One Month From Tomorrow...

...is MOVING DAY!!! Yes, that's right, after seven long months, we finally have a moving date! Here's an update on the house...


Isn't it looking beautiful? I am soooooooooooooo happy with the way it is turning out! There's obviously a lot more work that needs to be done over the next month, but things are moving along so quickly lately. Obviously, the picture above is of the outside of the house. The driveway, stairs & rock wall still need to go up & the outside lights still need to be put on, but the outsides are getting close to being done!

Here's the entryway. No, my front door is not going to be this ugly color. It still needs to be stained...


And here's the view as you're walking through the entry into the house...

This is the living room...

And here's the formal dining room...

This is my beloved family room. This room is the reason I built this house...

I'm slightly in love with my mantle...

This is the view from the other side of the family room looking up toward the bridge...

And this is the view from up above. Yes, I know my crazy boys are going to repel and/or jump off of this at some point during their lives. And, yes, I have 911 on speed dial...

Here's my kitchen...

They were installing the hardwood floors when we were there today. They look so beautiful next to the cabinets. The glaze on the cabinets is the exact same color as the flooring & it just all ties together nicely...

Here is the study (a.k.a. Mike's Man Room)...

Here's the Master Bedroom from several different vantage points...

And here's my favorite room of the house, the Master Bathroom. I would be content just to live in this room for the rest of my life...

And here's Mike's "throne." All I can say is that my nose is happy it has it's own separate room...

And here's the Master Closet...

Cohen's room...

Connor's room...

Aiden's room...

Boys bathroom...

And, last but not least, the Laundry Room. Mike is going to rip out this ugly shelf & build me some cute cabinets like the ones in my old laundry room...

So there you go! I am LOVING IT!! We basically just have countertops, carpet, appliances & a few other little things to go and then it will be done. We are scheduled to close on Monday, May 24th. Then, we'll move in on the following Saturday (May 29th) which is one month from tomorrow! I can't wait!!

So now, who wants to help us move?!? {{Crickets chirping}} Don't jump all at once! I'll feed you doughnuts for breakfast if you come to help us load up at our current house in the morning and then I'll feed you pizza for lunch if you come help us unload at our new house! Anyone, anyone...Buhler, Buhler? --Lindsay

My "Bubby"

As many of you know, Cohen has a plethora of nicknames: Cohey, Coconut, Cocoa, Cocoa Bean, Bean, Nut, Nutter Butter, Baby, Bubbs & Bubby. I probably call him "Bubby" more than anything else. It started out as "Baby" and then somehow turned into "Bubby." Well, apparently, I call him "Bubby" a little too much because he now calls himself "Bubby." If you ask him what his name is, he will tell you that it is "Bubby." And, even if you just ask him to say the name "Cohen," he will still say "Bubby." I took some video of him saying everyone's names the other day & randomly threw in the name "Cohen" from time to time so you can see what I'm talking about. Every time he calls himself "Bubby." Oh, BTW, ignore the way I look. Cohen is generally more cooperative in the early morning, so that's when I shot this video. I wasn't planning on being a part of the video until Cohen decided he wanted to sit on my lap. You'll see that I obviously haven't showered yet & just look fabulous, so don't be too jealous of my "natural good looks."

What a funny kiddo! I guess I should call my child by his actual name from time to time before he goes to school in a few years telling all the kids that his name is "Bubby." That just screams "Hey Mr. Bully! PLEASE come beat me up and take my lunch money." Sigh... --Lindsay

Boys Night In

As I've mentioned before, we swap babysitting with our good friends, the Skinners, in order to try to get both couples to the temple more often. They have 4 boys & we have 3. Yes, between the two couples, we have produced 7 boys & 0 girls. What is up with that?!? So, basically, it was a major BOY PARTY at our house Friday night when we watched their kiddos. We got "Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Sqeakquel" for everyone to watch. The kids played Wii for awhile & then we started the movie. Since we already had seven boys over, Connor thought it would be fun to invite another one of his friends who had been over playing earlier in the day to watch the movie too. So, here are all 8 boys (well, 9 if you count Mike) enjoying the movie...

