WELL WELL WELL WE REALLY ARE ALIVE!

Hey everybody, sorry it's been an eternity almost since my last post! Wow how time flies when your busier than ... well let's just say busy!

My last post was pre Women of Steel triathlon. So I thought I'd report Yes I am a woman of Steel! (totally joking) I did finish and I'm proud to say I finished slightly better than the girls that I taught to swim. That was my goal. I would hate for one of them to have beaten me, how embarassing would that be. I know I know the pride. I'll work

on that. I guess you could say that

I am just a little competitive.

I'm actually doing the swim portion of The Ogden Valley Tri on the 13th of September. So wish me luck!

So here's my excuse for no new posts in forever. We bought a new house. Well new to us, but not so new. The not so new part explains me insanity and lack of blogging. We have been remodeling for two months now, and I'm sad to say, we still have a long way to go. BUT the progress is great. It's turning out pretty good considering we're new at this. In our last house we only had to do paint and carpet. This one is a little more in depth. Here are some pictures. I wish I had taken more before pics... oh well

These are just a few of the projects that we've done. We had new

carpet put in. We painted the whole basement, walls, ceilings, trim and all. We tiled the floor, we rebuilt the fire place, cut and painted new baseboards for the whole basement, we painted bedrooms, painted and antiqued the kitchen cabinets, put in track lighting in the kitchen and we're currently working on gutting the upstairs bathroom. The projects done/to be done ratio is about 50/50. So we're getting there. Our goal is to be done before Christmas. We'll see if we make it. The beautiful custom fireplace is designed and built by Tim Zabriskie. We just need to paint the bead board and bookshelves and finish the rusted metal fireplace pieces. It's a masterpiece in the making. He's awesome! It sure beats the 1960's sparkle rock you see me destroying in the first picture.

Kitchen cabinets before & whole kitchen after, it's still in the works but getting there

James loved to help me paint his room two shades of blue, a dinosoar mural is yet to come!Ragan's room was my very first finished project, although it wasn't the first one started!

This is me during my first attempt at tile. I have to say I learned a lot from my mistakes so I'm sure that our kitchen and bathroom will be masterpieces compared to our dining area, but hey you learn by doing right?

Okay so I have few more excuses for not posting that aren't so exausting. We did have some fun this summer here is the proof:

We went to visit Pete's brother Bart's house for the 4th of July. The boys (Pete and his brothers and Dad) went fishin ALL DAY while the girls stayed home with the kids. Really Pete deserved it. He's always way to willing to be the one to stay home. I'm glad he got some time with his brothers. They had lots of fun. Poor Bart he was the only one without a fish for the whole day!

We took our annual trip to Monroe Mountain. Pete's family has a cabin that's been in the family for three generations. The last couple of years they've added on A LOT to make it big enough for everyone. It is a lot of fun, not to mention breathtaking. I love to ride fourwheelers to the peak & look out over the whole valley, you can see forever.
My kids love this trip because they can get as dirty as they want and not have to take a bath unless they want one. I do bath my babies though because they look so darn cute in the tin tub!

Last but definitely not least, we went to Bear Lake. We went with the Terry's the Zabriskies and the Tanners. We had a blast. We borrowed my bro-in-law's boat for the day and then we camped in their backyard because all the good camping spots were taken. We had so much fun that hopefully we've started a tradition, an annual trip. I didn't get too many pictures, I was so excited about boating that I forgot about a lot of things...pictures, sunscreen... yes I'm still paying for that mistake. My poor Ragan got blisters on her face and my legs are still peeling more than two weeks later!!! But it was sooooo worth it.

I think I'm the winner for the longest catch up post in the history of blogging! So there it is. Enjoy.

I am doing my second triathlon tomorrow!!! (butterflies) No really I am so excited. I loved the first one I did. This one is called WOMEN OF STEEL! It's a women only tri in American Fork and I am doing it with three of my friends from work. I conned them all into it, but I know they love me for it :) It's a 300 meter swim, 11.5 mile bike and a 3 mile run. Wish me luck!!!

Six little known facts about Emily!

