For Sale

It's official. My parents house is FOR SALE.

My parents bought this house when I was 15. Although I didn't live there all of my growing up years, this is the place that I consider home. It's hard to think of letting go, but the time is right and we hope to find a buyer soon. I guess...

Here are a few pictures of the house.



I love the big backyard. You don't see anything like this in my neighborhood. It's perfect for playing volleyball, bad mitten, soccer, frisbee. Lots of fun over the years.

The pool is wonderful. This isn't the best picture, but it gives you the idea. It's bigger than most home pools. We had some great parties when I was in High School. My parents are still in the process of finishing the rail on the new deck. There used to be a hot tub on the lower deck and we'd pile almost 20 teenagers into it. When we'd all get out, the water would be down to the seats. In the winter we loved to roll in the snow, and then jump into the hot tub. Crazy, I know.

My kids have had a blast playing in the pool over the summers these last several years. When I told them that Grandma and Grandpa were going to put their house up for sale, their first comment was, "Can we buy it?"

This is the room that was once mine. It looks quite a bit different now, really only the walls are the same. When I think of this room, the first thought that comes to my mind is homework. Yuk! For some reason I used to prefer getting up in the middle of the night to do it. I'd go to bed like usual, set the alarm for 3 a.m., wake up do my homework and then go back to bed til morning. It felt tricky and sneaky. I still went to bed and got up when I normally would, but my homework got done and I didn't really miss the sleep in the middle of the night anyway.


If you know anyone looking for a house in the tricities, here's the info:


Nice spacious, family home, 2480 sq. ft., with 5 bedrooms and 2 ½ baths. Located in a quiet cul-de-sac, great neighborhood. Open cathedral ceiling, California split quad level, brick fireplace, large family room, storage room, newly painted inside and out, new light fixtures, new window coverings, new furnace and AC, new garage door, new no-maintenance composite deck (the handrails will be finished soon) and awning, new kitchen floor, large kitchen and dining area with many cabinets, large 1/3 acre yard fenced in with garden, trees, and flower beds, large L shaped pool with new liner. Near Desert Hills Middle School, in Kennewick.

contact info

Right of Passage

All of my kids have gone to the same preschool, and all of them have gone on most of the same field trips.

Today, Emma had a field trip to the fire station. I really didn't want to go, after all, I've been there twice now. In fact, I actually forgot about it and after just getting back from another trip out to my parents house last night, the last thing I wanted to do was race out the door this morning at 9 a.m. I could tell Emma wanted me to go, in fact she wanted both mom and dad to go. How could I let her down? I went.

Here is Emma with her preschool class at the fire station. She's on the top right.

And here she is with her favorite friends.

The firemen were great. This guy slowly put on all the gear, including the mask and oxygen so that he could show the kids that even though he might look scary, he is a real person and is there to help. He even got on all fours and crawled around so the kids could see how it might look if he were coming to find them in a fire. He told them that they should not hide and should make lots of noise or jump on his back like a spider monkey. Emma looks terrified. I guess I may need to follow up on that with her.
We thought it was cool that the tire on the firetruck was bigger than Emma.
Austin was a trooper and tagged along without any complaint.

Really, I'm glad I went. I decided that this field trip is a right of passage that each of my kids has come upon. Each of them recalls the time they went and remember getting the same hat and coloring books. For Emma, today was a big day. It was her turn. I had plans to clean my house this morning and I'm really glad that instead I raced out the door with wet hair and no time for breakfast and didn't miss out on this moment with my sweet little girl. It meant everything to her and really, who cares about my floors that need mopping anyway?

No School

I've always thought that Mid-Winter break is kind of a joke, I'd much rather have the kids get out of school one week earlier. Maybe it's because we never plan a big trip or go anywhere fun, and usually the weather is rainy and cold.

This year, it was different. It almost felt like Spring. My kids happily buzzed around doing their daily chores so that they could go outside and play with all of the neighbor kids. It was beautiful everyday and everyone was happy and cheerful. I'm sad to see the week come to an end.

Linsey perfected her rollerblading skills riding around the block numerous times. I'm always amazed with the creativity my kids have. I love it! See Tara's blog for an amazing chalk city they came up with. Today, Linsey created a dragon costume for Emma to wear. I'll have to remember this for Halloween.

Here's a close up of the wings. Pretty amazing!

My favorite is the hair do. She had to have spikes!

and, check out the shoes.

While we were cleaning out my brother's old room last weekend, he came across an old piggy bank of pennies that he gave me to give my kids. It provided for a whole afternoon of fun.

Here are the kids dumping the pennies into one of those machines that counts them and gives you the cash.....pretty cool.

They divided the money up and everyone got to pick out a new toy. Emma had decided that she wanted a monster truck, and not just any monster truck, she wanted a Dalmatian one. We knew it existed because she had seen it once before, but after searching three different stores and heading to a fourth I announced that this would be the LAST place we would look for it and to cross her fingers. She did, all the way there.

As luck would have it, we found it!

We even had a little money leftover to get popcorn and Slurpee's! Thanks Anthony!


On Friday I had my sisters-in-law over for lunch and we made these cute watches. This one is Linsey's.

Somehow the stars aligned and we all got our babies to nap at the same time which allowed us to have a great visit too.

It's been a fun week and now that I'm finally deciding that Mid-Winter break isn't that bad after all, the district has decided to do away with it starting next year.

As of Today

Austin is 9 months old.

I'm always amazed at how the first 9 months with a new baby seem to go by so incredibly fast when 9 months of pregnancy last an eternity.

Austin had his well check today. Of course 3 months ago when I scheduled the appointment, I hadn't realized that it fell during the week of mid-winter break. So, instead of sleeping in and lounging around in our pj's, we headed out bright and early for a doctor appointment. The kids were really nervous about having to watch Austin get shots, luckily we were all pleasantly surprised when the nurse announced that he wouldn't need any. Phew.

