Wanna See Something Funny?

So we are working on finishing off an office in our basement! It has been a HECK of a project, but lucky for us a friend from our first ward here in Colorado Springs is an excellent contractor. We are so happy with his work so far, and the end is in sight. In an attempt to save a little money, Justin has taught Shawn and me a few things we can do on our own. We did some of the mudding, and taping, and all of the sanding. As it turns out, sanding dry wall is one of the more miserable things in life, especially since both Shawn and I are perfectionists. Here is a picture we snapped after a few hours of sanding last night. Shawn said we should smile for this picture, but neither one of us knew what we looked like...



and once we saw ourselves, we realized this was a more appropriate pose for this occasion.

We are terrible at before and after pictures, so this is as before as it is going to get. Just keep in mind that when we started our basement was one large room lined with insulated walls and old aluminum windows. In this picture it has been framed, windows replaced, wired, heated, and dry walled. We have also had it textured, and Shawn and I hope to get it painted this weekend. Then we'll try our hands at installing doors!

Oh, BTW, this is Shawn's future office. He has been asked to work from home full time, and when we bought the house we intended this to be his work space. After working at home full time for the last couple of months, Shawn and I are both more than ready to have this room done!

The door to the left is the utility/storage room, the middle is an extra closet (yay!) and the door to the right is a future bathroom, but that is not in the plans any time soon.

So if anyone out there wants help with their basement projects (Dave and Adriana), we are more than happy to teach you what we have learned, however, we will never, ever ever again sand walls, that is something you are one your own for:).

Hungry Hungry Hippos

Last weekend we went up to Denver and spent the weekend with Shawn's parents because I had a few days off and we had nothing better to do. One of the greatest parts about being in Highlands Ranch Colorado for a weekend is the garage sales! Pam and I hit a bunch of them and found a few fun little things. Lucy scored a new princess scooter, complete with knee and elbow pads, which she LOVES! But she also scored this Hungry Hungry Hippos game, and I don't know if she or Shawn was more excited about this one. He decided that we were going to teach her after church and that we should film it. Lucy loves this game, and so do all the kids I watch, so it was definitely a good buy.

Making Cookies

I LOVE making cookies with my kids almost as much as they love it. They love it because I am a softy and I let them pinch at the dough as much as they want. I love it because it makes them so happy, and hey, I like the dough too. I blame my mom for this one, she used to give me my meds wrapped in cookie dough as a baby (which is something she absolutely had to do, I had to take those). It's just funny to see how that has affected the next generation.



And they both love their beaters! BTW: Please excuse the mess of canned syrup on my counter behind my kids. Yet another reason I am anxious for my basement to get done so that I can put all this stuff away and have my garage and kitchen and closets back.

I'm trying to decide if I should be concerned about Lucy's eyes in this picture. The cookies of choice for this night of fun were so delicious, and way easy. If you are looking for a little variety, give these a try.

SPOOKIE COOKIES

1 chocolate cake mix
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
chocolate chips

Combine ingredients and bake a 350 for 6-8 minutes. Yum!

Our Visit to Idaho

At the end of May (yeah, almost 2 months ago) we went to Utah for Jason and Rebecca's wedding. Since we were already 2/3 of the way there, we decided to drive up to Idaho after the wedding weekend was over to spend a week with my family. It was so fun to get to visit them, I wish we could get there more then twice a year. We did a ton of fun stuff, but since I have been HORRIBLE at taking pictures lately, I only got some at the Idaho Falls zoo. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty impressed with this little zoo. I mean how great could the Idaho Falls zoo be, right? But honestly, I think they were better at maintaining and themeing their animal enclosures than all the bigger zoos I have been to (with the possible exception of the San Diego Zoo). And it had been raining all day, but we decided to go for it and get head to the zoo anyway. As we pulled up, the clouds parted and the sun came out. As a result, all the animals were SO playful! We had monkeys chasing us across their enclosures and swinging and flipping like crazy. The lions were showing off like crazy, we even had bears playing or fighting each other on their back legs. It was so fun! Easily the most exciting trip to the zoo I have ever experienced.



Here Katelyn my little sister is helping Lucy to not be scared of the toy tiger. It took us about 5 minutes to convince Lucy that it wasn't real, and about as long to get Jack to leave it.

The tiger was one of the more boring animals. He was walking around when we got to his cage, but he was too interested in the traffic just outside his cage. He just climbed a hill and laid down so he could see it better.

But the lion... he was so cool! He was just walking around his enclosure staring us down. In this picture, he was actually staring at the zebras across the path. I think he was hungry.

Lucy had so much fun playing with my sister's little girl Kaylie. They don't get to see each other enough, but they have fun when they do.

This is just a classic Idaho Falls zoo picture. If my parents took pictures of me as a kid, I would have this same picture. But since they didn't (ok, I'll give them this, they probably took the pictures, they just never developed them) I only know that this is classic because of younger siblings. But I do have memories of drinking from the lions mouth, a very scary thing when you are 6 and younger.

Jack decided that he LOVES the zoo as we got to the end. He was fascinated with the birds, and LOVED watching them stretch their wings. He almost wouldn't let me leave the penguins because he loved watching them jump in and out of the water, and I think he thought they walked funny too because he would glare at them with a very concerned look while they walked around. He was really cute, and I loved watching him take it all in.

The last thing we did was feed the ducks and pelicans. We tried to sneak some of our own bread and crackers in for them so we didn't have to buy the zoo food, but the birds would not eat anything but their normal stuff. So we bought several quarters worth of bird pellets and fed away. Lucy loved it, and it was a good way to end the trip.

While we were there my little brother Steven graduated from High School, so it was fun to get to be there for his graduation. It's still so weird to think that he is old enough to be out of school. He's a smart kid, I'm excited to see what he ends up doing. I can't wait to get back to Idaho, which will probably be in October when my little bro David gets home from his mission. I'm already counting down the days!