Eight is Great

This boy made me a mom eight years ago.

 

I can't believe it.  I know it's so cliché but seriously where did the time go?

 

Easton is a very sweet, kind, mild-mannered boy.

He is a really good helper around the house and is always willing to help his sisters or myself out.

 

He still loves collecting "treasures."

                          He loves to swim and could spend everyday, all day long in the pool.

 

 

He does not, I repeat, does not enjoy getting his pictures taken.  Much of our photo shoot went as follows:

 

 

Over the Fourth of July weekend Easton was baptized.  We had all of my family and all of Clint's family come and stay.  It was fun, amazing and tiring.

 

Adriana and cousin Sawyer enjoyed playing the piano together.

                                    There was always something going on throughout the house.

We ate and ate, swam and ate some more.  Or maybe it felt like we were constantly eating because cooking for 25 people, 3 meals a day is a lot of work.  I had a lot of help though and everyone pitched in to make some delicious meals.  These festive sugar cookie bars were made by my sister Danielle.

                                                Easton proudly displaying his patriotic shirt he made.

 

                                      The little's enjoying some delicious oreo pops.

                                                      Lots of fun with Legos. 

We watched some great fireworks.  People by our house really know how to spend a lot of money on fireworks. 

The big day arrived.  Easton was excited and nervous.  For the last couple of months during family night we talked about baptism and the covenants you make.  We also had the missionaries come and talk to Easton.  There was also some "dunking" in our pool to practice for the big event.

By the time we got home from the baptism Easton had had enough of the paparazzi.  As is evidenced by the look on his face in this photo. 

                                                                     My siblings!

Marielle riding the wave rider received as a gift from Sean and Nicole.  It really works and has a little propeller on it.

                                                                Hot tub time!

                                                                          Lots of swimming. 

We had so much fun and are so grateful everyone was able to make the trip down to celebrate Easton's big day.  It meant a lot to him and to us to have our families support.  We miss everyone already.

Kitchen

Lest we forget what the kitchen looked liked when we moved in.

 

The cabinets were not in good shape.  And check out the bulkheads above the cabinets.  Extra big, just how you would want them to waste as much space as possible in the kitchen.

 

 

Clint ripped out the bulkheads only to discover over 20 wires hanging down.  The builder didn't want to take the time to properly install them in the walls and just left them hanging.

 

We had an electrician come and properly place the wires inside the wall.  We also had to have a gas pipe moved and placed properly.

 

 

We then had the walls drywalled and crown moulding installed.

                                                          The cabinets were then installed.

 

Da da da daaa...... The finished project.

 

 

Here is a brief cost breakdown:

Cabinets: $8,700 (includes pull-out drawers in all of the cabinets, soft close drawers and doors and under cabinet lighting.)

Granite for countertops:$1,000

Labor for drywall, wiring, pipe relocation, countertop installation: $3,650

Appliances: $3,300

Faucet: $140

Backsplash install and supplies: $350

 

Total:  $17,140

                                          The light is from Lowe's on sale for $89.

There are a couple of little things left to do.  I need to get a glass shelf for my cabinet with the glass windows and also a new doorknob for the pantry.

Esme is really good at locking all of the doors in our house- doors to which we don't have a single key to any of them.  The door to the pantry would not open.  We were either going to starve or Clint had to remove the doorknob.  We plan on replacing all of the doorknobs anyway so we chose the latter option.

                      I love my bridge faucet. This beauty was found on Amazon for about 1/2 the cost found elsewhere. 

The stools are from Target.  I bought them on sale and I think they were $75 for two.

 This little one is busy doing what she does best.  Taking things out of the pantry and placing them throughout the house.

 

It makes me so happy!

 

 

A sneak peek of the living room.  This is my Restoration Hardware knockoff.  I loved it but when I saw the $2,500 price tag there was no way I was paying that.  I did my own version for a lot less-it cost me about $200.

 

Before

Here are some shots of our home right as we first began to work on it.

 

This is the family room.

 

 Through that doorway on the right is our master bedroom.  I really like having the master on the main level.  It makes it so nice when I need to grab some shoes or a brush real quick.

 Right after we closed on our home Clint, Adriana and I left our 3 older kids in Utah and came down to work on our home.  The trip down was not the most pleasant of trips.

  It was the day after Christmas and we got a late start because the flooring we had purchased weighed our truck down so much it became clear our truck was not going to be strong enough to pull the trailer and haul all of our new flooring.  Our friend was kind enough to let us borrow his big truck.  Once everything was loaded into the truck and trailer we left around 7:00 pm.  After a detour in Springville to pick up our paint sprayer from Clint's brother we were on our way.

While traveling through the gorge by St. George we got a flat tire.  Some nice lesbian ladies pulled over at 12:00 am and shone their headlights so Clint could see and let him borrow their jack.  Such nice ladies.

We get to Vegas and take a curve a little too sharply and our tire blows off the trailer.  Just blows right off- we cannot find it.  It's about 2:30 am at this point.   Because we can't find the tire that blew off, we no longer have lug nuts to be able put on our last spare tire. After much thought trying to decide what to do we felt our best option was have someone tow the trailer.  We call a towing company who says they will come in about and hour and it will cost between $300-400.  Umm, no thanks.  Clint being ever so clever decides to take a lug nut off of each tire to put on the spare tire.

 We hobble to our home and almost make it when the tire comes off AGAIN.  We were so tired at this point we basically dragged the trailer to our house. 

We get to our house and it's nearing 5:00 am by this point.  Clint goes to unlock the front door and realizes he doesn't have the keys- they are at home in Eagle Mountain.  So what does one do confronted with this situation after an exhausting night?  Clint went ahead and Chuck Norrised it by kicking the door a couple of times and busting it open.

We quickly got into bed and slept a couple of hours but Clint couldn't sleep much longer so he decided to just get up and start working on our house.  He goes to the trailer and is unloading things when he accidentally scrapes his hand on a razor blade dispenser which has a razor blade sticking out and cuts his hand- bad.  It's a deep wound and it needs stitches. 

We find an urgent care clinic that cauterizes the wound because it won't stop bleeding and stitches Clint up.  His poor hand was so swollen and sore but he still came home and continued to work on his projects like a champ.

Clint is seen here with his bandaged hand fixing the front door he kung-fued. 

 A view of our formal living room area.

 This is another angle from the front living room area with the view as you walk in from the front door.  That's the loft area up above.

 The beautiful kitchen.  The bulk heads above the cabinets were so big and such a waste of space.

 Kitchen and dining area.

 The formal living room can be seen through the archway on the left.

 Clint's poor, poor hand.  His hand subsequently got infected due to a little piece of the silvery stuff they cauterize with being left in his hand.  He had to go back not once but twice to get antibiotics because it would not get better.

 My little baby playing peek-a-boo in the cabinets.

Get ready for some after pictures of the new kitchen.  Coming soon...hopefully.