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The joys of being a land lord are in full abundance lately! James and I get to trade off either telling adults to clean up their messes or just cleaning it up for them! It’s awesome! I’m being sarcastic of course. The Orem house is giving us grief again (as per usual), so we have had to put more work into it. We have gotten discouraged, but right now we are being positive about the whole thing and just getting it done. This post is mostly being written as a shout out to my husband. He has been working himself to the bone this summer. Work with his business has been extremely busy and when he is not doing that he is working on the apartment. I wanted to help out and take some of the pressure off him, so I offered to do some of the apartment work myself. Monday I spent an entire FOUR hours cleaning and prepping the place for paint. At the end of the day I was exhausted! My eyes, nose, and throat hurt, I was so dirty and tired. Today I was there for just over FIVE hours doing some more grunt work because I have no skills. I am also very tired today. The whole time I am working I am thinking, how does James do this? I have been here for two hours and it sucks and James works like this for 12, 15, 20 hours a day! He is Super Man and I am a huge wuss. For all my hard work this week I get to have a break and go to dinner with a friend tomorrow while James does a backyard camp out with the kids. Things seem a little unbalanced, don’t you think? I can make myself feel a little better by remembering that James has never used the dishwasher since we moved here five years ago.

We are both pleased with the way the green and porcelain skin goes together.

Here is what it looks like now with decorations and all:

Andy already had the couches and the TV. The little coffee table used to be my TV stand. We did have to buy a new TV stand to fit in the corner and to hold his giant TV. The door on the left goes into our office, and the one on the right goes into our bedroom.

The door on the left is for the guest bedroom, and the one on the right is for the bathroom.

Before we moved in I had told Andy that this room can be his man cave, but since I was in it for a good deal of the summer, I took over. I decided the room needed some grown up decorations. However, I did let him keep his toys out so he could play with them when he gets bored! If you can’t tell, most of those toys are Star Wars figurines.

This post is for random, completely unrelated events that don’t deserve their very own post but are things I don’t want to forget. Most of life is like that actually, random events that somehow merge together to form an existence. And because it’s my existence, I better not forget! I will start with “I am grateful for the splash pad.” Last year a new park opened up about 5 minutes from our house. The best part of the new park is the splash pad. The kids love it, and it has given us something new to do this summer, it’s free and safe and a great way to cool off!

Next: Funny posing and playing with camera. Savanna and Miles like when I get the camera out, especially Savanna. She is always posing in weird ways and making funny faces. They also like to take pictures themselves. One day we were playing in Miles’ room and Savanna and Miles started playing “freeze pose”, a game Savanna made up. I got out the camera and we took a bunch of silly pics, it was fun.
Finally: Paint Stick Swords. As I was preparing for Miles’ pirate party I came across a crafty blog that had the idea of making swords out of paint stirrer sticks. I went to Home Depot and got a bunch, the sign said FREE! Take as many as you need! Sweet! My mom came over and helped us make them. We cut, painted, glued, and wrapped leather around the handles. I think they turned out pretty cool.
The End!

I love summer and I hate winter. I am so glad it’s summer, but it is going way too fast! I have already mentioned my anxiousness about Savanna starting school, and I think that has a lot to do with why I feel this summer is just slipping away from us. I am trying to make each day count before my little five year old leaves me! Okay, it’s not like she is going to Japan for ten years, I need to relax. Do all moms go through this when their first child starts school? Some moms I know are so excited for school to start. They can’t wait for their kids to be out of their hair but I feel different. I quit my job about three weeks before Savanna was born and I have not had a job since. My kids have never been to day care, they are always with me. This is a huge blessing and something we (James) have worked really hard for. It feels so strange to turn my daughter over to people I don’t know five days a week. I know it is something that almost all kids go through. I did, of course, and I am excited for Savanna to have the experience of school but I do have some reservations. I don’t like not knowing what she is doing and how people are treating her. I hope that we have done a good enough job with her so that she will be able to stand up for herself and know what is appropriate and what is not. I know that my Heavenly Father gave me these children and has entrusted me to raise them, teach them, and protect them. I feel like sending them away at such a young age is well, almost wrong. As I read this I know it may sound a bit extreme. I mean, it’s only kindergarten! I think I just need it to begin so I can see how normal and good school is, but I also don’t want it to begin at all. Summer forever! I love my kids, I love being a mom and I hope I am doing an okay job. I am sure I will be the one crying on the first day of school.

