To Everything There is a Season (Turn, Turn, Turn)

That title is taken from Ecclesiastes 3:1 (and the song made famous by the 60s group The Byrds.) You're all singing it now in your heads, aren't you? It will be stuck there all day long. You're welcome, by the way! The reason I titled this post with that scripture is because it very accurately describes where we are in life right now. I feel like one season of our life is coming to an end & another is about to begin. You see, we stuck one of these in our front yard yesterday...


Yes, that's a For Sale sign. I always knew that this day would come at some point, but now that it's actually here, it's very bittersweet for me.

We've thought about moving several times in the past few years, but it just never seemed like the right time. A few months ago, we were out on a Sunday drive & found a beautiful little neighborhood in the Chapel Ridge District of Traverse Mountain. We fell in love with it! The second we drove in, we felt like we were "home." Later that night, we thought & prayed about it, and then came to the conclusion that it finally WAS time for us to move on. We decided that we would build a new house up there. So, Mike made a big push to get the basement finished (since it was about 75% done when we decided to move) & we put it on the market yesterday. It's kind of sad to see a For Sale sign go in the front yard of a house that you love so much & that has so many happy memories in it! I never thought I would be this sad to see it go.

But, on the other hand, I know there will be lots of happy memories made in our new house. The house that we are building is the house that we hope we will live in for the rest of our lives. Here's an artist's conception of what our future house will look like (except not in purple stone, with green stucco & red shutters.) I guess he was trying to make it look colorful or something...


I love this house! It is beautiful & has such a usable floor plan. Here's the floor plan. You should be able to click on it to enlarge it...

And, if you want to take a virtual tour of a house with the same floorplan, you can click here.

We are really excited! We've already met several of our future neighbors & they are are really nice & very welcoming and excited to have us there! There's even a family building a house two lots down from us that has three boys all really close to the same ages as our boys! The ward sounds wonderful! Everyone we have talked to just raves about what a great ward it is! And, they have a BIG primary & several nurseries, so we should fit right it! Needless to say we are REALLY excited about moving there.

But, I know how much I am going to miss my current neighborhood & ward! We have so many great friends here! I don't know how I'm going to survive without seeing them on a daily basis! We will only be about 15 to 20 minutes away, so we will still be able to see each other from time to time, but I know that it will never be the same. When moving day comes, I know I am going to bawl my eyes out! It's makes me sad to just think about it!

Luckily, I don't have to think about it for awhile. The builder hasn't even broken ground on our house yet & it's not expected to be completed until February or March. That gives us 4 to 5 months to sell our current house. Wish us luck! And, if you know anyone who's interested in a 5 bedroom, 3 bath house that is on the golf course with heated tile floors & brand new carpet & memory foam pad for a KILLER deal...let us know! Just had to get a little plug in there too! Okay, now I can get back to singing that song that is stuck in my head! --Lindsay

Turning Seven in Star Wars Fashion

Connor turned seven-years-old on Wednesday! But, he wasn't the only one to turn seven that day. One of his best friends, Mason, shares the same birthday. The two of them are only about six hours apart & they are two peas in a pod. To celebrate, we held a joint birthday party for them with all their friends. The theme was Star Wars, of course. What else would it be for two seven-year-old boys? Here's the invite that we made up...it turned out pretty cute!

We started out the party with a Star Wars word search. To make it, I just got online & found a site that will help you make your own word searches. I typed in all the Star Wars words that we wanted & then the site put it into a word search. Pretty nifty...

After the word search, we played a little Lightsaber Limbo, with the Star Wars theme music playing in the background of course...


Next came the "Jedi Training Obstacle Course." It was explained to the kids that they would be tested on their mind powers as well as their physical powers. The kids first obstacle was to put a puzzle together...



Then, once that was completed they could grab their lightsaber & jump over some bags...


Then fight an evil villain (a.k.a. Mike)...



Mike got pretty into this, as you can see...


So did the kiddos...


And, when the kids defeated Mike, he had some pretty dramatic death scenes...


After defeating the evil villain, the kids had to crawl through some tubes...


And then fight a terrible monster (a.k.a. this big stuffed ape)...


Once he was defeated, it was up & over some chairs...


And then under some chairs...

