It's gonna be GREAT!

Tammy is going to make me something handmade! I have to put this on my site in order to get it. I have seen some things handmade by Tammy from her blog, so I'm sure it will be GREAT! I am also excited to make something special for some lucky people, so hurry up and comment! I'm not sure what I'm going to make yet, but I'm sure it will be GREAT!

Read closely...this is how it works...The Rules

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.

2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your Three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Please take the button and post it on your blog; start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

Are we done yet? Not quite...almost!

Ammon...not the culprit this time!

We added the arch and extended the wall to fit another pantry cabinet and make a hallway to put the tile.

Almost done... We are just waiting on the kitchen cabinet to be finished and installed then we will be done. Oh and a few paint touch ups, but other than that...yeah no more construction! (knock on wood!) Now I have to clean and organize the rest of my house. It is in real bad shape... wish me luck! I have until Saturday for Carson's Birthday party.

Remodel almost done...yeah the end is in sight... I think!

Thanks to our awesome son, Nathan we had a little project on our hands. Nate decided it would be fun to plug the bathroom sink and leave the water running so he could play. I came downstairs with the kids church clothes to get them ready and found water running out of the bathroom door into the kitchen. So needless to say we decided just to take out the hardwood and lay down tile. Since we were doing that, lets just add a wall and extend our kitchen cabinets and paint and get a new counter top and sink in the bathroom with an overflow in it. Oh and lets just add refinishing the hardwood floor to that list, since our little "angels" decided to paint it! We are getting close to being done... Jeff has worked soooo hard and long hours to get this done and I think it looks great. I still need to re-paint the bathroom wains coating and the cabinet. Then the sink is going to be installed this coming week. Then the baseboards can be put back in and some more shelving for shoes. Then I can paint some more and when ever the cabinet is done for the kitchen, it just needs to be installed. YEAH!

To everyone that missed me... hehe...JEFF!

Yep, went back blond. I do have to say it is nice to be blond again. Jeff was the most supportive EVER for me to go get my hair done today... hmmm does he love me for who I am?

Walking with Dinosaurs...

Santa was so nice and brought our family Walking with Dinosaurs tickets. So last Friday on Jeff's birthday we went to see the Dinosaurs... whooooo! Then stayed the night in Salt Lake. It was a fun night away, but I have to say I was pretty miffed as we walked into the Energy Solutions Arena... they confiscated my camera. What the.... they said no camera's allowed and especially since mine had a removable lens and was a professional camera.. again what the! So the only picture I got before the show (while the girl security staff was telling me to "hurry, can't wait any longer, we need to check this in NOW!", I did NOT like her!) was of the kids together. Then after the show I snapped a few. I borrowed these from the Internet, but that is exactly what it looked like. During the intermission I sent Jeff to go get my camera back since it seemed like everyone I mean everyone had their camera and camcorders just a going. But the security, being the rock hard #@*! that they are would not give us our camera until after the show or we could be escorted out of the arena now and take it with us. Anyways I was mad! Oh well, the kids had so much fun and was just in aw the whole time. Ammon was a little scared at first he thought we were going to actually walk with the dinosaurs and they might eat him. Poor kid! So he sat in dad's lap or mine. Poor Carson liked it, but he was still not feeling well. The night before he had the full blown flu and he was still pretty week and just not feeling good. Carter LOVED it and could name all of the dinosaurs and he practiced along with them. Nathan liked it too especially because they were like 5oo times his size. HUGE! So fun and so glad santa was able to secure some tickets... Thanks SANTA!

FREE...

FREE Ammon to anyone!
FREE Nathan to anyone!

So now I can't even take a shower with out trouble... I come downstairs to check on the boys and this is what I found. They had gotten the rollers out of the plastic bags from Jeff and I painting the new wall in kitchen and hallway and they decided to paint EVERYTHING! They are TROUBLE the whole reason for the remodel was because Nathan flooded the bathroom and ruined the floor. As I was cleaning I kept finding more and more that had been painted by these two little Picasso's. The carpet down the stairs, carpet in the basement, several walls and the boys taekwondo target, etc... So now I get to repaint everything we painted last night. I am so #*@! I am cooling off with the 2 1/2 hours of scrubbing we have been doing and the fact that they are in their beds quite and I think asleep. Now I am going to re-shower and go get a DR. PEPPER! If anyone is interested in two little naughty boys you know where to find me!

