I guess when you are tired....

You will fall asleep anywhere. Like in the computer chair. Poor Joe, but how cute!

Movie Night Picnic

I must have spring fever because I decided to have a movie night picnic in the family room. Keith was on his way home from being in North Dakota all week, so we didn't have to plan dinner for him. The boys and I decided to get Arby's and have a picnic in the family room. Even Keifer thought it was a special treat.

Decluttering

This post is pretty much just for me and my memories. This is a cookie jar that I ate cookies out of at my grandma's house for as long as I can remember. I inherited the cookie jar and I treasured it and used it (which I shouldn't have done with little boys). I put the jar up out of reach from my young children who climbed until they got into it...and broke it.

Because of the sharp edges that were left behind, even after gluing, it was unusable in a safe manner. So, I sadly threw it away, but took a picture first to remind me of the happy memories of cookies at my grandma's house.

A Wonderful Grandpa

Amongst the hub-bub of getting moved, Grandpa's health began to deteriorate. We had the opportunity to see him one last time hours before his passing on March 7th. It was bitter-sweet. We knew he wouldn't be with us much longer and we knew he wouldn't be in pain anymore. We were touched as we took our little family to see him and Grandpa's eyes brightened as he smiled and said "There's my Keifer!"

He really is Grandpa's Keifer. Of course, Keifer is his nickname, but Grandpa is the one who put in the request for Keith Birch Caldwell, IV. Of course when that little boy was born, there was no mistake that was who he was. We always laugh how that little boy resembles his Great-Grandpa so much, especially his furrowed brow when he's looking at people. We love them both so much more for that.

I will really miss Grandpa as he was just as much my grandpa as my own. I knew "Grandpa Lila" better and longer than my own. It was wonderful to join Keith's family and gain such wonderful grandparents. Its what I always imagined it would be like if all of mine had still been living.

Grandpa was truly a friend and a patriarch. I loved visiting with him and getting to know him. I think I will miss him the most when I think of things I would like to know about him-and he's not there to ask anymore. He loved the kids, especially Keifer. I am grateful to have such a man for my children to have as an example-and name-sake. He influenced our lives greatly-if you couldn't tell by Keifer.

Special Day

Josh was able to be baptized on Keith's birthday. I haven't blogged about it until now due to the upheaval our life has been in. He was baptized the same day as his friend Jeremy, and I gave a talk, which added to the special day for him. He had been worried about being baptized about a month before until we finally realized that he was worried he wouldn't be able to hold his breath long enough. After he understood that his dad wasn't going to drown him, he was very excited. He's tried very hard to be good since then. We tried to help him begin to understand the atonement and the sacrament. Its been neat to watch him grow and learn and have his own desire to do what is right.
Josh was also excited that so many of our extended family were able to be there and he remembers that-thanks for coming.

Again, I seem to not be the picture taker in the family. I love that Matt documents himself every time he's behind a camera.

Home, Sweet Home

We began living in our new home on February 28th. We were living in a home that was great for us, until baby #4 hit and things began to feel quite crowded. That is when I began looking for another option. We were in a state of shock as we placed furniture in rooms and began to realize how much larger the bedrooms were. I LOVE IT! It is perfect for me. If you see Keith showing someone the new house-you'd be sure he's loving it, too. (He wasn't anxious for something larger like I was).

A few of my favorite things about my house:
1. I can look out a window when I wash dishes-somehow that makes doing dishes so much better. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean this dishes will be done more often :)
2. I can sweep my kitchen floor and wipe up messes (I'm a pretty messy cook-and I've had carpet). Joe says he want to help "wop the floor like Grandma does." It took me a while to realize he wants to MOP the floor-what a cutie.
3. I can walk all the way around my dining table without running into walls, and the main traffic of the house is not right through where I cook.
4. I can keep my front room cleaned up because there are other places for things. Remember, this doesn't mean it will be clean, just that it CAN be clean :)
5. The tv and computer are a fair distance from the dining table and I'm loving meal time visits.
6. The kids aren't fighting as much.
7. The yard is HUGE with plenty of places for the kids to rome and explore. They want to dig for dinosaur bones because we live in Dinosaur land and they are pretty sure there are bones in our yard.
8. The colors!!!! If the home hadn't been in the condition it was, we probably wouldn't have painted. Mindy Merrell helped me pick out colors for the house, and she and Ken helped paint and I LOVE IT!! Sometimes I feel like I must be living in someone else's home because I can't believe that my house is looking so put together. BTW, thanks to all the friends and family who helped with the painting and patching--we couldn't have done it without you!!!
9. I almost forgot my STORAGE ROOM-its HUGE! I don't have all my storage in there yet because its been a workshop for the house, but oh how our stuff will have a perfect place to be--including the geek stuff.

