Putting up the Framed Walls

So as soon as Dad got back from Scout Camp they finished the last wall and the kids couldn't wait to get them put up!!!

The kids were so excited to finally start seeing an actual Tree House!! Kimberly loved climbing up the walls like a monkey!!

We made sure one of the windows were Nattie height, so she could see out. She thought this was pretty cool!!

Trimming Trees & Having Fun

We are trying to be so careful on how much of the trees we trim. We are kind of trimming as we go and trying to only cut off what we absolutely have to. Sometimes that perspective, but sometimes it's pretty obvious!

The kids are sure having fun playing around on our Tree House Deck. Little Nattie Bug used to be so afraid to go down the slide all by herself...Not anymore!!

Putting on the Roof

The kids were so excited that they didn't want to stop there...They talked their Dad into building the frame for the roof and getting that on too!!

I kept finding Doug sitting on top, (he says to hold it down, but I think it was to sneak a rest!) Lol

It was getting dark, so we had people holding flashlights as well as hammering and drilling.

It sure made for a long day, but everyone was so excited to get so much done!!

Building Walls

I find it so hard to believe how long it takes to plan things out. Sometimes we stand out there just talking and discussing what and how we should do certain things. For instance, the trap door took a lot of discussion. We all had different ideas on which way to open the door. Emily came up with the best way to do it! Sometimes, when we are "working" on the tree house, that's all we do is talk and discuss things. I really like how we are taking all the kids' suggestions seriously. Doesn't mean we do them all, but we really think about the possibility.

We finally started to build the walls for the actual tree house. The kids are enjoying learning how to do it, especially Jon, he's the one really pushing his Dad to keep busy with it. Jon , Melanie, & I even built some of the walls ourselves while Doug was at Scout camp!

It's interesting to see who's always out there pushing to get things done and who only comes out when asked to help.

Aren't these girls so cute, they want to get in the act, too! It's fun to hear them get all excited and thank HF for the tree house in their prayers!!

Next Step, put the walls up!!

Emily's Haircut!

I have been contemplating and discussing cutting Emily's hair for a while now. She's at that age where she wants to do her own hair and she really doesn't want it up at all. She just wants to wear it down in a head band.

Her hair is so thick and bushy, that she often looked like she had a mop on top of her head.

Sometimes, I would have to make her put it up for certain activities. Especially in this heat, I couldn't believe she didn't want it up.

My biggest problem with cutting it was, I was afraid that as short as she wanted it, with as thick as it was, it would just look horrible. I didn't want her to have to style it everyday, she's only 11.

Melanie kept telling me, confidently what we had to do to make it look good. We had to have the stylist thin her hair with layers. That made me worry more.

Anyway, I decided to stop worrying about it and let Melanie take her to get it done. Well, as soon as I gave the ok, Emily was bugging us all week.

Yesterday, was the day! Does she look excited to be at this point, or what????

I was so thankful to Melanie for remembering to take pictures!


It was long enough to donate. I was so happy about that, not only does she get to donate it, but when you do, they cut it for free!

Here she is thinning the back with the layers. Melanie said she was so glad I wasn't there, she took off quite a bit and it would have been scary for me to see how this is done.

Because of all the layering, she gets a free wash, too! Looks like she's enjoying this!!

Well, here's the final result...

By the look on her face, I think she's happy with it!!

I still need to get one more with her head band in, pretty cute!!

More Tree House...

I am way behind on updating our tree house. We've come a long way this month. I think I'm going to split the phases in different posts, because there are a lot of pics I want to put up.

They put the boards to the deck up and fastened the corners to secure it and then Doug told me to get the kids out there to put the rest of the screws in.

I had a lot of the kids out there with me: I was marking, Ben was drilling,

Em, Kim, Aaron, & Natalie were starting the screws (I don't know where Tiff was?),

and Steven was driving screws into the floor of the base to get it all sturdied up.

I love this one with Nattie peaking around Steven watching what he is doing.


Doug finished the braces and the trap door. Then I got it all top coat painted! (For some reason I don't have a pic at this point.) I guess we still have to build some stairs, but otherwise the base is done!

Doug just set the slide on the deck and the kids loved going down it. Here are a few pics...

We are ready to build a house! The kids are way excited, the house itself is 7 feet by 10 feet, Huge!

We are Officially UnEmployed

Yesterday was Doug's last day at Beneficial.

He was only there for half the day because he had a job interview at 1:30. We won't know if he got the job for a couple of weeks because the guy had a couple more interviews and was headed to scout camp. But anyway, does it mean anything if the interview lasts 2 1/2 hours long?? Yup, he interviewed, visited, was shown around for 2 1/2 hours! I'm hoping that's a good sign. They seemed to have hit it off pretty good. Doug says it seems to be a good environment. This is one, we would really like to have. It's in Lehi, so a little bit of a commute, but not too bad. Wish us luck, and keep praying! :)

I'm pleased to report that I'm picking more zuchini out of my garden. I posted a great zucchini bread recipe on the provident pantry blog, today, Yum!!

