RENOVATION--AGAIN?

How about a "CHOCOLATE" wall?

I'm certain that everyone who knows us will be surprised to learn that we are fixing up another house to make it "home." We have a rental in a PUD with a bigger garage and a little more room for family visits so our plan was to move there when the lease was complete. Of course, when the tenant left, there was considerable wear and tear and a lot of painting to be done. Some of the carpet was pretty bad so we decided to replace the living and dining carpet with hardwood floors. Then we realized that the ceilings weren't white. The whole house was one color- kind of a coral light pink. Steve painted the ceilings white and we had the floors installed while we were in Florida.

This past week the painting frenzy began. We've painted walls and all the trim a contrasting white. We've also changed out light fixtures and added some new ones to increase the light. This next week Steve will put travertine in the master bath and Mike C. will put in new carpet in some of the rooms. We're also having some additional cabinets added in the kitchen. Soon we'll have the place about half way to Steve's standards. I will say that it's looking better every day. Steve takes a spaghetti dinner break amidst the paint supplies on Friday night.

Kristen edges around the new light fixture in the master bathroom.

Thankfully we have a new tenant who wants to move into our current place the last week of April. Hooray! We're ecstatic about renting this out so quickly.

Today we had the Draper Temple Dedication. It was very inspirational. Tonight we put on our parkas and walked in the rain. The temperature dropped from the mid-70's yesterday to 43. The forecast calls for snow tomorrow. Oh, we know it's spring when it snows on the daffodils.

March Birthday Celebration!

Today Steve and I hosted a birthday party for my siblings with March birthdays. Grandpa K. was delighted to have all five of his children together for the corn beef and cabbage dinner. Jackie, Steve and Cathy all have March birthdays. Jackie's husband Val also celebrated his March birthday with us.

Grandpa Kerr's sister, Coral, joined us for the dinner. Steve K. plays the piano for an hour on the 3rd Sunday of each month for Coral's Sr. Living Center. Here they pose with Jackie who had to travel for about 4 hours each way to be with us.

Visiting around the table are Clay, Cathy's husband. Coral, Steve K., Greg, Ann and Bob.
Bob, Cathy, Clay, Coral and Steve K.

Jackie was convinced to play some hymns she's been practicing for us. She is practicing a lot and really making wonderful progress all because her Relief Society Pres. has asked her to play in Relief Society occasionally. She is working hard and developing latent talents. Hooray for you, Jackie.

More Florida Pictures

Steve & McKay reattaching mouldings after putting in the new carpet on the screen porch.

McKay & Steve putting a new door handle on the newly painted red front door.

Thomas and Jessica checking out the new indoor/outdoor carpet. Notice Thomas up on his knees--he actually crawled a bit.

Hopefully you can see the difference between the "old" porch here with Jessica and Cam using their kitchenette to it's fullest advantage and the "new"porch above. After 2 1/2 days of hard work, it looked absolutely terrific!

OUR VISIT TO FLORIDA!

One of the highlights of our Florida trip was to witness a Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral. A 12-story United Launch Alliance vehicle blasted off at 10:49 p.m. on March 6, 2009 with NASA's Kepler telescope on board. In 3-4 yrs. NASA hopes to present a planetary census that estimates how many "Earths"-if any- are circling other stars in the galaxy. Mckay & Tricia's family pose in front of a space shuttle at the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Goldilocks and Super C play on the beach at Jetty Park earlier in the evening of the launch. It was chilly but they loved it anyway.

Steve bundles up the little ones as the evening breeze cools us off.

The beach proved to have a terrific view of the spectacular launch. This picture proves we were there, but doesn't begin to show the incredible display of light and sound and the shaking of the ground when the lift off started. It was truly an amazing experience.

The tired group heads back to a warm comfortable bed! I loved this!

The next day we hit the playground for awhile. Thomas loved the swing even though I had a hard time catching his delight!

Cam and Jessica enjoyed the teeter-totter and climbing all over the other equipment.

When we first arrived, Tricia greeted us with a warm welcome, a big smile, and a homemade banana cream pie. Yummy!

Here are the Florida grandkids celebrating Jessica's 4th birthday a little early. Tricia made the fabulous chocolate cake while Super C and Goldilocks decorated it. Scooter did his best to be "under foot" at all times. In fact, he even got his foot in the cake immediately after this photo. The men of the family are busily engaged in a renovation project. This is day 1 of a 2-day project--sprucing up the screened porch. I helped with the washing and painting. Tricia kept supplying us with delicious food during the breaks.

Tricia & Thomas in the always fun "after a bath in the Duck Tub" photo.

Patriotic Program

Britton had several speaking parts in his school's Patriotic Program last week. He did an excellent job and knew every word of every song. It was so encouraging to see the children sharing important values such as loyalty, hard work, integrity, etc.--the things that made our country great. Their songs sung so energetically and sincerely brought tears to our eyes. Here are some fans in the audience. We were so happy that we could be there. We also enjoyed celebrating Jenna's 6th birthday a few days late with a trip to the ice cream shop.

Here's Princess Hilary. She looked so cute in Jenna's tiara that I couldn't resist this photo.

Heather taking pictures of her kids.

Elsie reading.

VISITING GRANDKIDS!

We love visiting our kids and grandkids. A couple of weeks ago we headed north. Here Jumpin' "J" and Snuggle Bug make faces on their peanut butter sandwiches.

Jantzen learned thoroughly his numbers up to 100. He has a cereal necklace perfectly crafted to prove it.

Surrounded by ice, snow, and fog, Tanner, Brinley and Jantzen brave the cold and head for the bus to school.

Tanner and Grandpa have a goodbye hug and pose.