The Piano Project

Well, about three weeks ago I got a crazy hair and decided to strip my piano and refinish it. I was definately crazy!! The piano is at least 55 years old. I found a signature inside it that had the date 12-4-52 so that is why I am guessing how old it is. It was given to us by Ben's mom and dad. It had been painted brown so the paint and the stain needed to be striped off. At first I was doing it by hand. Holy Cow! That took so long so then I borrowed some tools from my parents including a power disk sander. Ben got an attachment for his drill that worked really good too. He wasn't so happy that I dragged him into this project. Once we had striped and sanded the whole thing it we needed to stain it. My whole house was covered in dust. I filled my vacuum full! I am still cleaning up piano dust. The staining was the fun part. The hardest part was doing the legs and the music stand. The legs just took a long time because they had a lot of grooves in them. When I was doing the music stand I had to do most of it with a chisel. I missed and scrapped my hand really good. I have about a 3 inch scrap across the bottom of my thumb to my wrist. All for the beauty of the piano right! Well, I got the piano done, all except replacing the keys. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will get to that as well. Then it is on to making a piano bench to match it. ( We are using a chair right now.)

Well, the rest of the fam is doing good. We started potty training Max this week. It is going pretty well. He is kind of getting the hang of it. We have to use a lot of bribes though. His newest thing is he can make himself burp. The other day he was trying to burp and he couldn't so he said, "oh, lost it" then he finally burped and said, "got it". He is such a boy! He really likes Nemo. We have a book of fish and he looks at it all the time. He can name all kinds of fish. I think we might have to break down and get him a fish. If any of you know me, you know that is a big deal because I still have my fish phobia. We are going to Las Vegas in March and we are planning on going to the aquarium. I think he is really going to like it.

Isaac is still crying a lot. He is only happy when he is being held or sitting in his bumbo chair. He just doesn't like to lay down. He does like the tub. When he is really crabby we stick him in the tub and it calms him down. At least he sleeps good. He goes to bed around 8 and wakes up around 7. I am really lucky that way.

We had the opportunity to go to the Draper Temple open house. It was so beautiful! We had such a great time. The next day my family went to the Salt Lake Temple and went on the session that my grandpa and grandpa were apart of. It was so great to be in the temple with them. It was only my second time in the Salt Lake temple and it is so beautiful. It made me want to find out more about it like what it looked like inside when it was built and what changes they have made throughout the years and stuff. I am sure that there have been amazing things that happened in the temple. I hope that someday I will be able to ask Heavenly Father. I did find some really cool pictures of the inside of the temple that were in James E. Talmage's book that was published in 1912. They were all in black and white, but still very cool. I will have to do more studying. Maybe someday I could be part of the cleaning crew and clean the whole temple so I can see everything! That would be awesome.

Joy in the Journey Now

I attended Women's Conference today and it was just amazing! The theme was Finding Joy in the Journey Now. I had a few eye opening moments today that I thought I would share. I went to a class that was entitled Finding Joy in Parenting. During the class it reminded me of a precious moment I had with Max a few weeks ago. We have the late church schedule so before church Max and I made a tent in the living room out of our kitchen chairs and sheets. We got our pillows and blankets and cuddled up in the tent and watched his favorite, Finding Nemo. I thought of all the other things that I should or could be doing, the dishes, vacuuming, cleaning up the toys, etc. Then it came to me that Heavenly Father has given me a most precious spirit to teach and take care of. I only have one chance to teach him and create memories that he will have for the rest of his live. Then and there I decided that I wanted to give him the best experiences he can have on this earth. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to stay home and give my boys the experiences that will shape their lives forever.

One of the speakers at Women's Conference made a comment that stuck with me. She said that happiness is always inside us. It is an attribute that we all have. There are so many good things in our lives that bring out that joy we have within us. I think Max and Isaac bring the most out in my live. Another speaker talked about how our lives are filled with the noise of the world and it causes us to not feel as happy as we could. She named 10 different "noises" in our life. The on that stood out to me was "stuff" in general. The world wants us to have stuff. Stuff is what will make us happy. It made me think about that happy times in my life and it was always with the people I love most and times when the spirit was so strong.

I had another big leap as a mom today. We went down and visited Tricia in Provo and Max had a sleep over with his uncles and Tricia. It is the first time that he has sleep away from home, except for when I was in the hospital with Isaac. It was a very strange feeling leaving Tricia's house and not taking Max with me. It was a little sad, but I knew that he was in good hands with people who loved him. As I drove home and I was contemplating that happenings of the day I thought how Heavenly Father must feel when he has to send us to this earth. He knows that it is for our good. Some he sends down knowing they are going to people who will love them and then there are some he sends down knowing what a hard life they are going to live. I am sure that he has a hard time sending some of his choice spirits down to this earth knowing the trials that they will face. I felt very grateful knowing that Max was in good hands. I am sure that he will have a great time, again creating those experiences to enrich his little life.

I am so grateful for the little pieces of Heaven I get to enjoy every now and then. I just felt like I should share the little insights that I had today.

