Michael's Fourth Birthday

On October 9, Michael turned four! We celebrated all day! First, Brian took the morning off so that he could go with Michael and his classmates on their fire station field trip.

 Since it was Michael's birthday, he got to take a treat to preschool to share, so I made these candy mustaches. 

After the fire station, Michael had his first day of music class. He's really excited to be learning about music.

After music class, he helped me get ready for his Construction birthday party. We had it in our basement, which is literally under construction. I asked Michael who he wanted to invite to his birthday party, and without any prompts from me, he listed 7 friends! And I added two more that I knew he'd want to come. I had originally thought, "Fourth birthday=four friends," but I just couldn't take it down to that few. I guess a boy can never have too many friends; it's a good "problem" to have.

 Balloon Pit. I envisioned WAY more balloons, but I ran out of air. 

 Our crew of nine kiddos! 

 I was amazed by how excited each kid was to give Michael his present. Everyone was begging, "Open mine!" And they gave awesome presents. Nice work, Moms!

 I asked Michael what he wanted for dinner. Completely expecting (and willing to make) mac and cheese, he surprised me by requesting tacos! I'm pretty excited that tacos are making it onto his favorites list. After dinner, he got to open his package from Grandma and Grandpa:

 which completely blew whatever we got him out of the water: a RC Loader. He loves it!

 It's hard narrowing down which toys to get him. He loves his tools, so we added to his collection. This set came with a drill, something he's been wanting for a LONG time. 

We also got him a construction playset for his Lego Duplos, two new books, and a puzzle. 

 We sang him happy birthday in the traditional Saville style: loud and as off key as possible!

And on the 13th, his Nana and Papa came to give him their present. It was an awesome Tonka dump truck, and he was super excited, but since he already had two, we took him the next day to trade it for a semi-truck and two tractors. And, once again, his grandparents trumped us. He LOVES his new Semi. It's really all he wanted. 

And according to Michael his favorites are:

Favorite color: All of the colors.

Do you like one the best? yeah

Which one? I don't know. 

What do you want to be when you grow up? Everything...a train guy and a construction guy, and I'm going to help the train guys. 

What's your favorite food? Mac & Cheese

Any others? Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

What's your favorite dessert? Cookies

What's your favorite toy? Something that I got for my birthday--My truck that makes legos. (Not true! He's only played with it once. It's probably a toss up between his new loader and his semi)

What's your favorite animal? Monkey

What's your favorite thing to do? Play with Legos. 

What is your favorite place to go? To Matthew's house

What do you like best about school? Reading books.

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!