Wednesday August 17

Wow it got late....

But we got lots done.

The kids got to have fun playing at the Youngs house again.

Heather even took the to Bounce.

Spoiled kids.



Tuesday August 16

Why oh why can't there be more hours in the day????

Still so much to do!

But we are determined to have it all done by Thursday...that means one more day.

One more very busy day!

We got the cabinets all done and I am very happy with how they turned out.

YAY!

Lets just hope lots of other people love them :)

We still need to put the drawer fronts on and the hardware....but I think they turned out good!

More painting tomorrow.....and boxing up all the excess stuff....

And we seem to have a lot of excess stuff :(

But we are on the way to being done.

But for now, we need sleep.

Monday August 15

Today was Elsie last session with Ride for Joy.

I think we will skip the fall session because of how busy everything will be with moving and selling and all that stuff.

But we hope to be back into it for the Winter session.

But Elsie had a fun time with Elle today.

They had a fun day planned.

It started out with the usual riding and stretching.

Then they started a game.

They each got cards with pictures of camping gear on it....then they rode around the arena looking for the items.

Once they got all their items, they met in the middle of the arena and got off the horses and had a fun little make believe camp out.

The Ride for Joy people really do love what they do.

And Elsie loves it so much.

What a great program!

I took Porter with me, so Dad could get more stuff done at home.

Madi and Cassi hung out at the Young's house all day so we could get stuff done at home.

Port was pretty good.

Besides almost tipping a shelf unit on himself and falling backwards out of a chair.....

That kid just can't sit still!
After Ride for Joy, Elsie joined the girls at the Young house for some playing.

I owe Heather big time!

We got so much done today!

Thanks Heather.

I cam home and put Porter to bed and Brent and I got the cupboards all painted....we ended up spraying them instead of rolling it on.

I am glad we did, it looks way better that way.

The office is half painted.

Trim replaced in the bathroom.

More stuff put into boxes.

More painting.

I even got a few loads of laundry done.

I am sure tomorrow will be the same way.

Almost ready to put the house on the market.

Does anyone know of anyone who is looking for a house?

Sunday August 14

Sara's family was here for a little bit this morning.

Madi and Cassi have been taking care of a neighbors kitten, and watering their house plants.

This morning, Brad and Russell got to go with them to play with Forklift (that's the kitty's name).

They all thought that was pretty cool.

We made Zucchini muffins for breakfast....and it was a big it.

I did have to call it 'sweet bread' in order for them to try it....but they all loved it once they did.

It was fun having Sara's family come and visit....

Thanks for stopping by Sara.

We sure love you guys!

*****

Today was stake conference....and Daddy was at work.

So I skipped it.

I don' think they would have lasted very well without Dad there to help me out.

But we were missing dad, A LOT!!!!

So after Porter took a nap, we headed out to the Fire Station.

Daddy was VERY MISSED!

He has been gone since Friday, and Elsie has been telling me how much she misses Daddy about every hour since he left.

She sure LOVES her daddy!!!

The boy was in heaven again.

Another bonus about moving.....we will be a lot closer to the fire station, so that means more visits while dad is at work!

YAY!

*****

Tomorrow we are in for a lot more work.

'Gettin down to business'.

I wish we could fast forward the next couple months and get past all this waiting to move stuff.

I am so excited.

I am starting to think people think we are crazy for doing this move.....

Saturday August 13

There is a lot of stuff to get done around this place to get it ready to put up for sale.

Our front yard for one.

It was starting to get a little over grown and unruly.

Our ivy growing up the wall was starting to take over the front door....so we made it look nice and pulled out a bunch of ivy and grass and weeds and cleaned up the rocks and trimmed the bushes.

I think the entrance looks nice and inviting now.

Madi was a huge helper.

I kept telling her that I hope she is loving this, cause there will be ALOT more of this kinds of stuff at the new house.

She seemed pretty excited.

We'll have to wait to see.

*****

Remember how I was slowly sanding down my kitchen cupboards to paint them.

Well, our realtor told us to just re stain the ones we had sanded.

I tried that, and they looked terrible.

So I decided to bite the bullet and paint them.

I am excited to see them all done like I imagined them being......even if I don't get to enjoy them.

The doors are all primed and ready to be painted.

The outer edges are about half way done......I will keep working on that.

All and all not too bad of a project.

If there wasn't so much else to do!!!!!

Oh, I also painted all the doors today.

We wanted to keep the hardwood doors that we just recently bought so I could put them in the new house, or save when we add on to it.....

So we bought some nice, not solid, doors, and they needed painted.

