Before and Afters

We've been spending our Saturdays around here doing some fixin' and organizin' the homestead!
Actually, one of my Personal Progress projects for Young Women's was to clean out, organize, label and fix shelves in our storage unit.
I'm a little embarrased to share these photos, but I am very satisfied with the results and felt I needed to have proof for my personal progress project!

Before:

Sad huh? It was my goal to clean it out enough that we could wheel Caroline's bike in and out of it.

Can you tell my husband is a Fix-It Man?


After:

Floor Space!!! WooHoo!!!

All labeled and everything! It felt so good to go through everything and get rid of and organize so much. I feel like if we had to move tomorrow, I could just load the boxes right on the truck in an hour and be done!

This next project was more of Dave's baby. I helped a little, but he's been working on it for a few weekends.

This shed in our backyard was an eyesore from the first day we moved in.

Before:

And after a lot of hot hours in the sun:

Yay! We don't have to be embarrased to let people in our backyard anymore!

Surprise, Jeff!

Dave's brother, Jeff, is turning 40 so we celebrated (where else?) at Chuck E Cheese! It was a surpise party and an "adults only" party (with the exception of Jeff's girls, of course). So it was fun not having to chase around little ones and play the games with grown-ups - A completely different experience!
Of course, we had to keep the location of the party a secret from Caroline, since she's been talking about going to CEC nonstop lately, and would be extremely cross if she knew we were going without her. This worked for weeks... until the night before. Dave let it slip in her presence and she put 2 and 2 together and was quite upset that she was going to miss Uncle Jeff's party at her favorite place! We'll have to take her this week I think, or she'll never forgive us!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Renaisannce Fair

For a ward activity recently we had a renaisannce fair. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was fun! The scouts have been working on making armor and decorations for it for weeks. Caroline had a blast!

Duct tape knights!


The tug of war was the elders vs the young men, the relief society vs young women, and the primary was mixed.

Dave and our friend's sweet daughter, Grey.

Face painting!

Games

Friends -

They did a great job making a dragon pinata!

The Spoils!

Recent Activities

I'm a little behind blog-wise, so here's some things we've done lately!

We found an awesome toy at Goodwill! It's one of those Barbie fashion plate things. You know, you choose the different plates to make an outfit, then you put a paper on top and rub with a black crayon to make a picture.

It's provided hours of fun!

One of Caroline's favorite summer time past times is running through the sprinklers with friends.

We recently had to say goodbye to our friends who moved to California, but we were able to play with Morgan one last time!

Playing in the car was Morgan's idea - it was pretty funny!

Dave and Caroline went to Walmart and came back with some stuff to make T-Shirts.

So we took a pack of plain white Hane's tshirts and dyed them and ironed on some cool designs.

I think they turned out pretty cute and we have 3 more to make. I love how she poses!

Thursday School

Last week was Caroline's last day of Thursday School (until next fall). They had a little commencement program for the 4 year old class.

They sang cute little Bible songs such as:
-"If You're Happy and You Know it, Say AMEN!"
-" The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock"
-"God Made ME!"
and my personal favorite:
-"This Little Light of Mine"



Graham, Caroline, and Nathan representing their CTR 5 class at Thursday School!


Buddies!

Caroline and her teachers, whom she just loves. Her teachers really are such sweet, wonderful ladies. I'm always amazed by how much they do for these classes, and for free!
We love Thursday School and can't wait until next Fall!

Birthday Fun

My birthday was this week - and I LOVE my birthday! I love that I get to choose everything: cake, ice cream flavors, movie, restaurant, anything! I love that Dave makes me breakfast (french toast!). I love that I get free coupons in my inbox on my birthday for ice cream cones. Birthdays are fun - even if it means I'm getting older!

My birthday was really split into 2 days. Day 1: Dave and Caroline picked some roses from our bushes in the backyard for me. My sweet friend took me out for a fun, delicious lunch and that evening we had them over for FHE and cake and icecream. Day 2 was my actual birthday. Dave and Caroline made me breakfast, but then the rest of the day was pretty much like any other day, which is just how it is when you're a mom. Babysitting, laundry, etc. BUT, that evening Dave and I went to our favorite restaurant: Texas DeBrazil! It was delicious as usual and some nice friends watched Caroline for us - thank you!


I made my own birthday cake (I'm the only one with the time/desire/know-how) and then Caroline decorated it for me.



Fun times!

Thanks to all who contributed to a happy birthday! I even got a happy birthday phone call from my friend who was on a cruise at the time! I have wonderful family and friends and I'm grateful for the 26 years I've had with them all.