plunge and did something I should have done a long time ago. Cut Riley's hair. I just couldn't decide if I wanted it to be long like Katelyn's has always been or a cute little bob like Emma's has always been. But the longer Riley's hair got the easier it was to decide...definitely a bob! I've so missed Emma's bob which she has recently grown out and am so happy to have another little girl with the same 'do.

Riley on her way to the salon...


Her loving every minute of it...


The final product! Just when I thought she couldn't get any cuter!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Dancing Queens

Last week was the girls' dance recital. This year I had all 3 girls in dance. It made for a fun night and they all did so great! How'd I get such cute girls??






My Kindergartner and the Zoo!

Last week I went on a field trip with Mason and his Kindergarten class to the zoo. The weather was very cooperative and it made for a fun day for the kids.








Riley managed to manipulate some poor boy into pushing her on the swing until her heart was content.



My baby is ONE!

I can't believe it, my baby is ONE! Landon has been such a good baby! He is such a good-natured and happy baby. He is pulling himself up, crawling all over the place and can even take a couple of steps now. He is very much a daddy's boy and says "da da" all the time. He follows around his brother and sisters all over the house, up and down the stairs and wants to be where ever the action is. He's kinda like a little puppy and will just follow you around. We all love him to pieces and so happy he's mine!


I think this was the funnest cake I've made yet. It turned out pretty cute.







Odds & Ends


Katelyn is officially a DARE graduate!


Mason lost his first tooth. It happened on Sunday just as we were heading out for church. Josh told Mason to go get the pliers and Mason was all to happy to oblige. Now if that had been my girls they would have covered their mouths and ran off screaming! I figured this could take awhile so me and the other kids headed off to church. A short time later, Josh and Mason came walking into sacrament meeting, Mason with a huge perma-grin and tooth in hand. Ugh...I'm glad Josh handles that kind of stuff.




Riley has made the upgrade from trike to bike.




And this is Riley unimpressed with meatloaf and potatoes for dinner.