Mexico!

 We made it to Mexico and back again!  Jake's first time out of the country.  We went to Cancun with Jake's parents and siblings (the blended mix of families that we both enjoy).  It was a great trip.  A little piece of paradise.  Jake was worried about going.  He couldn't comprehend enjoying 7 days on the beach (not sure what the problem was).  Now he talks about when we can go back.

We stayed at a fantastic, all-inclusive resort.  I've never done that before.  It was awesome not worrying about buying food.  The worry was more about not eating too much (which we definitely did - they had amazing guacamole).  We had a great time with family as well.  It was so good to get to know everyone better.

Things we did while we were there:  We went snorkeling, lots.  Neither of us had really done that before.  It was awesome.  Beautiful fish right off of the beach at the resort.  We went deep sea fishing.  Yes, I even went along.  Jake loved it and managed to reel in a barracuda.  I didn't love it so much.  Next time I'll stay on the beach:)  We went to see the ruins at Coba.  It was awesome.  We got to ride super cool bikes all around and climb to the top (140ft) of a cool pyramid thing.  I told Jake I'd like to be buried in a pyramid.  He's a builder, he can make it happen.  We also went sea kayaking and Jake learned how to use a catamaran.  He is quite the seaman.  Who knew since we're rarely at the ocean.  But now that I know he loves it so much maybe I'll be able to get him to take me on more adventures.

Here are lots of pictures…

View from the lobby

The beach we swam at

The only time I'll ever deep sea fish

Jake's barracuda

Riding bikes through the jungle

I can't figure out how to rotate this. Turn your heads.  The pyramid we climbed

The top of the pyramid

Mayan people making tortillas for us

Two Months?!!

I knew it had been a while since I wrote, but I didn't realize it had been two months.  Holy cow.  For some reason I've had writers block.  Even though I've been writing nothing, I can think of nothing interesting to write.  I'm sure its a sign of how busy we've been.  We are up to our eyeballs in house building.  Above our heads would actually be a better term.  We're getting to the end, but we might kill ourselves getting there.  Our poor kids our so sick of us working on the house.  We all need it to be done.  They're deprived of our attention, so if you feel like having them over to play they would love it (hint, hint).  I feel like we're in the last six miles of a marathon.  We've been going a really long time, we're almost to the end, but we're in the hardest part.  I keep telling myself that in a few weeks it will be over and I'll forget how bad it was.  Although, I'll remember just enough that we won't be building a house ever again.

The real reason I'm writing today is that it's Linz's birthday.  She would be 30 today.  For some reason this birthday has been a lot harder than past birthdays.  Maybe because 30 is such a milestone.  And 30 is so young, yet she's already been gone 7 years.  Blah.  We watched the DVD of all of her pictures today and Sage was laughing hard at Linz's antics.  I think they would have been good friends.  So I'm trying to remember the great things about Linz and not be all down in the dumps, because I know that's not what she wants.  As we're building our house I've been missing her help.  She was always willing to jump in and work hard.  And now that I have trees, I'm really missing her tree expertise.  So, in honor of Linz today I: went running, took my kids to the library, got them some Root Beer, worked on tile in our house, went the extra mile and cleaned the barn, and now I'm going to eat yummy food followed by a yummy treat involving ice cream.  Not sure what any of that really has to do with Linz other than that I fit a lot in the day (like she always did) and I thought of her all day so that has to count for something I think.  Love you Linz!!!

Christmas!

I'm actually writing about Christmas things the day after Christmas, not weeks after.  Its a Christmas Miracle!  As usual, I did horrible with pictures.  I am in survival mode this year.  I swear I'll do better next year.  Plus we had to open presents with only the Christmas tree lights to help us see as there is no light in the front room (love this rental…).

Anyway, Christmas is so great with little kids.  I feel like we're in the Magical Years with my kids and the ages they are right now.  No kids in diapers (so amazing), no teenagers (also amazing), but everyone able to mostly take care of themselves.  So I'm trying my hardest to soak up every second.  Christmas Eve was awesome.  We went skiing in the afternoon.  There are few things better in life than having my whole family on the same ski lift chair.  It's the little things…  Then we had a yummy dinner with ham and twice baked potatoes (tradition from long ago).  After dinner we each shared a talent, sang some Christmas songs, read the nativity and talked about it, and shared our testimonies.  It was the best ever.  Then it was time for Christmas jammies (thanks Grandma Tracy), check out Santa on the Santa Tracker, and straight to bed.

Christmas Day was so fun with all of the snow.  We were pretty low key with presents this year.  It turns out when you build a house and have Christmas at the same time you feel like you're hemorrhaging money.  Good times.  Along with a few presents the kids get to help decorate their new rooms.  The gift that keeps on giving.  In the afternoon we headed up to spend time with family.  For sure one of the best parts about Christmas.  It was great seeing people that we hadn't seen for a while.  We even managed to survive not so great roads.

And I can't move on from Christmas without talking about the Christmas Bus.  I think this was the third year of the bus, and my kids continue to love it.  They count down to the Christmas Bus as much as they count down to Christmas.  One of the best traditions ever.  This year will always be remembered for the fight scene straight out of a movie.  My kids are scarred for life.  Always good times on the Christmas Bus!

Construction Mama

When your husband is a general contractor and you build your own house, you get to do a lot of the work yourself.  You should all be jealous because its awesome.  My days are spent 50/50 being a mom and a construction laborer.  It bothers me to do all of the grunt work, but I also realize that this is all I'm qualified to do in construction.  But let me just say that there's a reason construction laborers have few brain cells.  There's no way anyone with any smarts at all would do something like that all day every day.  No way.