A little Gentleman

I was so proud of my little Max today. I was getting home from my mom's house and was following the same routine when coming home by myself. I got Max out of the car and told him to go inside as I went around the car and got Isaac. I then went to go inside and there was Max. He had opened the door and was holding it open for me. What a cute kid! I guess I will keep him. Lately I wasn't so sure. He just really knows how to get on my nerves. He is back in a throwing mood and thinks he has to throw everything at me. He throws something at me and then says "Good catch".

He also has an obsession with iphones. I got really tired of him changing all my settings so I broke down and bought him a leapster. It was the best thing I ever did. He plays with it all the time and rarely asks for my phone. He still takes the laptop, puts it on his lap and say "Max itunes". What two year old know what itunes is? Honestly! Ben is starting to get a little worried about him because he loves wearing my shoes and carrying my purse around. 9 times out of 10 when you ask him what his favorite color is he says pink. He is so funny.

Isaac is growing and growing. He still spits up all the time and now cries about 85% of the time. We are doing better. I am just really glad that he is sleeping through the night. When he is not crying he does have a really cute laugh. When he smiles he crinkles his nose. It is really cute. He loves holding his hands and eating his fingers. We recently tried putting him in his walker and he really liked it.

We had a really good Christmas. Max did not like Santa at all. On Christmas morning I said, "Look at all the presents Santa brought us." Max went straight over to a 3 foot Santa we had by our fireplace, pushed it over and said "No Santa". He REALLY doesn't like Santa.

We have some really good news. We decided that we are not going to sell our house. We just thought we would see what happened, but we weren't really getting a lot of showings. We also didn't really like a lot of the houses out there. I am excited we are staying because I really like our ward and our neighborhood. School is finally over for Ben. He did really well. He now started a new job at the McKay Behavior Health Pediactrics department. He now has three jobs. He didn't like peds at first, but he is starting to get the hang of it. We don't see him very much, but when he is home he loves playing with his boys.

My card business is starting to pick up. I am just selling the cards on eBay. I just got an order for a girl's 16th birthday. Her birthday party will be on MTV's Sweet 16. I've never seen the show, but that is really cool! I am hoping that it will really help my business pick up. Tutoring is also going well. I just finished my new website if you want to check it out. It is http://www.eldertutoringworks.com/. I am totally full right now, which is great! I already have people signing up for summer tutoring as well. I never thought that I would be very adventurous and start my own businesses, but Ben has been really supportive. He has really given me courage to go out and do it. I am really grateful for all he does for our family. He works so much so I can stay home. I know that he would do anything for us. He is such a sweetheart. We couldn't love him more!

Family Pictures

We went to Target and got our family pictures and Isaac's blessing pictures taken. They turned out really cute. It was the first time we got pictures of the boys together. Max usually wouldn't even get close to Isaac. He still wasn't that happy that day so he didn't smile much, but they are still cute.

Our Crazy Life!

Things have been crazy around here the last few weeks. Ben has been studying a lot and is final finished with this semester of school. It is so nice to have a husband again. Now Ben is working a lot so he can go to school in the summer.

Isaac is growing tons! He is starting to smile and laugh. He is even starting to sleep through the night, well, some nights. He spits up A LOT just like Max did so he is on Previcid like Max was. It seems to help a little. He also has thrush on his tongue that we can't seem to get rid of. For a while he would cry and cry all the time, but he is starting to get better. Yesterday we had to take him to the doctor because he had a really bad cough. He got it from Max. We took Max to the doctor on Monday and he has croup and an ear infection. So when Isaac started coughing we got a little worried. The doctor did a chest x-ray and his lungs looked good. He just has an upper respitory infection. He seems to be doing better today. Max is doing better as well. He is on Amoxicillin and loves it. All day he asks for more pink medicine. Isaac still wants to be held all the time. He likes his swing for a while, but is much happier when he is being held.

Max is a crazy two year old! He is starting to talk a lot and sometimes in sentences. Ben still has a hard time understanding him, but I think because I am with him all the time I get most of what he says. He loves playing with the dogs and his cars. I find matchbox cars all over my house. His favorite movies right now are Cars and Finding Nemo. He wants everything Lightning McQueen. His latest thing is he wants to snuggle all the time. All day he says "snuggy mom". He is getting excited for Christmas. He is so funny, if you ask him what he wants for Christmas he says a Christmas tree. We do have one. He had fun decorating it, especially with his Lightning McQueen ornament. Every night he wants to sit by the tree with the fireplace on and have hot chocolate. He loves his nursery class. I think it's partly because Ben is in there with him. Every Sunday he can't wait to go to church. Last Sunday he was sick so he stayed home with Ben. All morning he kept asking me "church please". I had to sneak out because he wanted to come with Isaac and I to church. Max LOVES playing the Wii with my brothers. A few weeks ago we went up to a cabin at Bear Lake with my family and Max loved playing Rayman Rabbits on the Wii. He is so funny he shakes the controllers and sticks his little tongue out. His new favorite books are the Froggy books. I think they are really dumb, but he loves them. We have to read one every night. In the book the mom or dad always say, "FROOOGGGYY" and then Froggy says "WHAAT." When we read the book now I say the Froggy part and Max says "WHAAT". It is really cute. I need to get more books because I am really tired of the two books we have. Ebay is a great place to get them because they are really cheap.

