I haven't been very good at blogging.....so here is a quick run down!
 |
| Lisa and Quinn stayed the night on their way to UT for Christmas. Lance wanted his "own room" so we moved the kitchen table and pushed the benches together. He loved it! |
 |
| Atticus LOVES playing the piano with Dad |
 |
| On Christmas we got to video chat with Keith! It was a group video chat, so all the siblings (but Will) were there despite us all being at different homes. It was so much fun. Technology is such a blessing. |
 |
| Later that night we got to talk to Will! |
 |
| Kim and Sean came and celebrated New Years with us. The boys had just finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone so we watched the movie! Everett fell asleep almost right away. |
 |
| He slept for sooo long. Through the movie, through dinner, through bed time. Uncle Dylan wanted to cuddle with him. |
 |
| Everett slept through that too. |
 |
| Kimberly and Atticus cuddling. This is as cuddly as she was willing to get with him. In his defense, he is a really sheddy dog. Kimber got a little freaked out after Dylan vacuumed the carpet and she saw all the dog hair in the vacuum hah. |
 |
| Dylan, Tom, and Sean went duck hunting. Sean got 2 ducks! He did such a great job. Tom got 3 and gave them all to us. The boys made some delicious jerky. (Dylan forgot to take a picture of Sean with the actual ducks, so here is a bag of the breasts :) |
 |
| So much snow! The Janeway boys wanted to play in the snow so bad, but we didn't get any until after they left, then we got so much! |
 |
| Dylan has gotten really interested in wood working. He built this workbench out of entirely reclaimed wood and only spent around $13. The top is a door we got at Habitat for Humanity and the bottom shelf is the kitchen door from his parent's house. We've been so blessed with the deals we've been finding on tools! Dylan's dad gave him the table saw. The pancake air compressor came with a brad nailer from Tom too. We got a miter saw from the classifieds, a circular saw for Christmas, a chisel set, a vice, and some things I know I'm forgetting. All over the course of a few months (and all extremely awesome deals! Like, insanely). It's incredible the things this boy can accomplish when he puts his mind to it! |
 |
| Dylan's new vice and rifle reloader (on the back bench, from his cousin Jason). |
 |
| Dylan had a lot of reclaimed/scrap wood, and was eager for a project, so he built me a changing table! |
 |
| Doing work! |
 |
| The final product. Total cost, under $1. |
 |
| I love this dog so much it's ridiculous. |
 |
| Dylan made this ornament when he was in kindergarten or first grade. It's a bear..... |
I didn't get any pictures of Christmas! I feel so terrible. We went to Tom and Glenda's on Christmas Eve and stayed the night (so did the Carlson's) so we could all do Christmas morning together. It was kind of silly because Carly on lives 10 minutes away and we only live 30, but we really wanted to all be together for the holiday. It was so much fun. Grandma and Grandpa Aldrich (Glenda's parents) and Glenda's brother and his wife and their grandson came over on Christmas dinner. It was really fun. I seriously am so blessed with my in-laws. My family is so wonderful.
 |
| More puppy. We spent Christmas Eve at Tom and Glenda's and spent the night so we all could do Christmas morning together. Atticus and Maya played so hard for 2 days (and Atti went hunting on Christmas with Dylan and Shem) and when we got home he zonked out for 24 hours. |
 |
| I wanted to have a dwarf style beard. |
 |
| Dylan's great-grandpa was a carpenter and came over from Sweden. Over the years a lot of his tools have been borrowed and not returned but Dylan's Uncle Rick has managed to take care of a lot of them. Since Tom and Dylan have been getting more into wood working they wanted to use some of the tools. The trunk was made by Klaus Tyko Isaakson (Dad correct me if the spelling is wrong!) (Dyl's great-grandpa) and all the tools he used and cared for. It's really awesome to see Tom and Dylan using them, and the craft spanning the generations. |
 |
| Dylan decided to shave (he doesn't ever go completely smooth anymore! Just cuts it down occasionally when he gets bored or something). |
 |
| Silly faces in between stages ;) what a cute boy I have (p.s. this is our new bathroom!) |
 |
| I look like I'm sleeping (I might be, it was a long day!) I subbed for 4 periods of seminary, then had a Young Women's Presidency meeting, then had mutual, then came home and followed up with signing my girls up for Personal Progress online (that's when this picture was snapped). Anyway, I wanted to show off my belly. I finally look pregnant enough that strangers ask me when I'm due! I absolutely love it. *side note* today is the first day of my 3rd trimester! Time has FLOWN! (this picture was taken 5 days ago) |
 |
| Next on Dylan's list of things to build was a piano bench. Our piano didn't come with one and our chairs are a little short (the piano had larger wheels put on it, so it's taller). Dylan decided to build the bench out of pine to practice because it's a lot cheaper than hardwood, and then that way any mistakes wouldn't be so costly. He got measurements from his parent's piano bench, but didn't use plans or anything. He is so smart. |
 |
| Tapered the legs and added dowel rod pins so the seams are all clean. |
 |
| The top isn't on it yet, but this is what it will look like! *p.s. Dylan always smells like sawdust now. I love it. I don't even mind that half the time I have to follow him around with the broom :) |
 |
| Dylan made a rabbit for the bottom (he told me to write that, I don't know what it means. I just know it makes it really strong!) Dylan planed the pieces for the top today and will finish assembly probably tomorrow, then finish sanding. Then just some stain and a couple of hinges and there you go! I'm so extremely proud and impressed by his desire to learn a new skill, his problem solving, and attention to detail on these projects! We will probably just keep this bench for now, but eventually (like when we aren't so poor!) we will get some nicer hardwood to make a piano bench out of. |
Anyway, I need to do better at keeping up on my blog instead of doing massive dump posts! Based on my track record I'm not making any promises.....
