3 weeks later...

It's been 3 weeks since we've blogged and a lot has been going on. We began finishing our basement and it's getting close to being done. Here is a picture of the basement after the first day of framing.





This is the basement after the second day of framing.

Since then we've had electricians, plumbers, vent work, insulation, and yesterday they hung the sheetrock. It's so exciting and can be quite noisy.

While the sheet rock was put up we decided to have a fun day out and boy was it fun. After our Saturday chores we went to our Hunter cousins' basketball game and then to Walmart to buy a couple new things for our remodeling projects. Then we came home for a noisy lunch (constant hammering and drilling). Donald managed to take a nap while we played Rock Band. Since he's so nuts about the drums we can rarely play unless he's napping. Of course when he woke up he had to have a short turn.

Enjoy the show!

After rocking out we went to the park. It's been a long cold winter so having a day of sunshine with most of the snow melted was wonderful. The kids had a game of baseball with their Dad and none of them have lost their ability to hit. In fact they all did pretty well. It put us all in the mood for summer and helped Adrian look forward to his first season playing T-Ball. We signed him up last weekend.

Weekend Activities

This Friday we took a day off of school to go to the Draper Temple open house. It was so beautiful and of course really well organized. We parked at a nearby church parking lot and took a shuttle bus to the temple. The kids thought the bus ride was a blast. The boy's favorite room was the baptismal font. The girls agreed and also liked the sealing room. When Dan and I were sealed we showed the kids some pictures of sealing rooms so they would be able to imagine what it was like. I wanted them all there so much the day we were married so this was a special opportunity for us to all sit in a sealing room together and think about how thankful we are for our forever family.
After our walk through the temple they had a really nice reception with cookies and everything. The kids loved that as well, a day at the temple followed by cookies what more do you need?


Saturday was back to work day. The kids all did their jobs super fast because we told them they could each pick a parent approved song to download for us to play on Rock Band. Shari chose Hillbilly Deluxe by Brooks and Dunn, Adrian chose Message in a Bottle by the Police, Rebecca chose Juke Box Hero (don't know who sings it but it's fun to play), and Charlie chose Tom Sawyer by Rush. We got most of our Rock Band playing done while Donald took a nap. He has a fit if he sees anyone playing the drums without him. He loves the drums. He was so mad when he woke up and could hear us playing without him so we brought him down and he played a few songs with us. He likes Boston because he was laughing all through More Than a Feeling, then we started playing Hillbilly Deluxe and he started whining and crying. Apparently he's not to fond of country music.
After all the Rock Band excitement the kids decided to play their own game which somehow ended up in Donald getting dressed up in the girls clothes. He really is quite pretty and he has grown the cutest curls in the past couple of weeks. I just want to play with them all the time and Dan thinks maybe it's time to cut them off. I can't bring myself to cut off my baby's curls though. Maybe when he's 5.

I'm certain the next blog I write will have something to do with the completion of our basement because construction is set to start this Tuesday. I'm really excited because the company I liked the most came back with the best bid so I hope they are as good as they seem. On Wednesday of this past week I went to their design house and picked out carpet, paint, vinyl and the bathroom counter top for the basement. I had all 5 kids with me and we ended up with 3 fights 2 time outs and 1 big temper tantrum before I was able to settle on my basement design. I hope it all turns out alright. I don't really remember what I picked because it was such a blur and ended with Charlie falling on the floor crying because he was so bored and tired. I have to say I felt about the same as him but I kept it together until we got home.
Hopefully by the end of March we will have a whole new floor added to the house so if anyone wants to come visit we'll have lots of room!

New Stuff

Here are some pictures from our big shopping trip this last week (we're just trying to keep up with Ashley).

The boys got new shirts:

Sarah and Donald got new shoes (Donald actually got his before this week):

The girls got their hair trimmed:

Dan didn't get anything (but he did get to pay for everything).

We've had a fun weekend with Friday and Monday off, but there's not much to report on the blog. It was just a nice relaxing weekend with lots of XBOX, playing Rock Band and Legos Indiana Jones.
This is a picture of Donald drinking his bottle. The reason he never holds his own bottle is because he always has to relax by covering his eyes with his hands like so. It's adorable.

