Snow Machining!

This morning Jared, Randy and Brian went for the first snowmachine rides of this season.  They got up at 4:30 and were in Island Park by 7:00.  They rode around for about 3 hours, then drove home.  They said it was great fun, and that all the machines worked really well.  There was about 10 inches of snow, which isn't really enough, but it was pretty good for November 24th.

Brian and Jared parked on the trail.

Brian riding the newest one.

Randy and Brian...Randy is pretty hooked, he loved it!

But this is what happens when you get up so early and spend time in the fresh cold air.

Baby Shower

Today we had a baby shower for Celia.  We had it at Grandma Purcell's house (oh wow, in a month that will be my name!)  It was done open house style and it turned out really good.  Thanks to everyone that came!  They got some really nice things and a good start on being ready for Maden to be born.

Here's Celia chatting with her former roommate Tara, her daughter Morgan and Tara's mom.  My mom, Beth Chambers is on Celia's left.

Brian came to be supportive and ended up babysitting this cute little girl.

It Snowed!

We woke up to about 2 - 3 inches of snow this morning!  Jared was in heaven!  He went out and put the blade on the four wheeler and cleared the driveway.

Oh, happy day!

Now, all he needs is for it dump in the mountains.

Upgrade #2

Well, it's hard to believe, but we have already made an upgrade to our snowmachines!  The one we bought at Rexburg Motor sports ended up having some broken parts and they were not very honest about it.  To make a looooong story short, we ended up trading the broken one on a brand new one! 

As you can see, this one is blue and white, so it is different from the others. 

Courtney named it Louie, but I'll bet it just gets called "blue".

Upgrade

Blake decided to upgrade our snowmachines this year (with a little convincing from Jared and Randy).  He decided to sell the two old green ones, so he put an ad on KSL.com and had them sold in two days.  He was able to buy a 2008 Skidoo Summit from Rexburg Motor Sports, and found another 08 on KSL.com.  They are both just like the one we bought last year. So, now we have a 2000, and three 08's.  Now all we need is some SNOW!

Since the 08's all look alike, the kids named them.  They call the 2000 James because we bought it from Dr. James.  The one we bought last year has an electric start, so they call it Lexie, the one we bought at Rexburg has a shorter track, so they named it Shorty, and the other one we bought from a guy that lives in Wellsville, UT, so they call it Willy.

Today, they made sure they would all start and put the brackets for the second seat on Willy.  Now, James, Lexie, Shorty and Willy are all ready and waiting for the snow to fly!

Brush your teeth party?

Friday morning I caught "my kids" having a teeth brushing party.  Randy had worked all night and came here after work to sleep for a while, Courtney had stayed here while Randy was working.  Jared and Courtney were getting ready to drive to BYU-I.  I guess this house has turned into a "Bed and Breakfast", or anyone just stop in any time for some food and fun!

Even Baby got in on the action!

Cat Tricks

Last night, I was working on the computer in my "new office" and our cat "baby" came in to talk to me.  She just circled my legs and talked and talked, I talked back to her and just kept working.  Pretty soon she was quiet and I looked around and saw this....

I just happened to have the camera right there beside me so I took a took a picture of her sitting on my new little desk.  I decided I wanted to take a picture from a different angle and stood up and got this shot...

She watched me and talked to me the whole time I was taking the picture.  As soon as I put the lens cap on the camera, she looked at me and jumped right onto my chair!

She thought she was so sneaky, but I booted her off so I could get back to work!  Silly cat!

First and Last

Last night Jared had his first experience of going through the temple.  It was a very nice evening and things were perfect!  It was a happy/sad experience for me.  Very happy for Jared to be taking this big step, sad because he's the youngest and I won't have that experience again.  Sorry there are no pictures, but it was dark when we came out!  I would have loved a picture of Jared all dressed up in a suit!  Since we have not done his mission shopping, he borrowed a suit from Randy, and he looked pretty grown up and dignified!  Thanks for being such a good kid Jared, I love you!

New Office

For quite a while I have been wanting to change our "office" from the little room it was in to a larger bedroom.  I went to a home tour and saw a room people were using for an office, I loved the look of the walls and the feel of the room and decided that if I ever changed my office that's what I wanted it to look like.  I never really thought it would happen though, I'm pretty good at dreaming things up, but pretty lousy at actually making them happen.  I mentioned it to Celia and told her what I wanted to do.  Somehow she got the ball rolling and on Sept. 5th we got the project started.  First of all, we had to move everything out of the room.  We took it all downstairs to Randy's old room and to the back of the family room. The room had been wallpapered so we had to strip all that off.  Brian and Celia, Randy and Courtney, Jared, Blake and I got that all done in an afternoon.  Oh boy, now we are committed and have to finish the project!

Celia and Randy stripping wallper.

Blake's stuck in a corner stripping wallpaper.

Now that the wallpaper is gone, we have to paint.  I wanted to put what is called beadboard up about 6 feet, and paint down about 2 feet.  That is what the office I had seen was like.  I went to look at beadboard, and decided that it was too expensive and way above our skill level to do ourselves.  I had seen some paintable textured wallpaper that looked like beadboard online, so I figured out how much I needed and ordered some.  Blake couldn't believe I was even thinking about wallpaper again!  The wallpaper came just before we left for Florida. When we got back, we had to dive head first into the room.  First, Blake and I  painted the ceiling white, then Blake, Jared and I painted all the trim white, then Blake and I painted a 2 foot area just below the ceiling green/tourquoise.  Now it is time to get started on the wallpaper. Brian and Blake had a couple of days off together so Brian came to help wallpaper.

Brian brought Ralphie to help too.

The wallpaper really was not that hard to do, and really looked nice!  I was loving it!  Later that night Blake and I painted the wallpaper white!  Now I'm really loving it.  We planned to put white trim at the top of the wallpaper and decided to also put some white trim above the green because our paint line was not very straight even though we had taped it.  The trim turned out to be very difficult.  Blake thought he could figure it out, but it was much harder than he thought, but with the help of a couple of experts (Jay and Ryan Miles) he got it figured out and all put up.  Brian and Jared helped too. 

Blake holding up the trim after he figured out how to cut it!

Doesn't it look nice!  I'm thrilled!

Now the room is done!!!  I really like it, it looks very much like the room I'd seen on the home tour!  I couldn't wait to move into it!  Finally yesterday, October 10th, we made the move!

Everything is all moved in!  It looks great!

The pictures don't do justice, but it looks really good!

I am really pleased and love the room!  Thanks Blake for all your hard work!  I know that you hate doing these kinds of projects but you worked really hard on this one!  It's a great birthday present!  Now, I just have to get everything put away and the other room all fixed up.

Mission Call!!!

Our baby boy, Jared received his mission call today!!!!  He is going to serve in the Illinois, Peoria mission. He leaves on January 6th.  I have to say that as his mother I am relieved that he is staying in the United States!  It will be much easier to mail things to him for one thing!  I can't really believe that this is happening, I mean is he really this old? Is he really ready?  He is a very mature, dependable, knowlegable young man, but he is my baby!  I'm really not sure I'm ready for him to be gone, he and I have had a lot of time with just the two of us and I've loved every minute.  Have I taught him everything I should have?  I don't know, but it's a little late to worry about that now!  I'm sure he will be a tremendous hard working, obediant missionary.  I love you Jared and I'm really proud of you!