New Kitchen Update

This is my photo diary of our home addition. I took a couple more today that show what a mess our kitchen currently is in, but I'm too tired to upload them. It's been a lot of fun watching the progress -- until yesterday when the kitchen was torn apart. Now it's getting hard. We're washing dishes in the bathtub and have almost no room to walk around, everything is scattered between the bathroom and living room (although I must say I did a pretty good job of finding spots for everything without making my house look like a disaster). At least we still have the stove hooked up and can use it, we're not cooking outside yet! Anyway, I'm sure this is a fairly boring post, but it's just for my record.

Sophie = Twelve

The day is still young, but I'm on a blogging roll so I'm going to post about this girl's birthday while I can. She was terrified that with Chloe at girls camp that she wouldn't be able to open her gifts until evening, but since those plans all changed (did you read my previous post?) we were able to do it first thing this morning. I was a little worried because she didn't ask for anything. She thought I would be able to come up with something better than she could pick out, so she left it up to me this year. That's a lot of pressure! All my great ideas fell through, so I was left panicking at the last minute. I gave her a coupon to take her to a Jessica Day George book signing (if we can find one), and that made her day. She is sure a simple girl and easy to make happy. I am sure grateful for her. I made some blueberry scones for breakfast, and she was able to open presents while they cooled.

We are going to get an ice cream cake as soon as I can get ready and she chose Olive Garden for her birthday dinner. She has learned to love eggplant as much as I do, and she's finally gotten smart enough to just order her own.

Turning twelve is not very fun for Sophie. She doesn't like this growing up stuff. She would prefer to stay my little girl forever. She is still a hoot, finds any opportunity to make people laugh. She especially loves to tease her dad. She is still writing her novel. Her computer isn't working right now, so she hasn't worked on it much lately, but she loves to write. She is working hard to show she's responsible enough to own a bunny. We'll see if she gets there -- the excitement is already starting to wear off, and she keeps talking about better uses of her money. I think a pet would do her some good (me, not so much, but this is about her). She plays the piano a lot lately, working really hard on flats and sharps. She has a tendency to just skip over them. I think she's a bit tone def, as it doesn't seem to affect her, but she's trying. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. This would be a very dull house without her.



Here is the video collage I made of her first twelve years. Sorry it's so long, but I just couldn't cut it down anymore. It originally started out at over 36 minutes! I did much cutting to get it to this.

Girls Camp

Chloe had a most interesting girls camp this year. I dropped her off on Tuesday morning. I took this photo of her, bright and happy, all ready to go camping!

This is a photo someone took with her camera while at camp -- just moments before it started to rain.

Wednesday night at about 11:00 I got a phone call, "Mom I need you to pick me up at the church in 15 minutes." I had a hard time hearing what she was trying to tell me, but I did get something about a flood and rain. In my jammies I went and got her, and about 1/2 of her stuff. Several things were in a trailer that they weren't going to unload that night. They told us to meet back at the church at 2:00 the next day, and they would go back to the campground to take the tents down and get the remaining stuff. Well, at 1:00 Brandon called me. "Did you get the text?" No, so he reads it to me. They needed Chloe dropped off at someone's house at 1:00. Thanks for the notice! I ran her over there. They had the tents there and they kids were going to help clean them. It was a good thing she went. Her leader told her they could cross this off in Personal Progress for either Good Works or Choice & Accountability -- because she pointed out that they had a choice to come, and some did not. I'm glad we got the text and made it :)

They were supposed to meet at the church at 2:00 and the stake would finish up some camp stuff there. Just after 2:00 Chloe comes through the door, with all the rest of her stuff, dumps it on the floor and tells me she needs to get to the church. Her leader couldn't take her because she had something to do. I dropped her off, again, and left. I knew they were planning to feed them dinner at Bishop's house at 6:00, but I didn't know if she would be home again in between. Nope, we didn't see her until 9:00 that night. It was a crazy day! And I bet a camp that she will not soon forget.

4th of July - 2014

Tradition carried on this year - we made it up to Bloomington again to celebrate my grandma's birthday with her. 97 years old this year (if you're keeping track). We did break tradition and only she rode in the parade. All the rest of us got to enjoy it from the sidelines. We also got some cousins to join us, which made it more exciting.

