May 2019

 Oh MY May....  Every single day, we did something exciting.  We had many happy days and many exciting days, but our month started off with something so sad.

My parents adopted Brayden's dog shortly after he got married.  And she became a very important and valued part of their family.  They loved her like a child.  My dad got up every morning bright and early and took her for a walk.  They played together.  He took her to do his chores.  He told us every cute thing she did.  We worried for the time when she would not be a part of their family anymore because we knew that they would be devastated.  But, she was only 7 years old, so we knew they had some time.

Early in May, my parents traveled to California for my niece's gymnastic meet.  And when they returned, Bella was very sick.  They took her to the hospital and she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and was given some medication that the vet thought that she would be okay.  But she died in the night.  And it was one of the hardest things my parents have ever gone through.

She was such a darling companion and friend to them.  She will be greatly missed.   We hope she has found a beautiful field to run in up in heaven.

 My mom took this picture of my dad digging a grave for her in her favorite place in their yard.  And I was sitting in Einsteins Bagels when it came.  I burst into tears and started sobbing.  I was one of those people that you sometimes see crying in public and wonder what is going on with them...  Just our little doggie.  This was such a hard day.

Our house started taking shape.  We went over every day to see the progress 

And we continued our #13 projects in 13 weeks.   This is Week 8's Project 

As we watched our house going up SO fast, we started getting nervous that we wouldn't get all of our projects completed by move in day. 

We worked on the entry hall table, which was SO hard.  It was a complicated set of plans.  Raleigh got to use his kregjig A LOT.  We love the kregjig, but lots of kregs equals lots of difficult angles and tight corners.  He was frustrated and I felt guilty that I was making him do all of this hard work.

He is a very determined person.  And he doesn't back down from a challenge.

He wasn't about to let this table get the best of him.

 I LOVE it.  I was so thrilled with the final outcome.

It is even cuter in person and I have so many plans for it.

 On this day, I think I squealed as we drove around the corner.

I was so excited that we had a roof.  This was such a fun day.  It was cold and rainy and I stood in the middle of the room an imagined how it would look with a fire in the fireplace on a dark day.

Look at those gigantic windows.

They will look so fabulous with shutters

 Look at the view out of Allie's bedroom window.  We will enjoy that until other homes are built.

It is a gorgeous view of Pine Valley Mountain

 I really love the stairs.  At least at this wood stage.  I don't know if I will like them as much when dry wall is up.  I hope I will,  but I think they look so cute now.

I am being forced to admit that our furniture might not fit as well as I dreamed it would in some of the rooms.  I love how Raleigh indulged me and mustered up some fairly sincere sympathy as he stood in the window and I was so sad.  I felt fully supported by him until he suggested I may have to get rid of the piano to make room for the couch.  What??   Who are you?  You can go to another window now.... 

 Because he couldn't mess up the Saturday Projects Schedule, he had to build my mom's mother's day gift on Monday and Wednesday after work in regular clothes.   She had asked him six months earlier to make her a plant stand and he decided to build her one in May.  It turned out so well in spite of the difficult angles.  He even found the bucket which fit perfectly.

 One night, it rained for 5 straight hours.  When we went over to check on the house, we found it nearly flooded.  The subs had brought a squeegee over and left the squeegee, but didn't actually use the squeegee, so my hard working husband got busy saving our home, while I took pictures of him

 Meanwhile, the little kids LOVE going to our new neighborhood park.  There are always at least 50 kids there.  The streets are filled with little kids.  We hear our new ward has 200 kids in the primary.  It will be so nice to have friends right down the street.

 Mother's Day was lovely.  I had nearly all of my children with me.  Brayden and Crysti moved to Kansas in May.  He is so much further away.  It will be a good move for them,  but Kansas is a place I have never seen, so it's hard for me to picture him there.  Raleigh loved it when he was there in February and so he has talked me into taking a weekend trip there to visit them.  I am looking forward to that.

End of Year school performances were as darling as ever.  KK's class put on the Three Piggy Opera and she was the "stick pig, who wasn't the sharpest pencil in the box".   Her teacher told me that every practice, she would sing timidly and quietly and every one would tell her that they could hardly hear her.  She is shy and quiet and so that is hard for her.  But, magically for the performance, she found her voice and I watched her teacher light up as she sang.

 Raleigh was on his way to New York during her performance so we face timed him in while he sat in the Phoenix Airport.

