15 Years Old

The following things are 15 years old. (And I don't keep stuff I don't use on the regular so these are all going strong.)

These cooking utensils.

This rice cooker.

This waffle iron. The world may be on the Belgian style wagon but we are traditional square waffle eaters here.

This food storage set. I've lost oneof the tiny sized ones but I have 2 others.

Flour and sugar containers.

This cutting board.

These Pyrex bowls. One more in is the fridge. Plus I have a larger one from this set.

This mixing bowl. No mixing bowl gets more used than this mixing bowl.

This clear baking dish. (Fun fact: the green one is 19 years old from when I went to college.)

These measuring cups and spoons.

This game of Settlers.

This hymnal

*Not pictured: Our camp chairs. They are up at the new house. A push broom that's also in the garage at the new house. A framed quote from the Proclamation on the Family because it's boxed up somewhere. Some bath rugs also in a box in the garage. And a cooler and colander I just remembered about but don't feel like snapping a picture of and other stuff that I forgot about.

I know this because they were all wedding presents!

Plus there's this hoodie that we bought on our honeymoon in Park City. It was freakishly cold that weekend.

These baker's racks we used to hold decorations at our reception.

This marriage is also 15 years old! 

We celebrated by couch shopping but ended up at the restaurant supply store because that's more fun. We bought a new ice cream scoop because hey, ours is 15 years old.  And a hamburger press because that's fun.

House update and a few kid things

Crazy May continues. We have been working on the house every spare moment. James and I go up after the kids go to school and I work until I get hungry or James gets unbearably bored.

And when James gets bored, I get these on my tablet.

Oh wait, there's more.

Here's a little view of what the cabinets look like in our new house. I scraped and scrubbed and scraped some more. For 2 days I cleaned out drawers and cabinets. Combine that with removing 1,000 staples and now I have carpal tunnel syndrome.

There is progress being made on the house. We now have beautiful new floors!

And the kitchen countertops and kitchen windowsills (which is my favorite thing so far)

Love me a pretty shiny sink.

Last week the painters started on the kitchen cabinets. Even a coat of primer makes them look 100x better. And the addition of crown molding makes my heart happy. (But the more we improve stuff, the angrier the striped wall makes me.)

Onto the kids! We are in our final week of school. Erica made this cute story about her and Madison. She decided it was too big to keep so she wanted a picture of it instead.

James didn't believe me that he has a dark spot on the back of his head like a puppy spot so I took a picture of it so he can see it. And how knows if someday it will fade away.

I found a bunch of pictures like this on my phone. Always a treat.

This one is going to make it into his wedding video.

"Mom, will you pass me my Power Gatorade?" Someone must have corrected him because he doesn't call it that anymore. :(

I will be forever sad when James grows out of this cute stage of singing to himself while playing legos with a headlamp on.

"Mom, do I look cool?"

Sarah got braces last week. Here's the before...

And after. She had a rough couple of first days and I could tell she was wishing she wasn't in such a hurry to get them. She told me last night she wishes she could take them off for a few minutes, just for a break. I never had braces but I totally get that feeling with a big pregnant belly.

This week is Sarah's elementary school graduation, our 15th anniversary on Wednesday, the kids have their last day of school on Friday and then we leave for Colorado on Sunday. Oh, and we have some drywall to replace and baseboards to finish up before the painters move onto the house. Busy, busy, busy!

Henry Turns 10!

Somehow, without my permission, Henry turned 10 on Friday. For it being such a big milestone, he kept things very simple. 

He chose doughnuts and chocolate milk for breakfast. The hardest part about that breakfast was choosing which two.

I forgot about the chocolate milk until 9pm the night before. I also forgot at Erica's birthday too. Justin and I went to Walmart at 9pm.

Awww. Sibling's birthdays can be so hard.

Then he opened presents. James gave him some paper hearts he cut out all by himself.He got a new game

A new football (this kid can never have too many footballs.)

A practical joke book and two more Calvin and Hobbes books. He also got a penny board and a bunch of snacks.

His idea for a cake was really simple too. I baked the cake and made the frosting and then after school he helped me frost it. He picked out chocolate sprinkles to make the football brown.

He also picked out his candles.

He got a friend party this year. He wanted to invite 14 kids and I let him. Since we're moving I couldn't say no. I didn't know half of the kids. It was as loud and crazy as you would expect it to be. They played trampoline dodgeball outside and then they had pizza for dinner. After presents and cake Sarah led them in a real-life game of Among Us and she did a great job. Then they watched a youtube playlist created by Henry until their parents came. I didn't have to do much at all. I like these older kid parties.

It was definitely loud in there. He had a lot of fun so I guess that's what matters.

Here's his birthday interview

My 10 favorite things about Henry

1. He doesn't mind if I hug him.

2. He is always up for playing a game.

3. He is really creative coming up with activities for his siblings to do--exercise routines, games on the trampoline, etc.

4. He tries his hardest when playing sports and games.

5. He's a math genius. I was trying to figure out how many carpet runners to buy for the new house and I said out loud, "27 divided by 4" and faster than I could type in a calculator he quipped, "6 and three quarters." He was right. 

6. His school teacher loves him. I don't get it. He must use up all his good behavior at school.

7. He doesn't merely like music, food, sports teams, movies, etc., he loves them. He gets that from his dad.

8. He has a sensitive heart when it comes to movies. Pirates of the Caribbean, Mask of Zorro, Count of Monte Cristo are too much for him. He loves National Treasure and Night at the Museum.

9. He likes to cook. He'll start the grill for me and wants to learn to grill a steak all by himself.

10. He's a super clever and funny writer. His class loves it when he reads his stories.