Miles just turned 3! Miles has been into pirates lately so we decided on a pirate party! We have been talking about it for months. We had been talking about it so much that one day Miles told me, “Mom, my birsday is July 21st and I am having a pirate birsday.” It’s always birsday, never birthday. We had the party at the new park here that has a splash pad and a fun playground. The one thing they don’t have there is shade, it was so hot, but I think everyone had fun anyway. I know Miles did! He was such a good boy all day, so happy and excited! I can’t believe he is 3! To me it actually almost seems like he is older! Miles was only 10 months old when I found out I was pregnant with Avery. This was not a planned pregnancy and I pretty much freaked out. I feel like I missed a huge chunk of Miles’ babyhood because when the news of Avery came, I pushed Miles to grow up fast. I was terrified to have two babies! This is something I regret because I almost don’t remember that year or so of his life. Poor Miles, I’m a terrible Mom! Maybe I made it up to him with an awesome party? I try to remember to slow down and enjoy all my kids everyday. I love Miles, he is the goofiest, sweetest little boy! My parents gave him a slip n’ slide and he didn’t really know what it was when he opened it. Finally he exclaimed, “I got my very own river!” So cute. Happy Birthday Miles!

This is our guest bathroom. There is not much to it. I put up the same stuff that was in my apartment bathroom. We don’t like that there is carpet in our bathrooms. Putting tile in will be a project for another year.

It does have a very small counter, but it left room for a hamper. Currently the hamper holds our beach towels, but I’m sure someday it will be used for our kids’ clothes.

This is our guest bedroom. Thankfully Andy and I both had a bed before we got married, so we were able to put his mattress in the guest bedroom. (His was older, but still in great condition.) This room never got painted. It is just the plain white that was painted when the house got built.

It reminds me of going to some old cottage or something.

This room kind of got a lot of my old random wall decorations. The bedding was Andy’s. The nightstand was mine from my last apartment.

The hope chest was made by my grandpa. For years it held the kitchen stuff that I had been collecting, but I never used it until last year when I got my own place. Now it holds my old baby clothes and baby books.

The wall hanging (quilt) was made by me my senior year. I made it for my mom, but she insisted that I should have it back now.

Well, I think it will be cozy enough for our guests. Mom and Bill used it when it was mainly just the bed. Trisha and Jeremy will be the first ones to try out the “completed” guest bedroom.

I would love to make it more than what it is, but that will have to wait. By the time I get around to really fixing it up, it will probably be because I will be changing it into a kids room. That will not be for awhile though, so don’t get all excited now!!!

I was talking to my mom recently and she was saying how important it was to make memories with your family. She said, “Do your kids remember what they got for Christmas last year? Or their birthday? No, but Savanna is still talking about the time we all went to the zoo together. (which was before Miles was born!)” She said that the toys and stuff they collect won’t mean nearly as much to them as the things we did and the time we spent together. I haven’t had the best attitude about Savanna starting school this fall, and there really is no reason for this except that I am so sad that she will be away from me and that my kids are growing up so fast! I felt like since this is the last summer we have before “real” school begins, I really wanted to make it a summer to remember. While we can’t vacation all over the world, or even make to the swimming pool each week, my kids are happiest just playing in the backyard. I’ve said it before but it’s true, even though motherhood makes me tired and stressed sometimes, I love it. I can’t imagine doing anything else, that’s why it scares me that they are growing up! What am I going to do when they are gone? I guess I will worry about that later, but for now I am enjoying this time well spent.