How many shades of gray?

Happy 4th of July to all!  Tyler and Alayna made it back safely after an awesome trip to Arizona and California with the Hart grandparents and enjoyed spending time with cousins.  They had a wonderful time!  My favorite quotes from Alayna when she got back were "I was stung by a scorpion and I never want a chicken, they are too hard to catch."

 

We had a fun 4th of July with a family BBQ and watched Independence Day since Alayna had never seen it before. 

Clearly Marisa and Kayla are having way too much fun!.  Marisa got to do security for the Stadium of Fire last night!  I need to ask her if she had to body slam anyone into the ground.

The bad news this week was that my mom fell down some stairs and suffered a compression fracture on her lower spine.  It was a tough week as she couldn’t keep any food down because of the pain meds and the pain was really bad.  Mom, you are in our prayers.  We hope for a speedy recovery!

It was so cool, due to modern technology, that we could talk to all of our kids at the same time even though we were in 4 different states!

Bob and I worked like crazy on home projects.  It wasn’t a relaxing week, but it was a very productive one!

First, we finished most of the computer room.  The big counter we ordered will be here tomorrow.  Basically we took out the 3 old desks and will be putting a white counter along the wall instead.  I made a wall to display my blog books of our travels (I also finished my 2014 blog book and our cruise blog book this week!!!)

Here is the blog wall with my family history desk (where my desks used to be):

Here is the wall where Tylers desk was.  We put the shelving unit in and we still have some more painting to go.  The white counter will go below it.

We had a terrible time trying to come up with the right colors for our bedroom.  I can’t even tell you how many hours have gone into the color scheme and remodeling!  We sure tried a lot of shades of gray!

Heres a sneak peek at the master bedroom:

Here you can see the new colors of the bathroom.  Bob stained the cabinets and we got rid of the lavender after 11 years.  It’s a beautiful soothing color and I love it.  Plus I always get a kick out of the fact that Bob is always fixing toilets or things by the toilets on his days off!

So, what else is new?

This week our little family is spread out across 4 states!  Crazy!  Tyler and Alayna flew out to Arizona and then drove with Gma & Gpa Hart to California.  Tyler is at Chris & Wendys for a few nights while Alayna went up to Santa Barbara to get the rest of the girls for Teen Week.  A special thanks to MJ for hosting them one night, from the grandparents for braving all those girls, and the harts for taking on Tyler!

Finally started working at Wal-Mart! I think this will be really good for him.

Marisa also got a job so you can contact her if you want more info.

Bob and I are LOVING being empty-nesters for the week.  We are knocking out home projects right and left and going on some fun dates.  This Saturday was lunch and a date to see the BYU ballroom dance team!  On Tuesday we are doing dinner and going to see the new Terminator. 

Here is a picture of our new wall- each kids baptism pics along with family pics in front of the temples.

It was so fun to have the ballroom dance team in town!

 

They even did an incredible “gaming” number with black light!!

Here are a few pictures of Kayla.  She had a fun camping weekend with her ward and they got to go to the hot springs:

 

She and her roommates also traveled down to Utah this week.  Thanks to Jonathan and Diana for taking her out to eat and visiting with her.  I appreciate it!

Igniting the love of reading from within

So, I had the wonderful experience to attend the State Iowa Reading Association Conference in Ames, where I was also asked to be a presenter.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much I learned.  We had nationally known speakers flown in from California, New York, Minnesota, etc.  I took notes like a crazy person and it was so wonderful to be surrounded by thousands of people who feel the same way about reading that I do!

My presentation went great!  I was shaking like a leaf though!  Once I got up there, I did awesome (I know that presentation like the back of my hand).  I ended up wearing my superwoman shirt with a skirt and heels!  Nothing says heroic bravery like wearing that in front of professional colleagues!

I had 2 famous authors/presenters stay and listen to my presentation: Mary Bigler and Jennifer Saravallo (you can google them to see more about them.  A lady came up and told me Jennifer was tweeting everything I said, and sure enough when I looked on twitter I had 20 new followers and was tagged in tons of tweets!!!  How awesome is that?!  Then, Mary, who is literally going on to her 51st year of teaching, came up and talked to me and said she loved my presentation and that I have the same reading philosophy as her!  I almost passed out.  Then, she asked to use my computer for her presentation and talked to me for  a while!

I even got to attend an amazing session by author, Delia Ray and only 10 people attended.  I was shocked, but that gave me time to meet her and speak to her.

We got to hear from an actual National Geographic explorer and the crazy new things she is working on to help steer girls into the sciences by breaking stereotypes.  So cool!!!

Inflatable 5K

Jurassic World and Projects

Well, our summer is busy busy busy!  I keep hoping for some relaxation.  Maybe that comes after the big presentation this week?

We did go see Jurassic world and LOVED it!!!  We took Alayna and her friend Megan to dinner at Zoe’s and then a fun night at the movies!

Alayna started tennis camp and is really enjoying it! 

Tyler got a job at Wal-Mart and starts his training tomorrow. 

We continue to work on the house  a ton.  It is looking amazing but it sure has been a lot of work!

Started the computer room- got rid of all 3 desks- cant wait to show you the final when we finish.

Finished Alaynas bathroom

Finally got Tylers hair cut just in time for senior pics

I leave tomorrow for the big reading conference in Ames.  I am extremely nervous, plus I havent really traveled by myself since we got married.  I hope all goes well and I don’t die during the presentation.  The kids fly out to Arizona and head to Santa Barbara this week with the Harts who just got back from Peru.  AND a special Happy Fathers day to all you wonderful dads!

Insane Inflatable 5k!

Tyler Senior Pics