Slide

When we moved into our house in Syracuse there were no steps off our sliding glass door. It just led to a little balcony. One of our first orders of business was to build a deck and put stairs on it. I really wanted a slide off the deck, however, we were short on cash so I was okay with not having one.

Right before we finished the deck our friends from Logan called and said they had a slide they were getting rid of and if we wanted it. Of course I wanted it! It wasn't quite long enough to go off the deck. Cody and I were trying to figure out what to hook the slide to and also what we were going to do with our old railing on our "balcony." It ended up that if we turned the railing the slide fit just right onto that. We screwed the old decking on top of the railing and we had a slide. The plan was to use the railing as stairs and they they could play in the shade underneath.

(Before shot. Wasn't my little Ty a cutie! Thank goodness those diapers are gone!)

It worked out pretty well, but it was hard to climb up. Paige loves to go down the slide but it is just hard for her to get up there. She is constantly asking Cody and I to lift her up so she can go down the slide. This weekend we finally remedied the situation.

We decided to make a rock wall climbing area (which we haven't finished) and then put a railing on. Last night we put the rock wall together and then today we figured out a railing and went and bought everything and made it.

Our kids are now loving it. Paige is even going up the rails by herself. She actually has something to grab onto to pull herself up. We had a really hard time getting them to come inside tonight. Hopefully they will keep enjoying it and not get bored with it.

Dinosaur Park

It was such a nice day today that we couldn't just stay home! I took all three kids by myself to the dinosaur park in Ogden. We had a really good time. They were all so good to stay with me and not wander off.

The dinosaurs were really neat and both Ty and Paige were excited until we got up really close to them. They are really large.

In this picture I had to coax Ty to come close to the dinosaur to take his picture. He did not want to get close. I finally went and touched it and showed him that it wasn't real. He finally stood somewhat close to it. As you can see, Paige wouldn't come close. She stayed back and cried until I went and picked her up and carried her past the dinosaur.

Ty insisted on carrying the map the whole way until we got to the park and slides. He had it open and his nose stuck in it the whole time.

I finally coaxed Paige to get in a picture when I showed her the baby dinosaur. However, none of the kids would look at me.

They had a spot for the kids to dig dinosaur bones that Ty and Paige really liked. They also had a museum where you could see the bones for a bunch of dinosaurs.

We had a really great day. I realized tonight as I came inside that we had not been inside the house all day except to eat dinner. It was really nice to be able to spend the day outside!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Between last week and this week we have been doing a lot of cleaning and working in the house and yard. Today we pretty much got what we wanted done and went to run some errands. No Saturday is complete without an errand run to Walmart. While we were there Cody found a $1 kite for the kids.

Because the kids were so excited about the kite we came home and put the groceries away and went right outside to fly the kite. We had a lot of fun flying it and it was perfect weather for it. We started out in the cul-de-sac and then went over to the park so we could really let the kite fly.

Ty and Paige were both able to fly the kite really well. We were actually able to let out all the string on the kite. We were not the only ones there flying kites. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

We Finished!

We finally finished the basement. We got carpet on Tuesday and Cody started moving us in when he got home from work.

First thing to move in, of course for Cody was the bean bag!

It didn't take us long to fill up the space.

Thanks so much to our Dads for helping us finish the basement. There is no way we could have done it without them!

Miracles Can Happen

Miracles really do happen. We have been trying to finish our basement for over a year. It has been really slow going. We are a bit limited because Cody and I don't know how to finish a basement. We have been at the mercy of both of our fathers.

Consequently, the only times that anything of significance gets done is when one of them comes to our house. However, this last week we have got so much done.

Here are some pictures of how it looked on Friday morning Feb. 13.

Here is how it looked one week later on Saturday Feb. 21.

We got the painting done with my dad on Friday and Saturday and then Cody's dad came up on Monday and we got the plugs and lights in as well as touch up paint. Then my dad came on Thursday and stayed until Saturday finishing up the trim. Cody's dad also came on Friday night to help with the tile around the fireplace. We are so lucky we have such wonderful dads. We are grateful for all of their help.

When this is all over I am hoping to take a little break from home improvement projects. However, we still have garden sprinklers to work on in the spring. It never ends!

The Basement

The basement has been our never-ending project. We have been working on it for over a year. Yesterday and today we finally painted. My dad came up to help us because we were going to use his paint sprayer.

My dad also made us a mantle for our fireplace for Christmas. Yesterday we spent half the day putting it together and staining it. The we put the primer on the wall. It took us about 5 hours to get the first coat of paint on the wall with a sprayer. We spend the first hour just trying to get the sprayer primed. It took Dad, Cody and I all doing something to get it going, but we finally got it going. However, it still wasn't working very well so it took us a long time.

Since we still had two coats to put on the walls and the trim to paint we decided to bite the bullet and rent a sprayer. Dad and I got up early this morning and went and rented the sprayer. What took us 4 hours to do yesterday took us 1 hour to do today. By 4:30 p.m. we had 2 coats of paint on the walls and the trim and doors painted. That includes 4+ hours of drying time.

We are so glad to have the paint on the walls. We are especially glad to have my dad come help us! Monday Cody's parents are coming to help with more things. This project might get finished one of these months.

Puzzles, Puzzles, Puzzles

Ty and Paige both got some puzzles for Christmas. They have loved them. They have enjoyed them so much that I bought Ty some more the other day. Today I got them out so he could try them. He has done three of them with no help at all.

I have decided that I really like puzzles because the kids love doing them by themselves. It will keep my Ty busy for about 30 minutes. Paige loves doing the same puzzle over and over.