Just another project..........

It seems like since my parents moved into town all those projects we have been talking about doing the past year are starting to get done! Thanks dad for all the help!
Today Aaron and my dad cemented the corner of our back patio........now we don't have dirt and junk there. So we'll eventually paint all the cement and put Abby a little playhouse on the new cement! Now it is just a nicer patio for us, and a better place for Abby to play! Like always I provided a few pictures of the event:

All prepped and ready to go.

The bags of cement waiting.

Let the fun begin! (and the front side of my dad)

My cement pouring man! (and the back side of my dad!)

All done!

Way to go men!

Goodbye to Allstate, our mighty Beta!

Back when Aaron and I were first married he started his new job at State Farm Insurance. On his first paid holiday off, which was Martin Luther King Day, we decided to go to McKee's and get us a fish. I mean, we had to see how good we were at taking care of something alive and breathing before we could think about having kids, right? So we got us a fish bowl, some shiny marbles, and a beta fish that we named Allstate. (like the insurance....hahaha, get it??!) He was a beautiful little guy. It was a nice addition to the family. Well, Aaron's dad Jim didn't think our Allstate would live more than a year. So I said lets put your money where your mouth is and he bet us $20 that he wouldn't live more than a year. Well a year later we were $20 richer and Allstate easily paid himself off! He has made it through 2 moves, and I remember when we moved from the Maple West apartments to the Grove apartments Cindy, Aaron's mom, held him the whole way up in the car and was super careful! I remember when Brad and Becky lived by us I would always show baby Bryson Allstate and he would want to put his hands in the water. And of course later on Abby did the same. So.........enought memories about Allstate and now to the whole point of my post...........Allstate passed away today. At 5:02 this afternoon he went to fishy heaven. It was actually a slow, and hopefully not painful, death because the past few days we noticed he was dying. Then today I went and checked him and I tapped on the bowl and he fluttered his body then stopped breathing. I told Abby and she could care less. I'm sure Jim is a happy man because ever since he lost $20 he has had something against our fish!! But I wanted to make a quick tribute to our fish Allstate. He lived a great 3 years! Below our a few pictures of the whole event, we could call it the funeral:


Not so alive in his bowl.........


Aaron about ready to flush him! He is holding back the tears!

Fishing him out..........

Getting rid of some of the water, with Abby watching very closely!

Bye Bye Allstate! I have to say it was pretty dang cute when Abby was waving at the toilet and saying bye bye. I'm just hoping she doesn't think that the toilet is the place to flush things down!!

One more thing........if you are wondering........we won't be getting another fish anytime soon.

The ALMOST finished project!

Today we spent the day putting the kitchen back together! Everything is pretty much done except for we are still waiting on our bifold doors, which we should get this next week, and we have a some touch up painting to do. (the counter top guys had a fun time putting dings all over in our wall! That is what happens when you bring a counter top into our little kitchen in one piece. They had a heck of a time!) But it is nice to be at the end of this project......a 2 week project that almost turned into a month! It is so weird to think that I have to start cooking again. We ate dinner tonight at our table and it was kind of crazy! I can't wait to make Sunday dinner tomorrow!!!
Here are a few pictures of the almost finished project:

Just putting it all back together!! I hate clutter! So we have been working hard!

Beautiful sink and faucet.

Lovely counter tops and the dishwasher that caused us some problems!

Another angle for ya..........

That is our kitchen!

Of course I had to post a picture of Abby! (that would just be weird if I didn't) She kind of looks like an orphan girl here......we were busy parents neglecting our little girl! The funny thing is she was happy and could care less!

Grandpa Allen to the rescue!!

Well............drum roll please.........our counter tops came on Friday!! After a long day of strange people coming in and out of my house, we are now able to proceed in our kitchen remodel. Which means that it was time to put the sink and faucet in, the garbage disposal, and the dishwasher in.....and all of this takes some plumbing skills, and just skills of all kind. Our plumber and all around handy man (my dad) was out of town, so Aaron had to call in a new assistant or helper, whatever you want to call it. So, very willingly and somewhat excited my Grandpa Allen said he would come over and help us. Below are a few pictures of the boys in action!




