My baby girl in her Dance Competitions...

Adrienn performing a jazz dance at a recent
dance competition in Salt Lake City

There she is...

Adrienn performing her ballet dance at the competition. They took 2nd place and her dance studio took home 22 out of the 27 trophy's given that day.

Update

My first attempt at snowshoeing this year. We went about every other week and each time there were about 9-15 of us. This picture was taken on a cliff, literally, after we climbed an Ogden mountain to the Ogden overlook. You can see the lights of Ogden City behind us. Beautiful and worth it but one of the hardest hikes I have been on in my life.




Kolby attempted to cross the monkey bars at school with his winter gloves on, of course when he slipped, there was ice below that prevented him from landing on his feet. Am I surprised that my brave, fearless Kolby broke a bone at only five years old? NO!

Kolby & President Bush! :)

My "sisters" out for a birthday dinner.
Happy Birthday Rebecca!











This winter was one of the best winters we've had in a long time. We went sledding more times than I could count! That's my babies Adrienn and Shaye.












The view from my bedroom deck. I love how every sunset is so unique.










To say I am a proud Mother is hardly the words to describe how grateful I am that my children are so driven to succeed. Shaye made it to the district spelling bee again this year after competing against the 5Th-7Th graders at LCA. He was one of the top winners in the district and went on to the state spelling bee. He didn't make it to Washington D.C. but I am so proud he got this far.







The stage where the spellers waited their turn at the microphone.









Our baby girl Sidney! 10 1/2 years old. We were told two weeks ago that she has cancer and was given possibly only a few weeks to live. :( We are grateful for each day we still have her but are so heartbroken to lose her. Shaye asked me if God could heal her and make the cancer go away. I want him to know that God still heals and answers prayer, I want my Children's faith to be so strong that they never doubt what God can do...I don't think my answer was very clear due to my loss for words.




Our other baby girl Serengetti, Sidney's daughter. My heart is also sad for how hard she is going to take not having her mom around. They are practically attached at the hip.











Our front yard on a day we got over two feet of snow within about twelve hours. I shoveled three times that day. That's my truck that got me through this crazy winter! Looooove IT!!! :)

So much to do...

So I'm trying to force myself to slow down, take a deep breath and just relax and soak up life a bit but then the next day I find myself behind on everything because I didn't do anything the day before and now I have to do double time to catch up. I just don't think life is supposed to be so hurried. I guess thats why vacations are so valuable.

So we are in the final phases of finishing our house. The baseboards, trim, doors and bathroom walls in the basement have yet to be painted, then door knobs, a toilet, and two sinks (one in the renovated bathroom and one in the kitchen) need to be installed. A few light fixtures, and some touch up paint and we will be ready to put our house on the market. We're just about 7 years into renovating our home so when we move, I believe I will take a five year break from painting. :) If all goes "our way" I will get my rear in gear and get the painting done, Aaron will install the major items in the home, we will put our house on the market and it will sell to the first family that looks..."If all goes our way!" :)

Well, here is a few of the latest pictures. I have many more to download from my camera but I'm out of time to do it right now. Until later...~Cath

Looking East with my back to the back door of the basement is the Rec Room where a bedroom once stood.

My Kitchen Cabinets after painting all but one of the doors black.
We love how they turned out!

The New Family Room right at the bottom of the stairs.
In fact I am standing on the bottom stair as I took this picture.

The south end of the house where a bedroom once stood is now the Rec. Room. The walls and trim still needed a second coat of paint in this picture but has been completed since.

Looking North, away from the Rec room towards the new bedrooms.
The bathroom to the right has been renovated so where there is blue wallpaper in
this picture now has wainscoating covering the walls.
The other door on the right is furnace room and new storage room

A close up of the floor in the main areas of the basement.

Life in the fast lane

We enjoyed watching the humming birds eat and play only inches from us on our deck all summer.

They are very territorial and occasionally fight over the feeders

View of the sky from my deck as a storm is approaching

As they sky darkened, the thunder and rain started. At that point we went inside for cover.

We've been working on our house now since we moved in about 5 1/2 years ago but the last year has been the most exciting transformation of our home yet. Our good friend Nate began working on our basement last June to tear down old walls and rebuild our basement with a better floor plan. This weekend we got our basement floor acid stained to go with our pine tung and groove ceilings, WOW... what a transformation. As soon as I am able to go down in my basement I will take some new pictures. The thick coating they put on the floor to seal it takes about 48 hours to dry and they just completed that this morning. Anyway, here is a few of our latest family pics and maybe a few of our basement in recent months.
~Cath

How cool is this...

So I finally check in to "my space" since that seems to be the way to stay connected with friends who you typically no longer talk on the phone to for one reason or another and then my sister let's me in on "blog spot". Now I can stay in touch with friends and family without all the garbage and adds that my space is so common for. "I sound like I'm advertising in a commercial." Anyway, I will do my best to keep this updated.
Tell Later...
~Catherine