house projects

Moving into this house has me itching to actually own my own place. This house has so much potential, but some of the projects are just too big or too expensive to do to a rental. Like we have the most beautiful, but horribly beat up wood floors. If you walk on them in socks the socks catch on all the places the finish is scratched and peeled off. It would be a huge and dusty project to refinish them, but if I owned the place I totally would because the wood really is beautiful. The cabinets in the kitchen have good bones, but the doors are total junk. It wouldn't be that big of a deal to replace the doors and paint them a nicer color. Again, if we owned the place. The whole place could use new paint, new trim, new doors. It would make a huge difference on how old it feels.

There are some things we are able to do though without spending a lot that really improve daily life. We've replaced blinds and cleaned out corners and fixed doors so they don't stick when they close and little things like that. We are working on improving the yard. The driveway floods horribly whenever it rains and it takes days and days to dry off due to the trees. We're going to dig a french drain down the side of it. For the cost of some gravel we won't have perpetual puddles. It rains often here, so that's a big deal.

We're clearing out some of the tiny trees that are trying to take over the yard. A friend of ours has a chainsaw that we're going to put to good use on that project. Bill raked a good chunk of our yard the other day and it's good to see that there is green grass under all the leaves and pine needles.

So it's a step towards permanence. Bill and I celebrated six years of marriage a couple weeks ago. We've wanted a house for a good long while now, but it just isn't part of our financial plan yet. It's getting to where it's not too far away though and that's cool to see. I may be eating my words in two years, but we think Bill will be finished with his degree in that time. I can keep hoping! For now we do little things to make this place better and keep dreaming.

Happy birthday to me

Four years ago tomorrow I got the sweetest gift of Spencer on my birthday. He was quite possibly the best birthday present I'd ever received. Nothing can really compare to that first baby that makes you a mom, and on my birthday no less.

I don't really know what I'll do tomorrow to celebrate my birthday. We have some awesome new toys for Spencer, so I'm sure it will involve lots of playing with them. I have scouts that night, so hanging out with a couple 9 year-olds is on the agenda. Visiting a friend is in there too.

So nothing that special or out of the norm, but another good day, another good year. I've liked the first couple years of my 30s. We've managed to accomplish quite a few goals and are well on the way to finishing some others. I have a great husband and some awesome kids. It's a good place to be.

This is going to be a great year, I can already tell. I have some races planned, some fun things to do as a family, plenty of things to build for our house, a couple quilts to finish or make, and I'm sure lots of other awesome things in the works. We need to get out hiking and camping some more. Bill and I need to go on a few more regular dates. We need to be deliberate about how we spend our time and make the most of it. All good things. I'm looking forward to it.

Growing up

This cute kid turns four tomorrow.

I can't believe it's been that many years since he made me a mom. He changed our world forever and I love him to pieces. It's hard to believe he ever looked like this. It's crazy to look back four years ago. I have to admit, I hardly recognize him. He's just so vibrant and full of personality now, it's hard to remember this little bundle of cuteness.

He has the most fantastic personality. He's funny and smart and clever and a great big brother. He's such a good helper and such a good little buddy. He also happens to stretch my parenting ability to the limits and beyond. He is growing so fast and wants to explore the world and learn and understand things and it's just awesome to help him do just that. I've been checking out a few preschools for him and I picked one that hopefully he will get into in a couple weeks when they open registration. I can't wait to see all he'll learn and how he'll change as he experiences being with other kids so much more and all the new experiences that will come with. Happy birthday, Spencer!

It started with a simple connection made for a friend

I don't talk much on here about my work or where my interests lie there. In fact, many people don't know I have a job. It's not something I talk much about, but it is what I do on the side to help keep the finances working while Bill is in grad school and help us have more of a semblance of normality though we are living on a graduate stipend. I stayed with the company I worked with between my two college degrees as a contract employee. I have always felt like it paid well enough and is just the right kind of flexible that it meets my needs right now when my primary focus is being a SAHM to my kids and supporting Bill in his educational pursuits. It has been a huge blessing to have that work all these years.

The thing is, I do have some professional interests. I haven't thought about them for quite a while because I was comfortable where I was, but an innocent request from a friend that caused me to connect two people I know got the gears going in my brain.

It's coming on four years since I graduated from BYU with an MPA. It is crazy to even type that, but it really has been that long. It was kind of interesting timing that I did that program. I started three years after I had finished my bachelor's degree. I had loved my undergrad degree but the job market after college wasn't what I had hoped and I didn't enjoy the career path I was in. Graduate school was a dream come true. It was an amazing experience and I really found some areas I was interested in pursuing professionally. It turned into a bit of a juggling act though because Bill was also working on his undergrad at the same time and we had plans to start our family. We ended up doing an internship for him instead of me and then Spencer came along and that became a much larger focus for me than what I wanted to do professionally. He was three months old when I graduated with my MPA.

