Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Last weekend we had the chance to go through the new LDS temple -- the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I had taken Becca and her friends earlier in the week, and Becca loved it so much she claims that's now where she'll get married (poor Provo Temple ... :). In any case, here we are in front of it:


The windows of this beautiful building had stars in them -- the windows were frosted, but the stars were plain glass in the midst of the frosted window (if that makes any sense). Anyway, Becca and her friends noticed that the higher windows had more stars. The windows on ground level had none, the second floor had a few, the third floor more, and the fourth floor the most. Cool! The chandeliers also looked like they were made of stars if you stood underneath them and looked up.

My kids are VERY lucky kids this year! This is the third temple they've been able to go inside since we also got to go through the Draper Temple open house, and they all got to come into the Provo Temple when Becca was sealed to us. I hope they remember this year forever!


(I love that Shayla wanted to bring her doll with her ...)

Museum of art

We heard that Walter Wick, who does the I Spy books, had an exhibit over at the BYU Museum of Art, so we headed over. The exhibit was rather small, but the kids enjoyed it anyway. I got this picture before being told not to take any pictures (which wasn't on any signs):

The stuff behind them is in one of Walter Wick's book, in the picture behind them. Apparently that photo took 7 months to layout!

Anyway, then we went to another exhibit -- of an "artist" I don't remember -- who used everyday items to make "art." Okay, what really defines art? Garbage bags melted together and then filled with air:


Garbage bags filled with packing peanuts, then the air sucked out so the bags form odd shapes? Packing peanuts with a blower on them so they fly everywhere? Balloons randomly arranged:


Packets of duck sauce stapled to a board in rows:


PVC pipe twisted together in random arrangements?


Clothes hangers (like from a dry-cleaners) arranged together? The contents of a restaurant floor with some silver paper lids surrounding the mess, which is glued to a board and hung on the wall?

Yes, these were all of this person's creations. Although a couple were cool, the rest just made me go, "How'd this guy get his exhibit into the museum?"

The most annoying part? He didn't title one piece of his art. What's up with that -- can it really be art without a name?

Happy Pioneer Day!

In Utah it's a state holiday for us to celebrate July 24th, the day the Pioneers began their settlement in Utah. In Spanish Fork we celebrate with a parade, which is pretty good-sized. Here is Shayla's face when she saw the first beauty queens, who she thought were princesses:


Good thing each city around decides to decorate a float and put their royalty on so Shayla could see lots of princesses!

The kids also enjoy a lot of candy! Some floats also throw Otter Pops, which the kids have to eat right away since they're already melty. Zachary got two that were stuck together -- poor thing:


It's a pioneer day parade (although in Spanish Fork they call it a city celebration called Fiesta Days), so obviously you will see LDS floats like this one of the missionaries:


And this one of a group dressed in white playing "Families Can be Together Forever":


I love living in a community where they are cheered for that! However, we also had variety this year with a Krishna Temple entry, and an Icelandic association (there is an Icelandic park here commemorating Icelandic settlers).


There are also a few businesses, and I'm still wondering why this hair design place think their float makes me want to go there:


And generally I have a nephew in the parade for winning baseball, but not this year. This year it was my nieces with their dance group. Kimmie is far left, and Madison is in the front with glasses:


Look at Kimmie pose. What a cutie!

Cub Scout Camp

I totally forgot to post pics of Tyler going to scout camp! These pics are for Grandpa Palmer, who would be proud of his grandson being so excited about scouts ... even though he's not quite yet old enough to join. :) It was at camp Jeremiah Johnson up Hobble Creek Canyon, and the boys loved it! I'm so glad Tyler got invited since his birthday is at the end of the summer. I went with him since I'm one of the cub scout leaders. Here he is at the camp:


I'm afraid archery isn't in his future (at least not this year), but he had fun at it anyway:


Every boys' favorite rotation was BB guns. I don't think Tyler anticipated how hard it would be to cock it, but they all shot at pop cans, and a few of them even hit a few:


Here he is panning for gold:


They took these floating docks out onto the lake and tried to play "tag" with the other floating dock. The kids liked it, and the leaders liked taking a break from counting how many kids we had. :)


And he got to design a tee-pee to put together, which is shown here. Love self-portraits, eh?

3-month anniversary

Today is the 3-month anniversary of our house addition's ground-breaking. (Sorry, Hilary, I know it's also your birthday, but who wants me to blog about that? :)

In any case, I thought I'd post outside pics to date, with before and after shots:



They matched the stucco perfectly. Makes me happy. :)




Pretty soon we'll be done, too ...

Sweat Equity

The kids have gotten in on some of the sweat equity, and Shayla's still got paint in her hair to prove it. :) I had no idea tiling would take us so long, but for first-timers, I think it looks pretty good. Here are some pics of tiling and painting along the way ...

