The Goings On At Our Place

     Where to begin, I don't even know.  I guess at the beginning.  When we bought our cute old farm house we immediately remodeled the kitchen and painted and carpeted the rest of the upstairs rooms along with some significant wallpaper removal.  It was a lot of work, but it was okay.  We weren't living there.  We decided not to do the bathroom because it was expensive.  

     Last fall I decided to take off the wall paper in the bathroom which was already peeling itself off anyway.  Just to spruce it up a bit, a tide-me-over until we decided to really remodel.  Well, if you've ever owned an old home you know how it goes, one thing leads to another.  The walls underneath the paper weren't paint-able.  So we decided we'd just take the plunge and remodel the whole thing.  One problem, it's our only bathroom.  So we decided we'd wait until spring and put a bathroom downstairs first and then remodel the upstairs one.  We had to wait until spring because there isn't a sewer line to the basement and we'd need to put one in.  So I patiently waited the winter with my ultra-ugly bathroom with no wallpaper or even a light above the sink (Corey did offer to put a light up, he is an electrician, but I refused telling him we were not about to get comfortable with this ugly bathroom).  Spring came and we found out the sewer line would need to go under our driveway.  Corey and our very good friend Kevin spent an entire Saturday digging out leveling and installing the beautiful new line.  

Corey about 8 feet underground, in our driveway

      Now for any of you who have seen our home the driveway wasn't the most impressive thing about it, but I didn't mind all that much.  It served it's purpose well enough, modge-podge and all.  But after pulling a good section of it out to put in the sewer line we decided to replace the whole thing.  This has turned out to be a crazy endeavor with multiple problems including wet sinkholes large enough to park a car in...not exactly what we had in mind.  Thankfully my husband is very handy and resourceful and has done an amazing job.  With the help of many family, friends and neighbors we've got it level and just about graded for concrete.  It will be very nice when it's done, we'll see if we're too burned out or drained of funds by the time we're done to actually do the bathrooms.  Either way we've made progress, we'll get there eventually.  Can you believe it?? All this because I took down the wallpaper in my bathroom!

Bring on the concrete!

 

April Birthday Boys

     April is always a busy month for birthdays at our house.  Last week we celebrated Tate's sixth birthday.  I don't know what it is but this one took me by surprise.  He still feels like my baby....before the babies and six didn't coincide with that feeling.  For his birthday he went to Classic Skating with his Dad and brothers to scooter and play.  They all had a great time.
     Tate is at that great age where he has his favorites and he doesn't deviate.  His favorite color is blue, his favorite letter is T (ya know T for Tate).  He'll often say things like "Mom, I like that word, you know why?" and I'll ask why and he'll say "it's because it starts with a T."  So cute.  He's a sweet boy who can keep up with the big boys and also play great with the twins.  We love you so much Tater-bug!!! Happy Birthday!
(Oh!  Tate wanted a blue ninjago birthday cake and thanks to his artistic brother he got it....except for his own name which he wrote.  Thanks Mac!) 

      McKay turned eleven this year.  He's such a great  young man and we're so lucky to have him in our family.  He's super creative and artistic and always amazing me with the things he creates.  He's a hard worker and a good kid all around.  He wanted to spend some time with his cousins for his birthday which is what we'll be doing tonight.  Love you Mac!!  We're so proud of the great young man you're becoming!!

Builder Boys

 This Spring Break Keaton was sick so we've been doing a lot of at-home-playing.  I thought I'd show off my builder boys.  McKay is an amazing builder....his main building materials???  Legos.  I love that they do this and McKay can spend hours at it. Above is Tate getting into the building action, below are McKays latest and greatest!

My favorite use yet for sticky notes...

These sweet notes keep popping up all over my house.  Above the sink in my kitchen, on the door to my bedroom and underneath my pillow. 

Moab

     Last weekend we had the fun opportunity to go to Moab.  It was a great trip with lots of hiking in Arches National Park and  hanging out with wonderful friends.  The weather was a bit chilly, but it was sunny and clear which made it nice. 
     I haven't been to Arches since I was a teenager so it was fun to be there and marvel at the formations.  It was also great to realize that most of the arches take less than a mile hike to get to which was perfect for little legs that are too big to be carried.

     First off...Double Arch.

These Arches are huge...those green and blue dots at the bottom are Corey and Avery.

Cute kiddos all bundled up!

Hiking down

Cute boys! 

     We found an awesome place for lunch that was fairly contained with lots of room to run around and climb boulders.  It was so fun, in fact, that we went there both days! 

The "kids" best climbing spot.

The "Dads" best climbing spot....this picture does no justice to the height of this baby.

 

Keaton partway up the big one...adventurous child.

     After lunch we decided to hike to landscape arch.  It was fun and about a mile and a half so good and long for little legs...oh yeah and a 28-week-pregnant-with-twins-friend.  If you've never carried twins you just can't know the exhaustion....Lacey, you're a rockstar!! Not to mention that she carried her two-year-old probably half of the time.  At this time in my twin pregnancy I was on complete bed rest taking two naps a day and still sleeping through the night.  I'm so impressed Lacey and it was great to have your company.

There was a great sand hill on part of this hike...I couldn't resist the "action."

Proof that all these kids made it to the end of the hike...and the parents even survived. 

Thank you Larkins for planning such a great trip! 

A very successful one indeed!

Corey & Marci

     I'm one of those lucky people who absolutely LOVE their in-laws.  I really can't say  I have an in-law I don't adore.  My brother made a steal of a find in his beautiful wife Hayley, love all of Corey's siblings and parents and personally think Jared picked his sweet wife just for me (okay, I know he really picked her for him, but I'm sure part of his thought process was, this girl and Amber will be great friends..).  But I have to say, that this girl is by far the most ENTERTAINING.  Shes great on her own, but if you want some real belly laughs she works best with her comrade in craziness....Corey.
     As an example I thought I'd share a recent text-conversation between the two.  A little back-story....a cute man in our ward just gave us his piano as ours was quite old and in need of repair.  Corey had asked Marc if she wanted our old one.  They're in the process of selling their house so they didn't want it there so they didn't come up with a storage spot.  That's where the texts begin.

Corey: " Do you guys really want our old piano? We're fine to hold onto it for a little while, but we need to know either way."

Marci: " Yes we would love it!"

Corey: " Okay, come get it tomorrow k, ok. "

Marci: "Yeah, stick it in the trailer with the rest of our stuff"

Corey: "Um no, but I will stick it somewhere else hahaha"

Corey: "JK Marci"

Marci: "Real mature fart face"

Corey: " pooh head"

     They seriously communicate like this all the time.  Pretty darn funny I think. Oh and I looked for a "nice" picture of Marci where she's not making a funny face or showing her bum....I don't have one, not a one.  Love ya Marc!!

Keaton's Chinese Program

       Every year the Chinese Immersion kids put on a program at their school.   It's really fun that they get to learn so much about the culture of the language they're learning.  It's always astounding to me to see such young kids speaking Chinese.  Keaton can translate almost any normal phrase into Chinese and isn't allowed to speak English at all in their immersion class. 

 Each grade wore a different color.  The "kids in black" are the first graders.  The second graders were in red on the side and Keaton's class, the third grade wore white.  This is the third grades song about the clouds turning into sheep.  Super cute. 

 Keaton and his cute friend Ellie (who he asked to be his Valentine )

 Keaton doing the "dragon dance"

Great job Keat! We're so proud of you!