Building Our New Home

Here you see where it begins as an empty lot with a very nice view of Slate Canyon to the east. There is also a decent view of Timpanogos to the north and Mt. Nebo to the south.

Pouring the foundation (technically the slab... the foundation had already been poured)

The pros are smoothing it out



Ethan's dad (Greg) working on the first floor exterior walls

A HUGE Thank You to Dad for managing the whole project... Without him or Mom's support, this would not be possible. A thanks also goes out to Erin's dad, Dale, mother, Marsha, and several others who have helped, offered to help, or will help. You are all indispensable!

More of the first floor exterior walls done.
Ethan and the very excited children...
and Erin in her future back french door entry.

Making the front entrance (and the rest) a little less drafty

One hour of crane time (and $125) later, the second floor trusses are up on top.

Entry way, living room, stairway, and drop family room.

Erin's most desired room... a mud room right off the garage. We'll never have to scrub again... oh, yeah, never mind, we still have kids and other doors.


Here's the garage and the man-cave (side view). The pool table will be installed later.

Camping at Scofield

We had fun this past weekend camping at Scofield reservoir. I say "camping", but we really stayed in a nice cabin (thanks to Ethan's parents)! I may never be able to camp in a tent again--it was so lovely to sleep in a real bed & have a warm shower! We fished, played in the lake, roasted marshmallows, told ghost stories...and then went inside & relaxed in the recliners! Here are a few photos, courtesy of Gabe (I remembered my camera this time, but forgot to charge the batteries--details!).

Will & Ethan jumping into the lake.

Jase exploring by the dock.

Emmy exploring by the dock.

Greta.

Grandma Jolley brought lots of activities for the kids--they enjoyed coloring & painting together.

At long last, an update!!

It's been a crazy summer so far, full of adventures! And, sadly, I've forgotten my camera for most of them :( But we still have a couple items of interest to share...
The first is that we're expecting a baby in February! We're excited welcome child number 4 to our family. The kids are especially thrilled. Since they were all born so close together, none of them can really remember having a new baby before--it will be fun to see their reactions. They are already planning on being a big help once he/she arrives & keep busy thinking up names for Ethan & I to consider :)
This leads me to our second big event: to accomodate our growing family, we've decided to build a new home!! We will hopefully start construction next month & move in around the end of this year or early next. Yea!! Huge thanks go to our families, who are helping in any way they can with this big project. We are grateful beyond words & could not do it without you!!
So that's our big news for the summer! I do have a few pictures of camping, etc. that I'll put up later on.

Scenes from Easter

Here are a few pictures from Easter Sunday.

It was a beautiful Spring day, the perfect backdrop for honoring the Lord's resurrection. It was so nice to see the sun after the gloomy Saturday before.

We went to Stake Conference in the afternoon, then had a fun egg hunt & a yummy dinner at Grammie's house.

Happy Easter!

"Think Hard Before You Attend the City's Annual Egg Hunt", an Easter tale...

The Easter Bunny always visits our house on Saturday, so Friday night we got busy coloring eggs. This was a lovely family activity made perfect by the fact that no one spilled egg dye, an Easter miracle to be sure!

Saturday morning, after the kids found their baskets & had a nice breakfast of boiled eggs & chocolate (you know what a health nut I am!), someone (read: me) decided last minute we should head over to the annual City Egg Hunt.

We got dressed in record time & with 10 minutes to spare, drove like maniacs to the high school. We found a parking spot only 3 blocks away & ran like maniacs to the stadium. Having never attended this great event before, we expected to find a crowd, but were unprepared for this...

Since I don't have a panoramic lens on my point & shoot, you'll have to use your imagination: this is approximately 1/25th of the line waiting to get into the stadium. We stopped short & stared, a little shocked.

At that moment, it started to rain. Ethan & I gave each other little half grins: this was defininitely an experience that would be really funny later. But not now...in our haste to leave the house, we hadn't stopped to consider the weather. Ethan had no coat, Greta had no coat, Emily's coat was not waterproof, and we were stuck at the end of a mile-long line.

It wasn't long before Ethan & Greta were both freezing cold. I generously offered my coat...to Greta. It fit her like a tent, but at least she was warm. Well, warmer.

We did eventually get into the stadium to hunt for eggs:

Once we got in there it was actually really fun! The rain let up a little & the kids forgot about being cold, in their excitement!

The white specks on the ground are pieces of candy.

The masses of children had that field cleared in 30 seconds flat!

When it was over, we walked the three blocks back in the rain.

Greta looks like she's wondering if it was worth it.

No picture of Emily, she was huddled in the car :)

Forget eggs & candy, Jase's big treasure was a rope he picked up off the lawn.

Next time, we'll show up earlier & be better prepared (if I can talk Ethan into going again, that is!).

Pictures from Easter Sunday tomorrow...

Greta's New Look

Her favorite part was getting her hair washed in the special sink!

It was so hard to hold still--she kept wanting to look in the mirror to see what was going on.

The end result. Doesn't she look cute!!

So about Christmas...

...I kind of forgot to take pictures :)

We had a wonderful day, but we mostly used the camcorder on Christmas morning & the few pictures I did get look groggy & weird (I was going on 4 hours of sleep, you know?).

So I just didn't post about it.

But for some reason I can't move on with this blog until I document Christmas somehow.

It's like I'm afraid if we go back through the archives in years to come, and there's no Christmas post we'll sit back & wonder, "Did we celebrate Christmas that year?"

Anyway, to help me move on with life here are a few shots in front the tree at my Mom's house. (These were taken a week or so after the holiday.)

Phew! I feel better now :)