Why We haven't blogged

So I know that most of you are wondering why we haven't blogged. Well get off the edges of your seats because here comes the answer.

WE FINISHED OUR BASEMENT!!!!

What a burden that has been. Now you would think that we would have taken "before" pictures prior to embarking on this 4 month endeavour but alas we didn't. The following are the pictures of us painting and then the final product.

Just a quick run down. I had a guy in our ward do the framing and HVAC. I did all the electrical and insulation. I had a contractor do the drywall. Then Amy and I finished the doors, the trim, and the painting. We had the carpet installed. All in all we finished 1250 square feet of the 1500 in the basement. We have a partially finished storage room and a small work room but the rest is finished. It looks awesome but, it has been so time consuming. Add this to the time I have spent starting my business and you begin to understand why I haven't been blogging. Anyways, without further ado, the pictures.

I am getting a lot balder with all the stress I have had recently.The kids painted their little playhouse under the stairs.Garrett mostly hung out in his Pack and Play.This is the stairwell. It looked like junk until Gentry came over and helped get it looking good.Media room with wall sconces on a remote dimmer and the recessed lighting on a separate dimmer. Did I mention that I did the electrical?We availed ourselves of a black Friday deal at Sears and got the TV. Not before I sold the old tv to myself to use in my business though. After all was said and done we didn't have to pay much out of pocket for the new tv.Here is one of the small hallways.This a place the kids can destroy and play and I don't have to worry about it. You can see the kids playhouse under the stairs.Last but not least the bedroom. It has been by the far the largest project I have ever done. Actually the business is the biggest. It isn't done yet but, as soon as it is I will post some pictures of it.

Prestons Birthday

For his Birthday Preston wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese. We have never really done a party for preston so we decided that we would do it this year. Here are a few pics from that. We got Preston his Tae Kwon Do sparing gear.
Garrett was just chillin out enjoying a nice slice of pizza.In other news Preston was selected as student of the month in his class. He happens to be the youngest kid in his class but he was the most behaved and attentive kid. If you can't tell we are really proud of him. Congratulations Preston.

Beginning of School

So we have already past midterms but I did want to post a few pics of the kids on their first day.

This is how they spent their last night a freedom. Madison lost a tooth. Preston goofed off. Then here are some pics from Preston's first day of Kindergarten and Madison's first day of second grade. Preston decided to take his scooter for a little ride before school. Yeah he ate it on the grass and stained his new school pants. Oh well boys will be boys.

I forgot to post a Preston Comment

Converstaion with Preston this morning as he was putting his socks on getting ready for school:

Preston: Dad I can't find the match to this sock and my other socks are too big.
Me: So those are the only socks you have that will fit you?
Preston: Well...I have my church socks.
Me: Well just wear those.
Preston: Daaaaad, those are only for church.
Me: Well you're wearing pants today so no one will know.
Preston: Heavenly Father will know.

Kids can say the funniest things

Conversation with Madison

Me: Madison you are really pretty. Do any boys at school every tell you that you are pretty?
Madison: Yeah three boys do.
Me: Do they have a crush on you?
Madison: Yeah.
Me: Do you think they are handsome?
Madison: NO WAY!!!!
Me: Oh, why is that?
Madison: They all have really crooked teeth!!! And their teeth are yellow!!!

I couldn't have been more proud.

Now Jackson sings at the dinner table occasionally and the other day he was sing "Who let the dogs out." Don't ask me where he learned it but that is what he was singing. Probably learned it from Amy. J/K

Jackson word for word:

Who let the dogs out...woof, woof, woof.
Who let the dogs out...woof, woof, woof.

Long pause as he looked around the table contemplating whether or not he should sing the new lyrics that had just popped into his head. Apparently he decided that we would all love to hear them so he belted out

Who let the kittys out...meow, meow.

We Are Fam-i-ly

I have to tell you, Madison has grown up so much this year. She's seven years old now and going to second grade! She's such a good helper and has a "mommy" personality. Not only that, but she's a great friend. I tell her pretty much everything and she's always willing to listen. I couldn't ask for a better Maddy Moo than the one that I have.

I claim all these oh-so-cute boys as my own. And if you think they're adorable here, you should really see them when they wrestle or do Tai Kwon Do! Bryce still has to help Garrett kick and punch, but Jackson and Preston know their stuff! All of these boys really love their Daddy so much and admire the work he does, both at the office and at home. They always want to help him or go visit him (Jackson think we need to eat lunch at the office everyday).

Now, Bryce is not a fan of what he calls "cheesy" photos, but I like to be reminded by pictures, like this one that there is still romance in our marriage. Really, ladies, when that man looks at me with his warm brown eyes and they sparkle with love and laughter, I feel every care in the world disappear. There's not a lot of things that I enjoy more than seeing that Bryce still loves me after being married 8 years and having 4 kids. Can't you see it too?

