An Un-Fathers Day gift, a haircut, and the last day of preschool

Jamison does not like Father's Day. I am not going to go into why. He just doesn't. The kids and I have been forbidden from getting him anything on Father's Day. As a result, about a week ago I got him a "I love you and appreciate all you do for us" gift (not to be confused with a "Father's Day" gift).

And at this point I will go ahead and pat myself on the back, because he loved his gift. Jamison has a strong man love for Bobby Flay. He watches his show frequently, and often tells me his desire to grill like Bobby Flay. Well, now he can!! Thanks to yours truly. I got him 2 Bobby Flay cook/grilling books. He was excited. I am excited for all the delicious grilling that will be happening up in here folks. Anyone up for a Bobby Flay barbecue party? Come on over!

Guess who got a hair cut? Cohen! Boo-ya. This time it was done professionally (as opposed to the hair cut I gave him a while back that was not good.) We wanted to keep it long, but not to long.

Before

After

Chase had her last day of preschool last Thursday. Since we are moving she will not be attending this preschool again next year. I am sad. She loved her teachers, and so did I. But, life goes on. Next year = new preschool and new friends for our girl.

Just eatin some grapes and apples, watching some Jake And The Neverland Pirates.

I love these two goof balls more than I have words to express.

And she danced! Like a wave on the ocean, romanced!

If you are someone who looks at this blog frequently (hi Grandma), then you will know that every 7 weeks Chase has a dance demonstration. And every time she has one I post about it. Someday this blog will be a book, and I gots to document this stuff! Ya know?

I enjoy watching her progress in dance. Except this time around I didn't take a video. It slipped my mind. I find that lots of things slip my mind these days.....including my age. I literally thought for a few months that I was turning 28 on my birthday. I turned 29. I may have already blogged about that. I really don't recall if I have or have not.

Anyways, my age is neither here nor there.

Ms. Chase's dance demonstration.

Here is Ms.Kim talking to the girls about posture. Explaining that our backs should never be sad (aka hunch back), we should walk around with happy backs. I love Ms. Kim. Best dance teacher ever.

This weekend

My niece Hailey slept over. Her and Chase have so much fun together.

I thought that maybe we should cut Cohen's hair, but realized that if I had it cut I would no longer be able to get awesome hair pictures like the one below.

The wings behind his ears are fantastic.

Grow on Cohen hair.

And Chase did some "yard work" in the backyard of the new house while we did work inside the house.

Also, I started reading Jane Eyre. I had read it once before when I was 16 or 17 years old, and was pretty much bored out of my mind. Not sure what was wrong with me back in those days, because this second time around I am loving it.

Looking forward to watching the latest movie version.

The End.

The house.

Every night since we purchased our home, Jamison has gone to the new house to work as soon as he gets off of work. And we have barely scratched the surface of all that needs to be done.

Here is our list we are hoping to accomplish before we move in:

Repaint every single wall in the whole house.

Replace the front door, back door, and garage door.

Take down the wood paneling in the basement and dry wall the whole down stairs area.

Put new carpet down stairs.

Get the hard wood floors upstairs refinished.

Fix roof.

Cut out portions of the ceiling that had water damage and replace them.

Either put sod down...or hydro seed the front yard.

Figure out what we will do with the GINORMOUS backyard we now have.

Put in central air and get rid of the swamp cooler.

Replace a large portion of the plumbing.

We are hoping to get all this done (minus the yard) by the end of June. We are slowly making progress on the list.When we finally move in I will rejoice. We knew what we were getting into when we bought the house...but that doesn't make the fact that we won't actually move in for at least a month suck any less.

Right now our focus is only on the house itself. We have decided that we will not even worry about the yard until the house is complete.

I feel like we are on an episode of "Family Under Construction" from the DIY network.

I just want cameras to follow me around so I can whine and complain to the world about how hard it all is, but I will know that in the end it will all work out because its a T.V show.

This isn't T.V people. This is real.

But what I have to say is that we are SO thankful for all the help we have gotten from family and friends....because lets be real. Neither Jamison or I know what in the world we are doing when it comes to renovating a house (but we are definitely learning a lot). So many people have helped in so many ways, and we would basically be screwed without them and their massive amounts of home improvement knowledge.

Here are some pictures taken with my phone.

Jamison getting ready to paint living room walls. Notice the duct tape on the front door. The previous owners were using that to keep the door closed. Doesn't get much more ghetto then that. We have ordered new doors, but they take forever to make. I will be happy when I don't have to look at the ducted taped door anymore.

This is the hella huge back yard (and this is only a portion of it). Today when I was at the house I just stood there and stared at the backyard wondering what we will do with all that space. Garden for sure. Swing set for the kids. All in good time. Must focus on the house itself first.

Right now the backyard is a meadow of grass and wild purple flowers. We also have an apple tree, and a pear tree back there. The kids love the yard as it is, and I love watching them play back there with all that space. We also have 2 huge trees (not pictured). I picture a swing being hung from one, and a tree house in the other. Hopefully some day soon I can post an "after" picture of the back yard, once we get it cleaned up and looking better.

