Countertops!

Yet another do it yourself project at our house. Concrete countertops were a must for the basement. I wanted something totally different than your granite or solid surface. These babies are a fortune to buy, so we decided to take it on ourselves. Luckily Steve is skilled and I am a great cheerleader and helper.

First Steve made a template of the cabinets in the kitchenette and bathroom. Next he built some forms with melamine to pour the concrete into. We used the Buddy Rhodes system so you had special concrete just for this. We chose Bone as our base color. Basically Khaki. Steve mixed the concrete and then brought it down to me. I made balls with the concrete and then pressed it lightly into the form. This made the tops of the countertop kind of have little holes. It is hard to explain.

Then you did lots of other steps and then smoothed the top. The top became the bottom. Make sense? Basically you flip it over when it is dry.

We let the kids each make handprints in the bottom of the tops.
Finally wen it dried we took it out of the forms and lifted it up. It was really scary. We had no idea what we were doing or how it would turn out. I was worried they would just crumble, but they were so strong.
Next we placed these heavy as crap things onto the cabinets. I helped with the bathroom and nearly fell over and Tim helped with the kitchen. I told Steve it was like picking up the sidewalk and just walking around. Really, they were SO heavy!!

Once they were in place I put a paste on them. I used a chocolate color. You put the paste all over it filling in all the holes, and then sand it off.




If you want you can keep sanding them and they get all shiny and perfectly smooth. I wanted a more natural and rugged look. I think I am going to make more of these, I LOVE them.

Entertainment

I left for the afternoon to do lunch and a movie with my Mom and Sister. I can home and and found that Steve had given the boys a glue gun and set them free. They could use anything they found on the floor and a pile of sticks he gave them. This is what they came up with. I LOVE IT!! Had to laugh that they were still in their jammies. Oh well, they had a great time!

Valentines Day Anniversary

WOW, I cannot believe that me and Steve have been married for 8 years! Every year I tease him that he wanted to marry me on Valentines Day so that he could just do one gift. This year he surprised me and gave me one HUGE gift that was the best surprise ever!

A few years ago a guy came door to door selling paintings. I feel in love with one and talked Steve into getting it for me. For the last few years it has been rolled up safely in my closet because I didn't really know what to do with it. I knew I wanted to put it in the basement, but I didn't know how to frame it or anything.

Steve came home from work Friday with a huge gift in his truck. I saw it so he let me have it. I had no idea what it could be because it was so big. I was so excited when I got it open and saw that he had made me this amazing frame. It was far beyond my expectations and made the painting look amazing. I am so excited!!!

I am such a lucky girl!

Sign of the times.

(I thought this picture might get your attention. No it isn't me!)

As I go about my day, rapping in the car with the kids "Shorty got LOW LOW LOW" feeding them junk food and non-organics, driving my not so green vehicle, yelling at them, teasing them, not always being the safest Mom, not always being the most exciting Mom, sometimes being too exciting of a Mom, and so fourth I cannot help but wonder what I am doing now that will seem just CRAZY in 10 or 20 years.

Picture me, Brooke, and Zak cruising around in the back of our old Chevy Citation puffing on a candy cigarette. Brooke is laying on the floor on a bed of pillows, little Zak napping on the back seat unbuckled and unfamiliar with the word car seat, and me sunbathing in the back window. Dad is driving swigging his beer, puffing his real cig, singing to some ZZ Top, and Mom is trying to get us to sing, or at least not fight. After all it was a long drive to DisneyLand. ROAD TRIP!

Certainly not your typical Utah MO-MO family cruising around in the wood paneled station wagon singing I am a Child of God. Glad about that!

Back the day it all seemed so normal (I think. HA HA HA) but now I look back and think, "WOW, what was that?" But here we are. Three kids all alive and well. Pretty well. Sure there is some minor brain damage, but we all made it.

Again, picture this. Brandi and Brooke under the age of 16 taking the car out for a spin. We went everywhere. We got caught lots of times. Lots of times we got away with it. Me, brought home by the cops once, Brooke caught because she and a friend almost dropped the transmission out of the car. I guess they thought you should hurry and put the car in reverse while driving it. Sometimes we would even pass Dad in the old truck driving underage and during school hours. Woops! Meanwhile Zak is lighting the church dumpster on fire. At night Brandi flees the window, threatening Brooke to keep quiet on her way out. Brooke pimps Vegas, Zak puffs the magic dragon and on and on.

My point? I am not even sure. Right now I am just trying to figure out where we found the time for all of this trouble!?! And how our parents didn't kill us.

