The Lovejoys

Home Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 03:02:00 +0000

I said when I posted last that I would continue the house tour. I just love before and after shots, they are so rewarding! The dining room...before...

And after...

The kitchen before....(love that yellow!)

and after...

And the lovely bathroom....how about that brown...

Indeed this is the same room, part of the space is credited to the wide angle lens, but most of the space came after we rearranged the layout. Who designed these old houses anyway?

More to come soon....

In Search of Home

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Fri, 25 May 2012 18:27:00 +0000

I've decided to chronicle our house ventures here. I know it's been a while since I've posted something and with our current developements in our home search I decided this would be a good place to document the progress we've seen and also look forward to the things God has for us in the near future. Seven years ago we moved to Salt Lake City. We had one infant son at the time (Jack) and were totally new to everything, parenting, ministry, house buying, Salt Lake, etc. We lived downtown for three months while we searched for the right house to suit our needs. We rented an apartment sight unseen before we arrived, the landlord was the husband of one of my mom's high school friends, so he graciously gave us a month to month agreement. I look back now and see that he was happy just to have someone in habiting the dingy old apartment accross the street from the Dollar Tree. I started the house search right away. We fell into a routine, I look at the houses and weed out all the 'bad' ones, then Mark comes along and approves and we make an offer. I will tell you, some of the houses in our price range at the time were very scary...meth style, ghostly scary...We ended up bumping up our price range a bit. Anyway, after making two offers and both falling through becuase something was wrong with the house, we finally found this lovely little cottage:

Lovely? You say...Yes, it's so far from the other houses we saw you have no idea. Anyway, the following photos are before and after versions of each room. This is the result of 7 years of hard work, thanks to my Dad and Mom who would come for weeks at a time and help us with our bathrooms and kitchen and most recently our raised beds in the backyard. Please, come in....

The Living Room, before:

and after...

more to come....

Fall Craftiness

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:40:00 +0000

Since I have three boys I have a limited number of things I can sew for them. Those of you with boys know what I mean. There's no dressmaking, no cute purses, no dolls etc. etc. etc.....So, I've made it my business to create a tradition that I get to make their Halloween costumes. I have to admit that this has become a little more daunting now that there are three of them to make, but so far it's been ok. I start early and think about it for months (as do they of course). Another thing that helps is that once the project gets going, there's no turning back - no changing your mind, you are what you are. This year I have tried to curb the violent tendencies that come with having three boys by encouraging good old fashioned cowboy games. Instead of the typical fighting, good vs. bad, robot/soldier/monster/droid battles that go on in our neighborhood I've been trying my darndest to get the boys interested in the wild west. And, thanks to PBS and Bonanza, it's been working! That's now their favorite show:) And, thanks to Dad who willingly fabricated some rubber band rifles one afternoon there is no turning back from the Wild West excitement.

So, where to from here? We decided it was cowboys for Halloween this year so I started looking around online for ideas. I found this great website that offered some wonderful tutorials - just what I was looking for! I had an old leather jacket lying around and Dad had some old pants that didn't fit right. I also had some wide elastic in my sewing drawer that I had bought without purpose (I do that a lot). Perfect lineup for some great Halloween costumes. Here's a fashion show!

Jasper - the arms of the leather jacket (size large) from a thrift store worked perfectly for his little legs. Leather is the perfect material for this project since it doesn't fray and so you don't have to finish the edges or hem them at all! There was enough left from the jacket to make monogrammed holsters for them all. Once again, the blue leather I used for the monogram was purchased without purpose - it just inspired me when I was scrounging around the scrap bins at the leather store.

Now that's just too cute I can't stand it!!! I know, I know, he's mine, I'm biased.

Next, Noah. He is sporting his chaps and a nice Wild West tough guy pose. He already got to wear his outfit to school since they had a cowboy day a few weeks ago. His chaps were made from old men's pants. I just cut them to the right height using the bottom hem then I sewed the side seam onto the outside so that I could 'fray' them by clipping the sides. He was so excited and proud!

And finally, Jack who is zealous about his new cap guns.

I have to admit to you that I didn't make their vests..those were found at the thrift store. All that fringe! Love it!

Pickled Peppers

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:00:00 +0000

So fall is here, officially. I have spent a lot of hours this year harvesting and finding ways to preserve things without a ton of work. One of my favorite things has been sun dried tomatoes (ok, they're not really 'sun' dried, more like dehydrator dried:). I dried them for about a day and half and then pack them in olive oil in a jar in the fridge. They've been such a delicious treat to add to eggs in the morning, salads, pizza (on the grill - our latest obsession!) and much more. Unfortunately, the dehydrator was sitting on the counter and got knocked off by someone (who shall remain nameless) and is now broken. Sad! The oven doesn't really do the same job - my oven only goes down to 200 degrees and the dehydrator would stay as low as 95 for me. I did try a batch in the oven but they got a little browned, still tasty and good though.

Another thing we have had in abundance has been peppers. I'm learning that from year to year I'll always be surprised by what my garden yields. Anyway, I planted 3 pepper plants - two 'garden salsa' knock your socks off fire breathing pepper plants, and 1 red (disguised as green) chili pepper plant.

*Note to self: Home Depot doesn't know how to label their plants*

After discovering that our garden salsa variety was NOT going to produce those lovely Anaheim type peppers that you can fill with cheese and munch on, I lost my enthusiasm for them. I did make one batch of my annual canned salsa using tomatoes and peppers from the garden (the first time we've ever done that!! Yay!) but after that the pepper plants sat untouched for most of the summer. once in a while I would go out and pick one for our morning eggs or something like that. Anyway, after putting all that work into my garden I'm not about to let the fall frosts take the fruit of my efforts without a fight, even if it was an unexpected bounty of HOT HOT HOT peppers.

