finally...we can access the storage room

I didn't think I would ever be so excited about a storage room, but really it's probably my favorite room in our house right now. I love the organization! Our storage room has been done for a few months, but we had to cram a bunch of stuff in there and seal it off so we could have a sheet rock hung in the rest of the basement. Today I was determined to clean it out so we could have access to it and continue building up our year supply of food. My awesome father in law, Merwin built the shelves for us, along with Shane. We've slowly been finishing our basement since we moved in to our house almost 4 years ago. Merwin did two rooms downstairs right after we moved in. He did a great job on the play room and our office/guest room. My in-laws are great sports about staying in our messy (oh and I do mean messy) office. There is so much furniture in there right now because we had to empty the rest of the basement a couple of months ago to sheet rock. Before we did the sheet rock, Shane and Merwin did the storage room, and I love it! If you know Merwin, you know his work is top notch and he is a perfectionist. I didn't care if we had shelves made out of 2x4's and mdf, but noooo, that just wouldn't do. I'm so glad he told us we would be much happier if we spent the extra money to do laminate shelves trimmed in wood. They look awesome, are so easy to clean, and you could hang from them, they are so strong. I just want to give a shout out to Merwin-I think you are awesome! Thanks for being the best father-in-law ever! I didn't mention, all of the finishing to get our basement ready for sheet rock, and finishing the storage room was done while Merwin was going through Chemo. He is truly amazing and doesn't let anything get him down. He's a great grandpa and such an example to our whole family! We love you! (on a happy note, Merwin is done with Chemo and has no cancer after 6 months!!!)




This is one of the main shelves we have for food. Don't you love all the cereal??? Gotta love it!





We have a barrel in our storage room floor that is in the corner that we can install a sump pump if we felt like we needed one. Anyway, we couldn't really build shelves over it because we wanted to have access to it, so we did two hanging rods. They work out great for extra coats, etc. We do NOT have enough room in our tiny coat closet upstairs.




Here's a closer look at the shelves. We are tying to reserve at least 1/2 of the shelving for food, etc. We've done a pretty good job of getting rid of extras we don't need. One thing that is taking up so much room is our giant Christmas tree that I wasn't smart enough to keep the box and now I can't find a box big enough to fit all three pieces. We also have a ton of baby stuff that is bulky and hard to store, but we don't want to get rid of it...........we need a baby!





This lower shelf is right under our electrical panel. We couldn't put shelves in front of it for obvious reasons and weren't going to do anything thing there but a small raised shelf on the floor to store flour, sugar, etc. I saw my friend, Diane's storage room and she had this idea. It is a wrapping station! I don't have it fully functional yet, but I plan to soon! You can't see it in the picture because of the honkin' baby toys, but I have a three drawer plastic bin under the desktop that will hold, ribbon, bags, tags, scissors, tape, tissue paper, you name it.





We were able to get a can holder that rotates your canned food for you. I am proud to say that I put this baby together almost by myself. Shane helped me with the main frame work and then I finished..it was a beast, but I love it! Peyton loves to go down and get me corn, or soups. You can barely seen in the picture, but it came with magnets that say the name of what you are storing in each row. How clever!!! You can look these up at http://www.shelfreliance.com/ They have all sorts of different options to fit your needs. We got ours at Costco when they were having an event there, but I have seen them at Walmart. I think ours is The Harvest which holds up to 460 soups cans. To be honest if we had room I think I would have bought two of them since I still have to put cans on shelves.



And now the man responsible for it all....Merwin. Thanks again!!!! I love, love, love it!

First Day of 2nd Grade

Yesterday was Peyton's 1st day of 2nd grade!! I can't believe my baby is getting so big. He loves his new teacher and was really excited to start school again. He is a great student, and loves to learn. He is interested in math and is a great reader! We are so proud of him! When he got home from school on his 1st day he was exhausted! We sent him to bed early the night before, but apparently school was longer than he remembered. Doesn't he look cute? He was darling and said he wanted to wear his "best clothes" on the 1st day. What a sweetie!

Tim 2008

Here is Lisa and I next to one of the Tim signs at the concert. We usually always take a picture by the larger than life posters they have hanging up.

This is the group I went with. It's me, Lisa, her sister Candice, and her daughter Hadley, her other friend, Jenn and Lisa's other sister, Andrea.


Here is our classic "tim" picture.

We're just hanging out waiting for Tim to come out. The concert was at USANA, which I love! The atmosphere is so fun and light and the sounds is great!

We had such great seats!!!! We kept walking further up on the floor and Lisa was dying. She thought I was going up too far. When we sat down we realized we were about 8 rows from the front on the side. Lisa, and I sat by her sister Andrea. We all said that we would run up by the stage if we could get through when Tim came out. There was no one to stop us and we ended up touching the stage the whole concert!! After 5 years of going to Tim, this was the best ever!

This one is right after we touched Tim. Can you see the excitment on our faces? My heart was seriously racing!!!!

This is one of my favortie pictures I got of Tim. He was singing "I like, I love it" and when he says "Can't get enough of that little gal's lovin'..." he tapped his arm where he has his "Faith" tatoo. Now I'm not a fan of tatoo's at all, but can we have a big..."ahhhhhh". It was so fun to be so close and see so many little gestures like that!

Here is Lisa holding her autographed ticket!!!! I held mine up too, but there were too many hands and she was so lucky that he grabbed her ticket and signed it. What a night to remember!!

update

it's been such a long time since I updated. I have a ton to post about, but my computer is so slow at uploading pictures. Here is a quick re-cap w/o pictures. I will try to post them later this week.
#1-I went to Tim McGraw at the end of June and are you ready for this....I-touched-Tim-McGraw!!! Lest you are scared that I was throw out for inappropriate behavior let me just say he was right by us grabbing fans hands and I was able to touch his knee and forearm. I was dying. Lisa and I were screaming so hard and loud it was hilarious and really so exciting!!!
#2-I surprised Shane the next night and took him to see Richard Marx at the Sandy Amphitheather. I know-total 80's, but it was so much fun. We got Quizno's and sat on the grass and just hung out before the concert started. He was very good and so funny. Great concert!
#3-4th of July. We spent it in Moroni and had so much fun. I will post pictures later.
#4-I have a new calling in our ward. I got released as Enrichment leader and got called to.......2nd counselor in the Primary!! I am really excited about it and was ready for a change.

Peyton starts school in one week, and let me say we are ready for school to start. Connor starts pre-school the 1st of Sept and is so excited. It's been a fun summer and we are ending it this week with a trip to Lagoon. Our kids are really excited, and frankly so am I. It's been YEARS since I went to Lagoon, or as we used to call it..Galoon.

I've been working on getting our profile on another adoption website: Parentprofiles.com It's a ton of work and I feel like we are trying to get approved all over again, but hopefully it will get us some more exposure to birthmoms.

So now....at least I'm updated.

Wasatch Back 2009

My sister in law Krisi signed up for the Wasatch Back for next year. She is hoping to put together a family team. I just told my brother Kevin that I would be on the relay team. So far,my sister Jenni, brother Kevin, sis-in-law Kristi, Aunt Pauline and maybe my sis Hollie and I are doing it. I told Kev I dubbs the #7 spot. It's a total of 12 miles. For those that don't know what this is, it a race from Logan to Park City done in relay with 12 people over a 24 hr period. The total mileage is 178 with each person running 3 legs of the race anywhere from about 3.9 miles up to 9'ish miles. I really need to get it out there that I AM doing this. So there-everyone knows, now I must train. Kevin did it this year and said it was really great, but he's a total triathlete so I don't know how much I trust his take on ease-of-race. Any other takers in the family?????

baby names and chores according to Peyton

Peyton is soooooo excited to have a new baby in our family. For his sake, I hope it doesn't take too long. Yesterday he asked me to list some things he could do to help me with the baby when it comes. (don't freak out just yet, we haven't been picked, we're just talking about the future) I told him he could make a list of what he thought he could help with. Here is a list of what he wants to help out with: changing diapers (yahoo-he can have all the dirty ones), feeding the baby a bottle, bathing in the kitchen sink (too funny), burping the baby, tell the baby how to talk, play with the baby, get the baby to sleep (he can have the 3am time slot!)

After he was done making the list of chores he came up with his own list of names.
Boys: Rex, Indyana, Brant, Cory (the last two are names of boys in Peyton's class at school). Girls: Trixi, Savana, Vicy, Haley, Maria.

These are spelled according to his "list". He said the funniest thing about Vicy-it's "V" with and "icy" on the end. Oh my-where oh where do they get this stuff. I'm sure it's more me than anyone, but my kids crack me up! Lovin' the names Peyton!

Just call me Spiderman

Connor has been loving his Spiderman costume lately and puts it on most days to wear for awhile. When he puts it on he tell me "Mom, you call me Spiderman." I love his imagination and love that he is getting so into characters like Peyton. It's fun to see Peyton and Connor play so cute with each other and be intrested in the same things. Connor put on his costume the other day and sat down to watch Spiderman on TV. It was around 4:00-4:30ish when I came back into the family room to find Spidey sound asleep in the big chair. So cute! And by the way-no Spidey costume is complete without green gloves...where do they get this stuff??