Oh, that's right my point is this. I think our world is becoming a little too overprotective, it was good to live a little. We all made it. We lived and learned. We look back and laugh at all of the dumb things we did, but who knew better? Who cares? It is kind of funny if you think about it. Soon my kids will be making fun of the things I let them do and wondering how they survived. I just hope that rules and regulations will not stop us from LIVING and experiencing crazy things. I also hope my kids will never do the things we did. I hope my Grandkids do not live in a bubble.

Many people are reading this thinking, "Wow, this explains a lot about Brandi. It is all getting clear to me now." Just wait until Sunday when I pass some candy cigarettes around Bro. Pearson's class. No we will not be puffing the magic dragon. Sorry, maybe next week.

Awww, life. Good times, good times!

Long drive

I have to admit the road trip is not my favorite, but as the kids are getting older it is getting better. Here are the kids singing a song from Pirates of the Caribbean... they are really proud of this one...

Sledding/boarding

We did lots of sledding while we were in McCall. First we went to this big hill where we all had a blast. The kids were loving it, and so were the adults. I however was going down with Coren and couldn't see what was in front of us and we hit this big jump and we hit down hard and I KILLED my tailbone. As soon as we hit I screamed and then we flew over another jump and I landed on it again. The joys of sledding. I didn't take any pictures of that hill because I was too busy sledding.

The next day the kids make a homemade sledding hill at the cabin. They had fun boarding down it. The were all boarding down the other hill which was bigger, but this one was a little steeper. We escaped with only minor injuries.

Snowshoeing in McCall

If you have never been snowshoeing you are missing out. It is tons of fun! It is a great workout too, but you can go at any pace so really you can make it as hard or as easy as you want. Plus, you get to be out in the cool crisp air enjoying some amazing scenery!

Once we needed a break we stopped and made some snow angels and then the guys and the kids found an area to do some extreme sledding.

Basically this was a big hill of rocks covered in snow, and they decided to make it into a sledding hill. It was crazy, I would have never done it, so I sent Steve and the kids. HA HA HA

Snow Sculpting

This weekend we went to McCall Idaho for the weekend. The were having a festival and they had the coolest snow sculptures. The kids were able to climb around on some of them, but mostly we were just amazed at how talented people are. At our house we have a hard time even making a snowman, or a snowball for that matter.

Own room.

I have been so nervous about putting Coren in his own room. He is a cuddle bug and needs to have human touch. Carson on the other hand was smothered and ready to leave.

I am so relieved and happy that now that they are separated they are both doing great. Coren is loving his own room, especially the white board I got him, and he is sleeping even better than before. Carson wakes up happy now after actually sleeping at night. Bedtime at our house just got a whole lot better!

SO SICK!

There is just one thing worse than a sick kid. A sick kid with an even sicker Mom. This last week was a bad one at our house but I think me and Carson are over it! I am so glad that I have such good kids and a husband who came home and took over.

PS- Have you ever had diarrhea and constipation at the same time? Yes, it is possible, and it hurts like noting else. Your stomach is all crampy and it feels like you won't make it to the toilet, so you run as fast as you can. You sit down and NOTHING! Maybe a squirt if you are LUCKY! You push with all you have and nothing. Nothing! The pain gets worse. You sweat and shake and want to die! And still nothing! That is diarrhea and constipation at the same time. I highly do NOT recommend it!

Science Fair

Makenna was chosen by her teacher to go to the School Science Fair and compete against 10 kids from each class. Her project was about numbers, and based on our age, how many numbers we can remember. It confirmed that the brain gets worse the older we get! She was so excited and we were really proud of her!

Speaking of Love

I LOVE MY KIDS! They are all just so cute.

The other day, Coren came out of his room in the morning. He had a piece of paper under his jammies. I asked what it was and he just ignored me so I moved on. I had more to worry about than a paper under someone's shirt. We took the kids to school, got Coren fed and then he went in to get dressed. He came out dressed and asked me to tie his shoe. As I was bending over tying it, all of the sudden I heard a THUD and looked over to see a paper folded up that Coren dropped next to me. He was silent. I lifted it up and on the outside it read, "To Mom From Coren."

As I opened it up I found this cute picture of a train and a airplane that he had spent tons of time making for me in bed the night before. He was so proud of it, and so excited to give it to me. It was the cutest thing. It was so funny that he was so nervous about giving it to me. It was really cute.

My kids all make me pictures and notes all of the time, I love it. I think I am the luckiest Mom in the world.

L*O*V*E

It's February! I can smell the love already. It's in the air, it's everywhere!

To honor love and all of those tender moments that will be had this month, I thought it was only right to honor Steve and his cute little prom date. Don't they look cute?!? (to see it bigger, just click on it)

I cannot believe that Steve and I will celebrate our 8th Anniversary this month. Man how time flies! It is so cool to look back over the last 8 years and see all of the things we have accomplished and endured together.

I am excited for this month. And I am excited to see Steve's face when he sees this picture on the blog!