Nick had a birthday!

Wow, Nick. I can't believe you are 19 years old!!

I know this post is very late. His birthday was August 14th. We went to the Texas Roadhouse for prime rib. It was a fun family dinner. It's really weird to have all grown up kids.

Another Gorgeous AZ Sunset

I really love a beautiful sunset, and there are so many here. This was one we happened to see when we were looking for an address in Goodyear. I totally reversed the numbers in the address, so the GPS wouldn't recognize it. But we finally found our destination. Even though we were late for the party, we did get to see this gorgeous sky.

Loveable faces...

I love all of these faces! They make my heart sing!

Labor Day Weekend!

Thursday night we did the packing. One thing I did not want to forget was this little dress I made for Savannah's American Girl Doll. This is what we gave her for her Baptism. I knew everyone would give her necklaces, bracelets, scriptures, money, etc. I wanted to give her something no one else would give and that she would love. She did love it! She ran right upstairs and put the dress on her doll.The boys even stopped for a quick photo. It was so fun when we arrived on Friday after an 11 hour drive. There were lots of shouts of "Grammy!" and lots of hugs. We passed out presents of books to everyone. We always try to take them some books. I miss these guys. Later on Julie and Ava came over, too. Saturday morning, Katie fixed Savannah up in her "Cinderella" hair-do. She looked so beautiful! Her dad was very proud of her. He was able to baptize and confirm Savannah as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. How grateful I am for a wonderful son-in-law that is worthy to use the priesthood and care for his family.

Had to get a profile shot of the star of the day. She is so darling!

All ready to go to the church for the big event!

Princess Savannah spinning in her ball gown.

She received many beautiful gifts and cards. She is one loved little girl!

Savannah dresses her doll every day for the appropriate occasion.

Cooper and Luka were all dressed up too!

Katie fixed a wonderful meal for 70 people - Cafe Rio salads. She can throw a great party. Julie always helps, too! My dear old dad was the great granddad that was there for this special day.

I hope that Savannah will always remember this day, and all the people that tried to make it very special for her. We are so proud of her decision to be baptized. I know this decision will always bless her life. She is making wonderful choices and she will always be happy when she chooses the right!

CrrrrrAAASHHHHH!

Saturday evening, Rod and I were relaxing in the family room. I was on the computer and he had the TV on. All at once a storm warning interrupted the program. "Severe electrical storm warning through all of Maricopa County until 6:00 PM." I looked at the clock. It was 5:20 - "That's us!" I exclaimed. "WE are in Maricopa County." At that time, there was no wind, no lightening" I felt all safe and snug in my home. As I was cruising blogs, and peeking on on FaceBook, I heard a huge crashing noise. "CrrrrrAAASHHHHH!" What on earth...? (It was 6:00 straight up)Rod and I both jumped up. Seems that the electrical storm decided to target our yard. A strong wind had come up and it blew over a storage closet we had sitting in the middle of our back patio. It blew it over into the green house window in my kitchen and shattered it.

Rod moved quickly and threw the closet aside to assess the damage to the window. Looks like it bent the frame a little, too. Dang!

We were going to get rid of the closet, anyway. As part of our "refurbishing" we got rid of a bunch of "stuff" we didn't really need anymore, and the closet was one of the items.

Rod starts picking up the broken shards of glass and rescuing the objects that weren't broken.

I got out the utility knife and started cutting cardboard to cover the broken areas to keep the heat out.

This is now what I see when I glance out the kitchen window...

Lovely.

All grown up and now to conquer the world!

Flashback: Nick showing off his homemade battery (6th grade)

Freshman year on the drum line.

Yes! Nick graduated from Cortez High School in May (I know . . . that was 3 months ago). But I still want to remember this important milestone event! He had such a great time at Cortez and did a fantastic job! This is the boy and the smile that I love to picture as he started his high school memories.

No longer a boy... "sniff" He really is all grown up! Wow - where did the time go?

Gotta show off the medals!

Nick, we are so proud of you!

Allen & Becca are celebrating right along with you!

Nick picks up his "real" diploma after all of the pomp and circumstance is over.

Memorial Day Camping

Rod and I love the Grand Canyon. We also love camping, which we have not done much because it is hard to take our car into the wilderness. But now we have a truck! So over Memorial Day (yes, I am very late in making this post) we went camping on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We took a forest service road and got as far away from other human beings as possible.

Yes, that is snow. It was FREEZING!!! But we made a huge fire and hunkered down for the night, snug in our little tent.

Our Coleman stove did not work, so we just cooked our dinner right on the open fire. Simple fare - weenies and beans. The were fabulous! And hot chocolate, too!

It really was not very comfortable because of the cold, but I would certainly do it again! The next morning, I got up and sat by the fire in the sunshine to warm up. As I was enjoying my book, I heard a noise that I had never heard before . . . I looked up and there was this huge, black bird flying by. The sound was his wings beating the air. It was my moment to commune with nature. Very cool!

Of course, we did go to the "tourist" place where the people are so we could view the canyon. There is nothing quite like it...

On our way home we drove past the Vermilion Cliffs. Very beautiful red rock country. There is no camera that can capture the grandeur or beauty of this place. I will treasure this little overnight getaway with my favorite guy forever!

Living in a construction zone - Part II

Here is a little background on our refurbishing: Eric (Rod's oldest son) and his wife, Em, had come for a visit in March. While they were here, Eric said they wanted to do something for us and he said they would come and lay some new tile floors for us. We had wanted to do this, but it is quite cost prohibitive to remove the old floor and have someone lay new tile. Because they were willing to do this, we decided to go for it! We set the date for the last week of June. Eric measured the rooms and let us know how much tile we would need to buy. We got more and more excited about the project and decided to paint several rooms, carpet the living room, and get new counters in the kitchen. Our counters were awful!! We have been in this house for 5 years and never done anything like this, so we were anxious to redecorate and make it ours. Now back to the project:

So .... we lived with concrete floors for two months, with tons of dust from the tile removal and painting. Nothing was where it should have been. During that time we did the painting, picked out new carpet and hired a cabinet maker to do our counter tops. At the end June, we had two wonderful visitors that came and went right to work! Eric and Em did not waste any time in starting in on getting things ready to lay the tile. The family room was so bare, and it would echo when we talked.

After all the thin set was chipped off the floor it had to be swept, vacuumed, mopped and then all of that done again so there wouldn't be any dust or sandy particles anywhere. Then they painted on the sealer. I was shocked that it was bright red!

This is what lies beneath...

Once the sealer was dry, they started in on laying the tile. Allen and Nick helped. They all worked so hard! They did a fantastic job! Here is what the entry way looked like right after the grout was done, before the tile was cleaned off and the mop boards replaced:

While the boys and Em were busy with the tile, Rod replaced some boards under the eve of the house in back. Actually it was sheet rock that should have been plywood. It was a mess! There had been some water damage, and when he pulled it down, there was a HUGE bird's nest. Those dang pigeons!

Rod did a really nice job on that little project. It turned out very nice.

Here is a close up of the carpet and tile:

This is a shot of the family room. Just look at that gorgeous floor - thanks Eric! I will never have to hide that with a rug like I did the one before! I also love the picture of the temple - thank you to my girls for the lovely gift!

Here is the living room right after the carpet was installed. They had to take off all the doors and we had to trim them to fit because the carpet was way more plush than the old one. It is way fun to walk barefoot in this thick, soft and amazing carpet!

Now all of the furniture is back where it belongs and there are actually some pictures back on the walls. I really hated to put nails into the beautiful paint job! Ha!

Truly - home, sweet home, my place of peace. I love to sit in here. It is so clean, and beautiful. I love the peach paint on the walls and how there is no clutter anywhere! Yes!

Here is the kitchen counter, and the new stainless sink. I love it!

I really wanted a sink that had one side bigger than the other so it would be easier to wash the big pots and pans. And did I mention that I love a stainless steel sink?

I am so pleased at how the tile matches the counters, the wood and the walls! And it is so wonderful to not have that nasty white tile anymore! We can never thank Eric and Em enough! And Allen and Nick, too! We always think of you when we comment on how nice our home now looks. You have totally blessed our family!

Be it ever so humble....

Truly my cup runneth o'er.