So, I decided the answer was to pickle them! After picking a bushel (ok, not really) of peppers I brought them inside to use this recipe on. An easy Saturday night project - no canning involved, using ingredients I already had on hand. An unsuspecting cook, standing over her stove. Here is where my plan when awry. As I'm standing over the stove slicing away my husband mentions, 'hey, maybe you should wear gloves...?'. 'Na,' I reply. These peppers aren't that hot after all and I don't think just slicing them and throwing them in the jar will effect me. I'm careful, I'll wash my hands before I rub my eyes. And on and on with the excuses...

The peppers were finished, and set in the fridge to brine. Pretty huh?

Not long after finishing this simple project, my hand began to burn. And I mean BURN. I tried to ignore it out of pride but it wouldn't be ignored. It started throbbing, pulsating with heat - like I had scalded it or something. I couldn't wash it off...I sat down and tried knitting but it continued to throb. Later when I went to bed, I just lay there while my hand sat outside the covers to cool. It didn't work. I didn't sleep well...and when I finally woke up I thought it was much better. But, alas, when I went to put my contacts in I discovered my problems were NOT over...with burning pain shooting through my eyeball I had to reach in with the pepper infected finger again to retrieve my contact - ahhhh!!! And then I went on all day with a burning hand. That was yesterday, and even today I feel the effects of it still. Phew that was quite a lesson. The moral to this story is: always wear gloves. The secondary lesson to take away is: your husband is smarter than you, listen to him.

Fall Retreat

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:39:00 +0000

Last weekend was Fall Retreat here in Utah.

It's always so fun to see how many students arrive from around the state to fellowship and grown in theirs walks with God. This year there were about 55 students from a variety of schools. We didn't bring in a special speaker, the staff team did the teaching which made for a fun lineup. Mark did a program on boat building which prompted the students to take a good look at their relationship with God and surrender their future to Him.

They had a variety of 'found' objects that they could use to assemble their boats. You can imagine the creative solutions!

And as they set sail to their boats outside in the reservoir, they gave something significant over to God - symbolically releasing their will to God. Pretty cool huh? A few of the students recalled later how this was a significant moment for them and they made some new commitments to God for their futures.

Overall I'd say it was a pretty great weekend.

Sledding Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 04:52:00 +0000

Today we went sledding....

This guy never smiles!

Jasper ate some snow....

Overall it was a good day.

Valentine's Day Craftiness

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 04:17:00 +0000

This Valentine's day I think I kind of over extended myself. After throwing Noah's birthday party on Sunday, I had to help do a craft at my mops group on Monday and then in the afternoon I went to Jack's kindergarten class and did a craft for the Valentine's day party. I was up late the night before figuring out what to make, I was actually at a loss until about 10pm. I had planned on making some robots and decorating them with candy (from the family fun website) but I really didn't like that one, would much rather do something without candy. The other hurdle was to figure out something that the boys would like, afterall, Valentine's day is kinda girly...all that pink and red. So, finally I landed on these.

When it comes to crafts, girls can be satisfied with something fun to look at, but boys really want to USE it. It needs to do something or it's no good. I was honestly a little surprised at how well these heart shaped glitter glasses went over! It was such a hit, everyone in the class was wearing them. It was so much fun! And his teacher was snapping pictures of them all. They all wore them home and Jack even wore his to the grocery store later on! Anyway, it was really simple.

All you need is:

1 piece of cardstock 3"x6.5"

2 pipe cleaners about 5" long

glitter and glue if you have them, or whatever you want to decorate them with

Just fold the cardstock in half. Then fold each side in half again and starting at the center side cut out 1/2 of a heart. Then cut around the outside of that heart to make the outer shape. Unfold and punch two holes, one in each side where you can then stuff the pipe cleaner through for the earpieces. Decorate them however you want and when you're ready to put them on just form the pipe cleaners around the child's ears. I guess you could make these in any shape too!

The other fun thing I did this Valentine's day was these valentine's cards for the boys to take to school. If you know my kids at all, you know that they are obsessed with Star Wars. I looked all lover the web for Star Wars printable valentines but couldn't find them at all. Finally I realized that valentine's are just a picture with some words anyway so I just imported some cute pictures and wrote on them. This is what I ended up with. If you want them you can just right click and save them!

Happy Birthday Noah!

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 04:01:00 +0000

Happy birthday to Noah! He turned 4 on February 15th. It's hard to believe that he's already 4! He started talking about having his birthday party at Alta this last summer. Almost every week during the winter the boys head up to Alta (one of our ski areas) and go skiing. It's great because they have a great deal - it's free after 3pm...that's my kinda price! Anyway, it's perfect becuase the Sunnyside lift stays open until 4:30, pretty much the perfect amount of time for a 4 and 6 year old to practice their stuff. Mark has been taking the boys since Jack was about 3 - he's braver than me! Needless to say, they are both great little skiers. The only thing we need now is some good ski buddies for them. That's why we agreed with Noah, that would be an ideal place for his birthday party!

Being a mom of all boys, I find ways to get a little crafty here and there. There aren't any ruffles in our household, unless they're on me:) So, when a birthday comes around I like to indulge in some creativity. This year I made some super fun party hats out of scrapbook paper (around here that's about all it gets used for...I'm a horrible scrapbooker!). A space/airplane theme emerged when I found some Paul Frank party stuff on sale at Target (I'm a total sucker for monkeys - strange I know).

One of my favorite things to do for my kid's parties is put together the little favor bags. I LOVE putting little gift packages and sets together. This year I made the gift bags out of some felt I had sitting around. I appliqued little planets on the front and put some ribbon handles on. They were stuffed full of goodies like parachutte army men, gel stickers, die cast cars etc. The best part was NO candy!:)

We ate pizza and french fries....in honor of Noah's skiing techniques! The funny part was it didn't dawn on him until we were headed home, when he said "Hey! We make pizzas and french fries with our skis and that's what we ate at my party!!". That's right buddy!

