We finally have painters!!!

The painters Chris was planning on using were one to two months behind.  So we asked Jake if he would paint our house.  At first he said that he would but when he came up and measured everything he decided it was too big of a project and the distance made it hard.  We scrambled and got a couple of other bids but Chris' painters came in the lowest and they said they were two weeks away.  It took them four weeks to paint everything.  I ended up changing the color from Sherwin Williams Worldly Grey to Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter. Revere Pewter has been in the top three most popular colors for the past several years.  I wanted to do something different but I just didn't love the Worldly Grey.  It had more cooler tones than warmer tones.  When I took the sample of Revere Pewter over, I loved how it looked!!!  I'm so happy I went with that color.  It looks so different in different lighting.

We did three tone paint everywhere.  For the white color, we matched the cabinets and did Benjamin Moore's Dove White.  It's a softer white that isn't so grey.  I love it!  

We weren't very happy with how the painting job turned out.  We feel like it was rushed and they weren't very meticulous.  Even Jen and Layne thought the painting looks crappy.  But now we're stuck with it!  The railing looks horrible but we're going to have Mike and Jake work with it.  When we got their final bill, it was $5,000 more than what we had planned.  Chris said it was because of all of the wood work.  I fought back and said that we specifically asked the painters to drive up and give us a more accurate bid and they said "we don't need to, we know how many square feet it is."  So Chris and I had a huge blow up over it.  I told him if we would have know that it was going to be that much more we would have gone with our painters that did our house in AF!!!  Chris refused to tell his painters that they did a crappy job because he thinks that it looks fine.  So he ended up eating the extra $5,000.  It was super awkward between us.  We just need to get this stupid house done!!!

Bridger's Weblos Award

When we moved into this ward, Bridger's sweet Weblos leader, Courtney took him in under her arm.  She was great to include him in the activities.  She was organized and helped him work on his Weblos award.  At first I didn't think that Bridger would be able to get this award because he only had one of the many requirements.  I could see how bad Bridger wanted it so we got the book out and figured out what he needed.  He was able to get all of the requirements within a couple of months.  He earned his Weblos before his 11th birthday.  Courtney said we had a month after his birthday to earn his Arrow of Light.  Bridger loved his Weblos ceremony.  They awarded him seven candy bars which tied into each requirement to earn his Weblos.  Bridger was very happy with the candy bars.  (I don't think they lasted more than three days).

Tile!!!

We ended up waiting 6 weeks for the tile guy!  He kept saying "I'll start in two weeks."  That turned into 6 weeks!!!  So we were so excited when he finally showed up and started working.  I originally wanted to do wood floor throughout the house but then I realized that Sophie is in the house most of the time, plays ball in the house, we have three crazy boys running through the house and we live on 5 acres of dirt.  So we decided to go with tile that looks like wood floor.  It looks beautiful!  I'm really happy with it.  I hopefully chose a color that has enough variation to hide the dirt.

Jen referred me to Dal-tile in Salt Lake (They helped her with her house).  Ashely was absolutely amazing helping me put it all together.  I told her my style and gave her some general ideas.  Then she pulled out a lot of tile and helped me put it all together.  This is Sophie's dog shower.

This is one of my favorite rooms.  I decided to go with a bigger white tile for the baths and dog shower.  Then I picked an accent tile to add some color.  I fell in love with the turquoise in the accent tile.  There are different shades of brown, grey and turquoise in it.  For the floor, I chose a lighter tile but I loved the lines in it.  

For Chase and Bridger's bathroom, I did the white bigger subway tile and then an accent tile that has shades of grey in it. In some lights it looks like there is a little brown. They boys were really happy with the tiles I picked out.

I had seen this tile in a home show and really liked it.  Ashley found the accent tile for me which blends really well.  In some lights, there is a little shimmer in some of the pieces.  Our tile guy Dan had the idea to do the shower floor this way.  (I wasn't in love with what I choose plus it was expensive).  He suggested we take the extra pieces and cut them smaller and make a pattern out of them.  I really liked how it turned out!

