Happy September, Everyone!

During our Labor Day shopping adventure, I also hit up Carter's which was having a HUGE sale. It was 30% off all clearance items, and 50% off everything else in the store! So fun!! Emma got all this for a little over $40. :)

Ok, remember the beautiful trampoline we JUST bought during the same shopping trip?? Marley, who is part Beagle and part goat, decided it was great to snack on. He ate several pieces of the mat and some of the foam around the poles (hence the hot pink duct tape). These pictures don't quite capture how incredibly ghetto it looks...we just can't have nice things!!

We called on our ward family to come and help build him a temporary enclosure. They came right to our aid, hog wire and all. Now we have a super ghetto dog run to match our super ghetto trampoline. Sigh. Oh well...at least he can't eat the rest of the darn thing!!

So WHY do we have a dog, you ask? Believe me, I have asked myself this question numerous times over the last six months. And the answer is complicated. Marley is seriously cute and funny (see video below), but the main reason is my children love him! Even Savanna who likes to complain about the hair and licking and poop really does love the dog. And our little Emma is fascinated by him. One of her very first words was "doddy" which is baby for "doggie." She has recently started going over to Marley's couch and laying down with him. He is so calm and great with her that it kind of negates the neurosis and eating disorder issues.

On a happier note, here is an update on our Emma Leigh. She is into everything! She loves to play in the kitchen these days. We have designated the Tupperware cupboard for her entertainment. But Savanna left the dishwasher open and she found a new kitchen adventure. :)

Emma is talking, talking, talking! She loves to greet people with a big "Hi" (which I have yet to capture on video, but I WILL!), or sometimes if you say "Hi" she will just put her hand to her ear like she is talking on the phone. What can I say? She's a modern woman. :) Her most often used phrase is "All done." She has been saying this for awhile but now if you are doing anything and she wants/needs your attention, she will crawl over to you, pat your knee, and say "All done" to indicate that you should stop immediately and play with her. It usually works out pretty well for her. She will also cry in her crib when she doesn't want to nap and I hear this little, sad voice saying, "All done, Mama. All done." Oh, the manipulation starts early!

Her other front tooth finally broke through and she is SO much happier! Thank goodness- it was rough on everyone!!

Once again, Emma will not perform!

Our silly dog!

Emma Feeding herself.

My Grandma taught Savanna this game when she was a baby where she would ask, "How big is the baby?" and then we taught her to raise her arms and say, "So Big!" Emma likes this game a lot. Some times she will just randomly put her arms above her head and then clap for herself even if no one asks her the question.

One last random incident in the Wyett family: We were driving home one day and I hear Bradley yell. James and I look back and his seat had completely fallen back into our trunk! It was too funny to not take a picture. We will be laughing about that one for awhile!!

Sept 1 - 14, 2011

Home Improvements

We are still busy unpacking and organizing our house- we'll be at this for awhile, I think. But thanks to some wonderful family members, we got a TON of the repairs done this week! James' sister Wendy and her husband Tom came up for a visit with their little 16 month-old daughter. Tom is a general contractor and man, he really knows his stuff! James and Tom worked for probably 15 hours on this house. The boys followed them around for a good portion of it. Uncle Tom has some awesome tools like the "torcher" and really big saws!

Here's a quick run down of what these men did: fixed our second shower, finished our toilet, hung my new kitchen light fixture, built a new floor under my kitchen cabinet, installed a new toe kick (the base of our cabinets that run along the kitchen floor), fixed a couple holes in the wall, and installed a new fluorescent light in the garage. Everything looks great!

Before: No floor and that big black spot in the back left was a gaping hole.

New floor, no hole!

Missing toe kick.

Voila!

They spent about 5 hours just on this shower! They had to replace a bunch of the pipes and valves through a hole they cut in the wall. Then they made an access door to cover the hole.

Savanna is very excited to have a shower now downstairs!

This house was built very cheaply we've been finding out. From the plumbing to the fixtures, they just did not install quality anything. There are a bunch of exterior light fixtures in my home. This is one that was over my sink.

And here is the new one. One down, several more to go!

We also finished the boys' "Harry Potter Closet" this week. We have a long closet that runs under the stairs. We've made it a reading room complete with couches, lights, and bookshelves!

Yes, that is Light Saber night light!

I also finished my laundry room. It's the little things that are exciting sometimes! But with four kids, I have a LOT of laundry. Nice to have a space like this!

We hung the rest of our curtains in the front room too!

We are eventually going to put this little love seat in the office. But until we get something bigger, at least we aren't sitting in our lawn chairs anymore! It's coming together. :)

Here is our new garage light- we are hoping to add another one too down the road.