After the parade we went on a hike to Bloomington Lake. I haven't been there in ages. The drive was a little slow going, but the hike was really nice. Hanging out at the lake was fun, until I realized that we were not going to make it back in time for dinner that had been planned at 5:00. My greatest petpeeve (maybe fear??) is being late (probably a little beyond reasonable), but the fact that someone actually went to the effort to organize the dinner and pick a time really made me want to support them. We were late, I apologized, and everything worked out alright.

I took advantage of everyone sitting down to eat to get some good shots. Uncle Bill was awesome and went to the extra effort of getting us veggie burgers. I really try hard not to be a pain with our eating habits, but it's always appreciated when people want to help us out.

And look at this -- I got everyone together for a group picture (well, our side of the family). I have decided it's going to be easier to just disown my eldest brother than to get him into a family shot. We'll just pretend he's not in the family anymore, does that work?

Then to top off the holiday, Sophie won an essay contest she entered. We have a bunch of the Professor Noggin's trivia card games. The girls really enjoy them. Sophie loves to enter contests (she could make it a full-time hobby), but I've tried to reign her in a bit and find more worthwhile things to do with her time. I told her she could enter this one because it required work (writing the essay), and the winner wasn't chosen at random, so she really had to try hard. The hardest part was that it had to be less than 100 words. When she first sat down and wrote it, it was very lengthy. She spent some time choosing what to cut out. The topic was "What does the 4th of July mean to me?" This is what she wrote:

Every year my family goes up to my great grandma’s. Her birthday is on the fourth of July. We hang out with family members until it is time for the parade. For many years we watched the parade until one year it was decided that we would be in the parade. The first time we rode in the parade my grandpa hooked his trailer to his truck and we decorated the trailer. Last year my grandpa was able to fix up his dad’s wagon that we get to ride in. It’s smaller and bumpy. And later we enjoy fireworks.

June

I forgot to blog lately. I have to back way up now --

We went to Elsie's dance recital. She was an awesome flower thing and pink dragon.

Brandon hired Chloe to paint the fence. She's always complaining that she doesn't have any money. She did two sections and then quit. Sophie got the job, but I never took a picture of her painting. Our fence now looks beautiful.

Chloe went to a YW camp clinic to do all her certification. After telling me that Sophie was going to girls camp, the camp director came and told me she can't go because she won't be 12 by the first day of camp. Oh well -- Sophie doesn't really care. She's not real excited to be graduating from Primary.

We crashed South Jordan's community days, and went and played BINGO at the senior citizens center. That was fun. Chloe won a $10 gift card to Chik-Fil-A. She wasn't too thrilled about that. She's hoping she can find someone to sell it to, but I told her she's not going to get full face value for it. She doesn't think that's fair.

I took the girls to a little "concert in the park." It was folk comedy. They didn't appreciate it.

I found several people in my ward trying to learn to eat a plant-based, whole foods diet. Our Stake YW President teaches classes and stuff, so we all went to one at her house. It was definitely a class for beginners (which is where they are all at), so hopefully I can be a good resource for them.

We got our friends to join us at This is the Place Heritage Park for the annual free day. This was the nicest one I've been to yet. The weather has been just lovely lately (if not a little too cold!) The girls have outgrown pony rides, so we didn't do that, but we still got ice cream and went to all the houses and such. They had a bird show that was educational, and we got chewed out by the mean school teacher. We stayed way longer than I had planned, but that tends to happen when the girls get together with their friends. They even talked us into going to Whole Foods together afterwards.

The Stephens weren't gone even 5 minutes when Sophie got a phone call from Makenly (her friend in Lehi) inviting them over that night. They like to set up their projector outside and watch movies on the fence. Both girls went. It was good for them to have a day of socializing. Yesterday we were able to have Makenly come over to our house. Her mother has been begging us to do this, so they may get to play some more this summer. I just need to convince her to homeschool so that they can play during the rest of the year too.

I haven't got any pictures to show, but Brandon has been working super hard in our yard. He got all the sprinklers dug out from where the new addition is going to be. We had someone from the gas company come out to let me know there are no gas lines in the way, so he cleared us for take off, and then yesterday the contractor showed up and said he just got the permit that morning! He's planning to start on Monday morning -- super exciting!! Brandon's other big project to prepare for this has been to kill off all the goatheads in our "rock patch." He went and bought a flame thrower to try to burn them out. He's been having a little too much fun with that thing. Back up for a sec -- he was going to take the girls camping on Tuesday night, but that's the night it snowed in the mountains. It was so cold the whole day, so they cancelled it. They decided to do a backyard campout last night to make up for it. Brandon tried a new fire method called "Dakota fire" to produce less smoke. It's kind of cool, but he did have some trouble getting it started (and then keeping it going). So... he went and got his flame thrower. I'm standing there remembering how much I wanted to have little girls, and how thankful I am for the girls I got, when Sophie walked over to me and whispered, "Mom, can you ask him to stop being so manly?" We're not really sure what to do with men around here.

