Dun da da da! And now the moment you have all been waiting for (well at least the one I've been waiting for): OUR FINISHED HOUSE! I did them in a sequence of before and after pictures, so you can all see the transformation.

Before...

and after! (Just keep going, I'm not going to keep typing before... and after)

I'm back in business

Guess what! Our computer is finally fixed. I really didn't mind not having it except it was very inconvenient for Paul because he had a couple of internet classes this summer. Turns out, we finally got our computer fixed a few days after he was done with them. Let's just say he spent a lot of time at school and at his parents' house. Things are fabulous for us. Our house is done. I mean really done. Last Saturday, we just woke up and sat around, ran some errands and did whatever we wanted. It was great! I did get some ants in my pants though. It is kind of hard to just sit when you are so used to moving all the time. Last night, since we didn't have anything to work on at our house, we went and helped Paul's brother Aaron at his house for family home evening. So many of Paul's family have helped us so much. I was beginning to feel selfish. It felt good to try to do something the help them back.

There has been a lot of family stuff going on lately. First, Paul's sister Andrea got home from her mission about a month ago, so we're having a great time with her. Then, Paul's brother Jeff and his wife Jocelyn came down from Canada with their beautiful baby girl Holly. Then, Paul and I took our kids and went up to Utah for a week for my Grandma's 90th birthday. She is the most feisty 90 year old I know. It was so fun to see all my cousins. All of my brothers and sisters, with their husbands, wives, and kids, crammed into my sister Kary's new house. It was a blast. I stayed up late every night just to take in as much as I could. I really miss my family. I still see them a lot, but I miss being so close to them. When we got home, more family stuff with Paul's family because his sister Carrie is leaving on her mission to go to Philadelphia this Wednesday. She is going to be awesome. It is pretty neat to look at the missionary legacy in Paul's family. Carrie is the 7th missionary to go out. All of the children in his family have served missions except for Kevin and Jana because they are only 16. They are all good kids!

I discovered a few new things that I love. First of all, the game rock band on the WI is a blast to play with your family or friends. I can finally realize my dreams of jamming out with a rock band. Second of all, I am just about to finish the last book in the Twilight series, and I find it very surprising and satisfying so far. I swear, I am trying to put it off because I am going to be so depressed when it is over. I don't mean that I don't think I am going to like the ending, I just will be sad that I can't ever read the books again for the first time. Well toodaloo!

yep, I'm a lame blogger

Well, as you all can tell by now, blogging is not my strength, but I do have some excuses. Our computer broke about a week ago, and we are seeing if we can get it fixed. I can't wait to post some new pictures because our house is basically done except for a few loose ends, and for those of you who have been following my posts, you will hardly even recognize it. That is basically all I do is eat, sleep, take care of my kids and work on my house. Soon, we will have normal lives again where we can do fun things on weekends, and relax at night. I am becoming a pro caulker and painter though. You should see me go. Gus is a hoot, he says some of the most ridiculous things, and he is very social. He loves to talk to everyone he sees. The other night, we were over at my in-laws house and my sister in law, Kelliane was changing her little baby boy's diaper. Gus walked over and watched over her shoulder. Then he said, "Kelliane, your baby has such a cute weenie." We were rolling with laughter. I knew he just wanted to give her a compliment on her baby, but didn't realize what he was saying was a little bit off. Anyway, every day he says funny stuff. I need to be better at writing it down. Max is a dancer these days, but he usually just taps one leg. There's not much movement in the upper body. It is hillarious. Any time he hears any kind of music, he rocks out to it. My pregnancy is going great. I am not sick any more. I am 20 weeks along now, and I am still not really showing. I just feel like my stomach has more rolls, but I swear, that baby is pushing all my organs around, because it feels like it is just jammed in there. I already have to pee all the time. Well, hopefully we can get our computer working and I will post some pics.

Little sisters

Just a little update on what's going on with us. This last few weeks we have really been pushing on our house. We hope to have it done this month! ( I am so sick of it, I won't even be sad to sell it!) I am still feeling pretty pukey with this baby stuff, but I think I will feel great pretty soon. When we talk to Gus about the baby, he insists it is a girl. He does not want another little brother. He told us he wants to name his baby sister, Cherry. We just found out that my brother and his wife are having their third girl in a row. They have one boy that is the oldest, and he is pretty bummed because he wanted a baby brother. When we told Gus this, he just perked up and said, "I'll just give Caden my brother (referring to Max), and we can have Caden's baby sister." I asked him, "wouldn't you miss Max?" He said, " no, I don't like Max. I want a sister!" If I ever even say something like, "what if we have a boy?", or "what would you want to name the baby if it is a boy," he just throws a huge fit and says, "I don't want another brother, I want a sister!" So, for both of our sakes, I am hoping for a girl. We are not going to find out what the baby is, so it will be a suspenseful 9 months!

School-end camping trip

Hey all, I know a lot of you are celebrating being out of school right now. Paul's last final got over last Tuesday, and he decided that to celebrate, we were going camping! Well, it rained Tuesday, so we went Thursday night instead. It is a good thing we weren't going to go yesterday because we got 6 inches of snow yesterday. That's what we get for living in the mountains. In the 20 years Paul's parents have lived here, they have seen snow in every month but August. Anyway, here are some pictures of our camping trip to Beaver Creek.



Paul found a huge spider here on the rock. It was massive, so he played with it for a while. Gus decided he was Tarzan and just climbed all over the place. There was a little waterfall that he kept climbing up. Paul went over and found him and said, "Wow, I can't believe you climbed up here all by yourself!" and Gus said, "Yeah, your so proud of me huh dad!"















After Max got in the water, he was not very happy any more. It was a bit cold. Here is Paul consoling him, and next to that is Gus crossing the creek by himself, again, very proud of his task.























Here we all are at our camp ground. Paul cooked us the most delicious dinner in the dutch oven, and for breakfast, we forgot to bring eggs for our breakfast burritos, so we had sausage, bacon, and potato burritos, very greasy. We topped each meal off with a s'more. Yum!
































Sleeping was a little interesting. We wound up with both boys in our sleeping bags, but Gus slept in for a long time, so we finally sent Max in there to wake him up. Pleasant surprise.

Double picture

Sorry about posting Gus's makeup picture twice. I really have always had a bad memory!

OK , everyone. I just realized I am a total dork, and I didn't know that people could post comments on my blog. I went through today and read all the comments that anyone has been posting. How fun to hear from everyone. I read comments from like 6 months ago that I didn't even know were there.

Things have been going great lately. I have been so hungry. I have been eating like a cow. That is the only time I feel good is when I am eating. Before and after I eat, I am in a constant state of nausia.

Preschool is almost over. I love my kids, but I am really tired, so it will be nice to have a breather for a couple of months. I am really excited about show-and-tell day, and our big pizza party.

I found this picture, where I think Max totally looks like Donald Trump, but Paul didn't agree with me, so tell me what you guys think.
















Things are going really great on our house. We have a swing on our front porch now! I am so excited. The weather is so nice now. In a month, it will even be nice at night time.

OK, so Max is 15 months and still not walking. Oh, but don't let him fool you, He knows how to walk, he just doesn't care. The kid is so content with life as it is. He is by far the happiest, funniest baby I know, but please walk Max, because I am really sick of throwing away all your pants because they have holes in the knees, and when we are camping, I would love to be able to put you on the ground without you turning into a complete dust ball. Everyone keeps telling me, oh, when he walks, he will get into everything. He already does! At this point, it would really be a ton easier if he would just stand up and go his own way! I love the kid!