1. I have major anxiety attacks when I have to speak or perform in front of a group
2. I'm afraid of the dark-so badly that I run up the stairs at night after I put my kids to bed!
3. My thoughts skip my brain and come straight out of my mouth, of course you all probably already know that fact, so maybe it doesn't count, but I'm struggling to come up with even six!!!
4. I hate to window shop, it's like torture to me, if I can't buy it I don't want to see it and be tempted by it
5. I have many pet peeves, but one of the worst is clutter, I get depressed when my house is messy, but then I feel guilty when I take time away from my kids to keep it spotless, I get overwhelmed
6. I love candy, I'm like a little kid, Halloween is and always has been my favorite Holiday, who doesn't love to pretend to be someone else for a day and then roll in the candy you get for it!!!

6 little known facts about Pete

1. Pete likes chick flicks more than he will ever admit
2. He is an amazing cook, in fact he cooks more than I do
3. He's the best dad ever, and I'm not just prejudice, he gets up with kids in the night, he changes diapers without being asked, he babysits whenever I need a break no matter how often that is sometimes, he is better with sick kids than I am, and he has more love in him for me and my kids than I ever could have imagined
4. He wrestled in college and was ranked 7th in the nation. He was also a 2 time state champ in High School
5. He is deathly afraid of bugs, okay so only when they are giant size like on the movie King Kong, he was completely creaped out by the scene with the sentipede
6. Pete has an amazing memory. He has detailed memories of things he learned in first grade!

TAG YOUR IT!

Okay I started to tag people by going to their blogs and tagging on their comments, but that takes way too long! So I tag all that read this to post 6 little known things about you and your spouse. It's a good challenge because most of us tend to only blog about our kids. I also challenge all of you to include pictures of yourself and your spouse on your blog. I need to work on this too!!!

I thought I'd share a couple of funny things that Ragan said this week. She cracks me up everyday lately.

We were brushing her teeth the other night and looking in the mirror, and she said,
"Your eyes are blue mom" I said " No my eyes are green." She looked thoughtful for a second and then said, pointing to her nose, "green like my boogies?" Of course I couldn't hold in the giggles, but I responded "Yep just like your green boogies!!!"

Then we had some friends stay for the weekend and they got to see Ragan's neverending display of outfits, mostly princess dresses. She is into Princess everything lately. So our friend Dan said, "Hi princess, what's your name?" and without hesitation she said "Pink-cerella!"

I sure love my little pink-cerella, she is so creative. This week we are working on Potty training AGAIN! Oh how I love it. I got some good tips from a "Potty training expert" this week, so if it works I'll be sure to share the wealth!!!

I just thought I'd share some good info, a couple of sights that I love to visit. The first is actually a blog for recipes. It's fun to get on and find new recipes to help spice up dinner, I don't know about y'all but I get bored with the same old foods. The address is www.cookinwithfriends.blogspot.com

The second sight that I love is call FlyLady. Some of you may have heard of this and some of you might be grateful to hear of it. It is a web sight for those of us who don't always have it all together, as far as organization and cleanliness. I don't know about all of you but I have a hard time keeping up with it all between cooking and cleaning and kids I just get behind sometimes. This sight is all about keeping it simple and CLEAN!!! Yeah for FlyLady! the sight is www.flylady.com Check it out it's great.

I know, I know enough is enough but these pictures were too cute not to post. You ladies asked for more posts from me and now you'll just have to deal with my obnoxious pride! I don't know any cuter kids than these three!!!

This is my sweet little boy who is not so little anymore. He's been sitting up for over a month now, but this picture was taken a week or two after he mastered this "big boy trick." I know I'm prejiduce but aren't those dimples to die for?!

There's a cute story to go with these cute pictures! I know some of you have already heard it but I just can't help myself.

I pointed out the moon to the kids in the car the other day and James said I want to fly up there and touch the moon mom. So, naturally I said well maybe you could be an astronaut when you grow up. He was quiet for a few minutes and then suddenly all excited said, "I know mom, you could make me a cape and I can fly to the moon tomorrow!"

So I made him a cape that night and in the morning when he put it on he immediately began to jump as high as he could, a little frustrated that it wasn't working he went to the next plan. See the playhouse in the background, he ran over and began to climb on top. I asked him what he was doing (though I could guess!) And he said " I'm gonna fly Mom!" So I explained that we just had to pretend. He seemed to be alright with that.

Naturally when I made James a cape, Ragan had to have one too, but hers came with specific instructions. "I want a princess cape mom!" So she got a pink princess cape with butterflies!

(I have to give the design credit to my mommy. She made really cool capes for us when we were little so I patterned them after what I remembered of mine!)

My kids favorite thing lately is to do hair. Imagine that!

They are following in my footsteps I guess!

This is their latest styling session with me being their victim.