And, finally back to the beginning where they turned the lightsaber over to the next "Jedi in Training."

After everyone had gone through their Jedi Training, we headed back upstairs for the Candy Walk. This game was played like a cake walk, except with candy & with Star Wars pictures instead of numbers. And, of course, we had the Star Wars music playing again. We made the kids dance to the music as they walked around the circle. So funny...


Then, it was on to some presents. Both Connor & Mason were spoiled rotten...


Then, we moved on to cake and ice cream. Here's their cake. Every single store was out of the Star Wars cake decorations, so I just had them decorate a cake to look like outer space & then we put some of Connor's own toys on the top. Not too shabby...


Here they are blowing out their candles...

After cake and ice cream, we went outside to do the pinata while we waited for the parents to come pick up their kids. It was a Darth Vader head. Pretty cute, but not very well made...it broke pretty much right away. Oh well...
At the very end, we sent the kids home with their goodie bags & a certificate to show that they had passed their Jedi Training & could now be considered Padowans. It was such a fun (and crazy) birthday party! Thank you to all the kids who came and made it so much fun! Both Connor & Mason had a blast!

That night, we went to McDonalds for dinner (Connor's choice) and then came home to open family presents. Connor got, what else, more Star Wars stuff...




He also got lots of phone calls from family members wishing him a happy day...


Cohen apparently felt left out that Connor kept getting phone calls. So, he proceeded to have pretend phone conversations with himself. These pictures were just too cute! I had to stick them in...





Haha! Too funny! Anyway, back on subject, I think Connor had a GREAT seventh birthday! I guess you could say he was in 7th heaven! ;) Happy birthday Connor! I love you so much! Thanks for the past seven years! They have been the best! --Mom

Ride to a Witch

No...that title does NOT refer to Mike's commute home everyday! ;) Last night for Family Home Evening, we took the boys to Gardner Village to meet some "real life" witches & see where they live. To get to the witches land, you have to take a hayride out away from all the shops & restaurants. Here's Connor & Aiden on the hayride. Sorry it's not any better, I was sitting right next to them & was scared I would fall off the wagon if I stood up, so this is the best you're going to get...


Our hayride ended at an old boxcar. The witches have transformed this place into their little humble abode...


This is one of the witches. Her name is Mildew Rose & she is hilarious. That's what I love about the witches at Gardner Village. They don't try to scare the kids at all...their main point is to be silly & make the kids laugh. She was telling the boys fortunes here...

Then, she showed them their kitchen where they had jars of lizard tongues, dragon armpit hair, and eye of neut, among other things. She even had a pot of fly soup boiling on the stove.

After Mildew Rose had shown us around the box car, we met a few other witches named Cora, Matilda & Brazzilla. Matilda took us outside to see some other things like the cockroach cemetery, the rotten vegetable garden & the place where the witches do their laundry. The boys thought it was hilarious when they saw the witches' bloomers hanging out to dry. They kept saying, "Haha! Witches underwear!!" What is it with boys & underwear that is so stinkin' funny??? I don't have any pictures of these things because it was too dark & none of the pictures turned out very good. Oh well.

Then, once our tour was over, the boys got autographed pictures of all the witches that they met and then we hopped back on the hayride for our return trip. The boys absolutely loved it. It was so much fun! If you're looking for a fun (and not scary) Halloween activity to do with your kids, this is a great one. "Ride to a Witch" goes on every Monday, Friday & Saturday during the month of October at Gardner Village. --Lindsay

It's Finally Finished!!!

Well, after three years and lots of blood, sweat & tears...the basement is finally FINISHED!!! Yahoo! It has been quite the process & I'm so proud of how well Mike did! He did about 95% of the work himself & it turned out beautiful! I'm so excited that I decided to share some pictures.

Just a disclaimer before we get started, we are in the very preliminary stages of cleaning everything & moving all our stuff back down there, so lots of the rooms are still messy & disorganized. I'll post more pictures once the whole thing is clean & decorated in a few weeks. But, here are the rough drafts so far...

This is the area when you first go down the stairs. My mom was nice enough to let me use this cute little bench down there.


