Beautiful Daughters

Is this a lucky man or what?!?

His wife is pretty lucky, too.  

From President Gordon B. Hinckley:

"We read in the book of Genesis and in the book of Moses of that great, singular, and remarkable undertaking [the creation of the world]. The Almighty was the architect of that creation. Under His direction it was executed by His Beloved Son, the Great Jehovah, who was assisted by Michael, the archangel.

There came first the forming of heaven and earth, to be followed by the separation of the light from the darkness. The waters were removed from the land. Then came vegetation, followed by the animals. There followed the crowning creation of man. Genesis records that “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).

But the process was not complete.

“For Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

“And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

“And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

“And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman” (Gen. 2:20–23).

And so Eve became God’s final creation, the grand 

summation of all of the marvelous work that had 

gone before."

Having been blessed with three daughters, I often think on that final statement and can attest to its truth.  We are so grateful for our beautiful daughters!

Hannah's Long Lost Twin

 We call her a second cousin, but Hannah is sure that she and Madison were separated at birth.  Eight months apart, in two different states.  They discovered their likeness when they were 6 years old and each rare opportunity to get together since then has been like no time has passed.  

Hannah, Callie & Madison

FRAMED! (mostly)

 It gives me a start ever time I look down the stairs and see walls going up - a good start!

 Super excited for the tub!

Super super excited for the little play space under the stairs!

Happy Birthday Dear Tyler

Yummiest.  Pies.  Ever.

apple & banana cream for Tyler's birthday

It is tempting to never make my own pies again.  Thanks, LaNell!

Just Because

A few pics, just because I have really cute boys.

 A really tired Drew.

 Camden and Goldilocks.  I hope Drew has lots of daughters today because they would sure be CUTE!

 Drew in the newest favorite reading spot.

A-1 Kitchen Helper

 Not sure why this is fun, but he does it all the time...

 Once again a very tired Drew, discovered when we were going to bed.

 Maybe sneaking some TV watching from the top of the stairs before crashing?!?

Expect Great Things

I was just looking through some pictures and came across a photo shoot that Hannah did with some of her doll's shoes.  What kind of a girl does a full-blown photo shoot for fun?!?  My creative genius, Hannah.  I expect great things of you someday, my girl.

Typical Emmie, 11-12 months

Typical things we find Emmie doing these days:

 Happily Reading

 Enjoying the strings on Hannah's jacket.  And if Hannah isn't around...

Emmie might just go find the jacket on her own and play with the strings.

Lost baby?  No, look who is peeking over the back of the couch

Into the craft cupboard, complimentary marker on the face

 In the movie cupboard.  Pulling movies out is not good enough.  She has to pull out one shelf and sit on it (yikes!).

The Story of our Walkout

When we decided that it was time to finish our basement, we felt like we were supposed to create a walk-out, so we did.  (Writing this in hindsight, it was a bumpy road - but we are so glad that we did it).  This was such an exciting time in the construction process!  It was also COLD.  On digging day #1 it was sunny and we bundled up and played on the swingset while watching the bobcat.  The rest of the time, watching the construction perched on top of the washing machine provided the best view while staying warm and out of the way.

 Of course our laundry room window is frosted, which means it had to be open in order to see.  Having kids small enough to slip through that opening meant that I stayed with them to keep them inside.

 Emmie didn't like being left out.

 There's a cement pad down there!

New scenery in the backyard.  After the digging days this bobcat remained in the backyard for a few days.  Hannah commented, "I bet he [the concrete guy] pulled a Mike Mulligan."  Sure enough, a couple days later he showed up and was trying to figure how to get the bobcat out of the yard.  "He dug so fast and he dug so well..."  He was very thankful that we OKed taking down some of the barbed wire fence behind us so that he could drive it out the back.  Incidentally, our great concrete guy's name really is Mike and I would recommend him.

Enjoying the last of the basement pre-construction:

In the foreground you can see a tinker-toy sword.  Cracks me up that Emmie was provided a sword as well (in her right hand).

 Current dollhouse state:

 Notice the back wall is solid cement.  

Same shot up close...except we have a HOLE now!!!  Super excited and lovin' it!

Crazy story:  When we had just the cement pad and footings there was a lot of rebar sticking up.  One night the girls were tending and they let Daisy out but she never came back to the door.  It was about 9pm and pitch dark, so they got a flashlight and went searching for her.  Wouldn't you know that she fell into our hole, about 9 feet deep!  The amazing thing is that she was unhurt and missed all that rebar.  Our contractor had left a ladder so Callie held the flashlight for light and Hannah climbed down in the hole and then carried Daisy up the ladder.  We were so impressed with their brave rescue!  

Time for some retaining walls (which means more time on top of the washing machine)...

 This is so you can get an idea of how tall this mound of dirt (okay, mostly rocks) is.  It took us about 4 months of working on and off to get it cleared.  Fun fact:  the broken fence in the background.  Our cement guy's pants snagged on a lever on the bobcat and it went the wrong way.  Don't worry - he fixed it and you can't tell that anything ever happened.  I did not take a picture of our fence posts that ended up having to be re-cemented in due to the ground caving in under them.  Ah, construction...

 Getting ready for stairs:

Here is the other end of our dirt/rock (mostly rock) pile.  Made for great entertainment this spring!  This is dirt left over after they backfilled.

 Walkout entrance

 Finished stairs and door

And it will be many months until it is finished (I'm writing this 1/2/14 and we still need to refinish the stucco but at least we have a railing and a lamp!).