UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Thankfully this time, it's not our blog - it's OUR HOUSE! Things have been so crazy that I haven't taken many pictures. Expect them soon, but also expect delays. (Sorry to have distracted you by this appealing message).

Austin's First Haircut... by Me!

After too many busy weeks of not making $7 haircuts on Wednesday, we decided I should have a go at cutting Austin's hair. He wasn't exactly thrilled I wanted to take a picture, but I think it turned out pretty good (especially considering I've only cut a 1 year old's hair in the past 4 years).

Erin Visits

My sister Erin decided she was going to come for a visit a couple of weeks ago. We had a great weekend! She brought lots of fun toys for the kids (making up for past birthdays and holidays) and they really enjoyed playing with her.
Cristina and Ian also brought their family from Idaho. With 5 (Eddie stopped by too but his son was sick so we didn't get their pictures) out of the 8 siblings here, it felt like a mini-reunion.

(Cade & Erin in the morning. Snuggling & watching Monsters, Inc. on her IPhone 4.)

(Coloring on a box with Aunt Maria - much better than paper and not my furniture)

(Bubbles are a hit!)

(Ian, Cristina, Holly, Atley, & Cadence)

(Atley's dinosaur - a favorite toy -becomes scary when turned on)

One of the best parts of the weekend (for me) was getting some quality time doing projects with my sisters. Cristina has been dying to reupholster something and has done a bunch of research, so we decided as part of my "new kitchen" we'd reupholster the kitchen chairs, with the leftover fabric from hemming the curtains.
(Can you see how dirty the chair fabric was? Gross.)

It's actually pretty simple. I'll post more about how to do it on my personal blog if you're curious.

This is the after and before (maybe I should have switched them...)

Satisfied Cristina's creative desire and made my kitchen look even better! We're starting to more regularly work on projects together when we get together and it makes me wish she lived a little closer.
As we worked on the chairs, my sister Maria and I made granola. She made me a big fan this year of Alton Brown's show on the Food Network, "Good Eats". It's about a 20 minute long show I watch when I get a minute or am folding laundry on Youtube. I love it because he teaches you about the science of food. It's clever, quick, and satisfies my craving to know more about food yet doesn't take too much time away from being a mom. I loved the recipe, but I think we'll be trying some others before we settle (and knowing me we'll end up combining them to make our own health concoction).

I loved having my sisters here! Family is such a great blessing in our lives.

Blessed with Bounty

This year, we’ve been working so hard on keeping up our garden (and getting our hands pretty dirty) that it’s been hard to remember to take pictures of our harvest. We have had an ABUNDANCE of food including, zucchini, cucumber, onions, lettuce, carrots, and cherry tomatoes. We also enjoyed a few tomatoes, green peppers (just ripening now), and peas.

Though we are now down one chicken (the other “ran away”), our single little hen seems to be trying to make up for what is lost. Look what we found one morning for breakfast inside a particularly large egg.

Also, we feel blessed to be expecting another baby in our home, counting each member of our little family as a sacred gift from God. Cadence has been gearing up by cuddling and “putting to bed” his stuffed animals, with no encouragement at all from his parents. So cute!

Last, we feel so blessed to have a been able to listen to a prophet of God speak, President Thomas S. Monson at the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What is a prophet of God, as God’s mouthpiece, saying today? Be grateful. Check out the entire talk by clicking on the hyperlink. It was a beautiful sermon and one I will be reading over and over again. We are grateful for his leadership and I know that by following the counsels of a prophet of God (ex: planting a garden, storing food, becoming self-reliant, & to multiply & replenish the earth), our family has been blessed with bounty!

Capturing Cadence

I was watching some old videos of Cadence the other day (at 3 weeks, 3 months, etc.) and I really started to wish I had taken more videos. Though we don't have the greatest camera, the videos really brought back some sweet memories.
With this inspiration, enjoy the next couple videos. Just Cadence, being Cadence, like every other day. I love it!