I have been really busy with my tutoring business. I now have 6 kids that I am tutoring after school. I really enjoy it. It is a great way to keep teaching, but still stay home. It works out really well. Ben is home when I tutor so I have someone to watch the boys. If he does have to work my mom and Ben's mom are really good about helping out. It nice because I only work for about an hour a day and have Thursdays off. It's really cool I am starting to have teachers refer their students to me. I have got most of my clients from ksl.com.

We listed our house with a real estate agent about three weeks ago. We had a few people come and look at it, but the last two weeks have been really slow. I'm okay with that though. We are now thinking that we won't move. We wanted to move so we could put a basement apartment in our new house. We are kind of set up in this house to have an apartment, but we didn't have the money to put one in. Then last week I got a call from my lawyer. I am a part of a law suit against Wendy's. About two and a half years ago when I was still pregnant with Max I was at a teacher convension and Wendy's catered. Along with a bunch of other teachers, I got Ecoli. Luckily it wasn't too bad. But finally after over 2 years the lawsuit is being settled and I am going to get a few thousand for it. The plan is to use that money and change the basement into an apartment. It will be really sad because we are going to change the preschool into a kitchen. I know we aren't using that room, but I still don't really want to change it because it is so cute!

Well, that is about all that is going on right now. We are excited for Christmas and wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Halloween and Isaac's Blessing

Things have been so crazy around our house I haven't had a change to breath! We all have been sick. Ben has been the worst. Isaac is now sick and is either crying or sleeping. On top of that we have decided to try and sell our house. If you know anyone that may be interested we have a website for our house (shocking I know). It is:

http://www.laytonrambler.blogspot.com/

Halloween was really fun. Max LOVED it. He dressed up like a monkey and Isaac was a bear. One of the first houses we went to someone pointed out that he had a banana in his pocket so every house after that he had to tell everyone that he had a banana. We just went trick or treating around our little circle and then went to Ben's mom's and my mom's house. Max was pretty tired after that and we had BOTH boys in bed by 8:30. It was really nice.

Isaac's blessing was really nice. We had a lot of family and friends come and support us. My mom made his tux. It is so cute. Really soon we need to get his pictures taken in it, but with him being sick I know he would just be crying. Max got a new suit for the blessing. He looked so cute. I tried to get a picture of them together, but Max does not like to get his picture taken.

Ben is almost done with this semester. He has Calculus and Chemistry. He studies all the time. My little card business is starting to go well. I have also started designing websites. I am doing a site for a dive shop and in return Ben and I are going to get scuba certified. I am excited, but a little scared since I am scared of fish. I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy Birthday Max!

Today was Max's birthday. I can't believe he is already two and at the same time it seems like he should be older than that. Probably because he is just so big! We took him and Isaac to the doctor on Monday and Max was in the 140 percentile for his height! He wears 3T and 4T clothes! The doctor was also very impressed that Max knew all his colors, letters, and can count to 10. He is also suppose to have a vocabulary of 25 words. His vocabulary is more like 150 words and counting.







For Max's birthday we went to the zoo. He LOVED it! He wanted to see the monkeys. When we first got there, there was a peacock walking around and Max was scared of it. He kept hiding behind the stroller. Then we saw some turkeys and he wanted to look at the birds the whole time. We finally pulled him away from the turkeys and saw the monkeys. After every exhibit with monkeys as we were leaving Max would say "More Monkeys". He also liked the fish. There was a tank with trout in it and he wouldn't leave. He wanted to look at the fish. Finally we got him to go to the park at the zoo. There was a really big slide that he got really excited when he saw. He went to the top and then was scared to go down. He stood at the top and said "Mommy". So I went and helped him go down and that was all it took, he was hooked. He went down the slide for about 20 minutes before he got tired of it. He played around the other toys for a while then went back to the slide. He got really brave and went down head first and went a little fast and fell off the slide. He was fine, it just scared him and he was ready to go. We fed the ducks before we left and he really liked that. I think we are going to have to go to Barnes Park and feed the ducks now.


We had all our family over for dinner for his birthday. We had chicken nuggets (shaped like mickey mouse) and french fries. Max would eat "nugs" for every meal if he could. Every morning I ask him what he wants for breakfast and 9 times out of 10 he says "nugs". He got a lot of fun things. His favorite was 2 matchbox cars that looked like characters from the movie Cars. He LOVES them. He had to go to bed with them tonight. Then we had his puppy cake. He was so excited to have his puppy cake.

Isaac is doing well too. He has gained 14 oz. and grown 2 inches in the last 3 weeks! He is still really little though. The doctor was a little worried that he was a little yellow so we had to go to the hospital and get his levels checked. They were normal so he isn't jaundice. He is starting to sleep a little more during the night. He sleeps for about 4-5 hours. One time it was 6 hours and I was so happy. We are still trying to decide who he looks like. I think he looks like McKay and Tricia. He does make faces that are totally Ben.