Basement is FINISHED!!!!

For the past 7 months Jeff and I have been working hard to finish our basement. On January 16th we finally finished our basement. We took our time and worked on the basement here and there on a weekend or two. Then in October we got serious about finishing the basement because our kids were starting to keep each other up at night. So we started working on the basement constantly on the weekend from that point on.

We mostly did all of the work ourselves. We hired out the plumbing because it would have taken forever for us to chisel into the concrete to move the drain for a shower, the toilet and as some of you might remember to add in one for our washer that we moved into my craft room. The drywall and mudding was also hired out because Jeff had tried to do some in his room before and he didn't like how it turned out. We also hired out the carpet laying. We ended up finding a really good deal on carpet and the labor at Factory Flooring Direct that is located here in Tooele County.

The drywall was completed on the Monday before Christmas and from then on all of the spare time that I had was spent on painting the basement. I had some fun painting, but by the end of the 3 weeks I never wanted to see a paint brush again.

We are all really happy with the results of our basement. I love the colors that were chosen by the kids and Jeff and I. My two favorite parts are the cabinets in the bathroom, that were made by our wonderful neighbor Tim whose family has a cabinetry business called Canyon Craft Cabinets, and the carpet. The carpet is really soft and comfortable. We now spend a lot of time in our basement because the whole family loves being down there.

This whole experience has been good. Now I want to finish my craft room and we have a lot of ideas on renovating our upstairs.

Here is the scrapbook page I made for the reveal:

CHRISTMAS VACATION!!!

What can I say about Christmas this year.....CRAZY, Yes that is a good word to describe it. The week before the kids got out for school the drywall got finished in our basement so much of our Christmas vacation was spent working on the basement. Wasn't much fun for the kids, or us for that matter, but it is getting closer to being finished. (I'll post later on the basement)

The Friday before Christmas we packed and went up to Logan to spend Christmas with my family. The Christmas Eve party that my Aunt Susan throws every year was great, but with all of the games that we were playing we lost track of the time and hurried home at 10 to put the kids to bed. From that point on it seemed that Christmas was always rushed and chaotic. My family has a tradition of taking a picture of everyone before we enter the front room, where the Christmas tree is. Lets just say that it didn't turn out very well.

After the picture we all filed into the small front room and started to look at what was in the stockings and then open the presents. No one was quite sure what everyone wanted to do so it seemed that it was mass confusion and no one could really see what everyone else got. We finally go through all of the presents and then we preceded to open the toys that the kids got. It was then time for the kids to play for a little bit before breakfast was ready and before it was time to get ready for church. My sister Amanda and her husband Scott made pancakes and crepes and they were delicious.

It was then time for everyone to get ready to go to church and it become hectic again. It seemed that Jeff and I were not happy with each other, but we got everyone ready and we made it to church just a couple of minutes after it started. The speakers at church were wonderful and Jeff and I both got uplifted and when we got back we were a little more happy. The day was spent eating good food and playing with all of the toys that the kids got. I think one of the favorites was the Beyblades. Dallin and Isaac loved to pull the cord and watch to see which top would win.

On Monday, Jeff's parents, brother, and his brother's in laws went to Harware Ranch to ride a wagon and see the elk that gathers there every year. It was fun to see all of the elk out there not really paying any attention to the 20 people being pulled by a open 2 horse wagon. The kids had fun looking at the elk. There was not as many elk there as there should be because of all of the warm weather we have been having. Kaden was a little cranky because we had to wait for a long time to get on the wagon and he didn't really get an afternoon nap. But he did notice the elk and liked them for a time.

Dallin and Isaac had fun while we were waiting by playing on the snow covered hill that was next to the line. It was a little cold, but we all had a good time talking and looking at the elk. While we were waiting for everyone to come to Hardware Ranch we were in the visitors center, Kaden was walking around and he started to finally blow kisses.

After the ride with the elk we all went back to the Luthy's(Jeff's brother's in laws) home in North Logan and had a wonderful dinner and talked and some people played Foosball. We had a lot of fun and didn't want to leave but we had a 2 hour drive home and didn't want to get home at a late hour. The next week we spent getting the basement painted and ready for our New Year's Eve party the following weekend. We did get enough of the basement finished so that we were able to set up the TV and the xbox to play a little. Everyone had a fun time playing games, talking and some people actually went geocaching. 

It was good to get some work done on the basement so that I can put my van back into the garage and to see all of our family and get to play some games with them.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS