#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.

Birks family dinner

When I called Ric to wish him a happy birthday, he asked why we never get together any more for family dinners.  Our family has gotten so big, that we don't fit in anyone's house anymore.  Since the weather had been great, we decided to invite everyone over and eat outside.  I was a little cool, but, but it was so fun to get together, that we just put on jackets and enjoyed it!

Paige, Carissa, and Devin

Lucy, Cierra, Sophie and Abbie

Jeff and Jen

Kathy, Riley, and Lani

Matt, Mike and Krista

Chandler and Jamie

Jamie, Elycia and Paige

Jordan

Logan and Lucy

Logan and a big ball!

Since I was taking pictures, I didn't have one of me, but I had this one Keelie took of me when she was here a few weeks ago.  I have no idea why it saved with 3 pictures, but I couldn't figure out how to get just one so here it is.

Happy Easter

Easter 2015

All decorated for Spring

Happy Easter!

On Thursday, my cute niece Stephanie was in town from Dallas, so we invited her and her kids over for a visit.  Krista was the only one of our kids that was available to come, so she brought her kids and we did a little Easter party.  

The kids dyed and decorated Easter eggs.

Even little Walter got in on the fun with some help from his mom.

They turned out pretty awesome!

We had an Easter egg hunt

and decorated cupcakes.

Aida took a picture of me and Holland

and Mike

Friday morning, I went to Josh's to dye eggs with his girls. (we learned paint shirts save on clothes)

Theirs turned out fun too!

Friday afternoon, we went over to Krista's house to help her move the playroom into the sewing room and the sewing room into the playroom.  Hailey and Aida talked us into an impromptu sleepover.  They went with us to Jamie's house to dye Easter eggs with his girls.  Molly and Abbie joined us for a sleepover too!  We stopped and got dinner on the way home and the girls had so much fun together.

Saturday, Mike and I went down to Springville so he could go to the Priesthood session of conference with Jordan.  Jamie and I dyed Easter eggs with Logan.  He was hilarious.  He just dropped the egg in the color, let it sit for only a second then pulled it out with his hand and dropped another egg in a color. (We stripped him down so his clothes wouldn't be covered in dye.)

Decorating them with stickers

Checking out the treats in the Easter eggs. 

Cute Easter Jammies!