Maddi's first trip to the Hair Salon

Maddi  decided she wanted to put layers in her hair so she came along on mom's trip to the Salon.

I think she kind of liked sitting in the chair and being taken care of like a princess.

She turned out beautiful!

Brandon and A.J.'s last soccer games

We were told at 5:00 last night that the boys soccer game that was supposedly cancelled was back on at 5:30. The boys rushed to get their gear and we sent them over with Marsha Edwards to be there on time. Then when we arrived to watch them, we found out that they were going to be playing 2 back to back games. If they won the first game then they would be playing for 1st or 2nd place. Both of the soccer fields were full of water from the flooding so by the time we arrived 1/2 hour late most of the players were soaking wet. It also made for harder playing as the ball would get stuck in the water and make it very unpredictable play. Both games were really good and they played awsomely. The sad side note was that their coach Steve who was an amazing coach this year could not be contacted when they found out the games were still on. He missed both games and the team was coached by the assistant coach, Sam. We missed Steve being there though.

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Brandon's 16th Birthday

It is hard to believe that Brandon is sixteen. It seems like just yesterday that he was running around with his long curly hair ( Oh wait that was almost yesterday) Just kidding. I was meaning with his sweet little baby curls, Ok some might have called it a mullet, but it was sure cute when he was 1. Times flies. He is such an awsome kid and we love him to death.

Everyone came to help him celebrate with his ice cream cake.

Finn is the best helper at blowing out the candles.

Happy Birthday Brandon.

Mustashes and Beards

I guess after having short short hair for 2 straight years there is a need for hair of any kind. At this moment in time it comes in the form of facial hair. Dustin has been growing a beard(if it can be called that). Mitch of course had to join right in and Brandon's is a mustache. I promise if you look really really close you can almost see it.....

This was actually the moment before they had decided to shave.

It was Single ward the next day and they didn't want to scare the ladies too much.

OK I think that might scare them a lot. 

They actually ended up shaving the beards later and unfortunately still have the hair above their lips.

Don't tell them I said that.

FLOODING

WE HAVE BEEN HAVING A WET WET SPRING AND NOW IT IS TURNING TO A WET SUMMER. The water just seems to keep on coming, and it has no where to go.

The ground is so saturated that it just sits and sits.

The rain started last wednesday and by friday we were having major flooding thru out stirling and all surrounding areas. 

The new subdivision at the end of town was really flooded. It doesn't show well from the cell phone picture but the yellow house is completly surrounded and all the cars too. The Hartley's couldn't get out of their place at all. Crazy!

The creek at the west end of town flooded and so did that whole end of town

Further down at the other new subdivision many of the basements were flooded. AJ and his buddies decided it was a good time to go canoing. They borrowed one of their grandma's canoes and headed out. I didn't see them but I heard some of the people at that end of town were taking pictures of them. I think they capsized a few times.

This is a picture of Wilson Siding taken from my cell phone as we drove through.  The highway was flooded at the Raymond and Coaldale turnoffs. It was also flooded on the southbound side of the highway a ways before this turn off. It wasn't too bad for an SUV but small cars were sure having trouble.

This was our backyard the day after the worst of it. I didn't take any pictures of that because we were too busy pumping, bucketing and shoveling to get the water away from the basement door. Jeff was helping over at the townhouses because there was a problem there and when I went downstairs to check the water was starting to pour under the door. You can't see very well but there is a trench dug there in the yard. It was supposed to have a gas line going from the house to the garage. (the trench has been there 2 yrs now and still no gas line.) It was taking all the water that runs into our yard from all surrounding neighbors who are higher than us, and running it straight under the deck and to the basement. YAY! NOT! So I was quickly shoveling to dam the trench and my dad was bringing another sump pump for the backyard. I had AJ bucketing out the stairwell that was filling faster than the drain could handle and then Brandon was making another trench away from the downspout that was broken. WHY DO WE NOT FIX THESE THINGS WHEN IT"S SUNNY OUT?! THAT IS THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION.

   Anyway all is well now. We may still flood but oh well Ce la Vie!

SPRING TREE

        Thought I'd just share some of my favorite photos of spring. I love when my crabapple tree is in bloom.

Finally able to put out some hanging baskets.

 Nothing says spring or summer like flowers.   

                                                                              

Kitchen ReDo FINALLY

BEFORE

So the kitchen redo is almost complete. We just have the desk area, also known as the junk pile area, to resurface with the counter top. Jeff finally finished the trim work and now I just have to put another coat of paint on it and a quick rub with stain and voila it will be all done. I think it looks FABULOUS!  What a difference paint can make. I also love love love my new brown sink. It is so much deeper and it just looks wonderful. I will take you through the picture photos to see what we did.

AFTER

                                        

What a difference it makes when we lightened up the cabinet color

The whole room is so much lighter now. We put the bead board around 

the base of the island cabinet and I love the look of it.

Didn't you love the pink counter tops. I'm sorry mom I know when you 

picked it out you loved it but it just had it's time.

I love the counter tops now, and mom helped me pick them out!

I was leaning towards a lighter travertine looking laminate but I am happy that

I listened to her and went with the darker granite look. 

Don't ya just love open shelving?

                                        

Much better when the mess is hidden behind the doors. Notice that we painted

the microwave shelf brown to match the pantry cupboard.(well you'll see that in a minute.)

                                        

We got rid of the wallpaper that was still behind the stove and put 

up bead board. I was going to pain the cabinets here the dark brown to match the pantry.

When I took the drawer fronts and doors out to sand and paint I forgot about that and all the

drawer fronts got painted Cream even though I had already painted the cabinet frame brown.

Let me just say I was glad for the mistake because I really love it better now that it is all cream.

                                          

Nice light and BRIGHT!

                                                    

Big change to this area. We painted the pantry cupboard chocolate brown and

 added Moulding to the top to make it look like a piece of furniture. Yeh, I know I have 

a huge mess in the desk area.

                                            

I really like the way it turned out, especially the moulding around 

the top. 

                                    

I LOVE MY NEW SINK!

Nice and Deep and Brown

Now it couldn't have happened without a whole lot of help and encouragement.

                                       

Jody showed up at my house on May April 9th (was it that long ago)

 with Strep throat and her electric drill

to start taking off all my doors. Look she's even smiling through the pain. 

She said"Come on SISTER let's get this show on the road."

                                      

We even got Brandon helping by sanding .

                                      

Maddi and Kaitlin were awsome painters and fit in all the tight places.

                                     

And we couldn't have done it without the help of the plumbing unit, Jeff and Grandpa.

That ended up being more than we thought it would be and I was

without a kitchen sink for too many days than i care to remember.

                                         

It might have been a little much for some of us at times, but we all survived,

and it all turned out awsome.