Here's my laundry room. Mike made these cabinets himself! The cabinet doors and drawers have beadboard fronts & are painted white with a glaze over the top. They are beautiful (the picture doesn't do them justice). We bought some really cute hardware to put on the doors & drawers, but only one of them has actually been installed so far. If you look at the cabinet on the right, you'll see one of the door pulls. The grand master plan is to eventually get a cute red washer & dryer to put in here...


This is the little party kitchen. My brother-in-law, Greg, made the cabinets and Mike made the island. So fun...

Here's the family room. The pieces of wood that you see in the corner are actually a corner cabinet that will house all the media equipment for the TV. My brother-in-law, Greg, made this cabinet too & he's going to come put it all together sometime this week. He's a pretty talented guy! Thanks Greg...

Here's the kids' playhouse. The light fixtures were actually our old light fixtures that used to be on the outside of our house. The kids can turn them on & off from inside the playhouse. The kids love this place already...

Here's the bathroom. Nothing really exciting to talk about here...

This will be Connor's room. He wanted his new room to have a Star Wars theme. Never in my life did I think that I would have a room in my house that would be decorated in a Star Wars theme. But, here we go...

This is another bedroom. We are actually going to use it as a playroom for the kiddos. They don't know it yet, but at least half of these toys are going to be donated to charity...

And last, but certainly not least, is the linen closet. Why is that so exciting, you ask? Well, up until now, I haven't had a linen closet in this house. Who designs a house & doesn't put a linen closet in it? So, after 5 1/2 years, I finally have one & I am ecstatic about it...

So that's your grand tour of our basement! I love it!!! Like I said at the beginning, it still needs a lot of cleaning & decorating work done over the next few weeks. But, I was so excited that the construction phase was finally over that I just wanted to share some pictures now. --Lindsay

Field Trip to Hee Haw's

On Wednesday, Connor's class went on a field trip to Hee Haw's. It's a little farm that has fun activities for the kiddos to do. I was able to be a parent volunteer & go on the field trip with him! Here's Connor & some of his friends, Joe & Gabe, on the bus...


Here's a picture of the group I was in charge of...


Another mom & I actually ended up combining our groups & hung out together all day. Here are all the kids from both of our groups on the hayride...

After the hayride was over, we headed over to the petting zoo where the kids met Leroy (a pig that weighs over 1300 pounds). He is HUGE!!!

Next, we made our way over to the slides. This was the kids' favorite activity. They were able to sit in potato sacks & slide down these awesome slides! The kids went so fast! They were seriously FLYING down these things. So fun...

After going down the slides about a million times, we took a little break and ate lunch. Then it was on to the hay bale trampoline for some jumping fun...

And then onto the corn maze &, eventually, the pumpkin patch where the kids were able to pick their own pumpkins...

After that, it was time to head back to the buses. The cutest thing happened as we were walking from the pumpkin patch to the bus. When we were in the pumpkin patch, the Hee Haw's people has told the kids that they could only pick small pumpkins. If a pumpkin was too heavy for them to carry by themselves, then they would have to take that pumpkin back & pick another one. Well, when we were walking back to the bus, one of the little girls in our group (emphasis on the LITTLE) was having a difficult time carrying her pumpkin. Connor, who wasn't having much of a hard time carrying his, stopped & said to me, "Mom...can you carry my pumpkin for me for a minute?" I reminded him that the employees had told him that he had to be able to carry his own pumpkin. But then he said, "Well, I just thought that if you carried my pumpkin for me, then I could carry Hannah's for her." OH MY SWEETNESS!!! What a little gentleman! How could I say no to that??? So, I took his pumpkin from him & then he ran over to Hannah, took the pumpkin out of her arms & said "Here...I'll carry that for you!" It was the cutest thing I've seen in a long time! I guess his Daddy is teaching him well!

Here's a picture of Connor's class & his teacher, Mrs. Lamb, right before we got on the bus to go home...

It was such a fun day & I'm so happy I was able to go! (A big thank you to my friend, Amanda, who watched Aiden & Cohen all day so that I could go!) I definitely don't spend as much one-on-one time with each of my kids as much as I would like, so this was a fun opportunity to spend some "mommy/son time" with just my little ConMan, who isn't so little anymore! He turns seven next Wednesday! Oh my stars! Where did that seven years go? --Lindsay