Tehya is 8, and we have a dog!

We are now a family of 8. Four kids, two parents, a cat, and a dog. Oh and I forgot...we have two fish. Chad was teasing me the other day...asking me if the reason why I keep adopting pets is because I can't have any more babies. Maybe he's right. I never thought I would have pets...but just look at what has become of us...
I like it.



Happy Birthday Tehya. We love you so much. You are an amazing girl!

My new shoes

So I got these new shoes...and I love them. They are so weird looking, but they make my muscles so happy. I have been wearing them around in hopes of breaking them in a bit quicker. I even wore them to the driving range.

Wanna know something?...I signed up for a half marathon trail run, and I hope I can run in them. The run isn't until October, but I don't know if that is enough time to build up the mileage in these shoes. For now I can only handle about 15 minutes of solid running. A few nights ago I was able to do about 30 minutes of sprints, and that was it. My legs were SHOT. I am still sore from those...these shoes force you to use muscles you don't normally use. I LOVE it!! So do any of you have these shoes? Do you have any advice on building up to running long distances in them?

Well Hello!

Oh my, I just noticed the other day that it's been too long since I've blogged. What about Easter? Tehya's birthday? I have a lot of catching up to do. Lets start with some pictures from Easter break, with a little trip we took to Great Falls. I finally pulled off these pictures from my camera...I'll be back tomorrow! I promise.



(You may be wondering, where are the falls? I can't seem to pull my camera away from faces...I didn't even take any pictures of the falls.)

My house

The last few months I have been painting like crazy. I never told ya'll the colors we used so I will list a few of my favorite here. First, all the paint was Benjamin Moore. AMAZING. The Aura line of paint is what we used. I love it because....

You don't need to prime, just throw the paint on your clean patched walls.

It dries in an hour for a re-coat or to decorate.

Most of the time it only needed one coat.

It is 50 dollars a gallon, but one gallon covered my entire family room and kitchen.

I actually saved money because I didn't need to buy primer too.

It comes in matte, which I LOVE, and the matte paint can be used in Kitchens and Bathrooms, unlike traditional matte paint. It is mold and mildew resistant.

Touch ups are seamless, and it is EXTREMELY scrubbable.

Most matte paint isn't very kid friendly, but Savannah took a red permanent marker to my newly painted walls and I was able to scrub it off completely...no harm done to the paint.

I love it, I love it, and will never buy any other paint again.

We have now painted our entire house, and most rooms I had painted and decorated in one night. While the kiddies slept.

Oh, I almost forgot the best part...it is low VOC, meaning, the fumes are minimal. I actually didn't notice any. A bit sad because I love the smell of paint, but good for the kids. They could sleep in their rooms the same night.

Here's some pictures from my family room. The color here is stonington grey. It's beautiful and peaceful.

Last Saturday I found these locks at an antique store. I couldn't pass them up. Aren't they awesome? Now I am going to be hunting for the skeleton keys for the other two.

And now for my favorite find. I have been saving my money for a while now to buy a side board to use in our family room as an entertainment center. I found this one on Thursday and with a little pep talk from Anitra, I bought it! I love it! Thanks Anitra for reminding me that I would be sad if I didn't have this in my home.

I Love it!!!!!

OOOHHH, I just love it!!

Jenny, I bought these candle sticks with the gift card you gave me. Thanks so much. I love them so, and I think of you every time I see them. By the way, come back to Virginia and visit me! Tehya misses Sadie to death!

Oh, and this little bird is at Joannes right now for under a dollar. Check out their clearance section. They always have fun things that you can paint and be creative with.

My other favorite color is Rockport Gray. It is a perfect warm grey with a slight brown undertone. We painted the entry way and hall ways, and both of the girls room this color. I'll put pictures of their rooms next.

This room's color is called Amherst gray. It is so pretty, and we just bought the wood to put wainscoting up so I will have to show you what it looks like when it is finally done.

Today we rented scaffolding so we could paint and put crown molding up in the entry way.

Today Chad and I have ignored the kids a little.

To try to make it up to them, we asked the kids if they wanted to go to Cold Stone to get some ice cream.

This is how they responded.

"Mine!"

"Yes!"

"I am afraid of the guy who sits in a box and reads magazines!"

"No! Savannah will eat the poisonous grass and die! I don't want her to die."

Chad and I tried and tried to get them to explain more, but we still couldn't make much sense about it.

We didn't go to get ice cream. We went to Target instead.











Grandmas, we took these pictures today...aren't they growing up? We miss all of you.

Since we are talking about Grandmas, Jackson asked about you Grandma Carol. He wanted to know if his Grandma Carol lived by his other Grandmas and when you were coming back. We want all our Grandmas to come soon!

Work those Muscles!

I am sitting at Jacobs feet while he does his sit ups.

"18, 19, 20!" I cheer.

He takes a few deep breaths, then raises his arm and flexes to show off his bicep.


After a few more sit ups, he flexes those biceps again.
So funny!
I love this kid.

We've had a lot of inquiries on how we are doing in this CRAZY storm. We're GREAT! Being snowed in is so much fun. It's been nice to have a break from real life. Last weekend when the first storm hit, our friend Jared stayed with us so he wouldn't be snowed in alone at his home. (Jared's wife was out of town for the weekend.) For two straight days the boys put up molding on the main level. Thanks Jared for slaving away. I'll put pictures up soon (just for you Heather). We got about 34 inches with that storm.

So here we are, a few days later being hit again....and it's just beautiful outside. We implemented our "Summer Schedule" (and tweaked it a bit), but it has helped a lot to keep the kids from fighting and getting stir crazy. Today we've already cleaned rooms, made beds, danced like maniacs, devoured a fruit platter, and now we are heading out to play in the white sea of fluffiness!!!


These are all pictures from the first storm that started on Friday of last week. We'll put pictures up of this new storm once the snow slows enough to take my camera outside.


Chad decided the deck needed to be rescued from the weight of the snow.



Then the sun finally came out.






Jacob got stuck on the fence. They were excited about how easy it was to climb over the fence with 2 ft of packed snow on the ground. Except Jacob.








Tehya came to his rescue. Sweet Tehya.















The play house is almost buried. It might completely disappear today. We'll see!







When we left Utah, the kids were sad to know they wouldn't have snow in Virginia. They must have been wishing pretty hard.