Since Brandon had already taken work off on Tuesday and now had nowhere to go Chloe talked him into going to the aquarium. This was our second time at the new one -- the animals are filling in. Now would be a much better time to go (for those who had heard there wasn't much to see). I was planning to go to a presentation on Utah ghost towns and abandoned mines that night. I thought with everyone home someone would like to go with me, but nope, I still had to go alone. Now I have some field trip ideas to take the girls on.

I got a ton of weeding done this morning, so I can call it a good day. I now have unlimited access to Ancestry, so I've spent too much time on my family history this week. I found out Brandon's great-aunt lived in the same house that I did when I lived in Laramie -- pretty cool, huh? We have a stake social this evening, and then Chloe wants to go watch fireworks at Fort Herriman days tonight.

Family Time

We have been spending a lot of time with family lately, and doing some fun stuff. We got to watch ALL of Jason's kids last week while he and Shalee went to a wedding. We had them for the whole day, and it was a lot of fun. The day flew by, there was so much going on. Of course, the girls are a huge help, so they just play with the kids while I take care of feeding the baby and such.

I finally got the girls their trampoline. We had promised them when we finally settled down and had our own house again that would be part of the deal, but we were so busy with other things when we first moved in and then the weather turned cold. I was not going to make the mistake of getting them a trampoline for Christmas again, so I told them in the spring -- when it warmed up. It finally got nice enough so I went to order it... but, in looking around I found the cutest backyard, natural toys/exploring things for kids. I really wanted to do something like that, but when I showed it to the girls I could tell they weren't quite as thrilled as I was -- mostly scared that just meant they wouldn't get their trampoline, so I just hurried and ordered the tramp before I could talk myself out of it. I think I'll work on the other things as time permits, and maybe my grandkids or someone else will enjoy them.

I've really wanted to attend a color festival since I first learned of them about 5 years ago, but I always find out about them too late or something has come up. This year it ended up falling on the same day as a big training I needed to go to. I kept trying to talk myself out of the training, but I knew I needed to go. Chloe was pretty sad about my choice, especially when she found out her best friend was going to it. Then Brandon was doing some research and saw that the Salt Lake chapter was also holding one in May. We already knew it was the same day as Ross' graduation, so we dismissed it as another lost opportunity, but when we got Ross' announcement and saw the party didn't start until 5:00 we decided we could try to squeeze it in. So we did. We drove to Salt Lake, hung out for a little over an hour, got colored all over, and then ran home to clean up. That is messy stuff! Sophie got pegged in the mouth with a handful. She was not real happy about that, and now has a dislike for corn starch.

Then it was off to Logan to celebrate Ross' graduation from USU. I think it's pretty cool that I have a brother who's a pilot. We ate some food, everyone played some baseball (while I took pictures of Emerson -- lucky me!) -- oh yes, there was a pinata, then he opened some gifts. That is one spoiled kid. I guess that's what he gets for being the baby. I'm posting a few pictures here, but the rest of the pictures can be found by clicking this link, for those who don't get enough of my photos.

