Love these pictures

When my sister got married, a little over a year ago, I had her photographer capture a few pictures of our family too. It was at the end of the night, after the newlyweds left, that we finally had a chance. It had been a long day, and it showed.
Amelia's look says it all. "I'm tired and I want to go home." The kids were such troopers.

I love this shot. Probably because Elliot is hiding my pregnant belly just enough that I don't look chubby. I think I was about 16 weeks or so. You know the stage...just barely into maternity clothes because you can't zip up your pants anymore.

I would just love to Photoshop in better expressions on the girls faces. But then again, it shows honestly and truly what we were all feeling. It was a fun day, but we were exhausted.

Tile and Grout and Paint! Oh My!

I got the bathroom painted a while back, sometime around late March or early April. I really don't remember exactly when. Then we were ready to pick out tile and get going with that step. I went to Home Depot and took their little tile class and convinced myself that I could do it. First step was prep. We cleaned up the floor and tried to level it. We failed miserably, but called it good enough and moved on.
While avoiding the tile job, I painted the wall on the other side of the bathroom. Guy had taken a paint chip to Home Depot to match the color. That is something that I will never do again. After the paint dried, it was clear that the paint didn't match and the other two walls would need to be painted too. Luckily, I liked the new color or else I would have picked out a whole new color and started over.

See the difference? Awful, huh?

This room doubled as our work space during the project.

On August 27th, we finally laid the tile. Courtney was nice enough to come over and help since Guy and I were both afraid that we would somehow mess it up. Guy and I had previously cut all the tiles and labeled all of them so we knew exactly where everything would go. This really helped things go quickly. Then, on Tuesday night, Guy and I did the grout. We watched a few YouTube videos and then dove right in. It was very tedious work, and we finally finished up just before midnight. I love how it turned out. I still need to do the baseboard tiles, but I want to get the vanity in first. And that should happen after I seal the grout.

Guy also started installing the lighting this past weekend. It sure does make the bathroom bright. I told him that the girls will really appreciate it when they are teenagers and spend the majority of their morning in front of the mirror getting ready for their day.

Slowly, but surely, the bathroom is coming along. If we can just keep up the momentum, it might just be done by Christmas. That would be the best present ever!

Fourth of July Fun

For the 4th of July this year, we went down to the cabin. It was so fun to go swimming at SMR. The only problem is that they don't let kids with swim diapers into the big pool. So, they get out a small plastic wading pool for the little ones. Luckily, Elliot and Micah have a ton of fun in that little pool or else I'm sure there would be tears. On a side note, when we were back at SMR for the family reunion, we decided that it would be well worth the drive to go to the pool in Manti so even the little kids in swim diapers could get in the pool. Elliot had a blast going down the water slide and wore Guy and I out with how many times he went down. We will definitely be going back to the Manti pool!

Elliot sure does love his brother. Micah tolerates it.

Elliot loved finding goggles to put on.

It was so fun to watch Amelia and Ashley play together in the pool.

Amelia found these great goggles that covered her nose and mouth so she could easily dive to the bottom of the pool to find treasures. She was having a blast.

Ashley loved playing with Auntie Tamara's alligator.

Micah was exhauted after a day filled with swimming and happily fell asleep in daddy's arms.

Could there be a modeling career in her future?

We took a drive up Fairview canyon to Skyline drive and found a ton of snow. We made snowballs and Amelia even dug a big hole in the snow.

On Monday, was the Fourth of July Parade in Mt. Pleasant. Amelia was hoping for a ton of candy. She was lucky enought to catch a T-shirt and I got a bottle of water. She really wished that she could have caught a frisbee or a bouncy ball. Maybe next year.

Micah sporting his new cowboy hat in preparation for the reunion coming up. Amelia most likely got a hold of my camera and captured this cute picture. Micah was 6 months old and loving life!