Wood Box

Saturday a miracle happened at our house.  Dustin and Rhett helped Bruce with the house a good part of the day.  We cleaned up a big pile of wood scraps and garbage that was in front of the house.  There were lots of board scraps that we wanted to save to use for firewood.  I put the boys in charge of using some of the scraps to build a little wood box for it and cut the pieces of wood the right length so they would fit in our stove. 

 

 The next part is the miracle.  These boys worked and played all day long right next to each other and didn't have 1 fight at all.  They learned it was good to just work hard and help out and most important to just get along.  It was a happy day in this mama's life!

Happy 15th

The day after our wreck was Bridget's 15th birthday.  We were pretty much in survival mode this day.  We were all bummed and tired and sore.  I had good intentions of doing something fun for her for her birthday but it didn't happen.

We did have lunch at Casa Romos and watched a movie that night for FHE.

 

 Bridget wanted Éclair dessert for her cake.

 These sisters sure love each other.

Bridget is such a great girl and such a great example to me.  She is a joy in our family and is such a peacemaker.  I can't believe this girl is 15 and will be driving in 6 months!

WRECK!

Last weekend we went to Phoenix to Towanda's house for Shaylene's wedding and Mitchell's missionary homecoming.  I was not one bit excited about going and kind of tried talking Bruce into staying home.  We decided it was family stuff and we needed to go.  We hadn't seen Kyi and his family for a long time so we needed to go down and visit.  Saturday we went to Shaylene's wedding.  That evening we went to a little reception. After the reception we heard the awful news of the passing of the kids librarian, Mrs. Porter.  She was involved in a fatal 4-wheeler accident in Mexico and died instantly.  Us and Scott and kids were staying at Towanda's house.  We woke up Sunday and got ready for church.  We left Towanda's house at 8:25 so we could get to Kyi's church on time.  Towanda took her granddaughter Kayla, Kaylee, Tylinn and Megan in her suburban.  We had Bridget, Kim and Kay in with us in the van.  All in the middle seat and Scott and Rhett in the passenger seat and Dustin and Jordan in the back in his little black work car.

We were driving down the road and I thought that Sunday mornings were sure nice to drive down there because there wasn't any traffic hardly at all. 

A fire truck was coming down the road with it's lights on.  It wasn't going very fast.  We were in the fast lane and all the sudden Towanda slammed on her breaks to stop for the fire truck - Bruce slammed on ours and stopped just in time.  I was thankful we didn't hit her because it was pretty close. Next thing we know here comes Scott slammed into the back of us and we hit Towanda in front of us.

Kids were crying - airbags were everywhere.  I knew everybody in our van was OK.  Bruce and I got out and I was SOO thankful to see the boys walk out of Scotts car.  I knew the girls were OK in Towanda's suburban.  Well it was a very long emotional morning trying to get things cleaned up in the road and get kids taken care of.  Bruce and Scott went with the cars to Kyi's house. The rest of us went to Towanda's house to try to settle down.  We were very blessed there were only a few cuts and bruises and bumps and minor whiplash. 

Well our van is totaled.  We haven't heard from the insurance company yet on it for an amount.  It totaled Scotts car too.

Scott got the cars hauled home and are at his shop.  Yesterday (Sunday 1 week after) we went to the shop to take some pictures since we didn't really get any the day of.

Accidents are the pits because from what we have heard you never come out equal for what you had.  We loved loved loved our van.  It was just the perfect car for us and just what we wanted.  We took great care of it and tried not to put miles on it.  It was a 2009 Honda Odyssey.  It had 38,000 miles on it and we loved it. After the accident there weren't tons of rental car places open because of it being Sunday.  They didn't have a van for us to rent to we got a car.  Grandma and Grandpa McLaws took the boys home and the girls went with Bruce and I.  Last Friday I traded the car for a van.  It is nice to have a car big enough for our family.  I remember when we first bought our van I was talking to Tiff M. and told her we loved it and were driving it till it died.  I told her "watch this is probably the vehicle we will end up totaling".  I was joking and she didn't like my comment too much.  Well I was joking but it happened. 

