We took family pictures last week, we had a lot of fun. These were taken right here in town, and our photographer was amazing! I've been comparing this one to the last family picture that is still hanging on our wall in the living room (taken 7 years ago!) my kids have changed so much! They are almost all taller than me, they are all faster than me, and they think they are all smarter than me. Aren't kids great??
Conner decided to do his report on Grandpa Dickson (his Great-Grandpa) and life on the homefront. Grandpa Dickson was a welder leadman in the shipyards throughout the war. We had Grandma and Grandpa's journal that was kept during 1941 and 1942. Conner got a lot of information out of that journal and some other fun tidbits from Grandma and Grandpa over the phone. He displayed the journal, and printed up some pictures out of the journal to display.
Today was the state championships for little league football. Conner is #27, he had some amazing plays. They played against Hillcrest, and won 33 to 6.
Our team mothers really take care of the boys. They brought football cookies and drinks for the boys after the game. On the last practice of the week they painted everyone's car windows with the boys' names, number and "take state". The team was really pumped up for this game.
At the end of the game they took a team photo. This will be in the local paper in the next week or so. This team has taken state 4 years in a row, that is why all the boys are holding up 4 fingers. Conner played with this team 2 of the 4 years, but he still liked to brag about 4 state championships. He says they broke a "World Record" for state championships...I'll have to look that one up.
The funnest part about living in a small town is the small town fire department and police department. They really care about the boys, and take the time to celebrate with us. They took the boys on a ride through town on the back of a fire truck with sirens blasting. All of the parents followed behind honking our horns. People came out and waved, cars going the other direction would honk and wave too. I think the boys had a great time.
Conner had playoffs in football today. They played against Park City, a team they lost to the last time they played. I was really nervous for them, but I guess I didn't need to be, today Conner's team won 13-0. Steve's parents came to watch. It was so fun having them there. Conner played really well, he had 3 very important touch downs. Next week they play for the State Championships. It should be a very exciting game.
Here's a picture of Conner, he was an ape, but couldn't find the mask, so he put on his scream mask. Conner went trick or treating for about 10 minutes before deciding he was too hot. He came home and changed into a ninja costume.
Here are Conner's friends, the air freshener, and Hannah Montana. Aren't they sweet?
On Monday Steve celebrated his 17th birthday. This year we just had a family party, we went to Flowrider in Ogden. It's like indoor surfing. I took a lot of pictures, but not many of them turned out. Steve and Conner were the only ones from our family that wanted to actually go flowboarding, Kaylea, mom and dad all decided we would be safer to just watch.
By the end of the day, the boys were actually pretty good! This is the best picture I could get of Conner. Doesn't he look great?! Grandma and Grandpa Collings came to watch the boys, they brought our cousins: Kelton, Cameron, and Zoe.
As you can tell from this picture, Conner is extatic! (Okay, mom is extatic.) He got his first touchdown today. The cowboys played against Olympus and they won 32 to 0. Conner ran into the end zone and was wide open, and they passed it right to him. I know I'm just the mom, but it was the BEST touchdown all year!! This was the last regular game of the season. Next week they have the State playoffs, and if they win that, they have the State Championships the week after that. It's been a really fun season. Woohoo!!
Here is the front of the house before the new stucco with the door waiting to be painted. The shutters have been removed.
Here is the house with the new stucco, and a newly painted black door.
And here is the door! It is not perfect, but it is so much better than before. I'd just like to thank Erin for her help with this project, I have tried to do it by myself 2 different times and just made a mess of it. She helps me to think through things a little more clearly. It's nice having her so close.
