Preschool Graduation

Emmie had her preschool graduation yesterday.  She really has learned so much this year.  Her teacher, Mrs. B,  is wonderful. She is so low-key and patient.  She has taught Emmie so much.  Emmie has loved going to preschool.  And at this point I'm happy I have another year of preschool to look forward to because I'm not sure I'm ready for her to grow up.

Dance Recital

Emmie also finished up her dance class this month.  She actually had 2 performances at retirement homes and then her big recital.  Her performances at her recital were two of my favorite things ever.  She was so animated and dedicated to her dance it was awesome!  I laughed so hard I cried.  If I recall I cried at Ainsley's first dance recital too but for different reasons.  I was just sad she was growing up.  Emmie brought me to tears through sheer entertainment.   I love that girl!

 

 

(Her dance files are too big to upload here so if you want to watch them you'll have to go to facebook :)

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's day.  John's meetings were shortened in the morning (he's the ward clerk now) and even though he had to take care of tithing after church the kids were (for the most part) helpful and we all had a nice day.  The kids gave me awesome cards and gifts.  But I think the thing I will always most remember about this mothers day was how Emmie stole my gift. 

She came home from preschool one day with a wrapped package and a card for me.  She told me she was going to save it for me for  mother's day.  You can imagine the anticipation I felt.  And then one day Emmie started wearing this new necklace.  She loved it.  The blue beads on it were her favorite.  I had to retie the necklace many times that week and search for last beads.  Then on Mother's day I realized that Emmie had given me her card, but not her gift.  Upon investigation we learned she had unwrapped my gift and kept it for herself because she loved it so much.  Too cute.

The Kids

The kids have been pretty neglected for the past couple of months.  But they have had some major happenings as well.  Ains got contacts.  She's doing great with them!  She has been swimming twice and loves that she can now see in the water.  Unfortunately for us she has to have one semi custom lense.  I'll will forever hate paying for new boxes of those.  But it's worth it.

She also finished reading all 7 Harry Potter books.  There has been a lot of Harry Potter talk around here lately.  Now she's excited to watch the movies.  If I have my way she won't get to see the last few for a few years.  We'll see who wins this battle.

Owen completed his big habitat project for second grade.  If it looks a little sparse it might be because Ainsley got nominated to help him make animals (yes they have to make animals for heavens sake!) and by the end of the evening we had a cactus, a snake, a broken bat, a frog, and an Easter Bunny.  As far as I know he will still be allowed to move on to the third grade.  We are all relieved. 

Owen has actually been doing really well in school lately.  Last week he was awarded "Pop Star" in his class and got to go eat popcorn with the principal.  He also was honored at breakfast of the champions for his first time ever.  Our school holds special breakfasts monthly to honor kids who have made accomplishments.  Teachers choose kids from their class to be honored each month.  And Owen go to go for his first time this year!

Emmie has been working really hard too.

I think she has spent the majority of her time with friends this month.  Either at her friends houses supervised, or at our house mostly unsupervised.  But all neighborhood children are alive and well.

Emmie also got to go to the zoo on a field trip.  (Technically Owen went to the zoo too, but I have a strict yearly zoo attendance policy so I didn't go with him).

This was however my most favorite trip to the zoo ever.  For two reasons.  The  monkeys were playing and going crazy in their cage and one of the monkeys peed from the top of the cage out onto the walkway.  It was a moment I will never forget.  And then the giraffes were fighting.  I don't know if they were actually fighting, but it sure looked like it!  They would swing their heads around and hit each other in the back with their heads.  It appeared to be very hard.  It was awesome.   The end.

The Trailer

Another really smart thing to do while in the middle of big projects is to make a big purchase.  I have wanted a tent trailer for a long time now.  Because while I love camping, I do not love camping in a tent.  And we don't have a vehicle big enough to get all of our gear to a camping spot.  We usually camp with friends that have large trailers and trucks and make them take stuff for us. 

So one night when talking to Kort and Dan we decided that we might like to buy a tent trailer together.  Because neither of us would use it more than 2-3 times a year and then we wouldn't feel guilty about the expense if we didn't end up using it much any given year.  So we started searching.  And we found one.  And we bought it.  And we love it!  Although it hasn't been camped in other than in the garage by the kids.  But we plan to fix that soon.  We've fixed it all up, cleaned it out, and it's ready to go.  And now we have a heater and a fridge while we camp!  Yay!

The other Project

We also had some serious work that needed done in our yard.  I don't think much had been done in it for a few years.  And what better time to take on a major yard project than when you're in the middle of a major cabinet project?  We (honestly mostly I) hauled out all the bark in our front three flower beds.  Originally I wanted to get the back done too...but I gave up.  It is amazing how much bark I cleaned out.  I'd say a complete truck full if not more! I even had help from our missionaries one afternoon as they saw me working outside.  They took pity on me and worked in their shirt and ties.    We had major pruning and weeding that needed done as well.  It all got done in about a week.  I still have the battle wounds from the trees I fought.  But after 2 HUGE loads to the dump, 2 yards of bark, and a new tree and new plants for the front yard it is finished!  I even got he garden planted.  Our garden might be lame this year.  Just sayin.

This is just what I pruned off of one tree.

We had about 12 rocks randomly spread around our yard.  It was a bit much.  I moved a bunch and gave a bunch away.  Those things are heavy!  Good thing I'm so tough.

Ahh, the joy of being finished (in the front at least).

2 months of CRAZY!!!!

You may not recall, but when we moved into this house just over a year ago the kitchen looked like this...

And one of our bathrooms looked like this.... 

 We did a lot of work before we moved in but the plan was always to refinish the cabinets.  It took me a year to finally decide that I was ready to do it.  I started in March.  In March!!!!  Before Easter! We just finished on Tuesday night.  That is over 2 months of sanding and cleaning and staining.  It has been WAAAYYYY more time consuming than I thought it would be.  And I'm pretty sure we were way over budget as well.  We've been to Home Depot more times than I can count.  But we are finally done! 

I started in the bathrooms just to get a feel for the process.  I didn't want to start in the kitchen and have it turn out looking horrible.  It took me about a month to finish all three bathrooms and then probably about the same to complete the kitchen.  We got used to living with no cupboard doors and with tools, tape, stain, and random supplies everywhere.  My house has never been dirtier. 

 Our garage has been out of commission and full of cupboards and drawers for what seems like forever. 

 But look at what we have now!  I love it!  And I will never do this again.

 Isn't it gorgeous?  I can't wait to get some decorations in there!

 And now you can look forward to the posts of everything that was going on at the same time as this project.  I seriously don't know how we got everything done in the last month.