James has been working on the garage a lot this week also. He has set up his workout, "man" space complete with TV, DVD player, weights, and a fridge. Nice!

This is our little niece Aubrey. She loved to sit on Brad's air hockey table. We realized several things during Aubrey's visit: 1. Our porcelain tile is NOT going to work out with a toddler and 2. We need to seriously baby proof!

I love how she is reading her book upside down! :)

Thank you Iacona family! We love you, and really appreciate your hard work and support! (Thanks to my other family and friends who gave us Home Depot gift cards to fund all of these projects- we love you all)!!

January 19- 21, 2011

Home Sweet Home...Almost!

Well, it has been one big blur since we received our keys on December 30th. We had a LOT of work to do to get this place ready for us to move in. From the 30th until January 7th when we actually moved, we were working non-stop. James had to work 12 hour shifts at the jail the 1st through the 4th, so with the help us some amazing and competent women, we completely painted the house including the walls, baseboards, AND ceilings (apparently our priming job was not as good as first thought!) in three days! We then had more cleaning to do, several more repairs which members of our ward also helped with, locks to change, utilities to hook-up, shopping to do, and then we decided we should probably pack and clean the apartment! Man, it was busy! But, it looks REALLY good AND we are so happy!

Our office/school room

Note to self: When painting, use drop cloths! Savanna and I spent the better part of 2 days cleaning paint and primer off our porcelain tiles! Razor blades worked really good!

James was super impressed with our painting when he came home from work!

No worries- we saved some painting for him. He was the only one tall enough to finish the stairwell!

The end result!

Our kids were troopers! They spent a good portion of the week in their new room playing and watching dvds. Ben was still a little under the weather and there were two nights where they both passed out on their little Batman couches before they even ate dinner!

Emma was pretty tired too with all the chaos around her. Savanna babysat her a lot while I was painting and moving stuff. I left for a few minutes and came back and found her like this on our empty bedroom floor! Oh, moving is tough on everyone!

Just a quick shout out to all my wonderful friends for making this move so successful. We actually had people calling US to ask how they could help, show up unannounced to fix something, had over a dozen people show up for the actual move (not to mention the several families that helped us pack beforehand), and then several families brought us meals, painted, cleaned our apartment, and helped with the boys!! I love you all, and it couldn't have been done without you!!

Cora, Nathan, Diana, Juliann, Crystal, Elder Stone, Elder Hodge, Ariel, Brad, Bibi, Jen, Quin, Cole, Diane, Mike, Neville, Daryl, Harrison, Richard, George, Jake, Jacob, Karaleigh, Cheryl, John, Kelsey, James, Anna, Val, Carolyn, Wayne, Jennifer, Robert, Lisa and Bishop Merrill...THANK YOU!!!

January 3 - 8, 2011

We finally got the keys to our first home at 5pm on December 30, 2010! We are elated!! And, we have a lot of work to do!! James had only one day before he had to go back to work, so we got busy right away. That first night the boys and Savanna and I cleaned most of the house while James got to work on de-winterizing the pipes. That is when we discovered a bunch of our leaks! We also had a friend come over and help us install our new stove. It looks awesome!

We got up early on the 31st and went back to the house. Some wonderful friends and the missionaries helped us prime the entire place, do a bunch of repairs, and we made a battle plan for the next week before we have to move out of our apartment!

The boys really wanted to help paint. I wasn't too sure, but our friends who were helping us assured us that if we let them paint they would get bored after a little while and then leave us alone. They were right! I think the boys lasted about 20 minutes and then went off and watched movies and played cards for the next 4 hours!

Savanna spackling.

Nathan teaching them how to roll out the paint.

You can see to the right our first bedroom is baby pink. I thought we would tackle that later, but James looked at me in horror and said, "We ain't leaving that pink!" So, we primed that room too!

Here is the primed pink room- looks better already!

My poor Ben had the flu through all of this. It really started to hit him later in the afternoon and he just rested and watched his DVDs. He was a really great sport though.

The primer covered pretty well! We had it tinted to the paint color I chose- Tuscan Beige for the walls with Polar Bear White for the baseboards. :)

The place looks twice as big already! Overall, I think it went well. The priming was a little hurried and sloppy. We are going to start the actual painting tomorrow. I'm hoping it will turn out nicely.

I didn't even realize it was New Year's Eve until about 8pm that night. No, we did not make it until midnight. I think my head hit the pillow at 10pm and I was asleep by 10:01!

Happy New Year, Everyone! It sure is happy here!!

December 31, 2010