I'm not really sure what is going on in all of these pictures. I'm sure a lot of serious plumbing work stuff.....Grandma Allen kept saying, "Is the blind leading the blind in there?" That made me laugh. Overall they did a great job. Later that night Caleb, Krista, and Brayden came over to check things out and thankfully Krista borrowed us her husband so he could help Aaron finish the job and Grandpa could go home. We had no major leaks, the only set back we had wasn't our fault! Our hose in the dishwasher came with a little pen hole in it. So today we had to go to Lowe's 2 different times till they finally got us the right part! I swear we have had the worst luck because when we bought our light -from Lowe's- one of the light bulbs didn't work so we had to go back then when we pulled out our sink on Friday and one of the corners was all scratched up, so once again we were back at Lowe's exchanging. Lowe's has been our home away from home lately! Someone told Aaron that he should get a part time job there because he is there so much! But we are up and working now! Thanks all who helped us, we very much appreciate it!!

The rains came down and the floods came up

This afternoon after nap time was over the weather was so nice outside, so Abby and I headed outside. Of course Abby was equipped with her sidewalk chalk, rake, shovel, and watering can. I had my gloves and little shovel so I could pull a few weeds. Below are a few pictures of my little gardener, and I also want to call them the BEFORE pictures...........

Before Pictures.....notice how things are dry and sunny!

Now to the AFTER pictures.................this was about an hour or a little less later............

All of the sudden some clouds rolled in accompanied by thunder and lightning and we had a downpour for about 10 minutes. And my poor flowers are under water! That little white spot in the picture above is some hail stones. Abby loved watching all the rain and was a little confused about the thunder.

Looking at Mommy's poor flowers.....or as Abby would say my poor pretties!

Memorial Day........

Wow! What a busy, great holiday we had! First of all, I woke up to Abby soaking through her diaper and onto her sheets...a little to much milk before bed I guess....then after breakfast she was sitting on her potty getting ready to go poop and she decided at the last minute to stand up and let it land on the floor! That little stinker, literally! Then Jim and Cindy (Grandma and Grandpa) came in to town and helped Aaron pick up our new dishwasher from Lowe's, then, thankfully, they took Abby home with them so we could do some painting. We painted our whole back patio, and it looks great!!! Abby had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa most of the day, from what I heard there was lots of popcorn and watermelon eating, and of course just lots of laughing and playing! Later in the day we joined Abby and Grandma and Grandpa (and the rest of the family) for a BBQ and we celebrated Cindy's birthday that is coming up this week. Lots of good food and fun! It rained most of the day, so I feel bad for all those campers out there!!! We usually always try to go out to Century High School to see the Field of Heroes -honoring those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan- but we didn't brave the weather and do it. We were pretty bummed out! It is so neat. Anyways I won't go on any longer and I don't have any pictures, sorry! But we had a great day!!! Hope ya'll did too!

Waiting for church....

This year we are lucky enough to enjoy 1 o'clock church. Let me just say I absolutely, positively dislike it! It is so hard going to church in the middle of nap time. Luckily Abby is distracted from how tired she is for the first 2 hours in nursery, but by the time we hit sacrament meeting she is tired, grouchy, and sometimes impossible! Everything I pack to entertain her is useless. She even starts to refuse snacks! We will continue to endure, smile, and countdown to the new year!! Now to the pictures I posted. Today we were ready to go to church a bit early and once Abby is dressed and ready she has to leave right away, so to distract her we went outside and enjoyed the nice sunshine for a few minutes. I decided to entertain me I would snap a few pictures and thought they turned out kind of cute.......

Abby looking at mommy's "pretties." (she calls flowers pretties)

Trying to find dad................

Trying to run and turn in her boots! Not the easiest thing to accomplish..-quick story- she hasn't worn her boots forever so I made her practice running and walking in them awhile before we went to church to make sure she could handle it and didn't forget! They can be tricky.

Hope everyone enjoys Memorial Day Weekend!!!!!