Basement Pics!

As promised, here are some pictures of our FINALLY finished basement project. We still have a long way to go until the whole basement is finished, but adding these 3 bedrooms was a big undertaking and I'm so glad it's finally done!

Here is the bottom of our stairwell. I still do a double take every time I see carpet instead of concrete! When I took this picture, we hadn't finished the 4-way light switch in the hall so there is no lighting. It's brighter now. :)

Pretty much all of these pictures came out really dark/weird lighting. But I don't feel like taking pictures again, sorry! You get the idea. 

Here's Kenz's room:

Other angle:

The walls are a deep pink, it's kind of hard to tell in this picture.

Jarom's room:

Other angle:

Play room:

Play room.

I think I took this the first day we had carpet. Jarom and Kyle had a blast helping me organize (and un-organize) all of the toys in the playroom. As you can see, we still have a big ugly unfinished floor next to our hallway. We're still debating whether we should hang lava lavas or hippie beads to block off that part of the basement. ;)

And this is an awful picture with a dirty camera lens, but it shows the true color of the walls down there better, it's a grayish blue. And Justin was kind enough to hang those funky Ikea curtains for me. I'll have to take more pictures when we're done decorating down there.

Makenzie helping Dad hang the doors after the carpet was put in.

Jarom doing flips over his new big boy bed. He has been in a toddler bed until now! This was the first night so we didn't have his bed frame down there yet. That's pretty much the only difference now, though. :) It's supposed to be a camping themed room but it's a lot of work trying to decorate all these rooms at once!

Makenzie's first night in her new room, too. They were out of their minds excited! Poor Kyle was so sad that night when he realized he wasn't going to be sleeping downstairs with them.

But don't feel too bad for him. Once he laid eyes on his new rocket ship bed upstairs, he felt just as special.

So there it is, 3 new rooms and 3 happy kids!

Items of Interest

A few interesting moments from our week:

Jarom doing what he does ALL DAY long these days.

He got the hang of riding his bike without training wheels a few weeks ago and he's been a bike riding animal ever since. Makenzie and Jarom both learned at the same time in anticipation for their friend Ka'aulani's birthday party. It was a triathlon party, cutest idea ever. I can't find my pictures of Kenz! I'll have to take more. But here goes our cute little Jaresy Pie.

Going off the curb. He's feeling brave. :)

The Food Nanny:

Justin's cousin Rebekah and her family were featured on The Food Nanny this week. It is sooo good, you have to watch it! The Food Nanny is a cute food show on BYUtv and they visited Hawaii, where Rebekah and her family are from, and her family is the whole show. If you feel like watching something uplifting/inspiring, watch it! They are such a cool family. The link is HERE.

Next up is about the sharpest contrast I can imagine to Rebekah's family's display of what really matters in life. But it's definitely interesting! Last night Justin and I visited this 20,000 square foot home in the Salt Lake Parade of homes.

 Seriously, people? Just crazy.

  

Modest entryway.

Sitting room off entry.

Entry to theater room.

 A small portion of the master bath. It was hard to get good pictures because the rooms were all so gigantic. This is maybe a third of the bathroom.

The rest of the rooms were all huge. It was all just... huge.

The neighbors/view.

Next door neighbor, still under construction. I could barely get the whole thing in the picture.

So yeah, that was crazy! These homes are right by the Draper temple, for those of you who live around here.

 And there's a few items of interest from our week!

Next post I will get some basement pictures... it is finished!

Kyle is 2!

It is hard to believe, but baby Kyle had his second birthday party today!

His birthday is actually on Wednesday, but we decided to throw him a little party today.

He is obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba, so we did a little Gabba party for him. Very low key, but he loved it.

I must tell you about the cake.

Lesson learned:

Do not make a cake in front of your Yo-Gabba-Gabba-obsessed 2 year old the day before the party and tell him it is a Gabba cake.

He will not understand what tomorrow means.

And he will be angry.

And he will wake up 3 times in the middle of the night begging for "caaake! Gabba cake!!"

THEN don't decorate the cake in front of him and leave it unattended.

Yeah...

Later at the party... Mmmm...

I did, in fact, push the cake far into the counter and bring him somewhere else after that picture, but when I went to dry my hair, he crawled right up on the counter and got to work.

After a nice long time-out, it was on with the show!

We made some Muno juice and had Muno treat bags for the kids.

They were really easy but pretty cute.

Mmm... Muno juice.

Sidewalk chalk.

Pin the eye on Muno. 

I was surprised how much they loved this! They kept wanting to play over and over again.

Then some water balloon games.

Water balloon toss and then we all went out in the street with towels while Justin tossed the balloons for us to catch. Pretty fun.

Kyle loved popping them.

And then we had a little water balloon fight.

We sang Happy Birthday and cut the cake.

Kyle was busy quietly licking the frosting off the bottom of Muno. He kind of likes sugar, can you tell?

Cute big sis.

And no, that's not our cat in the background. We're not sure who he belongs to, but he hangs out at our house ALL day and he looks just like our old cat, Kobe. We joke around that the people we gave Kobe to drove back and dropped him off. :)

Kyle and his neighbor bud, Isaac.

Finger lickin' good. Only on your birthday do you get to destroy a cake and still get a slice later.

Opening gifts.

And trying out his mini skateboard with his cool new Yo Gabba Gabba skate shoes.

It was a pretty low-key party, I didn't go all out like I usually do, and I'm thinking that's the way to go. I usually get really into the decorations and display because I want it to look all magical, but the kids don't really care about that. They just want games and cake and goody bags. It was fun!

Can't believe Kyle is a 2 year old!

First

We've had some firsts around here lately. 

First of which is Makenzie's first day of first grade. 

She was READY.

I was not.

She is gone ALL day! It's like a full time job and she's only 6!

But she loves it, and I'm getting used to it already.
She is in the Chinese immersion program (half the day is only Chinese, half the day is English).
I was pretty nervous about it, but holy MOLY, that girl LOVES Chinese!
I can't believe how much she is already learning, after just a week!
She counts, has some little song she sings, says please and thank you, says her teacher's name in some way that's hard to say, writes the characters... it's incredible. The Chinese teacher does not speak any English at all to them, so I'm just so amazed that she has any idea what to do.

She also decided to get a new look for a new year and chopped off a LOT of hair.

She has glasses now, too. I'll have to get a picture of her with them on soon.

My sister is teaching at Makenzie's school this year and said she keeps having a hard time recognizing her with her short hair and glasses. I agree, she looks totally different!

Here she is getting ready for her first day.

First school lunch.

She already lost her lunch box at school yesterday. :(

Hopefully it turns up soon.

First walk to the bus stop with Dad.

And her first time riding the bus.

Jarom also had his first swim lessons last month.

I should have signed him up for a harder class. 

They were basically just teaching him to blow bubbles and float, both of which he already knew. It was funny because while he waited for his teacher to teach the other kids, he was swimming around all over the place. Why did we pay for this again?? Justin said no more swim lessons unless they're actually teaching them technique. I agree.

And lastly, a thirty-second for Justin.

Making 32 look pretty dang good if I do say so myself!

Store-bought cake, sad I know, but I did make him an ice cream cake later on.

So there's some of what we were up to in July!

Our days were filled with lots and lots of visits to the water park and pool, picnics, parks, bike riding for the kids (they finally took their training wheels off!), lounging around, fireworks, etc. It was a great month!