These guys drew quite a bit of attention as they headed down the mountain with their party helmets! It was a great day overall. All the parents were thrilled, most of the kids had never skied before and no one (seriously - no one) had a meltdown or even a sad face!! Oh, I forgot to mention it was almost in the 60's!! When we got home, our temperature gauge at the house read 65 degrees...unbelieveable. We couldn't have asked for a better day!

Christmas Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:52:00 +0000

If you're like me, the whole Christmas card thing is kind of an ordeal. I always procrastinate on taking our family picture, then take forever looking for the cutest card with the best price and before I know it, it's January and no one has heard from us yet! But not this year. This year I took that bull by the horns and my cards are DONE! Ok, not in the mail or anything but printed at least. And the best part? I spent a whopping $28 for 200 photo cards! Yes, you read that right. Here's what I did....

We took a family outing about a month ago and bribed the kids with ice cream if they behaved and smiled for the camera when I asked them to etc. Sadly, they did NOT earn their ice cream...they were complete turkeys - yes, I'm the kind of mean mom who follows through on things like that. I was very unhappy at the end of the experience and we ended up taking our screaming clan home without their ice cream. Ugh. But, that's not the whole story. Here in SLC we have such beautiful fall colors and I wanted to capture them. I decided taking the clan up to the foothills of the Wasatch front would be ideal. There we found a kind biker who volunteered to snap some pics for us while we posed (did I mention we are CHEAP and don't pay to have our pictures taken? Yes, we use the self-timer and a tripod). Anyway, this is the kind of thing we ended up with:

Ya, turkeys right? And what the heck am I thinking with those two huge white power poles in the background? I thought that the wagon would be a fun prop but it ended up being a death trap for the tiny tot who wouldn't sit down to save his life.

So, we got into the car and headed off in search of a better location. I remembered a little bridge, tucked away in the middle of the city next to Old Navy. It is a little piece of nature inside the city. So, that's where we ended up. Really, I couldn't believe we actually got any 1/2 decent pics out of the day but I did end up with one that was "editable" enough to use (since I'm not about to subject us to that kind of torture again).

Next, I took said image and imported it into Picnik. I have photoshop on my computer but it takes so long to open and use on my 4 year old ancient laptop that I prefer to use something quick and easy like Picnik. If you haven't found it yet it will change your life! I am addicted. It's so easy to boost color and edit photos with fun effects! You'll love it. Here is the photo that we started with:

No one would sit still. But I guess it kind of captures our life right now! So, I then headed on over to picnik.com and made it black and white, boosted the contrast and faded the effect a little so that some of the green showed through and then I added text to make it our Christmas card. They have a ton of fun fonts you can use and it's all FREE! Here's the finished product:

No bad eh? So THEN I got online and sent the sucker to Costco's 1-hour printing service (I've searched around a bit and have found that Costco really does have superior quality compared with the other brick and mortar businesses I've tried). I ordered 200 copies, matte finished with a white border for $.13 each and picked them up 1 hour later! Yahoo! Anyway, I'm supposed to be printing out my envelopes right now but instead I'm blogging about my great deal. Again, I'm a procrastinator. Happy holidays!

Happy Birthday Baby Bug!

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:47:00 +0000

We've celebrated two birthdays this month at our house. November has turned into quite a busy month for us! My birthday is the first week and then we have Jasper's on the 21st then Thanksgiving. I can't believe he's already 1! This year has gone by so quickly. I know everyone always says that, but it's true! And it's also true that the older you get the quicker time flies.

Instead of adding to our already over populated toy collection (and really, what 1 year old cares about new toys anyway?:) I decided to referbish our old grimy carseat since he has officially graduated from his infant seat. We've had this seat since Jack was 1, it still has some life left before it has to head to the dump (carseats expire! Can you believe it? Ugh. What a racket!). So, instead of putting up with that barf encrusted seat cover for the next few years I wanted to give it a nice little facelift. Let's face it, the third boy doesn't get many new luxuries.

This project was not for the faint of heart. It began by disassembling the existing cover with my dandy seam ripper. There's something so satisfying about taking that little knife to a seam and just ripping away! I took off all the existing binding etc. and turned it into four separate pieces. Then I washed the pieces in the washer to get the years of barf build up and snacks off, then dried it by the fire all night. At this point, Mark looked at me sideways, wondering if we would be able to leave the house for the next week.

Next morning I headed out in search of fabric (coupons in hand of course!). I found this fun owl print at the local quilt shop and the minky at Joanns. I washed it all when I got home. Then I just layed my old padding on the fabric and cut around it (I'm a lazy seamstress). I then serged the new fabric to the outside of each of the old pieces. For the center I just cut slits and then zig zagged the edges to make buttonholes for the straps. Then I sewed the pieces back together and bound the whole thing with FOE (my new favorite sewing essential - Fold Over Elastic:). All I had was yellow so that's what I used....I think it turned out quite nice! In fact, I'm pretty proud of it. It fits like a glove and online you can't find these for less than $75. So there ya go! A referbished, homemade job...not so bad for homemade huh?

On his birthday, the poor baby guy had a horrible fever and cold. He was miserable...so sad. So, we celebrated as a family a day late. The party was complete with elmo hats (that I've actually had since Jack turned 2) and little marionberry hand pies.

I'm obsessed with pie....I love it. And particularly hand pies....they're just perfect, a little heaven in your hand. You can eat them for breakfast or dessert or whatever! Ever since I got my new Cuisenart last year for my birthday I can't help but make a pie crust once a month at least! I just love it...and so does he as it turns out.

Earlier in the day I noticed Jack went missing. I finally heard him yell "Mom! How do you spell happy?" I then discovered him making a birthday card for Jasper, all on his own! What a precious memory for the scrapbook (that is...if I ever get it to it...). This little guy has the best big brothers EVER! Not to mention one fine Daddy. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 20:49:00 +0000

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a wonderful smoked turkey courtesy of our fabulous friends. We also had one of our students over who had no place to go. That's one of the best things about Thanksgiving, spending it with friends, and actually just seeing who ends up showing up! Our little house fills up quickly I have to admit, and we run out of counter space easily. But, that makes it all the more cozy! This year it was super cold out. All last week we've been building up to a super big storm, actually they were calling it a blizzard on the news so when Tuesday night came we were all braced for the storm of the century. Anyone who has lived here for more than just a year should know that whenever there is that much hype...nothing usually happens. Tuesday night 'Snowpocalypse 2010' hit us with very disappointing results. Ok, we do have a few inches of snow to show for it but really, we were looking forward to 4' snow drifts, power outages and the whole nine yards...Bummer! All we have left is some frozen snow and super cold temperatures. Oh well. It makes for great powder - Mark is out skiing today - so that's one bonus I suppose! I think we'll take the kids skiing tomorrow for the first time this season.

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving. A few years ago my parents had a bunch of wild turkeys (like a dozen or so) perched up in their hawthorn tree right outside their front window. How strange is that? They're not small birds and to see a small tree FULL of them was quite a site! Anyway, my dad couldn't pass up the chance to shoot one. So, a little while later I ended up with a bag full of fabulous turkey feathers! I had no idea what to do with them....still don't really. But, I had to hang onto them because they're just spectacular! Finally this year they've finally made their way out of the craft room. Jack made an indian headress out of some and took it to school. Everyone else had to wear their headresses they made at school with one colored feather on a little paper strip, but he got to wear his very own, genuine turkey feather headress - and boy was he proud of it! He's been painting his face with washable markers and he finally pinned down Noah and painted his face too. He has made headresses for each member of the family. And the most fun of all was taking a few feathers to his teacher at school! He got to stand up in front of the class and show off the cool feathers and then present his teacher with her own collection to keep. He's one proud boy:)

Well, on the homefront the feathers graced our Thanksgiving table as a centerpiece this year - a turkey feather bouquet actually. I thought it made a unique and fun, whimsical table for us to eat at. Each place setting was also marked by it's own smaller feather. I think next year I'll make a wreath or something out of these. They're just so beautiful!

The Giant Doughnut

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 23:18:00 +0000

It's been quite the week here at the Lovejoy household. Just busyness...our schedule is close to unbarable. I feel like we've been transitioning to our fall routine now for about a month! This week was really the first that gave me a taste of what is in store for the next year and wow! It's really crazy! I feel like this parenting thing just keeps getting busier and busier. At first, when I became a mom and had one little infant I thought it was sooo difficult to manage...lack of sleep, loss of my independance...but if I only knew then what I know now! I would appreciate all those naps. I could really use them NOW.

Last weekend Mark did an outreach with some military guys (our military movement is called Valor for those of you who aren't familiar). He took them out in the desert and played paintball - it's always a huge win. He was exhausted when he left here at 7 a.m. on Saturday, but hopeful. He came home with a great report (4 guys who had never heard the gospel got to hear it for the first time) and felt really encouraged! That's always great. The Valor movement has been slowing picking up speed over the past few years as we've seen some really key leaders surface.

The next day, Mark took Jack and two other guys (one student and one graduate - Jake) up to the mountains to get firewood. He's got this deal with Jack who wants to buy a lego x-wing fighter. He has to go on a certain number of woodcutting adventures and also stack wood at home to save up and earn enough to buy it. He's VERY motivated. In fact, our neighbor has said that he will hire him as well. They have it all figured out, how much he has to save in order to tithe, and then have enough to pay tax and buy the legos he wants. It's been interesting to talk him through his purchases...he's had some things in hand at Target and then reconsidered when I reminded him what he's saving for...and that Darth Vador umbrella is probably not really what he wants.

Well, this last week I think I realized that I CANNOT do it all. I can't play taxi all day long, make lunch, pack lunch to eat in the car on the way to pick someone up and drop someone off, wake my napping baby twice a day to do all this, have dinner on the table and homemade snacks for Bible study, all with a smile on my face and a clean bathroom. I'm not sure what has to give (well, the clean bathroom is really just a pipe dream anyway)...maybe the Bible study snacks? Thank goodness my kids love peanut butter sandwiches.

Over the past year, God has blessed me out of the blue two times with heaven sent snacks for Bible study. Each week Mark has several college guys come over and they meet in our garage for small group. I used to love making them treats, they're so appreciative and I love to bake. One week Mark even made a lesson out of making bread and had me show them my method, then they got to eat fresh homemade bread as their snack. They still talk about it now, after two years! Well, I will never forget one day last year when I was feeling particularly UNmotivated to make them a treat...I was standing in the kitchen pondering what I had in the cupboards to throw together-quickly-becuase they were going to be here in about an hour. Then the doorbell rang, I remember being kind of annoyed since I didn't have the time to answer the door!! But, as I opened the door, there was our next door neighbor holding a perfectly beautiful chocolate cake (the double layer kind with truffle frosting-yum!) and a smile on his face. He had just taught a cake making class at the gourmet cooking store he worked at (as a chef instructor) and had this leftover...would I like it? Hm...let's see...WOULD I??! To this day, I wonder at how God can use my athiest neighbor to show me He loves me!

Well, I tell you all this just to set up yesterday's scenario. As you can guess..something very similar happened. I was sitting in my dining room writing my grocery list and thinking about what I was going to make for dinner and Bible study snack later that evening as my friend pulled up and ran up to the front door with a lovely coffee cake in hand...for no apparent reason. She said she just felt compelled to buy it for me at the local bakery! It makes me laugh out loud at how God cares for such trivial details in my life (and it reminds me of how important those Bible study snacks really are...), things like cake for heaven's sake. So cool! Oh, and in case you're wondering, the boys thought it was a giant doughnut....the Bible study guys loved it and this is all that's left.