Now this is more of a Bryce pose. Matter of fact and straight to the point. It seems to say, "yes, we're married; yes, I'm happy; and let it be documented that I still have plenty of hair for a guy that's over 30, is a doctor, and has four kids!"

Our kids are our world, really! They take such good care of each other and get along so well. I don't know that I've met a better quad of kids than my own. Not that I'm biased, right? Anyway, these are the kiddos that light up our lives! Madison (7), Preston(5), Jackson (2), and Garrett (8 months).

This picture is not as good as the one on our thumbnail (that's my fault), but I love the personality in it! I'm so glad that we were able to freeze these moments in time because, though they may be with me forever, they won't always be the little Maddy, Preston, Jackson J., and Gar Bear that they are right now. So thanks, Walmart photographer, for taking these pictures! (Yes, I used Walmart and got an excellent deal! It's been years since I've gone there and who knows if we'll do it again, but after meeting the photographer and hearing the deals going on right now, I decided not to pass it up.)

Stone Mountain

So I was called to be the YM president. With that calling comes many hiking adventures, some of which the family can accompany me. About a month ago we had a hiking trip palnned to the top of stone mountain. It is about a mile hike up. It is fairly steep and Amy decided to stay at the bottom with Jackson and Garrett. Maddy and Preston were feeling adventurous and wanted to go up to the top. I didn't think they would make but they did awesome. Notice ATL in the backgraound.In fact, some of the leaders didn't even make it to the top. Here are a few pics. After we got back down to the bottom we stayed around and watched the laser show. It was a pretty good afternoon/evening.

Landscaping

So I know it has been a while since I last posted but, that is definitely not for lack of excitement in our life. We have been super busy this summer and so this is the first in a series of post to catch y'all up on our lives.

When we moved into our new house the landscaping was atrocious. The previous owner didn't do a whole lot to maintain it. That was one of the first projects in the new house. Second only to putting up blinds.
We had a major drainage problem around our flower beds. Anytime it would rain we would have a lake of standing water right up around our foundation. Not a good situation for the stability of the foundation. I had some landscapers look at it and they said I would have to trench my lawn out. I wasn't too keen on that idea but a guy in my ward who was helping me (thanks Gentry and John), convinced me that we should forget the trenching and install a drainage basin and a sump pump. The drainage basin is a fenestrated garbage can and all the downspouts around the house tie into it via buried drainage piping. When it starts raining the basin fills up, triggers the sump pump, and it pumps the water to a safer place.

In order to get all the water in the beds to flow toward the drain we had to haul in a truck load of dirt. 14 TONS!!!! I didn't think it would be a big deal to move around with 3 wheel barrows and 3 dudes. Lets just say next time I am renting a Bobcat.
Anywho, we got it all done and when you add 2 tons of drain stone and 10 cubic yards of mulch, you get a pretty nice result.

Charleston SC and Fort Sumter

So last weekend I was supposed to work on Saturday but, on Thursday I realized I would not have to go in on Saturday. You know what that means...DAYCATION!!!! We knew we wanted to go to the beach but where. All the beaches here are about 4-6 hours away. We thought about Savannah but, Miley Cyrus is shooting a movie down there. Florida was like 6 hours away. Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head were about 5 1/2 hours. Charleston was only 4 and some change so we decided to go there. In addition to being one of the closest Amy conjured up some Rhett Butler, Gone With the Wind, lovey dovey excuse why we needed to go to Charleston. We left on Friday and stayed overnight. The next morning we decided our kids probably wouldn't last the whole day at the beach so we decided to do Fort Sumter in the morning. Now call me dumb but I guess I never realized that Sumter was in the Charleston harbor. You think I'd have known that.

While in Charleston my mom stayed with the kids at the park and Amy and I walked through historic Charleston trying to find some lunch for everyone before we had to get on the ferry out to the fort. We got lost and saw some amazing old southern home that far predated the Civil War. It was incredible. Unfortunately we didn't have our camera so I pulled a few pics from the Internet. These are not the exact homes we saw but very similar. We actually did take the picture of this tree. The branch was amazing. How old to you think that is? This town really reminds me of Savannah. The huge oak trees with the Spanish moss.

After we got back from Sumter we went to the beach for 3 hours or so. It was awesome. We had to get these pics from my mom b/c we didn't have a camera. Jackson just played in the sand the whole time. He stayed away from the water. Every one had a blast.

The other big news of the week was that Madison had her 7th birthday. She is getting so dang big. We got her sparring gear for Tae Kwon Do. We love her.