Isn't that the cutest picture you've ever seen?!? Look at all those little men! We had to rearrange the furniture in order for everyone to have a "good view" of the TV. They loved every second of it. They belly laughed through the whole thing & had a lot of fun dancing every time the Chipmunks would sing a song. About halfway through the movie, I decided that they were being so good that I would make them some popcorn. Let's just say that was NOT my smartest idea ever. Eight little boys + popcorn = no bueno. Oh well, they had a great time & I guess that's all that matters. Thanks for a fun-filled night little fellas! It was awesome! --Lindsay

Oops, He Did It Again!

Remember a few months ago when we couldn't find Cohen in the middle of the night & eventually discovered him sleeping in Connor's bed? Well, he did it again...


Mike went to wake Connor up for school one day, and this is what he found. Funny kiddo! This is becoming a regular occurrence lately. I've decided that Cohen would rather sleep ANYWHERE but in his own bed. Obviously, if this child isn't jailed someplace, he's NOT going to stay there.

Connor's bed isn't always where he ends up. Lately, we've been finding him asleep in some pretty random places. Case in point...the other night when I was at work, Mike put all the kiddos to sleep & then came back downstairs to work on some things for awhile. At about 10:00, he headed upstairs to go to sleep himself. It was dark, but as he was heading up the stairs, he saw something at the top. What was it? Oh, just Cohen's chosen sleeping spot for the night. Sorry for the poor picture quality here, Mike tried to take a picture with his phone thinking that the flash on the real camera would wake Cohen up...


Yes, that's Cohen asleep on the floor at the top of the stairs. What the....??? Notice he has his signature blanket in both photos...right next to him in the first one & over his face in the second. He can not go to sleep without it. Because of this, he totes it along to all his different sleeping spaces.

What in the world?!? This kiddo is CRAZY! His bed is perfectly wonderful...and comfy too. I know because I tested it out to make sure. Yes, I laid in my child's toddler bed. It was quite the sight, I'm sure. Anyway, the comfort level is more than adequate. I don't know why he doesn't like to sleep in it. What a weirdy! But, it is kind of funny to see some of the places he chooses to sleep. --Lindsay

Spring Break in a Nutshell

Spring break was this past week. It was a fun & busy one for us. It was so busy, in fact, that I'm just finally getting a few minutes to blog about it. So, in a nutshell, here's what we did on our Spring Break...

SKIING

We were supposed to start out our Spring Break with a trip to Moab with Mike's family for the Jeep Safari. Unfortunately, several storms decided that this would be the perfect time to move across Utah. It was freezing cold & snowed like crazy. Because of this, we decided to cancel our trip down south & stay up here. The boys figured that since there was so much new powder in the mountains, they would go skiing instead. Here's Grandpa & the boys at Alta...


This was Aiden's first time skiing. He was probably a little on the young side, but Grandpa took good care of him...


That's all the pictures we have from skiing because Mike lost the camera on one of his runs. He realized it was gone when he was loading everyone in the car at the end of the day. At that point, the lifts were shut down, so the only way to get back up the mountain was to hike it. Mike decided he would see how high up he could get. About half an hour later, he gave up. He checked the lost and found, but no one had turned in a camera. We figured it was gone forever. Chances were, since it hadn't been turned in, that either someone took it or that it was still up on the mountain and would spend the night up there. Even if was still on the mountain & someone found it the next day & turned it in, it probably wouldn't work anymore at that point. Well low and behold, the next day at about noon, Mike got a call from the Alta Lodge. Someone had just turned in the camera (thank you to the honest person who found it) & it still worked! Holy cow! What a tough little camera! I swear that this camera has nine lives...and it's now used about 3 or 4 of them. I guess that means we have at least 5 more to go! Haha! I figured it was just "electronics karma" that it still worked, after all the devices we lost a few weeks ago in the "sink incident." Sigh...

EGG HUNTS AND EASTER

The kiddos have had a plethora of egg hunts lately. The first was our ward/neighborhood egg hunt & brunch. The kids had a blast...

Egg hunt #2 was the one put on by our city. This egg hunt is more of an "egg grab" and lasts all of 13 seconds. This year, the weather was cold & windy which kept a lot of people home I think. The kids came home with a bucketload of candy because there weren't as many kids there as in years past...

Cohen decided it was more fun to throw the eggs than to put them in his basket...

Egg hunt #3 was courtesy of the Easter Bunny on Easter morning. Here are the kids waiting at the top of the stairs for the go ahead...