The house isn't finished and we are not all unpacked, but we are getting there and it has been fun to learn new things and make the house look so nice. I'm excited to keep working on it.

Now, here are some pictures:

I don't have real "before" pictures. Thanks to Devin, I have "middle of the project" pictures after most of the holes were patched. I was running so much that I never grabbed a camera-so thanks again, Devin!

KITCHEN-before




KITCHEN-AFTER! Please excuse the boxes.




Laura said it looked like Peggy being bold and brave on steroids-which I think is true-minus the steroids. This is my favorite room and I love spending my days in the kitchen looking at this.

BATHROOM-before


BATHROOM-After


FAMILY ROOM-Before




FAMILY ROOM-After (this room isn't put together yet)

LIVING ROOM-Before

LIVING ROOM-After




GEEK ROOM-This just makes me laugh because how many of you have your own switch that has you hard-wired to any room in your house with servers that run your computers and phones? And that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the geek stuff. I think this has been what has made it worth it for Keith-and this project has just begun. Now for those of you who will be at the LAN parties-it should be a much sweeter set-up than before. The boys can't wait-and that includes Keith. :)

Happy Birthday Joshua!

I lost the birthday questionnaire from primary, but Josh had a really fun birthday this year. It is the big 8 for him. He started out having a LAN Party. For those of you who don't know, a LAN party is a party where you network a bunch of computers and play games together. He invited a few cousins, but most of the guests were his uncles. For his cake, he wanted a Tux cake. Tux is the mascot for Linux, which is an operating system similar to Windows, or OS X-if you are familiar with those. In other words, it was a very geeky party. He loved staying up all hours with the big guys playing games-it was a lot of fun for all of them.

The big 8 means he has started Cub Scouts. This has been exciting for him-he has attended for 3 years because I've been a leader, and now he gets to be one. I'm glad the experience has been one that he has looked forward to. Now he is preparing to be baptized in a couple weeks and he's pretty excited about that. He's grown up a lot. Hard to believe he was once my 5 lb 12 oz, 19 in long little boy. What a joy he's been. I really appreciate his obedience and love for others.

Happy Birthday Spence!

Spencer came to Vernal on his birthday for our cousin, Rachel's reception. His parents were out of town, so he crashed at our house. The kids were so excited to have him here for movie night on his birthday. They especially loved having cake. I had baked cakes for the topper of Rachel's wedding cake, which Heather and Connie put together, and this was the back-up. I was going to bake him a new one, then remembered I already had one. So, we put a few candles on and took a picture so that his wife would know he had a celebration even though she couldn't be there (Gabby was in Ecuador with her family). So Gabby, here is the proof. :)

Could I Ever Tell A Lie?

Apparently, YES! Matt came home from school the other day perfectly happy, which is unusual lately. The weather aggravates his asthma and, so we don't see a real happy boy at home until he's feeling better. We were enjoying the happy Matt day when around dinner time Josh tells me that Matt had to pull a red card at school.

A red card? What did you do? The cards start out yellow-which is a warning, then red-you miss a recess, brown and then black-luckily we've never made it that far.

The story goes: He fell asleep on the rug and the teacher woke him up and had him skip the yellow card and go straight to the red card. He missed a recess, but he really liked staying inside, because that was more fun.

At first I laughed really hard. I also had a discussion with Matt about falling asleep just to get out of recess. I laughed when he told me the story, but I assured him it wouldn't be funny if he kept doing it. The next day he stayed at home sick, so I thought maybe something was really wrong the day before. I was concerned that he fell asleep (I'd been really good about getting the kids to bed on time that week). The more I thought about it I wondered why the teacher made him pull a card for falling asleep? He's a kindergartner, give him a break. I was going to talk with the teacher at the upcoming parent-teacher conference.

A couple days later I'm on the phone discussing the issue with my sister-in-law and noticed him listening to me tell her I was going to talk with his teacher. Well, a little while later he informs me IT WAS A LIE!!!!

Not that I'm surprised he lied to me, but I'm surprised by the lengths he took to lie to me. He's only 5, what am I going to do? Pray that we will get through this, I guess. He's such a sweet and funny boy-what would we do without him?

Snow Fun

The plows come through our neighborhood and create these huge snow piles in front of our yard. The kids have loved playing on them. They are big enough that the kids have managed to sled down them.