Happy Easter

Things have been kind of crazy, hectic, and stressful lately (the wall may or may not have anything to do with that) so it was so nice to run away for the weekend. We went to Monticello to visit Taylor and Krista and meet our new niece/cousin Whitley (sooo adorable). We stayed at the Inn at the Canyons (fancy name for motel with indoor swimming pool and continental breakfast- a HUGE hit with the kids). We made cookies and a dutch oven dinner (well, Taylor and Krista did) and we had an Easter Egg hunt at a park in Blanding. Notice our totally ghetto Easter baskets?! It worked.
We kept re-hiding the eggs that the boys found. Allie was totally in on it. I don't think Luke and Wesley ever clued in. It was so funny!
Having fun...

We had to laugh at the "double-wide" slide. Perfect for our double wide chocolate-eating hides.

Four No More

A rarity for sure.

Today is Luke's 5th Birthday. Happy Birthday Luke!

Can of Worms

Where to begin... Do you remember two years ago when we remodeled the kitchen and ended up digging a big ditch in the backyard and thus destroying half of it in the process? Do you remember last year when we took out the rest of what was in the backyard (and some unnamed person happened to tip the bobcat over... 5 months pregnant)? We have been anxious to get the backyard landscape project finished. But before we spent time and money on that, we all agreed (Jason and I and several contractors who gave us bids) that the side wall needed to be addressed.

Why? Well, it isn't necessarily attractive to begin with.
Notice the missing blocks along the top concourse (or row) above? Just fell right off.
Notice of the lean and separation from the other wall? No, it's not a funny camera angle.
How about the cracks? This is just one of them.
And how about that for a straight wall? It will only get worse they all said. And if you have a new backyard when it really comes crumbling down? That would be a sad day.

So we decided to fix the wall. What we thought would be a four day job... has been l o n g e r than 4 days. Tearing down the wall was done in 4 hours though. Just four hours and 2 dumpsters $.
Our block guy said we really ought to get a city permit to close the sidewalk. The city said "Oh no, the barricade company pulls those. What you need however is a building permit. What? The wall is over 6 feet tall? You need a zoning permit too. What's that? It retains dirt? You need an architectural engineered drawing of the wall and site plans."

What I heard was "blah blah $ blah $ blah blah blah $$". Can we use the same footing at least? Nope. It is only 2 feet wide and it needs to be 3 feet. Which means even more $.

Another day, more $, get the tractor back out and guess what?! It was 2 feet wide and also 2 feet deep. Which means this tractor went at it for about 20min. and then gave up because the tractor was about to break.
Two more days $ and two high powered jack hammers $ and now the footing is out. Get another dumpster $.
We haven't even begun to buy the block yet and I get to go visit the nice friendly people down at the city office building with 3 small children in tow yet again. Believe me I am leaving out a lot of the nitty gritty details. We just wanted to fix our wall. How silly to believe it would be done in 4 days.

When I complained to our dear friend and architect who is helping us out yet again about how we have opened yet another can of worms he replied "And as far as cooking up cans of worms, I say every one should be good at something and if you have found a talent, a knack, a genius in something then you should hone it, work it, perfect it, sharpen it, polish it, and really let it
shine."

Yup, I am pretty good and serving up a can of worms. I just wish they would sell them in the a Costco sized can because they are expensive!!! But shiny.

Everyone needs an Uncle Sam

We have a great Uncle Sam! He came for a visit last weekend. The kids knew he was coming but the didn't know who his "friend" was that he was bringing. So every day we gave them a clue...
-you know this person
-it's a girl
-she has red hair
-her birthday is in October

Cousin Hailey!

Our Conference weekend was fun, relaxing, and full of inspirational messages. We loved it!

And really, don't you wish you had an Uncle Sam too?!