Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We had a wonderful, quiet Thanksgiving Day at home.  We had a delicious dinner, that took WAY longer to prepare than it took to eat!!
There are many things I am grateful for.  My life is richly blessed and I owe that all to a loving Heavenly Father who is very good to me.  I am grateful for the knowledge I have of Him and the chance I have to talk with him in prayer.  I know He is very aware of me, loves me and wants me to have joy and happiness.  I am grateful for the wonderful husband and children that Heavenly Father has blessed my life with.  They bring me GREAT joy and happiness.  I am grateful for my home, friends, callings that allow me to serve others.  I am grateful for my siblings and the fun memories we have made and their kindness towards me.  I am grateful for my healthy body and the health of all of my family members.  I am grateful for the Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am grateful for His perfect example, love, teachings and sacrifice He made for me.  I am grateful for the scriptures that teach of Him so that I can become like Him.  I look forward to the Saviors return and want to live with Him again.
After lunch/dinner we went  by Forester Acres to take a family picture.  Man, you would have thought I'd asked them to walk hundred miles.  Getting everyone to look at the camera was a chore. Luckily, I think there is one that might be usable.  Joslynn was by far the hardest.  She and Kaylynn are definitely the hardest to get to stand still.  Joslynn was dancing, singing Frozen songs and using the marker as a microphone.  Kaylynn just doesn't stand still and was even worse when a dog started barking.  She is deathly afraid of dogs and every time one barked, she looked away to make sure it wasn't close.  Tyler is to "old" for family pictures and just wanted to get it done.  Ashley loves to photo bomb.  Alyssa was very helpful and just likes to smile.

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 Tyler is a titch frustrated - lets get this done!!!

Completion!!!

YEAH!  YEAH! YEAH!!  The kitchen is done.  I am grateful for the tender mercies which the Lord granted as we took on this project.  We have always wanted to redo the kitchen, but the cost involved was over whelming.  We are still waiting  for the insurance reimbursement to see how much it really cost us.  I am grateful for Heavenly Father's hand in my life, and know he was watching over us and making things happen.  It is wonderful to have the kitchen more open and not feeling so tight.  I am grateful that I was able to still can my fruits and veggies to build my food storage.  Things that are important to me, I was still able to do.  My youngest brother came and finished up some odds and ends for us, and we greatly appreciate him.

My brother, Jason

We finished the project just in time for Homecoming.  Tyler's group came here for dinner, hence, only four chairs & a tablecloth!!

First Day of School

School has started.  Tyler is in 11th grade, Ashley in 7th grade, Kaylynn in 5th grade, Alyssa in 2nd grade.  Joslynn and I do preschool at home.

 Cedar Ridge Middle School

 Summit Elementary

Tyler and Allen did the ice bucket challenge.  In fact, Tyler had three buckets thrown on him.  They were both crazy.

Ogden Temple Open House

We were blessed to be able to take the children to the Ogden Temple Open House.  What a beautiful building. I love the temple and feel very blessed that we have several very close to us.  I love to go with Tyler and Ashley and see the joy in them as they do baptisms.  I love to go with Allen and know my life is very blessed because I attend.  I love the Spirit that is felt and feel Heavenly Fathers love and know that it is The House of the Lord.  I love the Savior and feel His love when I am in His house.

unexpected Visitor

The girls noticed an unexpected visitor in our garden early one morning.

The deer just stared at us as we went outside and she didn't run away until we got pretty close.  It was funny that the deer was in my yard.  Just the week before I was speaking with a friend about the deer problem and stated I didn't have a problem since they never came into my garden!!!

Ashley's Birthday

Ashley turned 13 this year!!!  WOW, she's a teenager!  We had a great day together.  Joslynn and I went to her school to eat lunch with her.  After school she had friends over for dinner and then Becky, Ashley and I went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.  We then came back to the house for ice cream and presents.  I am glad that Ashley likes to attend the temple and am very proud of her righteous decisions.  She works hard in all she does.  She is a straight A student at school.  She is very helpful around the house and is fun to tease.  She hates mustard and guacamole and so we tease her about that.  She continues to play the violin and it is wonderful to hear her play.  She is gaining confidence, but is still very shy.  She has decided to join the ward choir to complete a project for her personal progress.  That will hopefully  pull her out of her shell!!  Ashley requested and ice cream cake.  That seems to be the choice of everyone lately.  She had Becky Krusi and Katie Finlinson over.  Tyler brought some of his friends to eat ice cream too.  They didn't want to be in the picture, so I caught them in the background.