So I painted all those today.

Needless to say, the TV played mom for the day today.

I also had a lot of help from Madi Bell and Cassi, and from Jenni as well.

Hopefully we can get the house nice and ready to put on the market soon.

And then I sure hope some sweet family falls in love with it.

I do love this house.

I love where we are....I love how we have started to make it our own.....I love it's home-y feel.....

But the real dream is about to start with this new land and house.

And we are all so excited about it!!!!

I can't wait!

Friday August 12

My sister Sara and her little family came to visit us today...and the kids had a lot of fun playing around.

They have been getting along really well.

 These two little guys crack me up!

They are 9 days apart in age.

Aren't they so cute?

These two are pretty close in age too.

Cassi is 5 weeks older than Russell.

They played really well together all night.

Elsie had a lot of fun playing with all of them....

She loved showing off her puppy, Muffin, to Sara and Sean.

And telling them about his broken ear that he got from falling off a ladder :)

She cracks me up with her imagination!

And little Samantha was a little shadow with Madi.

Madi let her play with her and her porclean dolls.

Samantha kept calling them baby dolls, and Madi would QUICKY correct her by telling her they were porclean dolls.

But Madi was very sweet with Samantha all night.

Painting her nails and playing games with her.

I think Samantha really enjoyed herself.

I didn't get a picture of Brad......he must have really kept himself busy.

He is a good kiddo too....

We love the Storms family!

Thursday August 11

One of my most favorite things about Madi is that she knows when it is time to buckle down and really be a good helper.

She started the morning with making every ones beds.

She was a great helper all day long.

Unloading all the dishes, then reloading....cleaning rooms, and helping Dad in the garage.

Helping to watch the kids....lots of stuff.

She does all this stuff all the time....but it is always when I ask.

Today she did it all on her own.

I love that!!!

We have a lot of stuff to do around here to get the house ready to put up for sale.

It's good to know that we have Madi around to help keep us going and sane :)

Wednesday August 10

Big changes are happening around the Matthews home.

While we were in Utah, Brent got an email from our realtor friend about some property for sale.

We have been having him send us info on land for sale, but it has always been pretty over priced.

When Brent got his email, it looked perfect.

He actually put in an offer before we even saw the place in person.

When we came home from Utah, before we even got home, we stopped by the place, and fell in love.

But it was a bank owned property and we had no idea how many offers they had put in for the place.

On Monday, our realtor said they had multiple offers and they needed our highest offer by that evening.

Well, we just found out this morning that we got the place!!!!

We really got it!!!!

And it was a steal.

4.5 acres!!!!

This is what we have always wanted for our family.

The house is an old one, and we will have to fix it up a bit.

But it is the land we fell in love with.

We are very excited for all the possibilities of this place.

We are sad to leave our friends and neighbors.....but we won't be too far, it is still here in Meridian.

There is still a lot to figure out....like school for the kids, selling this house, packing....

We will be busy for sure!

And there will be plenty of work to do at the new place.

It has been vacant for 4 years....and there is a lot of weeds and dead stuff to be cleaned up.

But it will be so worth all the hard work!!!

Tuesday August 9

Brent brought home his extra turnouts to wash them up.

And Porter begged to put them on.

It was a perfect fit :)

We needed to move the water from one tree to another....and the boy was all up for the task.



As soon as i turned around after this picture, he turned the hose on full force and it threw him back.

It was hilarious.

Just like the little boy on the Little rascals movie.

Love it!

Monday August 8

Madi started her art class today at Bloomin' Art.

Cassi was feeling bad that she didn't get to do it, even though I reminded her that she got to go to a week long theatre class this summer.

But she begged and begged to cook something.

I told her that we couldn't cook with a dirty kitchen....so she worked hard to get it clean so she could cook.

She picked a recipe out of her cookbook that we had all the ingredients too.

Which was a harder task then you think...we are out of pretty much everything!

I need to do some shopping.

So she pulled out all the ingredients and she set to work.

Cassi did pretty much everything.

I helped her cut the butter into the flour mixture.....and cut the holes out of the center.

But everything else was all her!

And man.....they were SO GOOD!!!!!

She did a great job.

She says she wants to throw a party so she can make more.

We will have to see when we could do that for her.

Anyway, like I said, she did an awesome job!

She loves cooking!

*****

Madi is loving her art class.

She will be working on an art piece every day this week.

I was excited about this class cause it is one piece spread over the whole week, teaching how to pace yourself and patience....and just having her learn that her art doesn't need to be done in one sitting.

I am excited to see the final piece!