And don't let the pictures fool you -- just because there are more pictures of Paul doesn't mean he worked harder. In fact, I've done a majority of the painting. (He thinks he has to go to work sometimes or something!) However, he did paint the scariest place (over the stairs where we had to use a really tall ladder -- thanks Rowburys), so I didn't mind the rest quite as much. :)

Here is Paul cutting cement board on the 4th of July. Good thing the day was meant to be loud and dusty:


Screwing down the cement board on Monday, July 6th:


Tiling is a lot of measuring and cutting. Good thing we borrowed a NICE tile saw from our contractor. (I actually had fun using the thing. :)



Mixing mortar:


The mortar was so heavy to carry that Paul wore out the muscles in his arm. The next morning the muscles wouldn't hold his arm in his socket. Apparently that happened a lot after his accident (when he was 16), but it hasn't happened since. Good thing for Icy Hot. And good thing it smells good, too. :)

In the middle of the tiling:


The boys loved being asked to take out all the spacers:


And my kids were fighting over who got to mop and for how long -- because they all WANTED to do it!


On to painting. Why exactly did I decide to let the kids help me? Oh yeah -- quality time and to get them to stop bugging me about helping ...


Tyler's painting was supposed to be a monster. Maybe I should have left it that way. ;) Zachary wasn't happy I painted the ceilings, because he thought the texturing looked like the tile in the kitchen and that white is just boring. Oh well ...

As soon as I paint the baseboard, doors and trim, I am done painting for a while. HOORAY!!!

BTW, the following 5 new posts have NOTHING to do with construction. If you're like me, you can use the mental break. :)

Random happenings

So, I feel as if our lives are consumed by our construction. I have let the kids watch FAR too much TV, and I am exhausted. However, I realized that we have done some other things this summer, so I thought I'd post a few posts of other things we've been up to. In my mind, the kids will remember what we have pictures of. Therefore, you will NOT find any pictures of them watching TV all day while I paint! :)

So, almost a year after losing his first tooth, Tyler lost tooth #3, his first on the top. He was SO HAPPY! He was going to pull it out July 3rd, until I told him it would be cool to lose on the 4th of July. He woke me up the morning of the fourth talking about what a celebration we'd have to have for the tooth he lost on Independence Day:


I've also been able to spend a bit of time loving on my niece's new baby. She let me do a little photo shoot with him (during which my niece, Kimmie, said, "Denise -- seriously, you're going to blind him!") so I could make these cute announcements:


Becca joined our stake on a trek, on which they walked 30 miles. Can you imagine? I actually was hoping they'd ask me and Paul to be a ma and pa, but when it came time I realized what a blessing it was not to be asked, because we were still tiling our floor. Here she is the day she left:


And the best part is that I've had several friends visit. Bekki visited from Seattle, and I didn't think to get a picture of us together. Melissa visited from California (we were single gals together back in Seattle, not Cali), and I also forgot my camera then. So when Cameron and Tonia came from Florida, I was not about to forget to take a picture:


(They were both wearing shoes, which is why I look so short ... not because I am short.) I haven't seen these dear friends since we graduated college, before any of us were married. So, two weddings and eight kids later, here we are:


I had a blast having them visit, and I hope they can move to Utah county soon. :) Anyway, as we were talking, Cameron said something to the effect that it was cool that we could pick up and have chat 10 years later like we hadn't been apart all this time. Amen! Aren't friends awesome?

I thought it would be fun to post a pic of the three of us together on graduation day (the last time we saw each other), but it turns out I don't have one. Really? I could have sworn I did! I found pics of me and Cameron at Harvard, at a Freedom Festival dinner, at an Etiquette dinner, and at a tailgate party, but I didn't find one picture of me with Tonia!!! I can't believe that. I have one picture of her alone with her big pager on for Newsnet. Oh, pagers. Remember those? So, Cameron, if you were dating Tonia, why didn't you bring her along once in a while? ;)

Anyway, the cutest thing is that their little girl and my little girl have almost exactly the same hair color. Aren't they cute?

4th of July

We had a very busy fourth of July laying tile. However, as long as we have pictures PROVING we had fun for a moment, the kids will remember it as a fun day, right?

Look how cute my girls are. I love how Becca did Shayla's hair to look like little firecrackers:


My kids' favorite "fireworks" are smoke bombs. They love to run through the smoke:


And the boys' favorite part? Dousing fireworks with water guns after they're done exploding. What more could little boys want?

Baseball and T-ball

Tyler and Zachary both got to play baseball this summer, which was a lot of fun. (Wait. Zachary always corrects me that he's in T-ball, not baseball!) Fortunately their games were on the same night, so that made it a little less chaotic.

They both had a lot of fun, and it's hilarious to watch them at this age. Here are some pics from their games. Look at this smile:


Yes, sometimes T-ball gets boring, even if you're playing a base:


I love this pic, because not only can you see his hit, but you can see his grandma, aunt and cousin in the background watching:


Handsome boy:


Tyler is serious when he's running to first:


But not the rest of the time:


I loved seeing him in the catcher gear ... although he didn't like to play catcher too much:


Cute smile!


And baseball/t-ball wasn't just fun for the boys. Shayla made sure to have all kinds of fun herself: