JANUARY 2019

CLICK ON THIS LINE IF YOU WANT TO SEE ALL THE ORNAMENTS AND OTHER PHOTOS FROM THIS MONTH
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
One of our New Year plans was to photograph our entire collection of HERSHEY COLLECTIBLE ORNAMENTS so our kids can know what they are fighting over when we die )

We happened to start buying them annually beginning the very first year they came out so we have a complete set...21 years worth!
You can see them in the link above.

We have another house to clean...and it is bigger.

We got our vinyl plank flooring installed the beginning of January and we really love it!  It was SO DIRTY after all the workers installed it that I was attempting to clean it up before it got covered with paper the next day.

The highlight of our month was getting to have Jenna and Klay and Cassidy come spend a week with us!


Klay was a great little buddy and we went all over while he was here!




We stopped by the Provo Temple because he wanted to see the fountain!
He was so excited he got to throw in a dime we had just found.

And this "monster face" will be seen a lot in upcoming photos!

See what I mean?
We took Braden and McKenna and Jenna to lunch at Costa Vida and then I took Klay and Cassidy to the museum while Jenna got a haircut.
He loved the giraffes!

We had lots of creative time at home and I was happy to see him playing with some of my new toys.
Very cool magnetic building set!

And, he took a picture of me!

The next day, he got to come to school all day with me!
He was the perfect little student!

I let the kids re-create our TOWER OF GROCERIES so Klay could participate in that with them!

We danced to ROCK AND ROLL FREEZE and he was into that!

Our theme that day was CANDY STORE (yes, I chose it by design)  and we had so much fun graphing M&Ms before we ate them!

Jenna had a little get-together with old high school friends at the house and that was a lot of fun to see them grown up and some with kids.

Friday Klay got to go with Grandpa to work in SLC for a while.  He had been looking forward to this train ride for months!
See the open mouth again???

And again???

So exciting to be on the train!

He got spoiled at Grandpas work with treats and toys and had a great time!

They took a little walk over to Temple Square and visited Jesus.

And the Salt Lake Temple.

Then we picked up Scott and Klay at the train station in Lehi and went to the DINOSAUR MUSEUM...another of his requests for the visit.

We had a wonderful time exploring and letting him see and do what he wanted.

Then we visited Grandpa James and Carolyn.

He loved the creepy SPIDER PUPPET there!

Jenna and I did some BOW SHOPPING for all the little girl bling you can find easier here in Utah.

We made a trip to BYU BOOKSTORE for Jenna to get some shirts for the boys who did not get to come on this trip.

Some Auntie Breanna time!

And, on Saturday, we made a visit to show Jenna and Breanna the progress on the house.

My cute girls!!!

And our little explorer Klay found out what drywall dust looks like!

We loved getting together with FAMILY!

Saturday it was with JAMES FAMILY

Here are Cassidy and Lucas getting to know each other.

 Cassidy checking out Great Grandpa James

And the Jensens with Gpa and Carolyn

And Cassidy with Gpa Taylor

Nathan and Daniel love babies and were entranced by Cassidy!
















Sunday night we got together with TAYLOR FAMILY at Loris and Klay loved Vivian and Violet so much!

Cassidy with Grandpa again.

With Braden and McKenna

And Klay with Collin and Lilly.

We just could not get enough grandkid time!

Klay with his puppy friends and Lori

Cassidy with Great Grandma Olsen

Bre and Elliot with silly Klay

Jensens with Gma Olsen

And with Gpa Scott too
It was such a wonderful week having the house full of kids for a change!  And a great excuse to get together with both sides of our family to celebrate!

The following Sunday we hosted a ARIZONA PHOENIX MISSION dinner with some great kids!
Our Mission Family is growing to include lots of grandkids!

OK...here is the latest progress on our new house.

This month we installed the kitchen cabinets and got cover panels installed and built drawers and put on doors.

Our painter painted all interior doors.

Then he painted all the trim, ceilings and walls.
In this photo you can maybe see the light gray tone we chose for the walls.  We love it!

The hall bath has white shiplap on one wall and the rest is the gray.  Hard to tell from the photo, but it is really nice!

And, on a few warmer days the very end of the month, our painter was able to get outside and start the exterior paint.


Here he is doing trim and the white porch posts.

This is after all the white trim on the front.

The shower door was installed this past week too.  So pretty!

And, we have made MULTIPLE trips to IKEA to get parts for the kitchen or furniture using coupons...whatever the excuse, we head to IKEA!

And, MY labor was to paint my kitchen island.
This is with the gray primer...and caulked.

Here it is after a couple coats of the navy blue paint.
It was 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of navy blue and 3 coats of polyurethane water base varnish.

I wish I could say it was easy, but it was hours and hours of work and lots down on the ground in the dust!
Then, lots of effort to get up the tape and trim that all up and do all the touch-up there.

But, I was under deadline to get it done because COUNTERTOPS are coming Monday morning!

And, Beto was able to get the front of the house done in the two-tone gray we chose.
It is really coming to life!

Thought the grandkids might like a video of him painting with a spray gun.  Where was this when I was painting all those cabinet doors and the island!!

So, the front of the house is completely painted now.  He has removed the plastic but it has been so cloudy and dark that we have not taken a photo so you can see how great the navy front door looks...this photo is bad, from inside my car with glare, but it is an idea of how it looks.
I will try to add a photo so you can see the white trim with all this done...it looks great!

DECEMBER 2018

 Please click on this link if you want to see even more photos from this month.
We started off the month by attending some BYU Women's Volleyball championship games.

We really appreciated Braden and McKenna for taking us the first night and then giving us tickets to the second night!
Pretty amazing athletes!

That first weekend we did our annual SOMETHING TO DO AS A FAMILY ACTIVITY IN DECEMBER.

This year the kids wanted to check out the NORTH POLE EXPRESS based on the book and movie called THE POLAR EXPRESS we read each year when they were little.

We bundled up in our JAMMIES and went to Heber to catch the train along with a bunch of families that had young children...

We just had some old people...

And some younger people...

..and some more younger people.

Oh, and ELFis Presley joined us on our train ride...can you see he is singing BLUE CHRISTMAS while they shine blue lights on him?


After visiting the North Pole...someone special got on the train to come greet us.

He really liked Scott's pants!

We had HOT COCOA of course!!!

And before we left home, the girls made cool "BELIEVE necklaces with a silver bell.

One morning Scott and I went to sweep up drywall dust at the house and came out looking like this!  Can you see the dust on my eyelashes and on the top of my hair?





And on Scott's eyebrows and each hair...it is coated!

OK,  we have a CHEF in our Young Single Adult Ward that does snacks or a meal twice a month after Church.
For December he went all out on CUPCAKES
These would be perfect for a little girl FROZEN PARTY, right?
He made each snowflake with melted white chocolate!

And the orange cupcakes we decorated with chocolate frosting an orange stick and mandarin orange slice...YUM!  My favorite!

These spice cupcakes had cream cheese frosting and little Christmas trees he also made from melted green chocolate and sprinkles...great ideas!

Scott got to do an interview with our friends from our mission...Elder Durrant, Elder Callister,  Elder Ashton.  All served in the SW area or in the area presidency.
Fun for Scott to reunite with them.

It MADE OUR MONTH to participate in our FAMILY SERVICE PROJECT going to Breanna's school to deliver the stockings you all helped provide.


It was really fun for me to have Scott and Michelle come along this year.  This is the third year we have done this.







Here is the group of ELVES along with a couple of classmates.







A short video of handing out the stockings.

The excitement of even a colored mechanical pencil...seriously, they were so excited!

 And they were thrilled with the BEANIE BABIES!
Not to mention even the scent of the shampoo...so excited with every little thing!

They could not put the Beanies down!

Here we are with our cute Breanna teacher!!!

And Michelle checking out the cool net chairs in the classroom!  Spoiled kiddos!

This month we got to go down to Payson to the temple there for a sealing.

Fun to see the nativity sets that the Church places at temples in December.

The cute family that was sealed, Alex and Mariah Newton and their son.






And another visit from a cute RM, Alisa Hansen with husband Tyrel and her two little boys, Lincoln and Thatcher.



So...here is how Scott gets up the SLEEPYHEADS on Christmas Morning!
(Video of him playing his trumpet!)

And then, we go on a SANTA HAT WALK 
It's a family tradition!

It was SO NICE OUT that we ditched our coats in no time!

 We loved having Carole, John and Lori join us for Christmas lunch and gift opening!  So glad they would take the time to visit!

Lori made the cutest REINDEER treats for us using Oreo Truffles as the heads.

We were thrilled to get a call from our dear friends the Gutierrez family from Arizona.  They were up visiting their daughter who attends BYU.  They brought us amazing TAMALES as a Christmas gift!

Here is how our house was looking on Christmas Day.  All the hardi is on and primed and the stucco for the stone is all up and ready to go down below.

And a couple days later...this is how it was starting to look.

I noticed they had not put in trim below the windows and really wanted that done so they came out the next morning and...

Voila, trim under the windows just how I wanted it!
You really have to be on top of things each day in a home build.

And, you have to be on top of things if you go shopping with Susan and I...because we are well trained shopping animals on the hunt for a bargain!







OK...so our kids have started "DIBS-ING" things for when we DIE.  A little morbid.

One of the first things to be "dibsed" is our COMPLETE SET OF HERSHEY COLLECTIBLE ORNAMENTS.  Here is the first year, 1986...




...and the last year, 2007.  We photographed them in order so we would know which ones are for which year.
Pretty fun tradition!  22 years worth of ornaments that they put out 2 for each year!

Our Post-Christmas Neighborhood Party is a lot of fun...here is just one of the WHITE ELEPHANTS that we took to the party, these masks for some TV/Computer game.








The projects have begun, well, they never stop... but one for the new house.

I am painting my IKEA kitchen island cabinets NAVY BLUE.

You see the pray primed doors in the background here and how the navy looks when it is wet, like ROYAL BLUE!  It is so scary painting dark colors!

Another project is my kitchen window valance.  I found the PERFECT fabric online that has gray, navy and off white.















Now it is a faux Roman Blind!

And a project inspired by a sequin pencil case in Breanna's class...
A huge wall hanging of reversible sequin fabric for my new preschool area!  So fun to play with!

We now have a STEAMER thanks to Braden and McKenna.  It works like a charm and will save the day when I put up curtains from ceiling to floor that are 11 feet tall for the new house!


HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
HAPPY NEW YEAR PROJECTS TO YOU ALL!