Also, I added the pics to the last post, finally!!

What a Morning!

I can't believe how much we had going this morning!!

Doug talked me out of my walk this morning because I would have had to start at 5:30 this morning to get it in. So I slept until 6:30! Then got up to get Steven off to Boy Scout Camp. He will be gone all week! He was supposed to be there by 7am. Then they didn't even leave until after 8! (I could have walked my usual time and been just fine.) Oh well. I ended up taking him back home until they came and got him about 8:10.

When we got home, I gave Ben a haircut and decided since we had about 10 or 15 minutes before they were going to leave, I could slip in one for him too! Just as I was taking the cape off of him, they pulled up! He shook his head, put on his hat and left. Hope he's not too itchy! Doug will be joining him Wednesday night.

Ben and Beth left for EFY (Especially For Youth) around 8:45 this morning. They were headed to Ephraim (Snow College). This is Ben's first road trip that he was in charge of driving the whole way. I think he was excited about the responsibility. I just got word that they made it just fine, they are all checked in and waiting to get the program started! They said they asked them all sorts of questions and took their temperatures to check for swine flu. They won't be back until Saturday, too!

Somewhere in between all that Doug and Jon left for work.

Then I had to get little Nattie Bug ready to go to see Dr.Hess. She had her follow up appointment from her surgery. She had to be there by 9am. This time around was a lot nicer. Hardly any wait, in and out. I like those kind of doctor visits. Her thumb is healing wonderfully. We are past the point of worrying about any infection. Her dissolvable stitches should be falling out in the next week or so. She can get it wet. (I've been more and more lax about that since it started to look like it was actually closed up.) He said she doesn't even need the band aid anymore! (This pic was actually taken this morning, fri the 17th after Daddy trimmed some of the dead skin and stitches that were coming out. There's still a little bit more of the stitches to fall out, but it looks much nicer now!)

Melanie left for work.

I went ahead and gave Aaron a haircut as well, gotta keep him on the same schedule as the other boys. Wouldn't want to have to pull out my clippers multiple times! :)

I even took a neighbor kid to his basketball camp and picked him up!

Whew!! What a morning!!

Time for lunch!!

PS - I'll add the pics when Doug gets home, he took the lap top to work this morning! :(

Jon Has a Job!!

I am so happy to announce that Jon has a job!! He started with training on Tuesday at The Super Target in Centerville. He's going to work as a back room guy. He is also training to be cashier so he can pick up cashier shifts to get more hours. He's part time, but they said he shouldn't have any trouble getting the 40 hours.

He gets to be one of the guys who walks around with a walkie talkie and drive the big machines!

I was going to get a picture of him in his uniform, but haven't yet. If I get one, I'll add it later.

Vegetables!!

I am excited to see my gardens grow. Why, I'm not entirely sure, but I just am.

I am not a gardener by any means, at all!! I have tried every year to plant a small area in my back yard just to satisfy the prophets heed to learn to grow a garden. My gardens never have really produced much. I love the fresh vegetables I just can't get anything to grow very well. I have wonderful neighbors who share in their abundance, so I enjoy the fruits of their labors!

So you can imagine what I must of thought when I heard my Stake Presidents counsel to us as stake members in stake conference to not only plant gardens, but to plant every available dirt on our properties in vegetables! He said even our flower beds, plant turnips instead of tulips! I thought I can't even get my one little plot to grow! He wants us to not only be self reliant, but to share our excess with the Bishop's Storehouse.

The more I thought about it, the more I decided what better time to start than under that direction. I hoped that my garden would be blessed because Pres Hanks told me to plant it. I tried to start early, so some of these I planted seeds indoors the end of March. Some worked great, some didn't. I'm hoping I'm still enthusiastic enough to want to start more earlier next year.

So far so good!!!

I have ended up with 4 areas that I planted vegetables.

My regular spot (the south garden)...Tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, one lonely cabbage plant

Behind the garage...More zucchini

The north garden...green beans, cucumbers, carrots, and jack-o-lantern pumpkins for fun. Look baby cucumbers, and a little baby pumpkin! I'm pretty sure these are carrots, they didn't stay on the rows, they are all over the place!! Maybe I wasn't supposed to plant them on hills, live and learn, I guess.

And then there's my front flower bed...Potatoes (they got a late start) and hopefully soon more carrots

It's so fun to see how everything is doing so wonderful! Everything is kind of spread out because I wasn't sure just how close to put things.

I am hoping to put a peach tree in, if it's not too late.

Look what I picked yesterday....


My first zucchini!!!

Now I'm off to go weed!!!