WE MAY ACTUALLY MOVE IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE!

FAMILY HAPPENINGS!

I tried to get these photos in chronological sequence, but it's too frustrating and time-consuming to try this for too long, so you'll just need to bear with the out-of-sequence  pics. I'm sure they'll still delight all who care about these wonderful people herein shown.

Whitney and Kelsey looking serious. heh.
Check out those blue eyes!

Jen and Todd and Nadine looking serious. heh.
(We Skyped with them last Sunday---very fun!)
(I took pictures of our monitor!)

Pool party at the Somerhalder's! Here is Lenna, Sierra, and Tyler.

Ahh, the joy of running through a cold sprinkler on a hot day!
(Weston, Daniel, Lenna, and Sierra)

Lenna just walked right through that water without flinching.

Cute Sierra is getting warm after chilly water time.

Tyler and Weston enjoying the pool.

This is a classic. Weston loved getting drinks out of the sprinkler-fountain!

Maren, Weston, and Trent flew in a week ago so she could go house hunting.
Kelsey and Whitney joined me on this very fun field trip to McCarran!!

Trent and Gwenyth were fascinated by each other---fellow little people!

Beautiful Maren with her very cute little boys.

This is a common occurence: Three little boys playing together.

Slurpee expedition with Aunt Whitten!!

Nathan brought his very cute kids out to play at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Some of Matt's kids came, too. They had such a great time!! Left to right is Ethan, Nathan, Tyler,
Spencer, Kaitlyn, Adam, Hunter, Abigail, and Raquel.

Aunt Denise (and Uncle George) came down to see G&G P...she's very afraid
that he will pass on before her mission is complete in October. See her name tag?!!!
Mark has been SO WONDERFUL to live there and do SO MUCH every day.
Truly Christlike love for our parents! 

Here's Denise with her son Nathan and Spencer, Ethan, Abigail, and Hunter. Cute family!!

HOUSE HAPPENINGS:
I think that so many things are already boxed up and at the new house, then I look at what is still here. Sigh. I find that I am a "guilt" storage person. I hesitate to get rid of things I don't use because I don't want them to be wasted, so I store them. Hence, they are not used at all and wasted. I think I'll get a box and fill it with these "guilt" items, and have Gregg give them to DI so I at least think they will be used, then I feel like I am helping. Maybe I'll get many boxes for this endeavor!

                                         Anyway, here are some of the recent updates!

Kim and Jaime have formed all the borders for the main driveway,
 and the front walkway that you cannot see. This involved leveling, wetting, tamping,
and smoothing out the ground in preparation for cement being poured.

The colored borders have been poured. Kim says we wait 24 days for the
gasses to get out, then he can stain and seal it to look like stone. Cool
 If  you do it too soon, the gas will bubble up and make the sealer
look like bubble wrap. 

Kim and Gregg are moving a HUGE stone over by the steps. They use
crow bars and muscle power.

The huge simac tree in the front yard is now thinned out
and trimmed. You can see the front of the house!
I love it---still dappled sun underneath.

This is the bonus room north storage area.
It has new commercial-grade carpet for covering sliver-producing
plywood. And it now has Christmas stuff all in it.

Trent is so delighted that he has this secret hiding place.
He goes in there, then pops out saying "Peek-a-boo!"
He'll be sad when the dishwasher is installed!

The kitchen island has a sub-counter on it. 

Here is the marble for the bathrooms. This is what it looks like
before it becomes a countertop!

Ahhh. Cinderella Blue granite! This stuff is gorgeous with
the wood cabinets!

Master bathroom with the marble.

Hall bathroom with the marble.

This is the closet above the master closet. It now has food storage
in it, as well as Halloween costumes, and memory boxes for the kids.
And photographs. Those are the things we used to pick up from
CVS after we dropped off film. Film is what you would buy separately to put into a camera.
The times have changed!

Hooray! The washing machine has moved over! That makes it feel more like a home, too.

Now for the big pour---the main driveway. Five men doing this: pouring, directing, smoothing.
Tough, tricky work that takes a lot of finesse to get it right. They did a great job!

We now have a faucet!!

Beautiful front sidewalk.

They move the cement wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow to get it
precisely in the places they need it. I'm sure these guys sleep very well!

I like this view from inside the garage.

Now they smooth it all out, just right.

Finished product. Don't step on it. But quick! Write your name in it!

This was a fun, wild field trip with all available kids to immortalize themselves in cement.
We even included Kaitlyn's friend, Ashlyn Hess because every kid ought to be able to put their
hand in cement at some point of their life! 

This is very difficult to see, but it is the adult handprints. Dad and I put our hands together (tee-hee),
and I wrote in all the names of our children to the left.
Next to us are Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's handprints, with interlocking thumbs.
I am so glad we got Grandpa down on his knees to do this (thanks, Uncle Mark)
because now I will always have this memorial of my parents.






  

Here is a post I found that had been saved as a draft...it's clear back from Christmas.

I didn't know how to find saved drafts back in December, so I'm publishing this one now because it has some cute photos that didn't all make it into the other one that I re-did after I "lost" this one. (roll eyes, self-deprecating giggle and sigh)
So...a blast from the past!

Jen and Nadine came to visit for about two weeks and it was heaven!! Life is just better when Jen's around! And Maren flew in with Weston and Trenton. Life is just more calm when Maren's around! So Gregg and I took them all down to Cornville to see Papa and Carole, and Kristen and Earl. Very, very fun. Papa is getting around better and better, and Carole is doing better. They always make us feel so welcome and we eat great! We love being there.

 One of the great things about Papa and Carole's is the creek that runs past their home. Nadine and Weston spent so long throwing rocks into it. I've heard that kids have a short attention span. NOT TRUE. They could've done this for the rest of their lives and been very content. Half the fun was the far and wide search for rocks. The bigger the better!

 

They also loved all the chickens over at Kristin and Earl's. What a great place!!











Weston thought the Zuni's doggie door was the best invention ever!

I was amazed that Nadine loved all the dogs!         

 I just have to mention Kristin and Earl's place at Christmas---fantastic! Earl sets up this involved maze of tracks and has three trains that go here and there. This one even has a candy car that you can snitch from!

The Boulder City Library is a very fun place...inside and out! The kids liked the story part, but they really, really, really, really....you get the idea....really liked running around the grounds outside!