Celebrating summer starting and school ending with a party!

This is our third year doing a schools out party, our parties are getting to have a repetition of things to do at them. 

One: They all love roasting hot dogs and making s'mores

 

Two: Water, water and more water, they love to get wet

Three: The more friends they can invite the happier they are, as in at least a dozen friends each lol it is just a good thing I have never had everyone who was invited all be able to come that would get to be a little bit crazy I think!

                               

Four: Photo booth, we love to do a group picture each year, it is fun to see how big these kids are getting and who they stay besties with and the new friends they make each year in their.

                                

This year is going to be great I have three in school so that is 3x's the friends ;)

Gardens, our past, present and future.

Summer is coming fast school's ending and my gardens are blooming and humming with bees, I love this time of year, brown has turned to green and then bust into colors, the air smells so alive! 

I love the kids racing outside after school forgetting to put away backpacks, lunch boxes and running right past their snack. I love the smell of the damp soil as I plant this years vegetable garden and sneak in a few new flowers. This is what I wait for all winter as I plan and scheme my garden layout. 

This is my promise of new life and adventures. 

My garden isn't just another garden its is memories past, present and future.

My past memories growing up and visiting my grandmother playing in her garden, not touching her flowers but looking watching and imaging the fairies that I was sure would have picked her garden for a home. The magic that she had in her garden, and her love of gardening passed to me though her gift of many flower starts and all my beautiful iris.

My present memories of my girls asking for names of the flowers, knowing which ones are from their great grandmother, their love of planting flowers in their own flower garden, working in the garden with me without being mad, and watching them find adventures in the flowers.

Gardens are full of the future each fall when my girls help to scatter the seeds of our dried plants hoping that some will take root and make our garden more beautiful than the last year. Loving that there will always be a future to dream about, those tiny seeds that grow into our dreams and what our lives are made of. 

                           

Life's challenges for my daughter

My Ella has albinism, she was blessed with it, and I hope that she will feel that way someday too.

My grandmother told me that my grandfather always ways grateful that he had albinism because he felt that brought him closer to the Lord. He had to rely on the Lord to give him the promptings he needed to take care of his farm, his family and in his community.

I know that having her milky white skin will be a challenge with the sensitivity she has to the sun. Sunscreen will be her lotion of necessity not choice.
Having low vision will make driving questionable but maybe not impossible for day time, short distances runs.
She may have to learn to let people know she can't read  the words on the card reader to pay for things at the store.
She may have reservations at trying new things that a person with 20/20 vision wouldn't think twice about.
She may have to pick up items off a shelf and hold it a little closer to see what she is buying.
As she gets older she may pick out landmarks that she can see from a distance to make it to her classes.

She will learn to read braille and use a cane, to give her eyes a break and give her the confidence she may need in a new place where we can't be.
She will learn that she is a strong, beautiful, intelligent person.
She will learn that having low vision white hair the most amazing lavender colored eyes is just a small part of her not what makes her her.
She will learn that people don't stare because she is different but because she is radiant.
She will learn to love her God and be thankful for all of her challenges that will make her a strong and independent person.
She will learn that she has a family who will always stand beside her no matter what life will throw her way.
She will learn the most important things in this life is that her God loves her and she is his daughter and as such is a royal daughter who was given a unique role in this world.


My daughter is not blind and is not treated as such in our home. She is given the same choices as her sisters the same opportunities they got at her age. Some things may take more time but it will come. She is a brave strong independent child who knows her mind and what she wants. We feel as her parents that it is our job to guide her in developing those traits not hinder because of our fears as her parents. I knew the instant they held her up and I saw her glowing white hair in all the muck still on her that she was going to be a special little girl. We knew when the nurses and doctors came in to deliver the news that she was different her life would not be smooth sailing. But we decided that day holding our beautiful angle baby that Albinism would not define who she was going to be but only be a part of how she looks. She would not be raised hating that she was different than her sisters and brother, we would not hide her by coloring her hair or giving her make up at a young age allowing her to fit in to what society deems beautiful, those choices are hers to make not ours.

