House Pictures

I have had many requests for house pictures but have obviously procrastinated. We purchased a forclosure that definitely needed lots of love. I was putting off the pictures so I could post before and after pictures together. Well those of you who own a house know how quickly things get done with family, work, church, etc. So I guess I am going to post some before pictures and some in-progress pictures. I decided to start with the kitchen/dining room. We are almost done with the things on the list for this part of the house for the time being. We would eventually like to redo the counters and floor in the kitchen but that is pretty low on the priority list. Andrew stripped all the popcorn off the ceiling in the dining room, kitchen and hallway this summer and then he finished the ceiling with smooth mud. It looks amazing. He also painted the dining room and hallway. Replaced all the doors (the previous doors had knife holes in them), trim and baseboard. I stripped the wallpaper out of the kitchen and did all the painting in the kitchen and down the stairway....which I am very proud of. We still need to replace all the outlets and light switches and then caulk all our base and trim. This project is almost done!

Here's what we started with.....

Here's where we're at now.....

Ok my new obsession is finding a cute modest swim suite for this summer. I have birthday money set aside for it but I have to find just the right one. I have been searching www.limericki.com, www.downeastbasics.com and www.modbeclothing.com. Just came across www.hapari.com and fabulousfamilyfinds.blogspot.com is having a giveaway for a gift card. So Fun! Then I wouldn't even have to spend my b-day money. Any other suggestions?! Silly that I never post on my blog and then this is the thing I post. I should post some cute pictures of my adorable children or of the cool house we're trying to buy but we'll save that for another day.

Andrea's Nasty Bread

So the other night we had a family from the ward over for Family Home Evening. I have made it a goal to invite atleast one family over a week so we can get to know people and make friends. I made homemade cinnamon rolls and they brought the lesson. After the lesson we were all sitting around eating our treat. The mom and I were sitting at the table with Summit and her four year old. He ate half his cinnamon roll and then passed it over to her. She asked him if he was finished and he said, "Yeah, I don't like it." I could tell that she was embarrased. She said that he is a super picky eater and will basically only eat a few different foods. Then she said, "He has no taste buds." He looked over at her and said, "Yes I do, I just don't like NASTY bread." It was the funniest thing ever. The mom turned all red and I got all nervous cause I was worried they really were gross. Everyone else finished their first and then went back for seconds. When they were leaving the mom said, "You can feed us your nasty bread anytime." And the dad said he was going to start calling cinnamon rolls Nasty Bread from now on. So I didn't feel so bad after all. Kids say the funniest things.

Sweet 16

I can't believe our little Austin is 16!!!! He is offically dating material and legal age to drive now! (He won't be doing that for a little while so you don't have to worry yet) CRAZY!
Some things about Austin that I really admire are:

• He is an amazing big brother. I know I have said this a million times but it is worth saying over and over because it is so true. He has an amazing love for his little brothers and takes such good care of them. He is looked up to so much by them and I know that he really strives to be a good example to them. Whenever he goes to the library to check out movies and CD's he brings one home for Summit. Even if Summit doesn't like watching the movie he carries it around and thinks it is the best thing ever just cause Austin brought it to him.
• He is awesome at playing the guitar. He has been practicing so much and is getting really good. He loves listening to music, playing music, learning about different bands, etc.
• He pushes through when things are hard....and sometimes I think it's pretty unfair the hard things that people get delt.
• He doesn't worry about what other people think about him. He likes what he likes because he likes it not because other people say it's cool.
• He is so HANDSOME! And he has an awesome smile!

HALLOWEEN

I have been trying to get Summit to decide what he wanted to be for Halloween for two months so I could make him a cool costume. Everytime I asked him he just made it into a joke so I could never get a straight answer from him. Finally we were at Old Navy and he saw a shark costume he had to have. So I bought it for him. He wore it for a week straight. Then my mom sent him two costumes that she had made me when I was a kid. He LOVED them and decided that instead of being a shark he was going to be a leopard. Tosh can't talk so he had no say in the matter so here he is as Brobee. We went to the ward party on Saturday night and then tonight we put the costumes on long enough to show Grandma and Popi on Skype. Summit didn't even want to trick-or-treat.

On Friday we went to a play group and had a Halloween party. These are a few of the play group friends.

It snowed here in Casper today. It didn't stick but it was cold so we hid inside all day. Here are a few pictures from our day. I worked on Tosh's halloween costume. Here's a little piece of it.

Summit and I made animal bread while Tosh was napping. We made a spider, a ghost, and a turtle.

Here are the boys playing in the crib.Nothing too exciting to post about. Andrew has been working out of town five days a week and I am in survival mode. I'm not super good at parenting three kids all on my own. I don't even cook nice dinners like I do when Andrew is home and I still can't manage to keep the house clean or find any time to relax. I'm in awe at women who work outside the home or are single moms and do all the wife stuff too. This is HARD work! But isn't it amazing! These adorable smiles make it all worth while!

Friends

We had friends over today! Now you may not think this is blog worthy but this is the first time we have had kid friends over to our house in Wyoming. Summit woke up yesterday morning and heard Tosh playing in the living room. He got a big smile on his face and said, "Are my friends here to play." I felt so bad so I got on the phone to a girl in the ward and invited them over for lunch today. Summit was in HEAVEN!!! We had homemade mac & cheese for lunch and then played on the tramp. The boys played monsters and football. Summit laughed and played SO hard. We miss having good friends around to play with and hope it won't be long until we have a great group of buddies like we did in Nevada City!