Last week was homecoming week. Kaylea is in student government, which means her week was really busy! They had to decorate the freshman hall, paint the sidewalks, serve lunch to the class of '89 alumni, and decorate a float. The classes compete in each of these areas (except serving lunch) and the freshmen won first in hallway decorations, and second in sidewalk painting. This is the float they made for the parade, it's only about half way done. Kaylea took pictures with her camera of the finished float and all of the officers on it, and we have had upload issues! Erin took a video of us in the parade... I got to pull the float... but that wouldn't upload either. So you get to see a half done float, but it was a lot of fun. I think Kaylea is relieved homecoming week is over. All in all, very busy, and very fun... but they lost the game...terribly... 34 to 7... And I'm missing half of the pictures I wanted to show... uugh!
The workers came by Monday morning, and put stucco all over the house. I'm thinking it looks pretty good!
It has to dry and then they will come back in a week and put the color on. We are keeping it the same color as before, so it shouldn't look too much different, just no more siding!
We were told that a crew would be here on Thursday to set up scaffolding. We were going to use the scaffolding to reach the siding that was too high to remove. Steve and I went to pick up our trailer on Wednesday night. When we got home Thursday at noon, this is what we came home to. The men had pulled off all the siding we had left up, and all the paper wrapped around the plywood. They had already put on new paper, and wire around the entire house. By about 2:00 they were done. Their boss told us they would be putting on the first coat of stucco on Monday. I'm amazed how fast they worked, and what a great job they are doing! This is so fun!
You think as kids get older, they get easier when you're traveling in the car... NOT! We were coming home from Salt Lake City on Monday where wer hung out for FHE, and Kaylea had her camera. It was pretty distracting having the flash go off every couple of seconds. But they were having such a fun time, I couldn't complain too much about the flashes of light, or the noise. These are only 3 of about 50 pictures taken. Kids are fun.
We gave our kids about 4 days notice that Saturday was our day, we wanted them to be willing to work all day for us. We wanted to get all the siding off our house, prune our trees, mow the lawn, take out all of the plants in the garden, haul a load to the dump, weed the flowerbeds, clean out the horse stalls, blow off the driveway, sidewalks, and garage, and anything else we could think of. I always hold my breath... waiting for attitude from the kids, because at some point I always get it. But Saturday was different, they all helped out, they were happy, and actually got along really well. They worked all day, and didn't stop until we told them we were done.
I took these pictures, because Jessica said, "If I'm going to put this much work into the yard, you'd better have proof!" We still have a lot to do, there's one more side of the house to tear off, and the garden needs to be rototilled, but I'm so happy with how nice it looks.
One funny story, the day was just about over, Conner was loading my tomato plants into the back of the truck to take to the dump. Steve picked up an old pumpkin...it was a little bit soft, and threw it into the back of the truck. The problem was, he missed the back of the truck, and hit the side! This sent pumpkin mush flying everywhere! Conner's shirt and shoes were covered, along with the entire side of the truck. Conner was not happy with his dad! We all had a good laugh!
I know that when it comes to buying and selling things, my family is hard to follow, but bear with me. I know about a month ago I said our house was on the market... well it's not anymore. We tried for 3 months and only had two people walk through. Believe me I'm not upset at all, I love my home. Anyway, we have been trying for a year and a half to sell our boat. We bought it 2 1/2 years ago, but it bothers my back so much when we take it out, that I'm sore for days. I guess if I'm not in the boat, nobody wants to be in the boat. We found that we had a lot of interest, but a lot more people interrested in trading for something else. One man tried to trade us a Chevy Suburban. Have you ever seen a Suburban with a lift kit? It was so high, I'd need a step ladder to get in! Last week, we had a man approach us with a trade offer that we thought we could accept. He does stucco, and offered to stucco the sides and back of our house as a trade for our boat. Those of you who have been to our house know the front is done in stucco, but the sides and back are siding. We have pretty bad wind storms out here, and though we've only lost a small amount of siding one time, we decided it would be nice to upgrade to stucco.
The man asked us to remove all the siding, and he'll take care of the rest. It's quite a job, Steve and I started this yesterday, and the kids have promised us that they'll help with it all day Saturday. Hopefully in a couple of weeks, we'll have a lovely new home to show.
I'm only a little bit nervous! I think this will be really neat when it's done.