I think I'll go to Boston

This is my dear friend from high school, Lisa, with her lovely husband, Zariph, and their newly sealed baby, Boston Luke. I love adoptions and it is especially cool to see the sealing in the temple. Boston was a fabuluous baby and practically cooed during the ceremony. Congratulations Lisa and Zariph!!!
P.S. Everytime I think of Boston's name that song pops into my head--I think I'll go to Boston, I think I'll start a new life . . . Feel free to join in.

He's 11 Now!!

Here are a few birthday shots at Spencer's party.

This kid loves his Wii and now he has Mario Kart which makes it even better.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The tour continues . . .

This is our master. I created the swag over the bed, Matt being his practical self finds it totally unnecessary as well as the bed skirt, but I think it finishes the room nicely. This is the good room.

Love our dresser and the window. Three cheers for fake wood blinds instead of the crappy vinyl ones.

The entertainment wall. Yes we have a T.V. in the bedroom.

This is the first bedroom. Right now it catches all the furniture we have no idea what to do with. Note the dresser, stair climber, and nighstand below. In my dreams Matt will build bookcases on both sides of the window that rest on the ledge, creating a built in window seat. This is the bad.

Now the ugly. This wall used to have wood panneling which I am whole-heartedly opposed to, so Matt has stripped the panneling. Next up rip down the drywall and install new drywall.

The window wall in the ugly room. This room gets tons of sun and will be nice when it is done, but right now it is HIDEOUS with a capital H.

The sewing machine is also in the ugly room, its folded down right now because as you all know I am currently in a very crafty stage.

Up next the bathrooms.

Kitchen, Dining, and Living Rooms

After the Roomie Reunion '08 I realized there were a lot of things I like about our house that no one has really seen yet. So here are some of our favorite features and some of our additions.

This is our corner cupboard--Part One.
Part Two

Part Three. What a great use of space!

Here is the basic kitchen shot. Our fridge did not come with the house, but we found it using KSL.com. Why pay full price when you don't have to?

Here's another angle of the kitchen. Please note the ledge over the sink. If Tyra lived here her herb garden would be right there.

This is our dinning room. Pretend the yucky vertical blinds aren't there as they will someday be replaced.

We love our dining room table, perfect for gaming and eating. I especially love the leather seat cushions.

This is the living room in all her glory. Oops I deleted the couch, but it was from Christmas.

Finally, look at how we stimulated the economy. If 42" of TV does not spell economic stimulus I don't know what does.

So I thought that I wouldn't enjoy living in a split level home at all and I still wouldn't call it my favorite floorplan, however, there are a lot of great things about this place. I love how the house is up and you can see the whole neighborhood. I love all the natural light and our basement isn't dark and gloomy.

Stay tuned for the others rooms in the house. I promise to even show you the bathrooms--there are three!!

Another 10 Year Reunion

This weekend we had the chance to get together with my girls from college and their families. I can't believe it's already been 10 years since our freshman year. We missed you Tyra and Meghan!

To My Grandma

LaDean Sproul Snow January 21, 1926 to September 6, 2008

As the oldest grandchild and probably the only grandchild for awhile some might say I was spoiled. I might take issue with that, but in one way I was spoiled and that was with memories of Grandma and I have the most for which I am grateful. I have the most before she was sick and the lovely woman that she was.

Time with Grandma meant homemade bread with chunky peanut butter and honey.

Time with Grandma was getting a big bucket of KFC and going to Liberty Park.

Time with Grandma was left-handed journal typing and left-handed grocery list writing. As a child I never noticed, I knew my Grandma’s arm was not right, but I never really noticed until the sixth grade when one of my friends asked me what was wrong with my grandma’s arm. I said, "What do you mean what’s wrong with my grandma’s arm?" It is such a tribute to her that she adapted so well to such a traumatic life experience. She drove me everywhere, she wrote in her journal and she lived her life even though she was missing most of her right arm.

Time with Grandma meant chewable Vitamin C’s were a treat and you can eat them like candy and nobody cares if you get 300% of our daily value.

Time with Grandma meant playing games and it meant competitively. Grandma liked to win just like anybody else. We loved to play the pop-o-matic Trouble with her and land on people and send them back to home. We also loved to play Phase 10 and Grandma would like to say if she wasn’t winning "honest to Pete" I can’t believe I am losing this game and it’s just a favorite memory of mine that she wanted to win and she spent time playing with us.

I think most of all, time with Grandma was the stories that she told.
She told about saving the frosting off her cake and Uncle Kay swiping it at the end.
She told about working as a phone operator for Sears only making 5 cents an hour.
She told about her first date with Grandpa. She made him fish, which he hates.
Most of all she told about her story of Little Black Sambo and he ate 169 pancakes. That story has meaning to our family as it woke Steven up from a coma when he remembered that story.
I think Grandma showed us her love through her time. We honor her and love her for her sacrifices to us.

I just want to close with a scripture (Ecc. 3:1-2, 4-8, 10-11).
"To everything there is a season, and time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stone, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace. I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made everything beautiful in his time; also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."

I just wanted to say we love you Grandma and we thank you for your time.

Family Fun

So a couple of weeks ago my Aunt Paula and Uncle Brad brought the family of eight, minus one out to Utah. We enjoyed the favorite fried chicken picnic and some games in the park. Matt was in heaven because all the cousins are tall and what better thing to do with tall cousins then to play volleyball. I think all the tall people ended up on one team.

Here's Aunt Paula "smiling" for the camera.

Brother and sister disagreement? Who is going to win Samuel or Camille?

Andrew and Michelle chilling out. Michelle had to get all the rest she could as she was heading off to college at BYU. Yeah cousins thanks for inviting us to play.