It's funny because at that time I decided to forego some of the career things I was interested in to focus on full time parenting. That was a good decision. I was overwhelmed at the time and it was good to focus on only that. Four years later I have three kids and a husband doing a PhD and yet it seems like a great time to revisit some of those earlier interests. You'd think I'd be way more overwhelmed now, but not so much. It's funny how life changes. The more kids I have the better I become at using my time well, at getting done what needs to be done and maximizing the time I have when they're asleep. It's still a work in progress, but I appreciate the ways I've grown from those early days of parenting and just scraping by trying to keep up with all the needs.

So I'm circling back and looking at ways to use my degree. I gained some really fantastic skills through grad school and other experiences over the years and it's feeling like a really good idea to start using them more. I'm already working. Why not work doing things that are fulfilling professionally and not just things that pay the bills? And heck, if it turns into a more lucrative situation than I am currently in, all the better! I never get more time, so if I can use my time better, that's a win.

So I'm not quite ready to leap into things, but I'm one step closer. I'm not going to run out and quit my current stable job, but I am looking at possibilities of doing some editing work, some PowerPoint design work, and some decision analysis work to help people make more informed decisions. I have some sweet tools that go along with that. We'll see what comes of all of this. Suffice it to say I'm excited about the possibilities.

House tour

I think I have unpacked every box that is possible to unpack in our new house, so it's about time to show some pictures of the place. I'm pleased with how it has turned out so far. There's a few places where I need a table or dresser or rug, but not nearly as much as I expected. I definitely didn't spend much time organizing the toys or such nonsense, so since you're all my friends, just enjoy the lived in look. Haha! Here goes, the official home tour 2015.

Spencer and Genevieve's room. For the life of me I haven't figured out what kind of stuff to put on their walls since their beds take up so much space, so we'll just pretend I have it beautifully decorated. We actually don't spend much time in here. The dollhouse got moved out to the living room, so that's where the action is most of the time. They have a half bath attached, which is quite convenient.

Master bedroom. It's a bit bigger than in our last apartment, and it's so nice to have just a bit more space to move around.

 Main bathroom. We lost a bathtub in the move, so this room feels exceptionally squished with the kid's toys and Aaron's tub and lots and lots of towels, plus washer and dryer behind the door, but it is also very efficient use of space, so I'll take it.

 Dining room

 Kitchen

 Living room

 Aaron's room. I found this rug randomly at Lowes for dirt cheap and I kind of love it.

I realized I've not taken any outdoor shots, which is my favorite part of the place, but that will have to wait as it's pitch black outside and 25 degrees. Turns out with the humidity that feels quite frigid. I'm not used to that kind of cold these days!

2014

Oh this year! Where do I even start? So many good things. So many crazy things. So much stuff. This year was full. I just went through my iPhoto pictures to remind myself of everything that happened and started pulling out shots to upload to this post. When I got through I had 110 photos. Yeah, that's not going to work. So here's a slightly more brief synopsis, in less than 110 photos, though I make no claim to it being short, of some highlights this year. And apparently they're not going to be in order, and I choose not to fight with Blogger tonight to fix that, so enjoy our year a bit out of order. :)

 We painted our toenails, Spencer included. We all had a great time and no one was the wiser that only girls are supposed to do that. ;)

 I got very, very hugely pregnant. It was insane. I basically couldn't move the last bit. This is me at 39 weeks.

I got this squishy chunk of amazingness as a reward. Worth every second of that horrendous pregnancy.

 He discovered his fingers early on and now they're nearly always in his mouth. The two fingers on his right hand are his favorite.

 I learned to make soap, along with a plethora of other home and personal care products. I basically buy nothing packaged from the store anymore. It's awesome and way cheaper.

 Genevieve took dressing herself to new heights. She has style, I can say that.

 I built a bunk bed for the kids. Genevieve sleeps on the bottom on that huge full size bed. My foresight in building it that big is amazing because Bill or I regularly sleep chunks of the night in there with her. The space is worth every bit of squished room having that big of a bed creates.

 We didn't do a lot of camping or being outside in general this summer as a result of already mentioned awesome Aaron being born in the dead heat of summer in July. So we set the tent up inside instead.

 Genevieve discovered just how much she loves to sit on Bill and use him as a jungle gym. She still loves it, much to his chagrin.

 Lots of Bill's family came a few weeks after Aaron was born and we blessed him while they were here.

 My mom came and saved my bacon for the first two weeks of Aaron's life. She is the best person to have around when you have a new baby.

 We spent Thanksgiving in southern Virginia with my sister and her family. It was awesome. We're planning to do it again next year. :)

 The kids discovered how awesome headstands are, or "headstanders" as we call them around here.

 Genevieve continued her love affair with food. Bless her for wanting to eat everything.

 It snowed! Okay, it dusted the ground a bit, but we all loved it.