Garden Bounty

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:16:00 +0000

Every year we plant a garden. Even though we leave for several weeks throughout the summer, it has worked for us. We come home to a tangled mass of weeds and some dead plants but after two days of weeding and pruning we are usually able to finish out the summer with a fun variety of plants that suppliment our summer diet. Through the years I've branched out in my selection and tried some new things and I've also planted several things that stick around for multiple years without much tending to. We planted raspberries and an apple tree last year. We have yet to see ANY raspberries and the one apple we had fell off in a wind storm so we ate it as a family - it wasn't quite ripe but it came off OUR tree! Anyway, those things where kind of a flop this year (I know apple trees take a few years so I'm patient, but the raspberries - come on!). But the rest of the garden has been great! We've had tomatoes, zhuccini, corn, strawberries, beets, carrots, radishes, pumpkin (by accident, it came from our compost) and potatoes. The kids and I pulled several goodies out of the ground the other day and made some baby food for Jasper - totally homegrown. Take that Gerber!

We Did It!

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:08:00 +0000

We made it through the first week of school! It was super fun and Jack loves it. His teacher is wonderful, we are so thankful that we chose the right school for us! We are loving the charter school so far. yesterday when Mark was out climbing with a group of students he ran into a teacher who said she had applied to work at this school. She said it was a great place to be! That's reassuring.

Doesn't he look cute in his school clothes?

So now we are just need to nail down our schedule. I am already feeling like a taxi...if I'm not in the car on my way to take someone somewhere, I'm sitting in the car waiting for someone to get done with something so we can go to the next activity. I don't know how parents do it, and then add the extras like soccer or karate to the schedule!? That just seems impossible.

In other news, LarryBoy has resurfaced. This is acutally another milestone that we met this summer (not LarryBoy, but the bike). Noah started riding his two wheeler! I got to be the one who was there for it too. Usually Dad gets to witness these things but on this particular day I was hanging out with a friend outside our hotel in Crested Butte when Noah just decided it was time to start peddling and go for it!

It's funny when people come and ask us how old he is...'isn't he young to be riding a two wheeler?' Yes, he's only 3. Mark is very opinionated when it comes to training wheels, the ones that came with this bike have never been used. I was a skeptic at first but it has worked for two kids so far! Now they're both buzzing around the neighborhood on their bikes.

It's beginning to feel like fall again

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:39:00 +0000

And that means that it's time for school. Oh what a pain this process has been...picking a kindergarten that is. A year ago we decided that it was best for Jack to wait till he was 6 to go to school. Either way, he'll be the youngest or the oldest. That was a hard decision at the time since he has some friends who will now be in first grade but, we felt confident that it was best and would give him a leg up when he's older (I'd rather him be a little more mature in high school when he's making important decisions!). Putting off school also gave me a little more time to explore my (our) options which seemed daunting. And, it has been. Daunting that is.

I started out in the fall of last year, September, looking into my options. Our neighborhood school is located practically in the middle of a super busy street, I see the kids out at recess playing in clouds of exhaust and it makes my stomach turn. So, that was out. Which means we had to apply for 'open enrollment' for anything else. I set out on a quest to find out my options and found a couple of good ones not far from our house. One is a charter school and the other is just a regular public elementary school that I've heard good things about. The charter school had an open house in October where I signed up for the lottery. It seemed SO EARLY at the time! Anyway, then I applied for open enrollement as early as I could down at the district office the first of December. Man you can't waste any time! Then, we waited. For four months. Yes, we can't waste time but they sure to wait a long time to give you answers!

Then in March we got the answers. I was hoping that we would be turned down by one of them and thus the decision would be easy. I guess being there early paid off though and we were accepted to both schools. Argh!!!! Why the frustration you say? Well, this has made my life sooooo difficult for 6 months now! Both are good options with lots of potential....and I have had a heck of a time making up my mind.

A few weeks ago, we thought we had it figured out and had chosen the regular school. The basis for the decision was that we are wanting to invest in our neighborhood while we are here and keep us close to home. It's also on the way to the preschool that Noah goes to so that makes pick up and drop off easy. Yes, we had made up our minds. Then while at VBS at church, I talked with one of my friends who told me if she had the opportunity she would probably try to go to the charter school....hmmm...that got me thinking again. Maybe we had a good opportunity and were just throwing it in the garbage?? Back to the drawing board. Within 2 days my mind had shifted and we were going to the charter school.

Then came the backyard party at my friend's house. She sends her kids to the charter school so I wanted to pick her brain about it. She said she LOVED the kindergarten teacher that they had last year, but the school was pretty normal otherwise. Ugh. If that's the case, I thought, maybe we should opt for convenience and go with the closer 'normal' school. Afterall, a good friend of mine is the president of the PTA there...I know I'll be plugged in socially and that will help Jack to plug in as well right? Yes, that's what we should do. Our minds were made up, we were going to the other school.

Then, about a week later, my friend came over for coffee (the one who goes to the regular school). She told me about some possible changes coming down the pike this year for them (not for sure yet) and it was enough for me to think, yes, this is the confirmation that I needed. God is finally closing a door and telling us that the charter school is right. When Mark got home that day I told him, we had our minds made up, we're going to the charter school.

Later that day, our neighbor came over and was chatting with us while the kids played on the front lawn. He mentioned that the kids on our street are going to school in all different places...and it turned out that there are two boys moving onto the street who are going to the 'regular' school we were thinking of going to....my how handy it would be to carpool...and have neighbor friends who go there as well...no. We had our minds made up.