 Becky Krusi, Ashley, Katie Finlinson

Grandpa Dawes gave Ashley a REAL t-shirt.  Ashley loves soccer and likes to watch all the REAL games.  She knows the players and gets excited for the games.  She was thrilled to get the shirt, as the picture shows.  Her birthday gift was tickets to the game in Salt Lake on Sept 6th. Allen and I both went with her.  We went to dinner and then the game.  We had terrific seats and it was a lot of fun.

Kitchen- Phase 2

It was a wonderful day to paint.  There were a couple late nights, but it was well worth it.  The walls in the kitchen were painted spice delight (a pretty yellow color), and weeping willow below the chair rail.  I also painted the living room revere pewter.  I figured since the paint supplies were out, I might as well do it all.

I was so excited for the cabinets to come!!  We decided to go with Willow Brook cabinets.  The owner is our old stake president and knew he would do an excellent job.  He was also the quickest with the quote and the most helpful with decisions and suggestions of what to do.  We decided not to replace the L shape, instead extending down the exterior wall.  They arrived at 8:30 in the morning and were finished by 5pm.  When they were done,  Cache Valley countertops came to measure and a week later we had coutertops.

 The wonderful new pantry!!

After the counters were in we could get the floor installed.  We had laminate flooing installed, so the cabinets had to be placed first.  The night before I tore up the remaining old laminate in the dining and hallway.   The floor man came the next day and installed the new floor. The counter tops came the next week and then the plumber came to hook up the new sink and dishwasher.  I was thrilled to get the sink.  We were pretty tired of doing dishes in the bathroom.  It was perfect timing on completion because the next day my peaches were ready and the girls and I bottled 56 quarts!!  That would have been to difficult to do in the bathroom!  We love the new kitchen and are grateful to Heavenly Father that completion was in time to do some canning.  Things "did work out".

My wonderful brother, Jason, came for a visit and I  put him to work!!  I had a long list of jobs and he was very good and completed everything.  The first item was the microwave.

Hooking up the electrical aspect of the dishwasher

Kitchen remodel - phase 1

After 7 long weeks, our kitchen is finally back together.  It was a long process, but one worth waiting for.  I love the finished product.  I was definitively ready to be done with the mess.  Things were scattered everywhere; the living room, outside under the car port, downstairs, and in our bedroom.  We kept the old cupboards outside so I could store my cooking supplies and ingredients so they would be easily accessible.  Here are a few pictures of the different phases:

After restoration company finished with removal of wet materials

 Tyler helped with the removal of the rest of the cabinets.  Jeff and Laura Bland came and helped and let us borrow their crowbars.  We appreciated the different sizes.  The nails that  held the cabinets on the wall were LONG!!

 The oven was built into the cabinets and we were expecting to find an outlet.  Much to our surprise the wires came right out of the floor and were wired directly to the stove.  Luckily we have a wonderful electrician.  Allen called Raul in distress and he came over that night and took care of the live wires for us (it was 9:30 pm).  He came back the next day and placed an outlet for us.  Raul helped with many things and appreciate his expertise!!

We removed the old pantry.  The shelves and ledges were pretty easy to remove.

 Rick Hall did our demolition of the soffet and sheet rock repairs.  We did not want to replace all of the cabinets against this wall, so we decided to remove all of the soffets (on all walls) and have the cabinets all the way to the ceiling.  Unfortunately the soffet was full of insulation, one reason we did not want to do the job.  Rick and Tyler climb into the attic and raked the insulation out of it and then removed it.  We took out the pantry to have cabinets go to the ceiling.

 On the exterior wall, the ceiling slanted to much, so they couldn't rake it all out.  They lined the sink with plastic to catch the insulation and then took it back up to the attic.

Mudding the nicely hung new sheet rock!

At the end of the day the only thing left is the sink, unattached dishwasher with small yellow counter top set on top to protect the plastic.  The walls were repaired where all the yellow back splash had previously been.  The ceiling is level and mud is drying.  Rick did an excellent job and would highly recommend him.  We are very pleased.  He hung and repaired the sheet rock in Kaylynn's bedroom also. 

The new sub floor with leveling cement.  It was nice to not be able to see downstairs through the cracks anymore.  When I swept the floor the dirt would fall downstairs.  If Kaylynn was in her room she would yell up to me to stop sweeping.