Growing Up

It's amazing to me how quickly kids grow up! This summer has gone by fast and the kids sure have "grown" during it too!


We went to ride bikes last week. Here is some of their progress...

Grant is doing really well. He is so focused when he rides that sometimes he almost hits someone or something, but no real accidents yet.

Sandra can ride a bike! Yeah! It seems like pushing those pedals has been tricky the last few times, but this time she figured it out and had a great time!

Talmage is doing great too. He will probably be getting his training wheels off soon because he is balancing so well!

I'm sure if we took the kids more often this would progress more quickly, but such is life :).

Mhari hanging out with Daddy. Too cute not to share :)

Mhari can ride the kids scooter. She was pretty mad for a while that I didn't let her ride a bike, but she finally got over it and rode the scooter. She is so cute when she rides, so slow, but still doing it!


Then she'll walk with the scooter. Even cuter. Little kids are great to watch as they try to figure it all out! Even funner when they actually do it too!!

Mhari has discovered baby dolls. It's very cute to see her love and try to take care of her baby. She is not the best mommy yet (dragging the baby around the house by it's arm), but she has some time before she'll be a mommy with her own babies!

Mhari also wants to do somersaults. She needs some help though. Good thing Daddy is such a good helper!

Good job Punkin!

Talmage with a hen. He was sitting holding it on his lap and petting it. Jeff snuck a picture through the window :). He was too cute. He is usually really good with them and it's funny to see him treat them so much like a pet.

They really do grow up fast don't they :)! I'm glad we get to try to capture these events so that way I can remember how much they have grown and keep the memories fresh!

A Project done in a Day!

Jeff refinished our cabinets (painted them) about a year and a half ago. When we put the doors back on and I really wished we had new hard ward to go with the new finish. It wasn't happening then. Do you know how much hardware for cabinets is? Seriously it's ridiculous!

So I came up with the idea of painting our existing hardware instead of buying new ones (maybe Jeff helped with the idea, I don't remember). After redoing the back door and having new finish on the knobs I really wanted to do the cabinet hardware.

Saturday I ended up at walmart and bought the spray paint I thought would work well.

When I got back we got the project underway. Jeff removed everything and I decided I should clean it up before we painted.

This is the difference after some good hard scrubbing... seriously that was some hard work scrubbing all those pieces!


Jeff primed and painted and by that evening we were reassembling the cabinets.
This is the new look.



I think they stand out and make the cabinets look sharp. The color didn't turn out quite as dark as I thought, but that is probably our fault - should have chosen a darker primer color. I guess I learn something from every project.



Now the kitchen just needs counter tops, new sink, new faucet, and new floors. Oh Jeff would like a new table too. That's not too much to do right :).

patio cover and back door

Before we left for the summer we had a patio cover made (Jeff helped). It turned out really well and I am so happy to have some shade where we can enjoy being outside together. With the new patio came the need to paint it. It seems the projects never end :).


We have lots of red barn paint we had used for some of our fence so we figured we'd use that on the patio as well.

This is what the first coat looked like.


Kind of hard to tell from the photos, but we like it.


Once we had the first coat on (the 2nd is done now too by the way), we looked at the back door and realized the trim really needed to be painted as well. After Jeff did some examining of the trim he started thinking seriously about replacing the whole door. We have some rot issues, on the trim, we would like a dead bolt on the back door, and the door doesn't fit well - tons of air leaks through that door. With all the issues against the door and since we were already in the middle of the project we decided to replace the back door.

Here is Jeff taking off the outer caulk - I forgot to take pictures earlier, too busy helping :)



The corner where the board had been rotted through.

Once everything was cleaned out and ready for the new door we got it in and it didn't fit so well. It turned out that the door was too long for the cement threshold that had been made in front of the last door. That gave Jeff a reason to get out the big drill and remove some cement.

Here it is waiting for the last piece to be chipped away for the door to fit into place. Jeff did a great job removing the excess cement without damaging the other cement!

After fitting, shimming, nailing, screwing, the door was ready to be insulated. I forgot to mention that our previous back door (once we took off the trim) had no insulation or shims. Man, it was time to be replaced!

Here is the finished product that night. The new boards and door still need to be painted, but otherwise it is awesome!

Here is the inside of the door. I like the new trim we got to go around it. It is also waiting for paint. Our last door was blue, but we won't be doing the same blue for this one. It's a lot of white so we will be painting it a color, just not sure which one (probably the cabinet color, however I think a navy would look cool).

It is funny to me how one house project starts and leads to so many other things. Jeff would love to redo our front door now and even get new flooring, I would love new counters. Oh if that schooling didn't always get in the way our house would constantly have a project going on :). It is a blessing to do things yourself - you learn a lot (this was our first door to put in)! I'm grateful that Jeff is so willing to improve our home and learn new things!

Good Friends

While in Phoenix the kids got to make some good friends. Mhari got along really well with Grandpa, Jonathan, Ira, Nathan, and Aaron. Did you notice a trend? She liked the boys the most. I think she was Daddy deprived. She did really well warming up and enjoying being with everyone. By the end of our stay she played with everyone and would run up and give people hugs. She was very cute.


Uncle Aaron bonding with Mhari


Then there were the cousins that were inseparable.

Grant and Ella



Talmage and Bree

It was fun to see which kids hung out with each other. There was a swap this trip with Grant and Ella getting along so well (instead of Talmage and Ella). That did make Talmage sad, but he did really great with Bree so it worked out well in the end :).


I also got to bond with friends too :).
My best friend growing up, Taffery, had her first baby. I was able to go see her and her new little one, Hudson, and enjoy hanging out for a couple of hours.

Congrats girl, welcome to motherhood!!



I also got to hang out with my sister-in-law, Tiffany, a lot too. Okay so hanging out with 7 kids isn't really hanging out, but still, we did projects together and the kids got to bond so that was good, right!? It's amazing how busy and crazy those weeks were and then how quickly they went by!

Overall I had a great trip and was grateful for the friendships I made and strengthened during my time in phx. I have great family and friends and even though I don't live as close it's great to stay in touch!!!

Some friends/family not pictured...

Mom * Karen * Michelle * Leann * Mom Williams * Dad Williams * Amanda * Richelle * Azure * Allison * LaDawn * Holly * Christa * Sarah * Dawn * Breann * Jody

The Whole Williams bunch

We weren't planning on getting a new family photo taken, but since Jeff came back a little early it was time to update the Williams' family picture. Mhari has joined the family since the last one and this one is more "homey" for Grandma to enjoy :).

There are 12 grand kids ranging from 14 to 1. We are getting pretty large when we are all together :).

The original family: Mom and Dad, Michelle, Nathan, Aaron, and Jeff. They grow up fast don't they.

Now we have the spouses...

Nathan and Tiffany

Aaron and Leann

Jeff and me

My favorite picture :).

Always nice to have a cute one together!

Crazy Crafty Busy!

The pictures aren't cooperating so this is going to be very random... sorry.

While on vacation I did several crafty projects.
One of the first things was making the girls more clothes. I'm not sure that Mhari needs more, but she is so cute dressed up that I couldn't resist :)

Mhari's is a dress while Sandra's is a baby doll dress shirt with green shorts. It turned out really cute :).



This is a t-shirt project that we did for all the grand kids. My boys have dinosaur shirts and the girls have hearts and flowers. The older cousin boys got war shirts. Mhari is in her green tie-died shirt that we made too. I never got pics of all the kids in their different tie-died shirts. They are all striped like that with different colors for each kid.

This is what our hands looked like after finishing tie-dying the shirts. We were all wearing glvoes too, not the best quality I guess. Can you tell whose hands did most of the work? (they are mine in case it isn't obvious, I had to bleach them to get the blue and green off)

Here is Leann tie-dying the quilt squares for the kids memory blankets. That project isn't finished yet :).

Oh, and more clothes for the girls. We made 4 of the girls matching blue dresses. They turned out really cute and my girls have insisted on wearing them for the last 2 Sundays.

With the t-shirt project, my capris got some bleach on them. We decided to decorate them as well. You take a dye cut and put it (or tape it) where you want it. Then spray bleach water over it. Then you take off the dye cut and it looks really cool :). That was my favorite project. Besides making the dye cuts (that was a pain) the project was totally easy and the kids liked designing their own shirts too.

Here's what the shirts looked like with laying down the dye cuts and the war one is already done.

My 2 girls shirts.

I also made hand towel aprons. They were pretty easy and by making them out of hand towels they wash up really easy when they get messy. And what kid helping out doesn't get messy? I think I'm crafted out for a little bit, but it was good to feel like I got to create so many fun things :). Thanks to all the great family for the help and the awesome ideas!

Swimming through the summer!

One of the best parts about being in Arizona is the cheap swim lessons! The kids were able to do 2 sessions while we were there. By the end of our time Talmage and Grant can swim (not fabulously, but they can do it!!) and Sandra is doing really well. Mhari loves the water and she had a good time in the Mommy and me class.

The pool we went to is new and has water slides, a lazy river, and a splash pool. On the last day of lessons the kids would get to go down the slides (they even have a little one in the toddler area). So much fun! The lessons were done in the lazy river section - 3 feet deep and about 8 feet wide.



Mhari had a good time... mostly. One of her teachers called her a little spit fire. That sums her up really well some days. She did great though and if she were a little stronger she would be swimming - she's a little fish :).


Here we are on the last day of lessons, after fun day, looking at the cards that tell your skill level and such enjoying the otter pops. What a great time. Swimming kept us busy during those hot summer days!

Talmage and Sandra


Grant

Mhari posing with her towel :)