What do I get to do?  Well, I've helped dig holes, mix concrete, and pour footings for our deck.  I've learned how to hold a laser level thing so that we can grade the driveway.  I've done some framing (move lumber, roll out floor joists, and Jake even lets me be his cut guy now).  I got to hang windows again (still have nightmares from doing it on our last house).  This time it went better than last.  I attribute this to my huge muscles.  Today I got to spend the whole day throwing out junk and sweeping the house so that we were ready for our inspection.  It was strangely satisfying to see the house cleaned up.

So, as you can tell, I can pretty much build a house on my own now.  Who needs Jake?  Ok, totally untrue.  I would have no idea what to do without him.  But I am proud of my measuring and cutting abilities (Zack had to show me how to use a tape measure).  And it still stresses me out when Jake gets a level out and asks me to tell him which way something needs to go to be level.  They should teach classes on this.

And finally, the following photo is now how I dress most days.  Jake always complains that all he wears is construction clothes.  Well, I now understand.  I realize that this is the most unflattering picture in the world.  I look like I weigh 500 pounds, which I probably do.  But let me see some stick skinny girl survive as a construction mama.  I think not.  So I just tell myself all day that the other subs look at me and think "Holy crap.  Jake sure is lucky to have a wife like that."  I mean how could they not when I look like this.

PS- Today at lunch I asked Jake if I look like a construction worker.  He said yes.  Despite what I've said on here, this kind of freaks me out.

Turkey Day!

I'm finally posting again.  Must mean there was a major holiday or something.  We are in the grind of building a house.  So our lives pretty much consist of keeping our family running, keeping the business running, and working on our house.  All I can think to write about is updates on the progress of our house.  I realize, however, that this is exciting only for our family.  So be grateful that I choose not to bore you with the details.  Let's just say that as of today we're finally done with framing.  Hallelujah!  Once you get through framing things go a lot quicker.  This is a good thing for sure.

Anyhow, Thanksgiving has come and gone.  Craziness.  Especially since I haven't bought any Christmas presents.  Yes, I need to get going on that.  Thanksgiving itself was kind of a crazy day.  We of course had to work on the house in the morning.  And it of course took longer than we thought.  And yes, our kids were home alone all morning on Thanksgiving.  Because that's how we roll these days.  Not to worry though, we made it up to them by taking them to St George.

I'll tell you how the morning went just so you can appreciate the miracle it was that we even made it to Thanksgiving dinner.  We had to dig and pour (with cement) four small footings for our deck.  Even though they were small, those suckers were hard work.  I spent the morning lifting bags of concrete, mixing concrete, and carrying buckets of water.  This is one of those projects that once you start you have to finish.  Finally, at 12:45, I left to get ready for dinner.  And, oh yeah, to pack for St George.  And dinner was happening at 3:00.  This is where you should be impressed….I managed to throw everything in the car for St George and make myself presentable all in an hour.  That's right, it was a Thanksgiving Miracle.  We killed ourselves, but we made it to dinner.  Sigh of relief.

Dinner was amazing and delicious thanks to Kathy.  She outdid herself.  It was great to spend some time with family digesting yummy food.  And then we jumped in the car to drive to St George.  The theme of our Thanksgiving was run, run, run.  But it was worth it to be able to take a mini-vacation to St George.  We haven't had a single weekend off since the summer.  Every weekend is spent working on our house.  For reals.  So we needed this get away and I was determined to make it happen.

St George was so great.  The weather was perfect and we got to stay at Greg and Tracy's new house (which is awesome).  We went rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking, and 4-wheeling.  So much fun (except for the mountain biking - we all got flat tires due to thorns.  Lame)  It was seriously a great trip. So glad we went and were able to spend some time with our family having fun instead of working.  Hooray for St George!

My buddy Sage

Cousins playing on the rocks

Zack is a climbing machine

Cute Sage

At the Candy Cliffs. Super pretty

Happy Halloween!

I finally have something fun to write about!  Hooray!  Halloween has come and gone.  The annual witchy-poo party was a hit as usual.  How can it not be when you play games, make witches brew, and eat lots of candy?

I love that Halloween was on a Friday.  I think it should be like Thanksgiving where its on the last Friday of October.  The kids didn't have school because it was the end of the term, so it was especially great.  I am not a lover of Halloween.  I've never loved dressing up, and I hate spending money on costumes and candy to pass out.  I feel like the candy is always a gamble.  You don't want to buy too much and be left with lots of candy, but you don't want to run out.  I didn't think we'd get tons of trick-or-treaters in our rental, but we got even less than I thought.  I finally started telling kids to take handfuls of candy.  Oh well…

The kids had a great time.  The weather was perfect, we didn't even need jackets.  Zack was a vampire (I even attempted makeup this year), Kate was Anna and Sage was Elsa (like 90% of the girls this year).  Zack got to go around with some friends and thought he was super cool.  Sage literally ran to every door and went out on a second round with me when she got home.  Nothing better than asking people for candy.

Vampire Zack

Anna and Elsa

the main floor of our house

Still Here

Yet again, its been forever since I posted.  We're still crazy busy, but I feel like it's just the same old stuff every day.  I haven't been able to think of a single interesting thing to write about.  For reals.  I'm sure you don't want to keep hearing details of the craziness.  I'm hoping with Halloween coming up there will be something fun to post about.  Until then, here's a picture of the kiddos in beautiful Midway.  Yes, you should come visit.