 Our school has a program that encourages the kids to run laps at recess and lunch.  They wear fobs around their necks and every lap is tracked.  Once they reach 100 laps, they get a t-shirt.  All three kids got their "marathon"  which means they earned a t-shirt and pool party.  But, Little Miss Competitive Peyton, took third place in the entire school for the most laps completed in the year.  She is only in the third grade.  Which means she beat all of the big kids and most of the boys.  I had several people tell me that she diligently ran as many laps as she could and she would come in from recess sweaty and flushed.  I just love how hard she works when she has set a goal for herself.  And she will not be outdone by anyone, not even the boys.

She told my mom the other day,   "I hope the kids at my new school accept me for who I am.  I hope they will like me they way I am.  A tomboy, who likes boy things and sports.  I hope they won't make fun of me."

She is so cute and friendly.  Of course, they will love her.  But, I felt sorry for her that she is a little worried about it.

Ryker's performance was a Patriotic Theme.  

He knew every word and every action and he did them vigorously.

They opened with the School Song and I sobbed through the entire thing.

It is the last time we will hear that song, which I have grown to LOVE.

We have enjoyed Riverside Elementary.  We will miss it.

#13 Projects in 13 Weeks 

Week 7 Project was the barn door for our Master Bedroom Bath.

The ceilings are 9 feet tall, so the measurements had to be modified.  

 I love how he just let's me take his picture in Home Depot like a weirdo.

 And when we held it up....  all three hundred pounds of it...  I liked it, but Raleigh didn't.  Even though the project only took us 3 hours.  And we had a pleasant experience building it.  He wasn't satisfied and for some reason decided to complicate things.  And add angles.  He said "what else am I going to doing today?  I might as well get busy making it better."

And he added Xs.  And I cannot express enough how FREAKING hard this was.  It was the most frustrating mental challenge our weak math brains have ever encountered.  We could NOT figure out the angles.  And you would think that once you had figured out one square of Xs, you would be able to figure out the rest...  but you would be so wrong.  Each square was unique.   Each X was unique.  The X's took us four hours and another trip to Home Depot.  And we were literally exhausted when it was over.

But look how happy he is.

  I cannot wait until he paints it.

Tears may come out.

The boy started baseball.  It's not tee ball this year.
It's Coach Pitch.

We didn't know how he'd do.

Raleigh has been working with him for weeks.

 And to our dismay, he stepped up to the plate and took a swing on the first pitch and belted it out past the short stop, who was unable to stop it, so he ran to second.  It was so exciting.  Then, on the next pitch, he took off towards third and for some reason felt compelled to slide into third like he thought that the boys had the skills to not only throw the ball to the third baseman, but that the third baseman would actually be able to catch the ball and tag him out.  It was a REALLY good slide too.  I was incredibly impressed.  I asked him afterward why he did that...  and he said "I got skills and I needed to use them."  Oh....  alright.

Sometimes, we take our food over to the house and we eat there.

This was the first and last time, I will let the kids eat on the stairs

Darling paned windows were installed and I could almost see Raleigh's black shutters up there next to them.  I am not too thrilled about him having to try and hang them by himself.  That won't be very easy.

And I cannot wait until this super cute front door is painted black as well.  What a cute porch this will be.  That is after week 5's front porch bench has been built and painted. 

Ryker loves Father's and Sons as much as Christmas.

Nevermind that it was only 26 degrees this year and frost was on the tent.

Nevermind that dad only packed a thin sweatshirt for him.

He did not care one bit.

He told me that he kissed each fish before he threw them back in to say sorry for hurting them with the hook.

"BUT... NOT ON THE LIPS"

 Dry Wall didn't make the Living Room any bigger.  

My furniture still isn't going to fit there.  I've had to come up with a Plan B and I've also had to overcome disappointment.

Wait until the shiplap is up and the lights are on.

So cute

 Painting Day was the first day of Summer Vacation.

Raleigh took the day off and made a painting booth and painted all day.

It was May 24th and was only 62 degrees outside....  Perfect Painting Weather.

 The Master Bedroom Barn Door

It looks even bigger now and feels heavier

The Family Room Barn Door Shutters are even cuter painted.

I didn't know if I would like them, since I loved them so much in natural wood.

But, I do.

They are so darling.

Peppercorn is a great color

#13 Projects In 13 Weeks continued on week 6

with Peyton's Dresser and KK's headboard.

Both are going to be SO cute

I really don't have words for the love I have for these.
Our first project back on week 13.

I cannot express how amazing they look in person

They will transform the entire look of that room

 I think I made this front porch wreath post because I went to Home Depot and bought all the wood for it and measured and drew the cuts.  And then told Raleigh where to cut because I am too afraid to go near the saw.  And I tried to drive the screws, but I wasn't tall enough or strong enough, so he had to step in and help a little.  And then because it was just easier, he painted it and put the little hook on.  