Carter's Baptism

Just looking at these pictures brings tears to my eyes. I feel the spirit so strongly and I am so proud of Carter and his decision that he made to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints and to receive this most special gift of The Holy Ghost. He is such a strong young man and he is growing stronger each day as he continues in his journey of life. I feel like just bearing a little of my testimony and letting him know that I know this is the TRUE gospel and I know our Father in Heaven loves us and is aware of us. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and he died for me to have an opportunity to be with my Father in Heaven again. I know that if we are diligent and strive to do our best that by the grace of our Heavenly Father we will be blessed. I know that he wants us to be happy and by serving the Lord and doing his will we will be happy. Carter I just want you to know that you are an amazing Child of God and your Heavenly Father is so pleased with you and he loves you so very much. He is always there for you and is so aware of you. He loves you. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
I just can't believe that 8 years has already passed since he was born. This was such a special day and he was so excited to be baptized by his dad and receive the gift of The Holy Ghost from his dad's uncle Darin. It was so beautiful and spiritual and I thank everyone that was there for the support for Carter and all of the love that he felt from each one of you even those that could not be there in person, but I know he felt your love and support. Thank you to Julie for that wonderful, spiritual, heart felt talk. You are amazing and we are so lucky to have you in our lives. We all love you and wanted to Thank you for everything you do for our family. Thank you to Jessica Evans and Jessica Gordon for playing the piano for Carter and his special day. Jessica Gordon you continue to be an inspiration to me and my family and you are an amazing Child of God and he loves you so much. I am so blessed to have you as a friend. Thank you. Jessica Evans you continue to blow me away. You can play the piano so beautifully and I am so grateful that you were willing to play for Carter's special day. You are such an amazing young woman and I admire you so much. You are so strong and so smart you are going to have such an amazing life. Elise, Gabi, Alicia, Ethan, Lexi, Taylor, Dallas, Morgan and Amanda thank you for singing for Carter. It was such a precious song and it sounded like angels were singing. Thank you for that. We love all of you and thank you for sharing this special day.

more of Carter's birthday party at Boondocks

Carter's birthday party at Boondocks

Carter had his birthday party at Boondocks. The kids had so much fun! They started out with pizza, drinks and an ice cream buffet then Carter opened his gifts and then we were off to play. Thanks to everyone for the presents he loves them. They had unlimited laser tag for 3 hours... played some arcades and in the jungle gym area with the slides. Carter said "This is the best birthday ever!" I am so glad that everyone had a great time!

Happy 8th Birthday Carter

Click on the pictures to enlarge...

It was Carter's 8th birthday on January 1st. I can't believe that 8 years have already passed. It seems like just yesterday he was put in my arms for the first time. He has grown to be such a wonderful young man that we love and adore. We are so blessed to have him for our son and he brings such joy and happiness to our family. We love him so much and are so proud of everything he is and is becoming.

Christmas Day

(Click on the pictures to see larger view)

It all started at 2:20am... first we hear 2 little footsteps going down the stairs, then a light turns on. A little rustling of wrapping paper, light turned off and up the stairs with so much excitement to wake up 2 of his brothers. Carter begins with "Santa came!" and you know what happened next. Three sets of little, excited feet down the stairs to check it out. We hear "wow, cool, this one is mine!" Then I had to get up and be the party crasher. "Boys back to bed it is not morning yet!" "Mom, Santa came!" So I in turn express my excitement and surprise and tell them to go to bed and we will see everything in the morning! So Carter and Carson try to go back to bed and Ammon climbs in bed with us. From that point on we really didn't get any sleep. Between Carter and Carson saying "mom I need to go downstairs and get a drink" to "Is it morning yet?" and them bouncing around from our bed to theirs. Carter just could not wait one more minute and he decided to wake up everyone at 5am. Boys! Go back to bed it is not morning time yet! Yeah right... so they played in Carter and Carson's room for a while then in Ammon's room. So we finally decided to just get up and go see what surprises Santa left us... He was so generous. I don't think he could help himself...

After we opened our presents, we played and played all day. We had a breakfast casserole in the morning then Jeff prepared a yummy Christmas dinner that we shared with grandpa Jerry. It was a fun, relaxing day for all...

Making cookies for Santa and our new pj's from grandma

I know, I know I totally cheated in the making cookies from scratch department. It is just sooo much easier to open a bag add a few ingredients and wa.. la.. your done!

What is the fun of making Santa's cookies without eating ALL the frosting!

The crew in their new Christmas PJ's!

We spent the rest of the evening playing with Carter's cool new toy from Carson. He got a remote control helicopter. It really is awesome!