I did little niches in all the showers because I wanted a place to put all of our shower crap on.  I absolutely love how they turned out!!!

Handsome Boys

This is an outfit that Chase wore when he was three years old.  He wore it in a picture when Bridger was just a baby.  We used the picture for Bridger's birth announcement.  So every time Tanner wears this outfit, I think of little Chase with a huge smile holding his new baby brother.  

Sometimes I feel like I don't document life enough so I told the boys that I wanted to get a picture of them in their church clothes on Sunday.  I want to freeze time and soak it up better.  Life is passing way too quickly.  I love to see how tall Chase and Bridger are getting.  They're all legs.  Tanner is not my baby anymore.  He's my big boy who thinks he can do anything that his big brothers do.  I love these boys.  They mean everything to me!!!

Bridger's Soccer Tournament

Bridger was asked to be on a competitive soccer team this fall.  They know because of baseball that he is not available in the spring but they still wanted him for the fall.  They signed up for the Cache Valley Soccer Tournament in Logan.  It worked out that Julie's soccer team was also in the same tournament and most of her games were close to Bridger's.  (We really lucked out because the games were all over Cache Valley and Julie's were in the same place as Bridger's).  Bridger's team ended up losing all three games but they worked so hard!  It was the first time that they played together as a team.  They have a lot to learn but they have a lot of potential.  Bridger is happy to be playing soccer again!

Mylissa got some great pictures of Bridger!!!  Most of the games were in the middle of the day and it was so hot!!! It was in the upper 90's!  We tried to stay in the shade but it was still hot. In between games, we went to Walmart and bought these cooling rags.  They helped a little.  Bridger and Julie were amazing to play with the sun beating down on them.

Chase didn't come because he was at EFY.  But Maddie came for one of the days and hung out with us.  Tanner was in heaven to play with Caleb.  On our second night, after the games were over, we went to Chick-fil-A.  We ended up staying two hours!  It was wonderful to talk with Mylissa.  The kids were happy to play on the playground together.

Making Time for some Fun

We took a little break from things and went to T's.  We bought passes at the beginning of summer because it was really cheap batting practice (they have batting cages).  Bridger bats until he can't bat anymore and then we hit the go carts.  Chase was at EFY so Matt used his pass. The workers were super nice and let Tanner go with Matt even though he's too short to ride.  Tanner loves the go carts.  It was just Matt and Bridger on the track.  Bridger was in front and knew if he stayed in the middle, Matt wouldn't be able to pass him.  Tanner was a little disappointed that they didn't pass Bridger but he still had fun.

Chase EFY

I didn't give Chase a choice and signed him up for EFY.  He chose to go to Utah State.  When we signed up Chase, Easton didn't know his schedule.  Chase said he was willing to go alone which I was so proud of him!!!  But then the week before Chase was scheduled to go to EFY, Easton's schedule freed up because of a strange illness which made it so he couldn't play baseball for a couple of weeks.  Luckily Kim had some connections and got him into Chase's EFY session.  Chase was ecstatic!!!  Easton came up on Saturday and was able to spend a couple of days with us before EFY.  We had a great visit with Kim when she dropped him off.  When I went to drop them off, Easton was registered for the same building, and same floor.  His room was about 5 rooms away from Chase which was perfect!!!  They weren't in the same group but they were able to see each other during their free time. Tanner had to come with me to drop off the boys.  So when I went to get a picture, Tanner wanted to be in it.  He thinks he's just one of the boys sometimes.  Easton is so good with Tanner.  

Chase had a great time at EFY.  He loved his group and counselor.  He had a great attitude and really enjoyed the week.  He even danced at the dances! He and Easton are already talking about going to EFY  next year at BYU.  I sure hope so!

Bridger moving the lawn!

 Bridger has been asking us if he can start mowing the lawn.  So he and Chase split up the lawn.  Chase does the harder areas and Bridger does the straight parts.  He's realized that it's hard work mowing the lawn!  He's been such a big help especially since Chase has been gone so much this summer.