A funny picture and story of Brenna

She was throwing a fit about something one night last week and didn't want to sleep in her bed or on her pillow. I said that was fine but she proceded to continue to scream, yell, jump up and down, kick and throw things. Yes, all of the above. Neither her or Braelynn don't often throw a fit like that but when they do, it is a doozy! After a few minutes, she was screaming that she wanted a blanket. The only ones I had were up in the closet and I didn't want to get them down for a child that was acting like that, so I told her that if she wanted a blanket, there were some on her bed (tucked in) and if she wanted one, she could sleep there.
After about 5 minutes, this is what I saw when I walked into her room:

She had found a pillow somewhere and covered herself in her dress-ups and fallen asleep!

Back to School

Just wanted to post the traditional back-to-school pics of the kids.
Veronica


Tyler
I told him I would kiss him if he didn't smile

It worked-sort of!

Samantha
She wanted me to post pictures of her hair.

Before and...

Almost after!

The kitchen remodel is almost done! We just have to tile the rest of the hallway (We had to do it in sections so that we could have access to a bathroom!), do the counter tops, and have the carpets stretched and cleaned!

We are rejoicing to have everything that is supposed to be in the kitchen out of my bedroom, that we can actually walk around in my bedroom, that we can cook, have a fridge that is actually where it belongs after it being either in the dining room or living room for the last 2 1/2 weeks, and that our kitchen table is out of the living room!
Today Joe and I were able to get all the last finishing touches done and everything put away and clean! Most of you that read this probably know how happy that makes me!
In eight days we were able to completely empty out the kitchen, sand and repaint the cupboards and tile the kitchen, dining room and half of the hallway and then put everything back to order. Not to shabby!
We are so grateful for my dad and a friend who spent most of one day helping us tile, and the friends and neighbors who helped move appliances, etc.

Before:






After:



The pictures look a little dark, but it is not that bad in person, and we will have different counter tops.

Here we go again

Remember how we just got done with all our home improvement projects? And how we didn't have plans and didn't want to do any more?

In July our dishwasher leaked and ruined our wood floors in the kitchen. I almost decided to just live with the warped floors because they weren't that bad, but we couldn't sell the house like that when the time comes, so we filed a claim with the insurance.

The cabinets are old and need updating so no better time to refinish those than when you are re-doing the floors, right?

Starting yesterday, we are emptying the cabinets, sanding them down, painting them, moving a cabinet so that our new fridge will fit (our old one quit on us last week), and putting tile in the kitchen, dining room and hallway. I said goodbye to my stove and dishwasher for the next week and a half. Did you know that you can cook tator tots on the grill in a disposable aluminium pan?

Within the first hour of the project yesterday, a cabinet door that was being removed fell on Samantha's head and split her head open clear down to the bone. Well, that is what the Dr. said, I didn't look! She came home with 6 staples in the back of her head.

Want to hear something funny? Last Monday and Tuesday, my van broke down. Joe and a neighbor spent hours and hours and hours fixing it. The fridge broke. And various other things that we are not going to go into happened. On Thursday, Joe, some of my brothers and brothers-in-law, my Dad and Grandpa set our for a guys weekend of camping and fishing. On the way there, Joe's truck broke down. He demonstrated the most manly-man qualities and fixed it on the freeway enough so he could get to the closest town and then preceded to fix it the rest of the way. You know how things sometimes happen in threes? We are just waiting to see how many sets of three they are coming in! But things could always be worse, and we are just counting our blessings.

Now...back to work!

Continue in Patience

Have you read this talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf called Continue in Patience?
If you haven't, I suggest you do. It is now on my list of favorite, life changing talks. Joe and I are a little behind on our reading of the conference Ensign. Just like everything else in our lives, I don't think it was a coincidence that we happened to be on that particular talk for the last two days (We were so tired the first day, we couldn't finish it.) We thought the first day was hard, but if we could have only seen what was in store for us the second day!

It gave me peace, comfort, joy, and encouragement at a time when we needed it most.

It made me more grateful for my strong testimony of the fact that our Heavenly Father loves us and that He knows each one of us. We are His children. He hears our prayers. He always answers them in a manner that is best for us, even if we can't see it for a long (or even a short) time. There is a plan for each of us. That plan will always work out for the best, even if we can't see it at the time being. He will never leave us stranded if we are trying our best, as long as it is our very best.
And the fact that the Atonement is real, that it allows us to try so so hard and then sometimes fail. It is okay that it is hard, because He is there to make up the difference. It allows us to be able to start again every day and try to do better. We just need to be patient and continue to do the things that know we need to do, to try again every day, even when we are tired and want to quit.