59 days

Here's what things looked like around here before September 2nd. Not bad, but outdated.


Since I couldn't get any time off my full-time job as mom to work my second full-time job as general contractor, I really neglected documenting the whole process. Here are a few shots of the many steps that went miraculously fast: demolition, removing walls and building new ones, new windows, plumbing, electrical, insulation, drywall, redo of one wall and bar (thanks Davy & Dad!), paint, fireplace, tile, finish work, cabinet installation, countertops, shutters, and finally carpet, on October 24th.


We're still moving things back upstairs, and need to get furniture and curtains in the living room (I'll post photos later), but everything major is done!



In case you're wondering which food was first prepared from the survey, it was E) none of the above. After spending the day unpacking boxes on Saturday, I made the kids some oatmeal for dinner while Rob went to the store for groceries. We did have a spaghetti dinner on Sunday, and finally made brownies on the 30th, after getting the walls ovens connected. I'm looking forward to getting back to cooking and adding recipes here.

Rob's worst nightmare

As he states so eloquently here, Photo Scrooge's "idea of hell is a visit to Kiddie Kandids (or any other over priced photo studio) with four kids on a Saturday morning." Which is exactly what I did this very Saturday morning. He was at school, and thus spared the torture. I think it was worth it. My favorite shots are lucky candid shots, but it's nice to have a portrait besides the one taken at the school once a year. And I'm much wiser now—instead of taking each kid on their birthday and buying a bunch of poses that I'll never use, I just take them all at once for one close up and a couple of group shots. We were done in record time and stopped at Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone reward afterward.  

Three going on thirteen

I really feel like I'm getting a preview of the teenage years sometimes. At three, Ainsley isn't about to be told what to do. She has picked up on some of her siblings expressions that they wouldn't have even thought of at three, like rolling her eyes at me while saying (very dramatically), "that's sooo boooring!" She loves to "do it herself" and is into everything. If I had a nickel for every time we've said "Ainsley get off of the table/counter/couch/insert other dangerous place for toddlers here" we'd be rich. No wonder she's had more goose eggs than all of my other kids combined. As we often tell her, it's a darn good thing she is so cute. I'm looking forward to another fun year. 

Joey's baptism

This is probably the most significant event that I've neglected writing about over the past few weeks. It's a big, once-in-a-lifetime milestone. And though I would never expect an eight year old to fully understand the doctrines of the gospel, but I do know that Joey wants to follow Jesus, and I'm so happy that he's started down that path. We had a really nice meeting at the stake center. I especially liked the talk about the fruits of the spirit—we've used it many times since then to help the kids try to identify whether or not the spirit is present. Joey and one of his friends in our ward were then baptized and then confirmed. Joey tells me this was his favorite part, because he received the Holy Ghost. 

It was great to have so many family members and friends there to support Joey (even his first grade teacher came)! Because our house was filled with boxes of cabinets, we all gathered afterward at the new downtown Hagermann's and gave the new employees a chance to have a pre-opening with customers who would be back no matter what. The new store is awesome, and the food was great as usual, but the best was not having to clean my house before or after the party! Thanks to Chris and Cara and other Rileys for painting, preparing and pulling it off in time for this.

Quick photo update

As the general contractor of our remodel, I haven't had much time to document the whole process—maybe a few weeks from now, when everything is done and I've cooked a few fabulous meals so that photo scrooge feels like this was all worth it, I'll have time to do a recap. In the meantime, we now have hardwood floors:
and a front door:
a pantry, which I'm very excited about:
shelves in the new den, which photo scrooge is very excited about:
plus doors for said den, so he can shut the rest of us out: 
Tomorrow we'll have a railing and the cabinets will be delivered!

We should be cooking within two weeks, which leads to the all important question in debate around here: what to make first? Cast your vote in the sidebar poll, or leave a comment.