Outdoors

Here is the outside of our home. We decided to get the hardiplank exterior and will paint it soon. We will eventually match up the rest of the home with the new exterior.

Renovation Update

This was our house a few days ago. Insulation is in and sheetrock is up!! It is warm again. You can also see our new front and side door. Here is the opening that goes from the entry to the kitchen. This opens up the area so much!

Football

We have been playing football here these last few weeks. Even I've been out to play a couple times with the family. Jakob is loving it and wanting to play this next year. We shall see!!

P.S. Thanks Steve for the lovely pictures.

Motivation

Lately I've been thinking of motivation and how it works. In my life I feel motivation come in waves. Sometimes it comes just for a few moments during the day and sometimes it comes and stays for quite awhile. I love when it comes, love the feeling I get when I'm so excited to do something and I push and push to get it done. I love the results that are sure to come.

I can feel another wave coming and I'm excited for it. I've wondered why I feel it now and what it is that motivates me. One thing that I've been feeling lately is a slowing down in my life, I have time to think and reflect again. Since June of this year life has been busy! Moving, remodeling our home, starting a new school year, settling into our new ward, many changes with the business, etc. have left me breathless. I have felt like I have worked all day long and I still have come up short. Finally, things are settling down, life is taking on a rhythm, and I can breathe. With this feeling comes motivation. So, why do you feel motivated??

• Motivation comes when life has slowed down after stressful times. (Like what I was describing above.)
• Motivation comes after vacations. Taking a step back, taking a break from our lives, and coming back and starting new motivates me to act. I love coming home after a trip and feeling the excitement of what I will do when I get there. Usually I start making lists of what I want to get done.
• Motivation comes after I've read something inpiring. Books, blogs, magazines, ect. gets me excited about my home, kids, life, etc.
• Motivation comes after setting goals with Steve. Talking with anyone about something gets me excited to do it, but I especially feel motivated when Steve and I talk about our future and what is to come.
• Motivation comes when life is slow enough for us to experience any of these situations. We have to have time to think and ponder. If we are so busy going from one thing to another we don't have time to be motivated.So, what is the point of knowing what motivates me. If I know how it works, I can make it work for me! I've always thought that it just comes, these feelings of motivation, but as I have thought about it I realize that I have power to influence myself. If I want something, I can work to get myself motivated to do it, and with that excitement get it done! So, what am I going to do with the motivation I'm feeling now. I'm not sure!! I just feel excited to move forward with anything and everything that I have ever wanted to do in my life. First I need to focus in on our daily schedule and get ourselves moving forward in an organized system. Life has been so crazy for the last few years, so many changes. I'm hoping we are settling into our home and will be here for a long time. The business is moving along and we are feeling a rhythm with that. Now it is time to set some daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly habits/activities that we stick with and do!! We have tried in the past to incorporate things into our lives and have had trouble with being consistent. Well, I'm done with that. I'm ready to get a daily schedule that we can stick with. I realize flexibility has to be a huge part of that system. Flexibility plus a lot of trial and error, but the results will come. After we get on a schedule I want to move forward with a few other things.

• Getting our home in order. Organized, clean, remodeled, etc.
• Food storage. We need to set up a system where we can rotate our food. Something simple and easy.
• Scrapbooking
• Cooking
• Nutrition
• Projects
• Exercise/Weight Loss
• Work/Education with kids
• Gardening

So, these are just a few things I want to do. With this new wave of motivation I'm hoping to have lots of posts on what is to come.

Our Playroom

We interrupt these posts of our kitchen remodel to bring you our basement. Okay, so there is still a bunch of things I am planning to do, but I thought I would show you what we have done so far. The lighting is horrible, so the photos are far from great, but here they are!!

This wall where the door is was not there before. We built the wall and added the door. Behind the door is a tiny room we are using as a guest room. It is so small I'm not sure how I will get a photo of it.

Well, that is the room. I didn't get a great photo of the toy storage bookcase. This room has a few angles and, like I said, the lighting isn't great for photos. I'm going to try to add the photo later, plus I want to add before shots of the room. If you are interested you can go here to see photos of what it looked like before.

Gutted.......

Here are some more pictures. They completely gutted the kitchen the next day. These are a couple photos of the kitchen with the new walls. Below you can see the new opening that they cut out of the wall. Through the opening you can see the front door.

This view is what is left of our bay window, where the dining table used to be. The window is now cut out for a door.

Here is a view of our kitchen from the family room. We have this lovely plastic up and a refrigerator in the middle of it all. Wednesday and Thursday the electrician was here putting in all our new outlets, cutting holes for our new lights, and wiring and adding some new outdoor oulets. I cannot tell you how excited I am to see this moving along. It is a mess, we are living in chaos, and it is sooooo stressful!! BUT, I can't help being excited through all of it!! I just feel great about all the choices that we have made and can't wait to see the final product.

It has begun....

After waiting for so long, this is what our home looked like after the first day of the remodel. Yesterday they built our new walls, and today they gutted the entire kitchen!! Its so fun to watch it move forward so quickly and so much to do to keep up. Still need to choose the sink, faucet, drawer pulls, trim, french doors, floors, countertops......Oh my, I better get to making some decisions. My camera's batteries died before I was able to upload all the photos, so this is the only one that I have. I will post more soon. So, I thought you might like to see a couple of photos of these two guys.

Karter brought this comb to Steve the other night wanting him to comb his hair.

So relaxed and happy sitting with his dad. This guy is so sweet and happy!! BUT, when he gets upset or wants something, wow, things change a bit. He is either hot or cold in his response, there is no middle ground. Lately we have entered the difficult stage where Karter wants something and he just isn't able to tell us what it is. Lots of crying and tears as we try to figure out what he needs. Frustrating for all of us.

Oh, but look at that face, those eyes, how could I ever be frustrated with him? I just want to snuggle and kiss his baby face, enjoy every moment. Love, love, love this boy.

Do you think this guy looks like his dad?? I need to find a baby picture of Steve, I would love to find one of Grandpa Moon. I think Karter has so much Moon in his looks.