I wish with all my heart that she will be like my grandfather and be grateful for being born with albinism, not ashamed of it.

Teaching moments

I had the best Saturday night. My oldest daughter at the ripe old age of eight was able to attend Womens Conference with me.
I look forward to these meetings each year and this one was perfect I loved how bold the sisters spoke about family and our part as wife, mother, daughter. Us the defenders of the family. The family God has given us.

After conference we went to dinner, as my daughter and I drove we had the chance to talk about what was spoken. She did not have a favorite talk or speaker, but she felt the Holy Ghost so strongly as the speakers talked about the family it brought her to tears. She said she did not know why she cried because she felt so happy about what was said about family. This gave me the chance to explain different ways we can feel the Holy Ghost and remind her that because she has been baptized she will feel the Holy Ghost strongly and more often when she is make good choices and when Heavenly Father wants her to know something is true.

This was her first time feeling the how strongly the Holy Ghost can make us feel. It was the best talk we have had and helped her be ready for fast Sunday today. She is excited to be able to listen to general conference this weekend and to be able to go to more Womens Conferences in the future with her sisters so they can feel what she has felt.

Time to remodel that kitchen

My kitchen has been slowly dying. Doors off hinges, the whole door falling apart in pieces, drawers sides and bottoms falling off, one set was slowing inching away from the ceiling. It had come to the point that I can't glue and nail things back together..so the time has come to fix it all and that included getting rid of our drop ceiling.

After/Before

Here is how we did that transformation:

Day 1 We remove the light and investigate the attic which we found lots of insulation. Bryce borrowed a leaf blower and got it all moved then we pulled out the box sheet rock and framing that held the light

                             

     

Day 2 After all that we knocked down the sheet rock and pulled out all the wood framing that held the ceiling. Now we have a freezing cold kitchen that you can see the rafters in. It has been great that this last week has been warmer than normal.

Day 3&4 We knocked out the pantry and got the electrical mostly done, We are installing three can lights one in the door way and two in the middle/ sides of the room they will be dimmer lights, a pendant light above the sink and adding a second fan in the kitchen area which mean my ugly old fan will be replaced.

Day 5&6 I have a ceiling again and my walls are fixed :) happy day. 

Day 7 The ground work has been laid, today I am starting to put together our cabinet boxes and tonight once the kids are in bed we will begin to tape and mud.

 Our goal is to tear out the base cabinets and flooring Friday-Saturday so Monday we can install the wall cabinets and Tuesday the base cabinets and install the doors and shelves Wednesday so that Thursday we can be ready for our flooring guys to come and just have to worry about moving the piano around ;) I am very excited that this project will be finished by Easter

Here is what our week looked like:

We had a little help from my family

If you notice on the pantry there is a gap we are not sure why we got one we followed the direction and did exactly what it said/showed but we ended up having to re-drill a few of the hole and put a filler piece in. 

We had some issued with the drawers next to the dishwasher as well and drilled new holes in the fronts to make it so the top drawer would close instead of hitting the top of the counter top.

Filler piece in still little gaps on the drawers but I can live with them and I'm sure no one noticed until I pointed it out ;)


All in all I loved how easy the new Sektion Ikea cabinets when in and together, we did have those miner issues with our pantry and the set a drawers not sure why, other than our in the instructions they did not have a picture of the same layout as we had ordered on the room planner layout of the drawers or pantry, but we fixed it and I love it.

We are down to the final touches of the backsplash microwave and the base boards we aren't in a huge hurry we are still a little burned out with how fast we got this all done.  

Don't judge on the mis-matched chairs we bought the last few and had to wait to get the rest.
We hit that point along with our kitchen that the chairs were so wobbly that the kids wen't even safe on them and a new dinning set is not in the budget right now we went with some cheap chairs, that I can make some slip covers on and call it a day ;)

Finishing touches: