Sophie Lin...December 17th

Here are a few pictures we took at the hospital of Sophie. Everything went well. We were all surprised by her size (even my doctor) at 8 lbs, 11 oz. and 19 inches long. She shares a birthday with Papa Kim, on December 17th, born at 6:15 pm. She's still not my biggest baby! Ashton holds that title. The kids all love her & were so anxious for us to get home so they could hold her. They were only allowed to see her thru the nursery windows at the hospital because of new visitor restrictions. We are so glad to be home!

Ko nichi wa

A couple of weeks ago we all went into a Salt Lake health clinic to get our H1N1 flu shots. We told the kids we'd go somewhere fun to eat afterward. To my kids, anywhere is fun for dinner. But they all particularly like Asian food, so we took them to a restaurant close by called "Asian Star". We were early, about 5:00, so we got an "early-bird" special. The funniest thing....the whole time Conner kept saying "Ko nichi wa" to everything. It was a "ko nichi wa" place, they were playing a "ko nichi wa" song, he kept saying "Ko nichi wa" to the waitress and the nice lady that would fill our water glasses. It made Jared and I laugh....and it was a little embarrassing.

Fun times around the dinner table

Dinner yesterday started with an irreverent prayer. Jared didn't mean for it to be, here's what happened......
(Jared saying prayer)"...blah, blah...we're thankful that we can be here together as a family...."
Ashton immediately chimes in with....."Mmm-hmm"....which made us all laugh and Jared started over. I don't know what made him think to chime in, but it was so funny.

While we were eating the conversation turned to Jared's childhood, the kids love to hear about the Smart dairy farm. At one point Jared mentioned his step-grandma, Devean. We don't see her a lot anymore, but a week ago we went to a party for her 80th birthday. So he says her name and Mallory sitting next to him at the table says, "I don't like her." Honestly, I really don't think she knew who he was talking about. But she was so serious and just kept right on eating, staring at her plate. Jared and I just looked at each other and laughed....which always makes Mallory mad. She crosses her arms and says, "It's not funny!!" She doesn't like to be laughed at, but she's just so stinking cute.

Mallory's trouble with "boots"

There are a few words that tie up Mallory's tongue. She says "pup-cakes" for cupcakes, and "slip-slops" for flip-flops....but the funniest is her "boobs" for boots. I've worked on the pronunciation with her, trying to get that "t" in there, but she can't get it. I bought her a pair of black boots (not snow boots) that are just like a pair Kelsey & Emma both have. She loves to wear them, and she talks about them a lot (such a girl). Here are some phrases we've enjoyed lately: "I got new boobs"....."I have boobs like Kelsey"....."I put my boobs on"....."My boobs are stuck"....."There's my boobs".

Halloween 2009

This year we had two Utes, a princess, and two pirates. Kelsey really wanted to be a vampire, but most of the vampire costumes we found were pretty inappropriate, so we nixed that idea & went with the same one we got for Emma. The boys didn't have a choice. I saw the Ute costumes at Tai Pan Trading and bought them, but they were very excited. Mallory was SO cute as Snow White, and everyone commented on what a cute costume it was. Another great creation from Aunt Amy....

Kelsey's sarcophagus

This was Kelsey's first big school project for the year, besides book reports. We couldn't have done it without help from Grandma Linda. I knew when she came home with it that I would love to get her help....it would look good and I thought it would be so fun for my kids to see what a great artist their Grandma is. She really helped us get everything sketched in, then Kelsey and I drew our "final lines" and painted it. I didn't realize how long the painting would take. Nearly the whole time from when she got home from school at about 3:00 until 9:00 she and I were at the counter painting it all in. My feet were so swollen from standing in one place for so long & being 36 wks prego....Jared called them "Fred Flinstone" feet.
Thanks Mom!

One Year Anniversary....

I try to avoid thinking about our 1+ year of construction. I took so many pictures as we went along so we could document it all. We'll probably make a book one day, but right now looking at the pictures brings up so many stressful feelings. Jared and I react the same way when we see the photos, we shake our head and roll our eyes. Here are a few....

THE BEGINNING.....
The two big pine trees we had out front had to come down, also five trees along the north side of our driveway, plus our driveway and carport. Sadly, some trees we wanted to keep got knocked down by various trucks. This part was exciting! We thought at the time that we would be done by Christmas.....ah, yeah right. Part wishful thinking, part inexperience.

This part was SCARY! Jared's brother Todd, and his maintenance guy, Jack, took out our porch. We made all the kids get out of the house. I was sure something was going to go wrong and the walls would fall in. I didn't trust that Todd or Jack knew what they were doing, and I didn't trust our old house! I went inside through the back door for something (can't remember what) just as they were taking the cement steps out. It made the loudest, most awful cracking noise, I thought my roof was about to fall in! I ran out fast.... I will never forget that sound.

That's Mallory's little head poking out, looking at what was going on. We lived with that ramp for quite a while. It was sure fun lugging groceries in. I'm surprised none of us ever fell off, especially when it would get wet or frost over. The foundation took a while to put in. While they were getting ready to pour we had to climb in & out a window for a couple days, the one that's in our dining room now. After that Jim (Jared's uncle who did the remodel) made a ramp down from the front door to the dirt, then another ramp from the dirt up over the foundation wall, then back down to the grass until they got the sub-floor in. The sub-floor was done by Halloween of 2007, then Jim left until after the new year. Anytime it snowed, we had to shovel it. We had no sidewalks or driveway to shovel, so I guess it was kind of a trade off. How many people can say they shoveled their bedroom?

Little did I know that we wouldn't be done until Halloween of 2008. I've been thinking a lot about it, now that we have been HOME for a year. I will never, ever want to move or remodel again.....heck, I don't ever want to even paint my walls!