 The kids discovered they love blue ice cream. Sadly, this place closed, but we do our best to eat ice cream regularly, just elsewhere. :)

 We bought a van! It's my dream car, at least for now.

Bill discovered her loves bow ties. He rocks them. This is one we actually made for him to see if we could do it. I have a stack of fabric on my sewing table ready to make some more now that we discovered it again in our move.

 Aaron was born with long, luscious hair, and then, just like Spencer, he lost it all a few weeks later. Look at how skinny he was back then! Not anymore!

 We went hiking all together when Aaron was just a couple months old. Haven't been since, but hey, it was great fun. We'll do it again one of these days.

 Aaron started smiling. His smile brightens any room.

 Bill got to go to Utah for his sister's wedding and other sister's return from her mission. It was quick, but fantastic.

 We cut down our own tree again this year. It was chilly that day. Last year we walked all over to find the perfect tree. This year we found the perfect tree in about 30 seconds of leaving the car.

 I got to take a trip to Utah in early December and particularly made an effort to see these two favorite guys in my life. Aaron loved both his grandpa and great grandpa. Great Grandpa definitely passed on some of his good looks to this lucky boy.

 I got to see some of Bill's family too. Oh how I love these sister-in-laws of mine!

 This picture pretty much epitomizes Christmas and December in general. Poor Spencer coughing his lungs out. We haven't had the whole family well since Thanksgiving. Here's to a healthier January!

But we still had an awesome Christmas and capped the year off by moving from our apartment into a house with an amazing yard. I'll take some pictures once we're all unpacked, but suffice it to say we're very pleased with the move.

This year has been full. We've struggled some, been blessed more than I can express, made some good quality progress on Bill's PhD program, and are just grateful to be an awesome family of five(!) living the good life. Here's to 2015 being just as good.

Trip to Utah

Since I went to college I have taken a number of international trips and worked at various places around the country. It never failed that every time I went somewhere where it was hard to get home easily, my dad had a medical emergency that scared the pants off of all of his family. When we moved to South Carolina I had hoped that trend would stop but sure enough, he's had at least two major hospitals stay since we've been here and unfortunately his health has deteriorated significantly in the past two years. I don't really have the resources to fly out to Utah just anytime, but the opportunity presented itself recently and I jumped at the chance.

Aaron and I flew out to Utah the morning after Bill turned in his last project for the semester, and he was able to stay home with the older two kids while I enjoyed a fantastic trip for five whole days. It was lovely.

I made it a priority for this trip that I didn't want to cram it full of bouncing from place to place to see folks for a bit, but instead tried to have some really quality time with my family, specifically my dad and my grandpa, who is also quite a bit older and who knows how many years he has left on this earth. I feel like I accomplished just that, plus a bit more. It was an awesome trip.

I got to see all my siblings that live in the area, had some really quality time with my parents, and spent a lovely afternoon with my grandparents. I got to see my Ashman family too the first and last day I was there, which was fantastic. Everyone met Aaron. I got to meet my niece Gracie, who could be Aaron's twin. She is seven weeks older than him, and they look uncannily similar. He is at least a pound bigger than her, which is kind of crazy, but they look very similar and on top of that they have very similar facial expressions. It was cool to see such strong similarities between cousins.

As I flew into Utah I felt like I was coming home. Not to my current home, but to my family home. It's kind of funny because while I lived in Utah for 12+ years, I always say I'm from Colorado because that is where I grew up. However, it's been 14 years since I lived there and I don't have any family there anymore. They're in Utah. So that really has become home, which both surprises and pleases me. It really is a lovely place. I'm not sure Bill and I will ever actually live there again, but it's delightful to be able to go back there to visit both sides of our family.

Asleep on the plane ride over. I had to wake him up at 4AM to leave for the airport. He was pooped. I woke up at 3:15AM, so I was pooped too. :)

Sleepy after our flight and happy to no longer be in my arms or front pack.

With his beloved Grandma Suzanne

My dad motors around in a snazzy little wheelchair these days. Aaron had a great time driving with him.

Discovering the favorite baby toy at Grandma Jones' house.

The twinners. He was pretty cranky at the family party we had Saturday night, especially compared to Gracie, who was happy as could be.

She thought she needed to help them with their toys/steal them. Classic 2-year old behavior.

See? Uncannily similar.

They started trying to take toys from each other.

I love this picture. It's just from my cell phone but I caught just the perfect moment.

My lovely visit with my grandparents.

Aaron has a special place in his heart for both his grandmas. It's heartwarming.

He got introduced to my grandparent's dog while we were there and it was love at first sight. These two were both in heaven together.

Aunt Megan

Aunt Miriam and Hillary

They are going to have beautiful children, though I'm pretty sure they won't look anything like Aaron. :)

He was so pleased to be laying in his own seat on the plane. I had to pick him up for takeoff and landing and he was not amused.

Little engineer in training. He examined this "beam" in minute detail.