Happy New Year! Now Get To Work!

On New Year's Eve, we kicked Ethan out helped Ethan move to Logan so that he could start school at Utah State. Taryn was kind enough to watch our kids so that we wouldn't have to worry about them. She even met us by the freeway so we could be faster. We helped him unload his stuff

  

 And then took him out to eat. It seemed appropriate. We don't know. It's our first time sending a kid off to college! And we got root beer shots to celebrate:

Then we hustled on home, stopping in Ogden to retrieve our kids, so that we could be ready for our guests to arrive. My parents and Taryn and David came to our house for New Year's Eve. Because we hadn't had enough fun together yet. 

 We held our traditional early countdown for the kids, although this time, we used a short video compliments of Netflix. The kids had fun dancing around for that one.

 We let them drink some sparkling juice. I forgot to get plastic goblets for the kiddos. Next year...

  

 We tried the cute little wrap your arm around each other's arm to drink our sparkling juice. And we laughed at how much we struggled with it. My mom had to remind us! It was pretty funny. So, here we are, trying not to laugh:

 After we put the kids in bed, Mom, Taryn, David, and I played several games of bowling on the Wii while Brian picked my dad's head about the shelving unit we were planning to build. After lots of bowling, we counted down the new year, and then went to bed. Yeah, we're party animals.

The next morning, it began--the real reason my parents came to our house after just saying good-bye to us. We needed an in-house carpenter, and my dad is AMAZING! We've been planning and designing and re-designing a built-in toy storage unit for our playroom in the basement. In December, we got a few bids--and they were more than we hoped. We'd go down and look at the wall, measure, puzzle over it, and say something like, "We could build this if we were confident about making doors." Long story short, we decided to see if we could get my dad to come down and help. We found cupboards at IKEA that would work for where we wanted doors, but we still were a little out of our league; we needed the big guns for this one. So, we bought their gas (a great bargain on this consultant), and my folks came down to help.

On New Year's Day, my mom, Taryn, and I assembled the IKEA cupboards while the boys headed out to buy supplies. When they got home, the got to work. First thing to do: build a toe kick

 Next, add the IKEA cupboards. Mom and I had to model our work:

 David and Taryn extended there stay to help more, and it was so nice having them! David took woodshop in high school, so he was a huge asset. I don't think we could have made such quick progress if he hadn't been there.

Getting things ready:

My mom was awesome too, She helped entertain kids and make dinners and lunches. We had to keep those boys working, so we made sure to keep them fed. It was so nice having her there to help with dishes and meals. 

 Day two of shelving: Actual shelves! (They had done a lot of prep-work the day before)

 Putting it in:

Chelsea came with her kids on Friday, and it was nice to see her. While the guys worked hard downstairs, we hung out upstairs talking----and playing Trivia Crack. Yeah....

 The kids loved having Grandpa and Grandma back:

Taryn and David decided it was time to move on to bigger and better things. Thanks for all your hard work!

 Day 3 brought more work--and more progress:

 And while Brian took a break to virtually hang out with Adam in Texas, I got drive a few screws.

 More shelves:

 And you can't be working in the playroom with Grandma and Grandpa without having an impromptu dance party. I'm pretty sure it is in the rules somewhere:

 My dad helped Brian with a few of the face frames, and then my mom and dad hit the road as well, feeling confident that we could handle the rest on our own.

 Ta da!

We've been working down here in our spare minutes and we still have a long way to go! A week or so after they left, we finally got the crown molding up:

And I sanded and filled holes and sanded and filled holes and then started priming and found more holes and filled those and sanded and primed. I'm still working on priming, but I think I finally have all the holes filled and the sanding done. And now, you can all anxiously wait for us to get our playroom all done so you can get the final update. We're really excited about how our playroom is coming along. It's going to be awesome!

Oh yeah, Happy New Year from the Us! Next year, we're building an entertainment center for our party--Who's in?

Also, we miss Ethan.