Memorial Day 2015

This was our first Memorial Day without mom being there with us.  Last year, we came to the cemetery with her, and less than a month later, we were back there burying her.

We had quite a group there!  Krista, Josh, and Jamie and their families came, Lani, Dad, Jeff, Jenn, Kathy, Ric, Cierra and her family, Chandler and Carissa.  Darlene and David and Mike were there too.

Jamie and Emily brought pink balloons for the girls to send a message to Gigi.  They also brought bubbles for them to blow like they did at the funeral.

We love you Gig!

Dad with Cierra, Riley, and Lucy (smiling for Smarties)

Kathy, Ric, Dad Chandler and Carissa

Lots of visiting

3 cute little girl cousins Kelsi, Gabbie and Lucy

Chandler

Me and Sophie

Merijane and Jack

Jeff, Jen, Jamie and Emily

Mike Brown, and one of his friends, Dad and David 

I was so glad that everyone could come at the same time.  It was so good to all be together.

Remodel continues!

We were able to get ahold of a contractor that lives close by us to come and tell us what we were going to need to do about putting in a beam.  He walked into our house and asked us who told us that the wall was a load bearing wall.  He was pretty sure that it wasn't.  He went up into our attic and found out that he was right.  It WASN'T a load bearing wall and we could just tear it down!

Before we went to bed that night, Mike had it down!

Wooo Hooo!

Then he closed in the doorway to my kitchen, so this if the view from my front door.

Next he patched up the hole in the ceiling from the wall.

He let me do a little sanding after it was all taped and mudded.

Josh taped and mudded the ceiling for us.

He also took the rock off our fireplace.

It was quite the job, but he had it done in no time.

Mike and dad were there to make sure he did it right!

All ready for a new look.

Jamie told us about Kirk Olsen, ( a friend of his and Josh's) who grew up in our ward, and has a business of making fireplace mantles.  We went to his showroom and fell in love with this one.  The guys from Comfort Solutions are coming to put the gas fireplace in on Wed. and Kirk will come and measure to make the new mantle after the fireplace is in.  Here is the finished fireplace and wood floor.  It is gorgeous!

Heber Valley Girls Camp

Saturday, we had Krista's girls and we took Lani and Dad with us and went to check out the Heber Valley girls camp where we will be having our Birks Family Reunion in June.

We will be staying at the Marjorie Pay Hinckley site.

We have 4 cabins that are all the same and right by each other.  They each have 16 beds.

The girls were picking out which ones they wanted to sleep on.

There are 2 fridges and some shelves in a little storage room.

They have 2 camp stoves with griddles to cook up our bacon and pancakes for breakfast.

8 large tables for eating on.

An awesome firepit for roasting marshmallows for somores.

2 bathrooms with flushing toilets.

Two showers.

Here are a couple of the cabins and the bathrooms.

The amphitheater is a little hike to get to, but not tooooo far.

It has a fun stage.

It looks like it is going to be just perfect for a GREAT TIME!  We can't wait!!!

#Clinefamremodel2015

Jordan finished his first year of graduate school on April 22nd.  They came to our house for a sleepover on their way to California to stay with Jamie's family before heading to Detroit.  Jordan is doing an internship with GM in Detroit for the summer.

Jordan spent a week in California, then headed back here before the long drive to Detroit.  He left Jamie and Logan to spend another week with her family before they fly to Detroit to meet him.  We have been planning to put an addition on the back of our house, a family room so we could have more room for big family dinners.  Mike had been working on plans and submitted them to Taylorsville City.  They had all kinds of changes they needed him to make and all these things we had to do to get our original house up to code.  It was a HUGE PAIN.  Then, Mike came up with the idea of just knocking out the wall between the living room and kitchen and making it all one big room.  It sounded BRILLAINT to me, so when Jordan arrived back here, he began the destruction.  Here he is knocking down our diagonal wall.  That gave us lots more room!

Then he pulled out the Travertine entry floor.

On Saturday, Matt and Josh came over and Matt framed in a new closet door.

Josh and Mike began patching up the ceiling where the diagonal wall used to be. 

Josh and Mike also took the sheetrock off the wall between the kitchen and living room.  We have to find someone to put a beam in the ceiling before we take down the 2x4's, so the ceiling doesn't fall in.

I am LOVING the openness and that I can see out my front window from the kitchen. 

 It's a lot of work and a lot of dust, but I think we are going to LOVE it!!!

A sleepover with the "Middles"

A few weeks ago, there was a message on my phone that said,

 "Hi Grammy, this is Aida.  

I was wondering when the Middles could come for a sleepover"

(We have the big girls, the middle girls, the little girls and now the baby boys.)

They came Friday night and we ate dinner then went to see the newest Madagascar movie.

During the credits at the end of the movie, the girls always like to dance, they are so cute! 

There is a fun little playground right outside the theater that they had fun riding a few of the cars.

Silly girls!

They have the coolest cars.

The girls wanted to make warm packs, so they had a sewing lesson.

Katie was the first, since she had sewn before.

Aida was a natural.

Theirs all turned out great

Here's Aida pinning so she could sew it closed after stuffing it with rice.

All warmed up and ready for bed.

The next morning after playing play dough, they made cinnamon biscuits for breakfast.

Then, down to the playroom to draw some pictures.  

Abbie had a soccer game so we all went.  We got there a little early, so they got to play on the playground for a while before the game.

Abbie did great at her game and her team won.

She is the tallest kid on the team!

Thanks Aida for the great idea of a sleepover with the Middles.