Why Our Blog Got So Far Behind

We've been doing lots of work on our basement. Okay, so if you look at it, you can't really tell, but Brian has been working hard on framing and wiring in our basement. We were hoping to do our four point inspection with the city by August, but that didn't happen. So, we pushed pause on trying to finish ALL the wiring, and ALL the framing so that we could finish a room for my brother Ethan. And since you all couldn't be here for the progress, Brian and I took pictures. 

 Framing all done, ready for insulation

 My insulating outfit. Next time, I'm wearing long sleeves!

 Done!

 Thomas was awesome to come and help Brian with hanging the sheetrock. 

 Ethan helped too. 

 Sheetrock! Done!!!

 Mudding--yeah, that was fun, but we're hiring the rest of it out. 

 Although, I must say that I did enjoy texturing the ceiling.  

 I got Brian a miter saw for his birthday. Yup, I'm a good wife. In between sessions of General Conference, we ran to Home Depot so that we could get boards to trim out the windows. We came back, but the finishing touches on paint, did some sanding

 Laid the carpet pad down (What  a green room! Yeah, it's a little more minty green than we were hoping, but what do you do?)

 Putting in the Window trim. 

 Just need paint

 And calking. 

Finished! (Well, at least for now.)

Don't these windows look great?

 We didn't mud the closet so that we could easily take down the sheetrock to put the tub into the bathroom that shares a wall with the closet. 

 We got this carpet for free off of KSL, pad included. It has a terrible stain, but hey, it sure beats the bare concrete!

I also got this beauty of KSL for $15. New hardware and fresh paint, and Ethan has a pretty awesome dresser. 

It was a TON of work, but we had a lot of fun. It definitely has PLENTY of flaws, and still a little more work to do, but if feels SO good to have completed(ish) this room. We now have a four bedroom house! Woot woot! Stay tuned for more basement work. Actually, just check back. It's going to be a few months yet. 

Family Pictures

On October 6, Lea graciously and patiently took our family pictures for us. She went along with an idea I had that didn't work, and an idea I had that turned out quite lovely. Good thing the locations were close to each  other! I also learned why family pictures don't happen as often as some would like--Michael was a bit of a punk! But, all's well that ends well. Thanks to digital cameras and Photoshop, we were able to get some great photos where everyone is happy and sort of looking at the camera.

 The Raes 

 The Brians

 We tried tossing them together. In my excitement, I may have tossed Rachel a little too high. Good thing Lea caught it.

The tongue. 

 She made so many awesome "Rachel" faces. 

 "Dada" will probably be her first word. She LOVES her dad, even if you can't tell from this picture.

 We were just going to put her on the grass so Lea could take one of just Brian and I. But, then she turned on the good ol' Rachel charm. 

 You have to do some silly face pictures in the mix. 

 And some swinging pictures, even if mom looks terrible. 

 And with Michael, there must be some running pictures. 

One of the last photos of the shoot. He wasn't too happy to stop running to take a picture with Mom, but he was a trooper anyway. 

Thanks again, Lea! We can't wait to get these up on our walls. Once again, you have out-done yourself, and we're going to have a hard time narrowing it down from these ones (which have been narrowed down from hundreds!) You are awesome!