Cohen wasn't sure if he wanted to put his loot in his basket. I think he was a little concerned that he wouldn't get it back if he let go of it...

The Easter Bunny also brought the boys some "Sunday games & toys." Apparently, the Easter Bunny has heard my children whining & crying every Sunday. Let's just say they are not big fans of a day where you can't play with your friends. So, the Easter Bunny brought them some games & toys that they can ONLY play with on Sunday that are either church or family-related. Hopefully, it will help the problem & give them something to look forward to. We'll see.

Apparently, the Easter Bunny also visited Nana and Poppy's house too, so there was a 4th egg too. Here are some cute little presents the Easter Bunny brought...

Here's the boys at the end of their final egg hunt. These are their Easter outfits for the year. They were casual since Easter fell on General Conference weekend this year...

After the egg hunt, we had our annual General Conference breakfast (waffles, homemade syrup, bacon, muffins, etc.) It was delicious as always. Here's Aiden & Dan getting ready to eat...

Delicious...

After breakfast, we tried to watch as much conference as the boys would allow us to watch...

It was a great day!

TREEHOUSE MUSEUM

On Tuesday, the kiddos & I headed up to my sister Sosha's house for a "cousins day" (okay, so my sister's real name is Ashlee, but we all call her Sosha waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than we call her Ashlee, but that's another story.) She fed us lunch at her house when we got up there & then we took all our kids to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden. What a darling place! It's basically a huge playhouse with all sorts of activities for the kids to do. They loved it! Here's Cohen playing with a train set in the "Railway to Reading Room"...

Connor playing a life-sized version of Tic-Tac-Toe with himself...

Then it was on to the music room. It was loud, to say the least...

We even made a stop in the Oval Office! Look at these future leaders of America...

Then it was on to the "Medieval Room" where the kids could listen to a story, dress up in princess & knight clothing, put on their own plays, play with a miniature castle, etc. Aiden & Cohen liked these things that you could turn to create different people (picture below). Aiden would make it look the correct way, and then Cohen would come and ruin it afterwards...

The kids loved the big fish tank...

And even got to make their own rubbings of dinosaur fossils...

And pretend to work in a ticket booth. Apparently, Aiden felt this dinosaur puppet would reel in the customers...

Cohen enjoyed dressing up as a firefighter...

And refused to give the hat up, even when we moved on to the next exhibit...

The "Western/Rodeo" section was a hit...

And, we finished the day off with everyone posing for a picture in the firetruck. Look at all those handsome boys!!!

It was such a fun day! I highly recommend the Treehouse Museum!!! It was basically a gigantic toy room for the kids! We spent 2 1/2 hours there, and we probably could have stayed longer. It was a blast! Thanks for inviting us up Sosha!!!

BEAN MUSEUM AND SLEEPOVER WITH NANA & POPPY

On Thursday, my parents invited the boys over to their house for a sleepover. When they got there, they headed out to the Bean Museum. It's the Life Sciences museum on the BYU campus. The boys loved it! They had a great time looking at all the stuffed animals & even got to meet a few live ones too. Here's Aiden petting a gecko...

And both the boys petting a tortoise...

Afterwards, it was on to Arctic Circle for some ice cream. I had to put this picture in because it's a morph of two seperate pictures. Not quite sure how it happened, but I had to throw it in because it is so weird...

Then it was back to Nana & Poppy's house for the sleepover...even Cohen slept over! The next day, Nana took all the boys out to McDonalds (or Old McDonalds, as Aiden calls it) for lunch and then brought them home. It was so weird for Mike & I to have no kids for the whole night & half of the next day! We stayed up late, slept in the next morning, got tons accomplished around the house, had time to just hang out, etc. We kept asking ourselves what we did with all our time before we had kids?!? I remember that back then, I felt like I was "so busy." Now, I look back & think "with what?!?" CRAZY!

FRIEND SLEEPOVERS

Of course, Spring Break wouldn't be complete without a sleepover or two. Connor & his friend, Mason, had two sleepovers during the week & loved every second of it. Here they are eating pancakes & watching Saturday morning cartoons after waking up...

So fun! Well, there you go...our Spring Break in a nutshell! It was crazy busy, but so much fun! Now, if the weather would just warm up so it could actually FEEL like spring, I'd be perfectly satisfied! --Lindsay