Football!

Where do you think Calvin is?  At BYU maybe?

Nope!  In his own backyard!  We thought this would be a fun use of our extra-long and narrow backyard.  Calvin was pretty excited to have a field of his own.  We even put BYU in one end zone and COUGARS in the other.  

We know it doesn't really compare with the real BYU field--huh Uncle Rich?  But it was pretty fun, unless you hit the pile of rotten, squishy plums in the "COUGARS" end zone...A little home field advantage that we don't have to share with the visiting team!  He he he!  Bring on football season!

Happy Birthday Calvin!

Handsome guy!  Calvin got a Game-Boy Game (Yoshi's Island), Legos, some Cash, and a Ripstick for his 9th Birthday.   He's a good boy and puts up with a lot being the only boy!  He loves football, baseball, video games, drawing comics, and playing with his friends.  We love this cool kid!  Ready for 4th grade! 

Ripstick-tastic!

Summer is great!

Who needs a fancy-shmansy pool?  Not us!  All we need is a little water and something to float on and we're entertained for hours and hours!  It's sort of amazing!  Calvin and his friends even made the wipe-out zone with that little pool and floaties!  Cool!

The Reservoir

Spanish Fork has a cool reservoir that we just discovered this summer!  The water is cold, and the sand's a little gritty, but...the view is awesome.  It's up high next to the mountains and above the windmills at the mouth of the canyon.  We had so much fun with our friends the Littledikes.  Ahhhh.....the lazy days of summer!

Lindsay and buddy Drew preferred to snack and play in the sand.

Calvin, Jackson and Cooper taking a break after running around the entire reservoir!

Lauren just soaking in the sun!

Lindsay looks cold!

Alli is a fish!

Calvin and Jackson swimming.

Lindsay is a mermaid (look closely at the sand).

The sand monster!

Whose idea was this?  I've got sand in my face...can someone give me a hand?

Sweet Summer!

We grew strawberries this summer!  We actually planted them last summer, but nothing happened.
This year look what came up?

Yummy Strawberries!  Lindsay figured out a new variety of "lipstick!"

We got so much joy out of checking on our strawberries!

Guess What?

Someone at our house had a special day!

There were balloons.... 

  

 ...and even some Carrot Cake!

Yup!  Lauren is 15!

Make a wish!

She's a real sweetheart and a real pleasure to have in our family.  We love her soo much!  I just don't know if we're ready for her to grow up and start driving!

More painting....

I still had quite a bit of paint left over from our table and chairs...I had an idea...and the whole month of May...

Here's a close picture so you can see I distressed the edges just a bit, sort of fun.  And below is a picture with the wood floor--I really like how they look together.

Here's the new guest bathroom--or in Lindsay's terms, "Grandpa and Grandma's Bathroom."  She says this because she used to use this bathroom when she was potty training, but now that she's trained I like to keep one bathroom clean for our company.  Since she didn't understand when I told her it was the guest bathroom, I simplified and said it's just for Grandpa and Grandma when they come over.  Now our poor guests wonder why they have to use "Grandpa and Grandma's Bathroom."  It's especially perplexing to her little friends!

The laundry room feels more like a room and less like a pass through/forgotten part of the house!  

I did this room first and once it was done, I knew I would do my bathrooms as well.  I just love it!

Here's our master bathroom--a lot of stuff to paint!  So naturally, I saved it for last.  I am soooo happy with the way it turned out!  Yippeee!  I also painted the kids bathroom upstairs, but it looks pretty much like the other rooms, so I spared you.  Our cabinets were natural wood before, but the finish was wearing off and we were ready for a little make-over. It's fun to change things up a bit--makes the journey more fun!