 Kaylee has been SOOO sad about all of this.

We all shed some tears at the loss of our van.  I have thought ever since then why was it so upsetting about our van getting ruined because we were very blessed and no body was hurt. 

I  have come to the conclusion that our van is what took our family places.  We laughed in it, we cried in it and we fought in it.  It took us on family vacations and trips - it was part of our family.

It will be missed.  We may buy it back from the insurance co and have Premier Autobody fix it but that is a huge project and don't know if we will come out ahead in the end. 

Addition

We have been living in this 1000 square foot house for the past 5+ years.  Life has been good.  The biggest challenge has been the 1 toilet.  It sits unused all day but when everybody is home it seems like once 1 person gets on somebody else needs it.

 

 We have been very blessed to get things worked out to start an addition.  We have spent many many late nights on the computer getting plans drawn up - mostly Bruce.  He has done all the drawings and there were lots of nights I climbed in bed to wait for him and fallen asleep long before he gets in bed.  He managed to get them drawn up good enough for the county.

 Reece has been a HUGE help with this.  Bruce has gone to him for lots of advice and wondering what to do with things.  Here he is digging our footers for us.

 Everett and his brother laid all the block.  Tylinn and Kaylee loved these guys working here.  They loved to take snacks and food out to them. The block laying took more time and money then we were hoping.  But he did a great job.

 Bruce spent lots of time in this excavator.  He made lots of  dirt piles with this that he used Reece's skidster to put the dirt  in to fill all this that needed filled.

The boys even got a try at it.  Here's Dustin.

 And Rhett.

 Tylinn was sad she couldn't try out the excavator.  She is too funny!

 So much fun dirt to play in with Kayla.

 Scott and Bruce spent a couple of way late nights out getting ready to pour cement. 

Reeces workers came to help us pour cement.  They did a really good job.

 And the framing begins.

 Kaylee loving the new stairs.

Chicken??

Dustin is a kid that is always trying to have fun - whether it's picking on somebody or making a goof out of himself.  He came up with this clever idea today before church.

 

 Kaylee and Tylinn thought they would join in the fun.  It was actually pretty funny watching them.  Especially when we could push Dustin over and he couldn't get back up without help!

Family Outing - East Verde

 We have been working on our house (post to come later) and just so busy we haven't gotten away to do anything fun with our kids for a while.  I just wanted to go somewhere and play outside for a while and hike around.  Saturday we had a few things we needed to get done in the morning but not lots else after that.  Bruce and I decided a place we used to like to go when we lived in Payson was East Verde so decided to go there.

 

 The water was chilly but didn't stop Tylinn and Kaylee from getting in.  Actually right after I took this picture Kaylee fell in.

 These girls were trying really hard to cross.  They took their shoes, socks, and pants off and just decided they were going to do it.  Since Kaylee has such a nice sister to help her they both finally made it acrossed.

 We had fun taking a few family pictures.  We were enjoying ourselves and a couple of carloads of Mexicans showed up and were everywhere so we got out of there!

 This little tree was growing in the rocks.  These kids took pity on it and made a little dam around it and gave it some extra water.

 Bridget and I went back to check on the van and Bruce and the other kids hiked a bit higher.

 A couple of years ago LeAnne posted about a fun dinner they had and I always wanted to do it but I don't know that there has been a time in the last 2 years that our family has all been to the grocery store.  We didn't want to do it in town because everything is way too expensive! 
Anyway Rhett, Dustin, and Tylinn were in charge of 2 sides for Sunday dinner.  They got French fries and a veggie plate.

 Kaylee and Bridget were doing dessert. They wanted Éclair Dessert.

 And Bruce and I in charge of meat. We decided on Wings. I grabbed a loaf of French bread to go along with it.

So everybody headed out to get their assignment and we see what kind of a meal we end up with.  Well it was our Sunday meal today and it was delicious!!  It was much needed so fun family time.  Hope we can do it again soon!