Soccer and Basement season ending!

Only 1 soccer game left! Taylor and Kaylee got to be on the same team this year. The first video is Taylor (purple) kicking it in. I'm sad that I didn't continue to video her very typical Taylor spin and dance. The second video is Kaylee (in white with blue sweats) against one of her friends. I would say what number they are but (almost) everyone is either 4 (kaylee) or 1 (Taylor) Anyway, you can see Taylor walking along in the end of the 2nd video. They both have tons of fun, but Taylor is definitely one of the smallest and younger ones out there so doesn't get in the pack as much.



I had mentioned before my birthday that I was actually dreading that week. Matt was actually gone that whole week which is why he took me to Park City the weekend before. I hate it when he is gone! The girls hate it! Here they are Monday afternoon after he got back home.

Before Matt left we stayed up until 2 in the morning one morning getting the painting done for the new carpet that I got (yes, I consider it one of MY presents) the day before my birthday. Here we were trying to recreate the famous pitchfork picture, but the stern-faced one we took looked way to sad for how excited we were. And speaking of excited--you should've seen how excited Taylor and Emily were when they thought they were getting red carpet!

So here it is. (Click on the pictures if you want to see a bigger picture) Our bathroom still isn't done yet. We are having a hard time deciding what to do with the two vanities and countertops. Too many decisions! Here are some befores and afters of the office (minus closet doorknobs) and then the family room. It was so much work. A huge part of me says that next time we will save up and make someone else do all the work. However, it is nice for us, and especially for the girls, to know how much work it was and to take extra good care of it all.

In the bedroom/office below I'm actually standing by the window taking the 2nd picture. The girls bedrooms are on the other side of that wall.


In the last pictures I'm standing in (kinda) the same place both times. You can kinda see the toy room to the left and our food storage room straight ahead. So there it is. I'm officially done talking about the basement. (well, maybe someday I'll show a picture of a finished bathroom) Now we have tons of room for visitors! (yes, Camille, that does include ALL of you! Put some miles on that van!)

"Celebrating work by not doing any"

I WISH!! That was a quote I saw to describe why Labor Day was first started in New York back in 1882. Well, instead Matt and I have spent our whole weekend "vacation" trying to get this basement done. So, while my parents and Dale are in Denver at a Rockies game, and while the rest of the world celebrates on a lake or at Disneyland, we are painting doors and laying tile. Just when I think we are cruising along real good, I realize that finishing the basement isn't just floors and paint. You mean the doors don't just come painted and with the perfect doorknobs to match the rest of the house? Okay, I'm really not that dumb, it is just that I keep forgetting about all of the little details that go into this. Wow, 6 doors and a closet (2 smaller doors). That is too many doors for this little area that we are doing. I'd better get back to it though. I have only the 2nd coat of the 2nd side of each door left to do.



These next pictures show exactly what it is we are doing. 3 bedrooms were already finished down here when we moved in. Then we are finishing another little bedroom/office. I kinda took over Matt's office upstairs with all my craft stuff, so I'll probably LET him have this room. It is all our friend Nate's fault for giving Matt the idea of a man cave. ;) Then there will be the bathroom and family room.

So here is what it looked like last week before we started painting and tiling. I am standing in a doorway that will close off the basement from the upstairs. Behind me are the girls' two rooms and then here is Matt's cave.


To the left of the cave is the bathroom that has a door separating the tub and toilet from the two vanities. (because we love extra doors!)



And then here is the family room. To the left of the cd player is the toy room (already finished) and in the far corner is the door to the food storage room and the door to the backyard. Can you tell I'm sick of the doors?! It reminds me of this song (click here) I wish I had a Centennial Singer video of it. Well, Matt's lunch break wasn't as long as mine. He is down there working hard, so off I go.

How many Gardner kids are coming to dinner?

Here are a few pictures from our past week. We got home from our reunion late Sunday night, and then Monday around noon Ryan and Kathryn (from Heber) brought their 5 kids to stay with us until Saturday. Ryan was the session director for the EFY in Provo. I will admit that it was definitely crazy, but we had a lot of fun! Really, it only got crazy at meal times. The rest of the time the kids seemed happy and occupied. Here is Seth picking on the girls. Poor kid was the only boy, but he never seemed to care. However, when Matt would come home at night Seth would attach to him pretty good.




Poor Jordan got a little too sunburned. The pictures below were taken with Matt's cell phone so you really can't see her swollen eyes. I guess that's good, 'cause then there isn't any proof of how horrible I am to let her get burned so bad. She was fun to have around. We enjoyed singing songs at the piano. It was fun having the older girls to hang out with. Family Home Evening and scriptures are a lot more fun when you have good readers. My girls sure had a blast with their cousins!









BASEMENT UPDATE: This sheetrock was dropped off on Wednesday and was supposed to be put up and mud and taped by the weekend so I could start painting. Well, they called Thursday morning and said they wouldn't get to it until Monday. I guess I should be greatful, because the finished play room (where the kids' computer is) is on the left and with 5 extra kids in the house I didn't know how we would keep everyone out of this part of the basement. Hopefully tomorrow I will have new pictures for you with a little progress. We did purchase carpet on Saturday! We're getting there!





And then last but not least the 2nd tooth (on top) finally came out! The first 2 pictures DJ took at the family reunion. She had a huge audience cheering her on to pull the first one and as you can see they paid her well. She had a bit of a snaggletooth for a couple of days until I could talk her into pulling the 2nd one. She is so cute without her two front teeth. I LOVE listening to her talk!





Oh...and Kierra is crawling up the stairs. If she could just figure out how to go down a little softer I would be much happier.

I've Got Rhythm!

We still can't get this video to work!! AHHH! We (I mean Matt) will keep working on it. Sorry.

Ok--the title once again has nothing to do with me--I have NO rhythm...I can't do that! But here is Dale once again! So sorry to my family for taking forever to get this up. I used a different camera this time and couldn't figure out how to convert it and copy it to the blog. Matt was busy all day Saturday and so he wasn't able to get to it until last night and this morning. Here are Matt, his brother Ryan and his Dad all working hard on the basement! It is getting there. Now if we could just stay in town long enough to get it done!

After working all day then we had our ward party, so now I have some pictures that my Lehi friends can enjoy. ;) This is on the Healey's lawn. We had so much fun! The ward has changed sooooo much! Sorry to my bookclub girls. I don't know what I was thinking. I had the camera with me for most of the night, but for some reason didn't think to take pictures of pregnant Ilene doing the Boot Scootin' Boogie.

And why are we finishing the basement?

I am sure Dale will kill me for putting this picture on. An unfinished basement is a perfect spot to practice tap, rollerblade or store that much needed junk! I am very excited to get it finished though. The family that lived here before us did finish 3 rooms, so we have one smaller bedroom, a bathroom and the family room to finish. Now I just need to find a place for all my "stuff" that I think I need to keep.

Here is Dale who is staying with us for the weekend before heading back to another YASE camp. The girls have had so much fun doing shows for him and watching him practice. I'm sure he is so sick of us and our noise.



Here is the bathroom and the bedroom. I haven't decided if our office will stay upstairs or come down here. Actually there are a ton of things I haven't decided yet, but we are getting there.


And here is the family room. We have had so much great help on this!! The boys will be doing the insulation on Saturday, and then the drywall will be next. Hopefully more pictures will come sooner than later!