As of today, here are Austin's stats.

Height 29.5 inches 80%
Weight 20 lbs. 2 oz. 40%

And just for fun, here are the other kids stats at 9 months.

Linsey
Height 28 inches
Weight 20 lbs. 4 oz.

Hunter
Height 28 inches
Weight 19 lbs. 9 oz.

Emma
Height 27 inches
Weight 16 lbs 8 oz.

We are so glad that Austin is healthy and happy. Having him in our home has brought so much joy and fun to our family. He is a blessing and I'm grateful he is ours.

Big Changes

Last year my parents painted the outside of their house, replaced the pool liner, tore out their deck and rebuilt it (well, that project is actually not quite done yet), and built an awning off the back of the house.

Now, they've started working on the inside. They just put down wood flooring in the kitchen. It all looks great! My dad thought he'd fix up the inside of the house gradually over the next year, but with mom's health declining and the stairs becoming more and more dangerous for her, we decided to move things up to like... well, NOW.

So, Jared and I left most of our kids and gathered with all of the family that could to help mom and dad do a massive overhaul on the house. I felt like we were on some home improvement show. Chris and Tally brought their 10 year old son and he thought it was so cool that he got to demolish an old bathroom cabinet in the back yard. We moved out a bunch of furniture to make the place look more spacious, painted most of the inside, put on new baseboards, replaced chandeliers and light fixtures throughout most of the house, etc. Dad already put down new flooring in one bathroom and is planning to do another, plus replace a few sinks and faucets. The list goes on and on, but things sure are looking nice.

Here are some of the boys moving furniture... lots of furniture.

Anthony always makes things fun :)

Chris was the expert at pretty much everything. I'm so glad he was there to direct all of us.

We did plenty of painting.

Austin spent a lot of time in his jumper.

Mom was busy keeping food and snacks ready for us at all times.

The only major set back was that while Anthony made it home in one piece, his car didn't. He hit black ice/frost coming over the Blue Mountain pass and picked a fight with a guard rail and a semi. Pieces of his car were spread across the freeway and it looks like it might be totaled, but miraculously he walked away without a single scratch, not even a sore muscle the next day. We are so grateful for that.

He was in pretty good spirits considering he came home to find that everything from his old room was piled in the kitchen and all that was left of his bedroom was his light socket. All he had left from his prized car was a hunk of metal that said NISSAN and he spent Valentine's Day with his mom and sister.

We love him though and are glad that we got to spend the weekend with him.

The list of projects is still pretty long, but we were able to accomplish more than I ever thought possible. The plan is to list the house March 1st. Wish us luck and pray that it sells. My parents are planning to build a new house catered to my moms needs. I'm so grateful for such a great family who all come together and support one another. It's always great to be together, even if all we do is work.

Sharing a Great Idea!

I love planning a party. Especially when it's for a good friend or family member. In this case, it was both. I love all the little details and my sister in law is so great, I wanted her baby shower to be perfect.

My super crafty, amazing friend in Texas gave me a great idea that was so fun, I had to pass it on for anyone else who is planning a baby shower anytime in the future.

You start with a pack of onesies.

So much of the boy stuff these days is orange and while at first I wasn't sure how I felt about that, I'm really loving orange! I used the sports theme and colors from these onesies to come up with all the decorating ideas for the baby shower.

The diaper cake. (Hunter thinks this is sooo cool. He wanted me to take a picture of it so he could take it to school for show and tell.)

The party favors.

Gift list, tip book and of course, prizes!

Then, you hang those cute onesies on a clothes line as a decoration for the baby shower and it also makes a great gift for the mom to be.

Here is my cute sister in law, Bri. She looks amazing, I know!

My favorite part of the baby shower was the game. We had a relay race where each team had to dress a baby doll. I had made up silly blind folds from safety goggles. It made everyone look ridiculous, it was pretty funny.


Bri got lots of really adorable baby boy things, we can hardly wait to meet baby Hudson.


Linsey helped me in most of the party planning and felt honored to be invited as a guest to Aunt Bri's baby shower. I didn't expect her to be such a big help at the shower, but she really was my right hand, and she was thrilled about it too. I was so glad to have her there.


Emma and the other kids showed up at the end after most of the guests had left, just in time to eat the last of the party favors. Perfect!

Now, we wait.....

I hope baby Hudson's arrival is smooth, and that he is healthy and strong!

BYU Rugby

Some of you may know this. When I (Jared) was in college I played Rugby for BYU. We had a great team and only lost 4 games in 4 seasons. In my senior year we went to the collegiate national playoffs. The only problem was, some of the games were held on Sunday. We decided to go to the tournament regardless, to see if they would change the date for us.
I wrote up a short story of the experience for the semi-official BYU Rugby blog as a guest columnist. Check out the story here -> BYU Rugby blog.

On The Move

Ready or not, this little one is on the move!

I LOVE having a baby in the house and it's hard to admit that he is getting big. He just got his first tooth last week, and while he's not quite crawling yet, he's got a pretty good scoot or army crawl that gets him wherever he wants.

Speaking of getting big, he's got the most kissable chubby cheeks and I love the rolls on his arms and legs. My favorite are his chubby little hands and feet.

Here are a few action shots of Austin doing his army crawl.

As you can see, he is still working on his form.

Meanwhile, we'd better start putting up the legos and polly pockets.

I love watching his little face as this whole new world is opening up to him. He's so determined and almost frantic about getting the things he wants and I swear he looks like he's concentrating really hard as he watches me open and shut cupboard doors and drawers. It won't be long before he is into everything.. I can just feel it!