Our life right now

Okay, so if I use internet explorer I can post a blog. I'm not about to attempt to put pictures on this ancient computer, so no pictures will be posted until our new hard drive arrives and is installed (hopefully it will be here in the next couple days.)

Kyle celebrated his 2nd birthday Saturday. We invited Ian and Shannon over to watch the BYU game that night, realizing only on Thursday that Saturday was also Kyle's birthday. So we had a little spontaneous party during half time. Kyle recieved dinosaurs and cars and clothes (also decorated with cars and dinosaurs) and is a happy man. I can't believe he's two. I can't believe I ever lived without him. He is my special boy. Holding him literally makes my heart thrill.

My younger siblings came up to celebrate with Kyle. Dan brought him an awesome car track (He always picks the best toys. He does personify the Toys R Us song "I don't wanna grow up..." He'll always be a kid at heart.) It was fun to hang out with Dan, Suz, and Meg as distance has separated all of us for the last few years.

The house is moving along. We were supposed to have all the flooring and tub and shower surrounds done on the 15-19th, but the cabinets weren't in and there was a wall in the wrong place, so we're doing the laminate downstairs on Wednesday, and trying to gear up for the shower surround. The tub surround was an all day event, so we're a little nervous to get into the shower. It just seems hard. But we're a little more experienced after doing three floors and a tub surround now. Carpet goes in on the 30th, so we're fastly nearing completion. I can hardly stand it. We have dreamed of having our own house for so long, and now to have a house that we have designed every little nook of seems so unbelieveable. That said we'll really miss catching up with Rob and Whitney ever night. It has been so great to see them daily.

Kyle spent the night before his birthday working on putting backerboard down with me and Taylor. Claire went to the BYU Spectacular with Gram and Tie Guy, and we thought Kyle might have fun with us. Although the house is mid-construction, Kyle didn't give us a moments trouble (okay, maybe a moment, like when he put a matchbox car in a drain pipe. Twice.) We brought a big dump truck for him and he just motored around for most of the time. He was helpful to run tools back and forth between Taylor and me, and super helpful to Taylor when he was screwing the board down and Kyle stood there with the next screw ready in-hand, "One more, Daddy? Here go, Daddy." It was so cute.

And that's about it. We are so grateful for all of the babysitters who have watched our kids while we've been working on the house. We've saved thousands of dollars and have some great up-grades to our home. We've enjoyed working together, and the results are actually astoundingly beautiful for our inexperience. As soon as it's all cleaned up we'll post pictures. Taylor's parents have taken the brunt of the childcare as my mom was sick and now on vacation (we wish we were too). We're so glad to have our family around.

New Hobby

On Sunday my brother Jake introduced me to helping to index the US Census. Since it's hard for mothers to leave the home to do service (for people other than our immediate family), this is the perfect answer for me. I love to feel like I'm of service to others, and I can do this in my spare time. You just look at scanned forms and transfer the data into easy to use forms. The data will be used for people doing their family history, and make it more accessible for temple work to be done eventually. It's easy to stop and start when a kid wakes up or needs you or whatever. Check it out and see if it works for you:
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/indexing/frameset_indexing.asp

I've done over 300 names already. I have a goal of doing 100 a day. I like knowing that I'm helping in some small way to further the work.


In other news our house is coming along well. We'll take more pictures tomorrow in our walk-through. After the walk-through they start the drywall. We are a little panicked because we are laying all of the tile and flooring on the bottom floor and we just found out that we have to do it between the 15th and 19th of this month. A lot sooner than we imagined. We're not really ready, but I guess we have to be. If you or anyone you know wants to volunteer to help lay tile or laminate, just let us know! (Please)