One of my favorite aspects of the house is the view. I love walking outside seeing big cottonwood canyon (or is it little cottonwood? I always get them confused.)

I day dream about the day that we will actually move in. I really truly love our little house.

Wherever you are my love will find you.

I wanted you more than you will ever know,

so I sent love to follow wherever you go.

It's high as you wish it. It's quick as an elf.

You'll never outgrow it....it stretches itself!

So climb any mountain...climb up to the sky!

My love will find you.

My love can fly!

Make a big splash! Go out on a limb!

My love will find you. My love can swim!

It never gets lost,

never fades, never ends.....

If your working, or playing,

or sitting with friends.

You can dance 'til your dizzy, paint 'til your blue.

There's no place, not one, that my love can't find you.

And if someday your lonely, or someday your sad,

or you strike out at baseball, or think you've been bad....

just lift up your face, feel the wind in your hair.

That's me, my sweet baby, my love is right there.

In the green of the grass...in the smell of the sea...

in the clouds floating by...at the top of a tree...

in the sound crickets make at the end of the day...

"You are loved. You are loved. You are loved,"

they all say.

My love is so high, and so wide, and so deep,

it's always right there, even when you're asleep.

So hold your head high and don't be afraid

to march to the front of your own parade.

If you're still my small babe or you're all the way grown,

my promise to you is you're never alone.

You are my angel, my darling, my star...

and my love will find you, wherever you are.

-Nancy Tillman

from the book, "Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You", I highly suggest you purchase it, if you don't already own it. One of my favorite children's books. I feel like it describes a Mother's love perfectly.

Being that Mother's Day was yesterday it must be written how grateful I am for my Mom. She raised me by herself. Growing up it was just me and her (before she met and married my fabulous Step-Dad). She worked hard so that I could have a good life. So that I could go to college. Some of my favorite memories growing up are the trips just her and I took together. Just the 2 of us. Hawaii, Mexico, California. And now she is an amazing "Nanna" to my kids. They adore her.

To Jamison's Mom Marilee, we miss her so much. Life is not the same without her. It does not seem fair that she is no longer here with us. I hope my children always understand the love there Grandma Marilee had for them.

I am blessed to have had so many great "mothers" in my life. So many women that have had such a huge influence on me. My Grandma, aunts, friends Mom's. I love them all. If I could, I would give them all a big hug and tell them "thank you".

I want my children to know how honored I am to be there Mom. I hope they never forget how much they are loved. That no matter where they are, or what they are doing, my love will always be there.

And for Marilee, yellow daisies. Yellow was her favorite color.

My Mom with some of the grandkids.

(Chase wouldn't be in the picture unless Jamison held her, and even then we couldn't get her to look at the camera.)

And to all the ladies who read this post, I hope your Mother's Day was fantastic. Whether you have children, want children, or are an influence in the life's of someone else's children, just know that you are amazing, and beautiful, and appreciated.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

April was a great month.

This is a really crappy picture of me. But it was the best of the 3 I had to choose from. Who is NOT photogenic? Me!!

Other than the winter weather, I must say I sure enjoyed the month of April.

Jamison turned 33. I turned 29 (and I finally got that kitchenaid mixer I have been wanting for just a few years. Now I just have to start cooking).

But the best of the best in April? We found a house we loved, BUT it was a short sale so we didn't get to excited because those short sales can take ages. We put in an offer....and BAM BAM BAM, faster then you can say holyshabizweownahouse, we owned a house!! (which at this point I should give a shout out to our fantastic realtor). Went and got the keys today. Our house needs some work and some love, but we have about a month until we have to move, so for the next month we will be working our arses off getting our house just how we want it. And once we move, a whole tank of gas will last me a week as opposed to 1 to 2 days.

Sigh of relief. After 6 years, we will finally be settled.

The Farm.

My Grandma owns a farm down south here in Utah. Some of my old bedroom furniture from when I was a wee child is stored in the house on the farm. Since we are moving soon, I wanted to restore and paint some of it so that Chase can now use it in her new room. I haven't scene the furniture in ages, so the other day we headed down to the farm so I could check it out, and make sure the furniture was even restorable (it was thank goodness, and if anyone reading this has experience painting furniture, and knows what they are doing, feel free to volunteer your help:) ).

My favorite part of the day was the other treasures we found. The farm and house originally belonged to my Great Grandparents, and when they passed away they left it to my Grandma. I loved looking at all of their old furniture and antiques (some of which were from over 100 yrs ago). There is a trunk in the house that came from England with my Great Grandma's Mom (so my Great Great Grandma). She was only 13 yrs old when she left her family in England and crossed the ocean by herself with only a trunk full of her belongings. She worked and made a life for herself so that she could pay to bring the rest of her family over eventually. Amazing to think that because of that brave girl, my family is here now.

Now the trunk is stored in the farm house basement and holds a doll that was my Great-Grandma's when she was a little girl.

Treasures I tell you!!