Then came a letter in the mail from the charter school. It turned out that they had assigned us to the fabulous teacher my friend had recommended...however in the AFTERNOON! Argh!!! We can't possibly do that! Was my initial reaction. This was a clear sign from God. I talked it over with Mark who agreed, we had to change our minds once again and go with the 'regular' school in our neighborhood. The next day I got a phone call from my friend who sends her kids to the charter school. She was so excited that we had been assigned to her favorite teacher and was suprised to hear we had changed our minds. Oh well, she said, Jack would have had a wonderful experience with this particular teacher, but the schedule thing is hard.

Alright. We were getting used to the idea of the regular school and gearing up for the kindergarted assessments this week. All the while, I'm not able to let go of the other option. Selfishly I have been hanging onto both options, knowing that there are other kids out there who would likely jump in as soon as our spot opened up.

Yesterday I took Jasper to the doctor for his 9 month checkup. I decided to ask our wonderful doctor to weigh in on my school choice. He sited this article and said there really is something to be said about a good kindergarten experience. A good teacher is pretty important. Yes, he's right, I thought. I promptly came home and called a good friend for advice. She graciously spent time on the phone with me deliberating over the small details of this decision. Bringing a few new details to light and reminding me of my priorities. I felt much more peace after getting off the phone with her. I then went on a walk and talked with some of my neighbors (we have several young families on our street, 5 boys who are either in kindergarten or 1st grade this year). They had some good things to say as well. After all this I think we have come to a conclusion. There are so many factors that come into play on this decision. One of the ones I've been ignoring all along is the fact that I don't think I'm ready to send him to school! I think I'm having a hard time accepting that we are moving on to the next phase of life, whether I like it or not. This also explains why I got choked up when he lost his first tooth this summer!

I have learned so much about us during this process. I have so much more respect for parents who have their kids in school. I know God has been growing us through this experience and preparing us for the future somehow. Although it was grueling I think by next week we will be glad to be starting school and moving forward. Am I the only one in the world who has been so fickle? Maybe, but it's for the sake of my kids. I want the best for them and can't stand the thought of making a mistake. I am so thankful to be able to trust God with them and know that He is in control. Thank you to all who have provided a listening ear for me these past few months!

I'm a junk junkie...

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:57:00 +0000

Yard sales are in full bloom around here and the little old lady inside me is beside herself with giddiness! I found this little beauty this morning and it's going to be my new knitting basket!! I could hardly believe my luck and for only $1.

I bribe my boys by promising them cheap toys and they gladly come along with me with piggy banks in tow. It's become sort of a fun saturday morning bonding time. I also got some lovely blue jars to add to my set...I can always use more jars right? Oh and Jack found a fabulous trampoline for $5 along with a new bike for the same price. Mark's first words were 'oh great, more garbage to store in my garage' when he spotted the prized trampoline...oh well, you win some you lose some.

Flowers...

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:20:00 +0000

Crested Butte is known as the wildflower capital of Colorado. We were just leaving right before the festival was about to begin...but I was amazed by the beauty while we were there! I've never seen such fantastic natural floral displays. I became addicted to photographing them!! Even the town was decked out...

Jack got his nose a little dirty...and decided to put a tatoo on his forhead....this is my plight when trying to capture the perfect photo of my boys...I have a feeling it will continue for the next 10+ years...

Tree climbing...

Lupine

Poppies

Asian poppies (my new favorite flower!)

Mt. Crested Butte

Ahhh....isnt' that just breathtaking?! How could we not come home totally refreshed.

Crested Butte in July

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:08:00 +0000

As usual, we were in charge of the climbing element on project (ok, what I really mean is Mark was in charge of climbing). I ended up only going out twice with the groups and even then I was only there for a short little while. So, I only got one climb in all summer! This was much different than last year. We did do a 'family climbing day' however, which was really fun with all of our 15 kids!! It was fun to watch them all attacking the rock with their youthful zeal!

Then, we had some visitors...My parents came to stay for 4 days and brought my Grandma. It's been so fun to have them come each year (except when we were in Maine). This year it was a treat to have my spunky 85 year old 'Granny'. She and I took the boys for a hike on the 'Lower Loop' trail one day. Looking back, that was an act of bravery on my part...especially realizing that her glaucoma inhibits her vision in a pretty extreme way. The three boys made for an exciting trek! It was a really fun day though and is a fond memory.

Then my parents caught up to us on their bikes.....

The next big adventure....Jack lost his first tooth!! The day before his 6th birthday...

Birthday #6 was shared with another Jack on project. The other Jack (also known as Johnny) turned 6 on July 2nd so we combined birthdady efforts.

For some reason I volunteered to make the cakes. And of course I waited until 10pm the night before the party to start...becuase it overwhelmed me. I had to make a submarine cake and a Buzz Lightyear cake! Luckily the boys were pleased with my effort..the party was a success!

And this is the crew of kids we had this summer (two are missing from the picture). They made a great party!

As part of his birthday, Mark took Jack for a backpacking trip. They went fishing and ate fish that night and had a blast!!

Then on the 4th we volunteered as a project to help put on the Fourth of July fest downtown. The staff got to be parade marshalls on Elk Ave. for the main event!

The boys spent their parade morning fighting for candy in the street...it definatly pays off to have a mom who's a parade marshall, especially when there are big kids snatching up each peice of candy that touches the ground! It was a dog eat dog situation....

And some of the paraders made it look like some sort of hippy peace march....I'm imagining Adam and Eve here...

After the parade, we got to put on some games in town for the locals. Our family was in charge of the egg toss (who knew that throwing eggs could be so fun?! People were running home to bring more so that we could do it over and over again!). We also helped out with the pie eating contest after the egg toss was done. I don't think I've ever seen a pie eating contest with real pies before! And the most disgusting part was that they did it in teams of 3....imagine sticking your face into a pie that had been slobbered on by two other people...GROSS!