I actually have some news on our house. It looks like my kitchen is really going to happen! I have been working since February to get some bids. Wow, that was so much harder than I ever thought it should be! Contractors are not the most reliable people. I only got one person to follow through and give me a bid (it was too high, and their methods didn't feel right). Then one day a realtor showed up at my door. I didn't need his services, but I told him if he knew any good contractors I was hiring. We got a bit side tracked when he found out that I eat a plant-based, whole foods diet. I ended up inviting him in and we visited for over an hour! Then one day, out of the blue, he calls me and has a guy who's interested in our project. We had him come over and check things out. He came back -- that same night! Needed to get a few more measurements. 9 days go by (now we're worried at this point because he said it wouldn't be more than a week), but he had a plan for us. I took one look at it, and my heart sank. I am the absolute worst person at being able to visualize things before they are created, but when I looked at that floor plan I knew I didn't like it. While Brandon was off visiting with this guy I shared my concerns with Chloe. She told me I had to tell him I hated it, so we discussed how to do that politely. He was a good sport about it and went back to the drawing board. He came back a few days later with another plan. I still wasn't excited. We told him to give us a few days to think about it. Those few days were rough. We didn't know if we should just give up on the whole idea or what. Brandon was not about to spend this kind of money on something that he couldn't be guaranteed I would love, and I have no idea how to find something I love without it already existing. And then it magically (by the grace of God) fell into place. I found a picture that looked an awful lot like that second plan he had drawn up. I made the necessary changes, and told him what I needed. I'm pretty sure he thinks I am crazy, but I don't care. I am going to get a kitchen I am happy with! He redid the plans (and while we were waiting on them our realtor friend just decided to stop by and check on us again -- weird, but I thanked him for the referral), and when he brought them back, with a bid, I was excited!! He's now taking them to the city. I'm sure they'll take their dear little time, but we've actually got the ball rolling.

Sophie and I had a spontaneous field trip today. I had tried to sign up for it when it was first announced, but I didn't do it fast enough. They closed the registration period way quicker than normal (even though it hadn't filled up). Soph was bummed when I told her we missed out, but this morning someone who had registered posted that they couldn't use their tickets. I was able to grab them before someone else did, but that didn't give us much time to eat, get dressed, get Brandon to work and get to Provo. We barely made it, but they didn't start on time (go figure). It was a creative dance (ballet) of music around the world. Some of them were really cool. I was happy we made it -- and we didn't even have to pay (I am so cheap).

Birthdays & Bluff

Here are a few of the major things we've been up to:

Nigel and Lark share a birthday, so we got to go celebrate with them. We all went to a late lunch at Noodles, and then we went shopping with Grandma, Grandpa and Melanie for awhile. After that we went and hung out at Ross and Melanie's for a bit (and played with Nigel), until they had to leave for work and stuff. Then I took Chloe shopping, she and Sophie both got some shoes. Then we met the gang back at Lark's for just a bit until it was time to go to Melanie's color guard show. She put together an event to show off what the USU color guard is doing. After that we watched Lark chase Nigel all over the gym floor, and then we joined Melanie's family back at their place for cake and ice cream. It made for a late night, but that's OK -- we don't have too many of those.

On the 15th Brandon, Sophie and I went to Salt Lake to meet "The Minimalists." They were on tour so we went to listen to them. Chloe didn't want to join us, but she's already caught the bug so I was fine with that. I was hoping something would spark an interest in Sophie. She's actually been making progress. She came to me one day and said if she could take a picture of some things I could get rid of them, and then once she brought me a pile of stuff and told me that if I got rid of it when she wasn't looking she'd be OK. The next day Ross & Melanie came to visit us, so she cleaned her room for them. It was good for her to see how many things she has that she doesn't need.

This past weekend we went to Bluff. This was NOT Chloe's birthday trip, it just happened to coincide with her birthday. We wanted to go to Bluff to see the movie we were in, and it was National Park Week so we wanted to take advantage of free entrance over the weekend. We left Friday afternoon and went to Green River (Chloe found a hotel there she wanted to stay in -- she's a hotel snob), and then Saturday we went to Arches. We spent a couple hours there before driving to Bluff. When we got there we told them we wanted to see the film we were in (hoping our part didn't get cut). They scared me when they said it wasn't showing yet, but I was sure it was because I just spoke to my friend, whose husband directed it, a few weeks ago to make sure. It was fun to watch the finished product; although, we were so busy picking out all the people we know and scenes we were involved in that we might have missed watching the movie! Chloe had told me that if we did get cut she was going to demand that they show us the deleted scenes. Luckily, that didn't happen. There's a lot to walk around and see there, so we did that while I talked to Jason on the phone (who called to wish Chloe a happy birthday).

After Bluff we drove to Kanab for our second night, and then hit Bryce Canyon National Park the next day. We have now done all the national parks in Utah! There's still a lot left to see, though :)

For Chloe's birthday she wanted a new bike. She got it early so she could use it once the weather warmed up. Since we were gone on her birthday, we are going to go out to dinner tonight to celebrate. I haven't had a chance to do her annual photo shoot, but we got enough photos of her over the weekend. I came up with a new idea to interview her on video. I think that would be awesome to watch over the years. We are hoping to get that done today, but she is nervous about it and asked me not to share it publicly.