Dugway's Next Top Model

Yesterday the girls were invited to their friend Koren's birthday party in Dugway. It was so much fun! It was totally all girl! We did make-up and hair and then the girls put on a fashion show with a runway and everything, to determine who would be... Dugway's Next Top Model!


The best thing was that once the girls felt all fashionable Koren's mom just lined them all up and let them be themselves on the runway. I was so impressed with all the girls walks and poses it was so great to see each of them strut their stuff.

After the runway excitement the girls each got to do their own photo shoot. Because they were all so good the judge couldn't pick just one girl to be the next top model so each girl got an award. Shari was the Most Glamorous!

Rebecca was the Most Couture. (Someone might have to explain that one to me, but I just told Rebecca it meant she was the Most Fashionable. Am I close?)

What a Way to start the New Year!

We cleaned the house New Years Eve and put away Christmas stuff and played Rock Band New Years Day. The real fun began Friday when we headed to Elko, Nevada to see my niece, Sarah, get baptized. We stayed at a hotel and made sure they had a pool so we could enjoy swimming with cousins.

The hotel stay was nice to include a really good hot breakfast each morning. Charlie wowed the hotel patrons with a rousing version of "Everybody Dance Now!" right in the middle of breakfast. It was such a surprise because we'd lectured him before hand about being quiet and polite and neither of us could stop the outburst. Afterwards we were trying to explain to him that he wasn't being quiet but all we could do was laugh.

The kids were all so excited to try out the new goggles they got in their stockings.

Donald had some adventures in diaper changes. Every poopy diaper this weekend was a major blow out event. I think he was trying to tell me to quit putting warm itchy clothes on him. He prefers his birthday suit. (Don't be decieved by this sweet little face he was really stinky!)


Hanging out with family was the best part of all. Here's almost all of the cousins at one time (there were actually 17 of them there!), enjoying watching Horton Hears a Who. I think us moms were enjoying a quiet moment upstairs and the dads were out back in the garage playing ping pong by the fireside.



I don't have a picture yet of our beautiful Sarah on her baptism day but let me just say it was so wonderful to be there. Thank you Kurtz's for putting on such a fun festive occasion for us.


It was difficult to get kids up this morning to begin a new week at school. I was a little surprised that Charlie jumped right up and got ready so quickly. I went downstairs to help my grumpy kids get lunches ready and he comes down and announces he's ready for kindergarten! He thought the new year meant he could start school. I felt so bad explaining to him that he had to wait until August. He was very downtrodden and felt like 8 months was a really long time to wait until I mentioned that today was an XBOX day. That cheered him right up. I'm glad he can appreciate the little things he enjoys now.

Our Merry Christmas

On Christmas Eve we celebrated with our traditional eggs, biscuits, and sausage dinner followed by opening presents from Mom and Dad. The kids all got much needed new pajamas.

Christmas morning the fun began at 7:30 a.m. Donald got some great new baby toys and he enjoyed the wrapping paper just as much as the toys!

Adrian was surprised by some Halo action figures! He loves that Master Chief came with a sniper rifle and the Arbiter had an energy sword. With money from his Call grandparents he bought a tank so Master Chief and the Arbiter have a cool vehicle to ride in.

Charlie got his much awaited Wall-E robot. He's been telling everyone for a couple months that this is what he was going to get. You plug Wall-E in to an Ipod or CD player and he'll dance to the music. Charlie loves being Wall-E's D.J.

Rock Band 2, from Grandpa Blodgett, brings joy to the whole family! The girls especially love singing and one of their favorites is Livin' on a Prayer. They also got some High School Musical doll sets.
I gave Dan a collection of family pictures in a frame and a scripture case. I made the scripture case based on the one his mom made him when he was 8. I can only say that she definitely wasn't a novice seamstress and I'm afraid I am so I hope this time it's the thought that counts. He got me some nice BYU shirts and a frame for a painting my Grandma gave me. I was also surprised by a new measuring cup! (I melted my favorite plastic one in the dishwasher a few days before Christmas.)

The day after Christmas we spent playing our new XBOX games from Grandma and Grandpa Weir, Legos Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda. We've also begun our World Tour with Rock Band and we already have hundreds of thousands of fans.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!