Then of course the fireworks....this was our view off our deck.

As a project fun night, we got to take over the 'Adventure Park' area at the ski hill. They had a bungee jump trampoline thing (whatever it's called??)...it was a hit! We all had some good bungee jumping time.

Noah was a little tentative...

Jack did flips.....and went back for at least two more turns....

I felt sick....and finally was able to do a few back flips after I stopped laughing....

And Mark was the last to go....he did a triple front flip and everyone cheered! I was dealing with two screeming kids and another one who was running away so didn't get a picture of him. He was the grand finale though.

And this is Katie. She has been with us for 4 summers now..and watched our kids since Jack was 1 1/2 when we were in Maine! This was our last summer with her becuase she just graduated from high school and is going to college next year!

And that is our Crested Butte summer in a nutshell! More to come on the student/ministry side of things....

Crested Butte in June

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:05:00 +0000

Ok, so I totally slacked off while on project...no blogging happened at all! But that doesn't mean that we just sat around...now that we're home I've decided to give some updates by the month. These are some of the things that happened in June..

We sat out on our deck and drank tea with our puffy jackets on...after it snowed.

I just liked these pictures since I hardly ever get a picture of myself with my boys these days...I'm usually the one with the camera in hand!

Mark took Noah on his first backpacking trip. They hiked up the ski hill and spent the night. Noah insisted on carrying his own sleeping bag and the stove. They had a blast and came back really excited! He's such a trooper...

The 'Chainless Bike Race' in Crested Butte is a crazy fest! People dress up in wild costumes and deck their bikes out, then take the chain off their bikes and ride down a huge hill (Kebler Pass). It was one of our outreaches in the community and some of the staff men and even a student decided to participate!

Just an example of some of the craziness...I decided I would spare you a photo of the naked man and just go with the super hero speedo guy instead.

Some 'Towney's'...there are probably more bikes in Crested Butte than there are cars. People ride these 'cruisers' around and call them 'Towneys'. Finally a place that appreciates our old schwinn cruisers! I felt right at home.

The Columbines bloomed...

We ate overpriced ice cream in town....

And one of my personal highlights of the summer...mountain biking the Snodgrass trail with my friend Laura. During the 'Fat Tire' bike festival week we got to demo these ridiculous bikes for free!!! So, this is me, mountain biking single track for the first time EVER on a $4,000 bike! It was quite the experience!

The aspens made it breathtaking!!

And this is my favorite shot...do you see the guy in the background taking a photo of me? That's a guy from Mountain Biking magazine taking my picture...in a feild of Lupine on a worldclass mountain biking trail....don't forget the amazing bike I'm riding and that it's my first time...ya..this experience pretty much secured my position as the world's BIGGEST poser!! We laughed all summer long about this!

I'm alive!

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Mon, 31 May 2010 04:50:00 +0000

I'm not dead! I am still alive and kickin'...my poor neglected blog wonders from time to time. Here are some of the highlights from this past month...

We went down to Moab and Mark took his climbing assessment so that he could continue to guide the climbing outings on our summer project. He is an official AMGA top-rope instructor again! We got a day of climbing in as a family before he had to go to class. While he was there I got to hang out with some of our good friends who came down with us for the weekend. We had a BLAST! The boys were covered in dirt and sand from head to toe. I made my first dutch oven dinner and it was amazing! We were contemplating using the dutch oven at home after that meal...I'm sure it wouldn't be the same though. Somehow when you're camping things taste really good...it must be the extra sprinkle of dirt and bugs.

Jasper hung out in his jumparoo most of the time at camp. He loves that thing (it's my $8 yard sale find - yippee for yard sales!). It's amazing to watch a 6 month old flying up and down in one of those. Sometimes I worry that he might launch himself out!

On the way to the beach we found some awesome roadkill....a 5' long snake curled up in the middle of the road. Of course I made a comment about how gross it was and at the same time our friend Jason promply stopped his truck, turned around and retrieved it. It turned out to be the most talked about moment of the trip!

Ok, so next Jasper got started on solid foods (yes, like a smart mom I waited until we were done camping:).

And then he ate some oatmeal too....

And finally, we ended the month with a graduation. Jack is now officially in Kindergarten! Ok, yes, it's cheesy and yes, I did get choked up...but can you blame me? I mean there was a slideshow with baby pictures and everything! And look at those gowns...I mean really, how do you keep a straight face?! They even had a 2010 tassle for the scrapbooks!

And so now, after three days of packing and a 9 hour car ride, we are at our summer project in Crested Butte for the summer!

The Fight

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:49:00 +0000

Jack got in a fight the other day.....

With this.....

The jury's still out on who won...since he got pretty bunged up and actually pinned to the garage floor...I'm thinking victory belongs to the toolbox since it's pretty much unscathed. Just a word of warning in case you have one of these in your own garage, if you pull all the drawers out at once and there are lots of tools inside, it will tip over (it has no regard for human life).

That's the scariest thing we've faced so far...that is besides Noah getting trapped in the garage for a few minutes the day after the whole fight with the toolchest thing happened. He just disappeared and we couldn't find him (you know that heart in your throat feeling of panic!) and I finally heard his little voice calling out from behind the closed garage door. Mark just didn't realize that he was in there and he closed it. Oops! So, go ahead and call us to watch your kids, I promise we're not TOTALLY irresponsible parents...

A special Mother's Day...

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:46:00 +0000

And this is what I'm asking for.....

An organization that we strongly support as a family, Children's Hopechest, is partnering with Adoption Fathers to bring us these beautiful and unique necklaces for Mother's Day this year. Proceeds will go to help stop sex trafficking in Moldova. Here is the info I just got in my inbox from Tom Davis, the director of Children's Hopechest :

I'm on my way home from Russia after various flight cancellations and re-routes due to this volcanic ash cloud. Hopefully by the time you get this I'll be headed toward US soil.