It was a totally group effort.

But, I was highly involved.

In my mind.....

Raleigh got a wild idea to make Savanna a lei for her graduation with Crumbl Cookies.

It turned out SO cute.  And she ACTUALLY wore it.

Every 6 or so years, my birthday falls on Memorial Day.

It's the coolest thing to not work on your birthday and get paid.

We woke up and went to breakfast. 

It was a dark and rainy day and was very cold.  That is perfect weather in my opinion.

We came home and cleaned a few rooms and finished painting a few projects 

 And then we met mom and dad and Kami and Brent at Chuck A Rama

I felt like I had eaten enough food for 3 days

KK has saved her Christmas money for all of these months.

She wanted to wait until it was closer to moving so that she could buy something for her new room.

But, she discovered the unicorn section at Charming Charlie's and she couldn't get all of those beautiful items out of her head.  She begged me every day to take her there to get them.

She bought a unicorn journal and unicorn headphones and 2 unicorn plush toys to go on her shelf.

My sweet, Sam made sure that I was celebrated at work when I went back.

My desk was covered in gummy life savers and swig cards.  She knows me SO well.

I really don't know what I would do without her.  She is not only amazing at everything she does and is constantly making me look really good at work... but she is a really good friend.  I love that she is SO real.  She tells you how it is and you can believe every word she says.  I love real people.  There aren't many of them around these days.  I am so blessed that I get to spend so much time with her and she makes work so fun.   

I told Raleigh to stand in the doorway of our bathroom so that I could see if the barn door was going to be tall enough.  It may be the right size.  He looks the same height when he stands next to the barndoor.... Who knows?  Unfortunately, we can't take the door over there and hold it up to the hole because it is TOO gigantic and also people would think we were weird.  And also that's probably not allowed. 

 Dry wall all taped and muddied

 Allie's room with a massive closet....  hahahahahhaaaaaa.
When we started this home buying plan, Parker was about to come home from his mission and Morgan was making plans to get married 20 minutes after his plane landed.  We never in a million years thought that she would live with us.  So we picked this room for Allie.  Which is the second best bedroom in the house.  It's big.  It has a huge walk in closet and beautiful views. 
Well.... "Morker" is taking their time with the nuptials (partially due to the fact that I told her I couldn't pay for a wedding until March of 2021 at the earliest), but that is neither here nor there.... 

Nevertheless, it doesn't make sense to give the 2nd best room to the girl who won't be with us very long...  but SHE has different thoughts on that.
SHE is ready to throw down over getting the THIRD best room
SHE has threatened violence.
SHE screamed herself hoarse upon discovering which room was hers and which room was Allie's.
SHE has vocalized plans to switch rooms while Allie is at school.
SHE could very well slit my throat while I am sleeping.
Allie bought a lock to be put on her door IMMEDIATELY.
Frankly, we are all kind of scared.
Except for Raleigh....  he fuels it.
Every time we go over to the house and he goes in Allie's room, he'll say VERY LOUDLY
"Look at this massive room with this gigantic closet.... and oh the views...."

Prepped and ready for stucco

Our last May project was painting the kitchen table for the 3rd time. 

This was SO FREAKIN HARD.

Last time we painted it, we made the mistake of using chalk paint which had to be sanded before we could paint again...  sanding is so awful.  We sanded those chairs for 5 hours.  And we weren't wearing masks which was really stupid.  Our backs were killing us and we were sore and grouchy and we still had to do the painting.  It was a very long day.  But we are happy with the outcome.  It's going to look A-MAZ-ING.

 

Peyton LOVES Raleigh.

She loves to be by him... helping him...talking to him.

She was a trooper and a hard worker.

We have our tentative closing date....  July 8th.  Give or take a day.  Raleigh has saved up like 200 hours of vacation time and so he is going to take two weeks off right after we close to get the new house painted and ready. 
Before we can even move in he has to: 

1. Put up the shutters on the outside

2. Paint the front door and the garage

3.  Paint the guest bathroom

4.  Paint the kitchen cupboards

5.  Put shiplap on the fireplace and in the nooks

6. Paint the shiplap

7.  Paint the handrail

8.  Install all of the lighting

9.  Hang all of the interior shutters/doors

10.  Build 4 benches

11.  Build shelves in the pantry

12.  Move all of the heavy furniture over

And all of this IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY when it will be like 115 degrees.

He is SO excited.  He isn't even worried about getting it all done.  He has made a plan and a timeline, so that he doesn't waste any time.  Just stay tuned....  June photos will almost be as amazing as July's.