While on this trip, I heard a powerful story that is weighing on my heart to share with you. It is an encouragement and a strong reminder that girls absolutely MUST be protected from sex trafficking. Not optional. Here's the story.

This week, I met with "Masha," a bright young lady who visits our Ministry Center in Kostroma.

She told me about the day some professional women came to her technical school in Kostroma and promised her a new job with lots of money, clothes, and jewelry.

Instead, they trapped her in a rundown apartment, beat her when she asked questions, and forced her to work in a strip club.

Scared and alone, Masha was terrified at what came next. "You'll have sex with 10 men each day," they told her. But before that, some men would come to her apartment to "teach her" what to do.

Masha managed to escape the apartment and ran to the HopeChest Ministry Center for help. Our staff immediately called the authorities, and brought her to a safe place to live.

Fortunately, Masha avoided a life of forced prostitution and stolen dignity, thanks to the intervention of the HopeChest Ministry Center in Kostroma.

My wife and I have seven children-including two daughters from Russia-and the thought of them being raped makes me extremely angry. When I heard Masha's story I wanted to do something to protect her, like I would protect my own children.

Today, you also have a unique opportunity to help protect and defend girls like Masha. Buying a Mother's Day Gift from HopeChest is just one way to join the fight against sex trafficking and forced prostitution and provide a safe haven for orphaned girls in their time of greatest need.

When you buy this necklace for your mother, wife, sister, or daughter, proceeds will go directly to support young women like Masha, and other girls who benefit from programs at the Ministry Centers. Each necklace provides one of the following:

2 weeks of direct assistance for a women in our Young Mothers Program

Nearly 1 month of mentorship, counseling, and discipleship at our Ministry Center

I encourage you to check this out! We have been supporting this ministry for a few years now and have adopted a child in Swaziland through them. For the past two years we have sent teams of people from our church who have actually spent time in our little guy's home and held him on their lap! The came back with funny stories of him and we've been able to send personal photo albums and letters to him hand delivered by our friends here. This is a worth while organization I can assure you!!

April Fool's

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:15:00 +0000

We're so creative most of the time...but when April Fool's comes around I'm at a loss. This year we really wanted to play some jokes on the kids but all we could think of was this...

Green eggs for breakfast........

And this strange concoction of snow and raspberry chipotle sauce for lunch (that was Mark just so you know)....which actually kind of backfired on us when Noah devoured it......

Thank you LMBC!

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:11:00 +0000

Today we recieved a special blessing in the mail. One of the best parts of being a missionary is that we have an incredible team of people who support us, not just as ministry partners but as a family as well. Some of our best supporters are in Alaska. One of our churches up there formed a small group from the congregation who are assigned to us. I guess their job is to encourage us and pray for us...it's really humbling to think about! So today we got a beautiful gift in the mail, it was a stack of cards made by a 3rd grade Sunday school class! They were complete with sweet drawings and scratch and sniff stickers. One of my favorites had a picture of Jasper in his monkey hat! The boys loved reading through these and smelling the stickers. What a precious gift! We loved it and will definatly be writing back soon:)

God of This City

noreply@blogger.com (Alicia) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:10:00 +0000

Today was Good Friday. A time to remember what Easter is all about and think about the sacrifice made on our behalf. I read the story of Jesus' betrayal and crucifixion to my boys tonight before bed. I was amazed at how much Jack understands, he kept interrupting to tell Noah (with much enthusiasm) how important this story is...he would say "Ya Noah, Jesus died for our sins!!". I love to hear him evangelizing to his brother! Usually he's evangelizing about Star Wars (yes, I've labeled him a 'Star Wars Evangelist', that's how intense his love is for the Force). Anyway, it blessed my heart to dye our eggs today and read this story with those two guys. They're just precious.

So much of the time we are complaining about living in the city. I feel trapped most of the time, wishing my kids could grow up in the country like I did. I hate our inversion in the wintertime (especially this year, yuck!) and I hate that our neighbors are just feet away from us at all times. I hate that we have to drive to our sledding hill, and even then it's a city park. BUT, for all the things I love to complain about, this city is pretty amazing when I stop and think about it. We are only 15 minutes from 4 fantastic ski hills and anywhere you go in the city you have an amazing view of the mountains. We lack for nothing when it comes to shopping or amenities and over the years I've really grown to love my neighbors and friends, especially at our wonderful church.

Today while I was driving, the song "God Of This City" by Chris Tomlin came on. Every time I hear that song I am so inspired by our unique position here and I really do believe that God is planning great things for this city. Where there is great adversity to the Truth of the gospel God is at work and the battle is waging. The culture here is so different and many people want nothing to do with this place becuase of it. But as my husband likes to say, these people are just non-believers who like to talk about God. I admire so many things about the LDS organization. Like the other day when my neighborhood held a gathering at the local ward to organize and talk about disaster preparedness. One of the women who was helping to put it on asked me to do the opening prayer and I was assuming hardly anyone would show up. I was shocked however when there were close to 100 people there! We really do live in a community and the reason we know each other enough to organize this way is largely to the credit of our local ward. It was also kind of fun to be able to stand up and pray to my God for our neighborhood in their church!

We've been so discouraged at times when thinking of how to break through to the culture here, it's like they are in chains and just need freedom. They're so steeped in the culture and heritage that it means risking everything if they leave 'the church'. But, I am inspired by how many people I acutally know who have taken that risk and are willing to pay the price for the freedom of the Gospel. One of my MOPS friends recently left a polygamous marriage, listening to her is like watching God paint a picture of redemption right in front of me. Just another day in the life of a missionary in Utah! Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank you for paying the price for me and for this city. I know great things are in store for this place and I thank you for putting us right smack dab in the middle of this culture!