Joy School and the Oregon Coast

I am just noticing that this is my 100th post.  How fantastical!

Still doing that catch up work from the summer so I'm just going to start with the Volmer reunion and then hop back to what we did this past week.

Oh how I love going to the Oregon Coast!  We go the first week in August every year.  On my dad's side, there is a Volmer reunion there every other year and this was the on year so there were so many fun people to hang out with while we were there this year.  Sadly, I lost my phone about half way into the trip so I didn't get to take very many pictures.  Logan is really good at taking home videos but not so good at the videos... and I'm the opposite so we ended up with a handful of pictures to share with you.

Our family was split into two different cabins, with all the married kids in one and the singles and my parents in the other.  The first night we got there Logan got to work with my mom, Kelsy, and Leisha making our reunion shirts.  It ended up taking like three hours sadly but they turned out great.  Black shirts with a white chicken head saying "Bagock!"... which is something my dad has always said to us.  I can't tell you how many times we listened to the messages on the answering machine when I was younger and there would be a missed call from my dad and all he would be saying on the message was, "Bagock!" over and over.

We started the week off going crabbing in Netarts Bay.  The fellows are always eager to get that in first thing (probably as eager as us girls are to go shopping first thing hehe!)  Our kids were still a little young to go out on the boat but they enjoyed feeding and chasing the seagulls and flying kites on the cold beach.

Those guys are getting better and better at crabbing.  My dad just got a new boat and they have all their own gear and are learning the secret spots.  This year in just a few hours they caught 77 crab!  I think that is a new record. 

My dad, Carl, Logan, and Steve gutting the crab.

Logan's hands after wearing his leather gloves all morning.  I feel like I get a picture of him like this every year.  Its funny to think of how he came to the Oregon Coast for the first time with us seven years ago when we had only been dating for like three weeks.  We have pictures of us crabbing back then too.

The kids just loved the water, especially Tommy.  Sadly, the beach in Tierra Del Mar is pretty cold and the water is even colder.  Little Tommy would go straight to the water and get his clothes all wet.  He did this every time we went to the water.  I finally brought him in his swimming suit one morning because I was tired of his jeans getting nasty.  He fell in right away and a wave washed over his head.  After that he hardly wanted anything to do with the water and would run away from the waves like Elsy was.  I guess he had to learn the hard way but it made watching him near the water a whole lot easier!

Our family has stayed at Tierra Del Mar, with few exceptions, every year since I was little.  It is located near Pacific City, OR.  Everyone has heard of Cannon Beach, OR because of the haystack rocks there.  Pacific City also has a big Haystack Rock but it is farther out in the ocean and you can't walk to it on low tide.  But there are some big, big sand dunes and some fun caves and things to explore which we spent a morning doing with all the extended family.

The kids were old enough this year to go climbing around all the rocks with us.  Elsy had been asking to see a starfish for quite a while and was so excited to finally see one because the tide was out.

And of course Tommy was in heaven getting to climb and explore everything.  I sadly don't have any pictures of the huge sand dune! :(  Every year all the cousins climb it and then race down at the same time.  It always reminds me from that scene in Mulan where all the Huns are racing down the mountain of snow on their horses.  Anyway, I didn't climb to the top this year with everyone.  Instead Elsy and I would just climb up a little ways and then ride my cousins sand sled down over and over.  Logan spent the time trying to keep Tommy out of the water... this was before his wave incident so he was still pretty set on getting in.  Logan is so good at keeping after Tommy and his energy.  I should trade him more often.... hmmm...

The cabin we stayed at was three stories so there were two really fun balconies.  The one on the second floor went all the way around the whole cabin.  It was the perfect little race track for all six of my kids and their cousins to run laps on... literally for hours.  They ran around the cabin ALL day long.  Logan brought his hammock and set it out on the porch and we all took turns taking naps in it and reading books.  Here is Elsy in it.  There was also a hot tub which was really fun because we all would pile in in the evenings to watch the sunset.  The cabin had a beautiful view of Sand Lake.

We have many traditions when going to the Coast as a family.  We know all the best places to eat and shop and tour, and what not.  Every year we spend a day in Tillamook.  We always start at the Blue Heron Cheese Factory to try all their jams, brie, and dips as well as pet all the animals they keep.

Then we head to the Tillamook Cheese Factory for some good ole cheese testing and ice cream cone eating.  They put all the cousins in the Baby Loaf car but you can't see them all because some, like Tom, were on the floor of it haha!

Last time we went to the cheese factory was on Memorial Day so they were not making cheese then.  Elsy really liked to see all the cheese and climb all over the big cow there and "milk" it's udders.

I have actually been pretty disappointed in the Tillamook factory's ice cream quality as of late.  I'm not talking about the stuff that you buy at the store, just what they have at their factory at the ice cream counter.  The last few times it has been so soft its basically melted by the time you get to your seat.  They also used to have the most amazing flavors like German chocolate cake, cinnamon bun, bubble gum, cake batter, and many more but now they just have the most boring flavors its kind of a bummer.  So I am seriously thinking of not getting their cones anymore when we go... because one cone costs almost the same price as a gallon from the freezer section anyway and its not melted that way.

But it is just to fun to sit eating ice cream with everyone and maybe that is really what you are paying for anyway. :)

Here we are in our reunion shirts!  We had some really fun activities with the extended family reunion.  My grandma arranged one thing each day for us all to do together.  One of the days we had Family Home Evening, another we had a progressive dinner.  We had a few bonfires and a sandcastle contest too.  One of the fun ones was a day of service where each family had another family to do a service project for.  We ended up picking blueberries and Elsy picked a little bouquet of flowers for the family we had. 

The cabin we were in was a little drive to the beach, instead of a short walk like usual so we didn't spend as much time in the sand usual.  I was a little bummed that I didn't even go on a walk on the beach... but I guess that's the reality of vacations these days... a little more about making the vacation fun for the kids than for ourselves.  But it was worth every minute!  Logan loves to dig holes and he would dig big deep holes for the kids to get buried in.

It was so fun sitting out with our family and getting to chat while our kids just got dirty, dirty, dirty!  My sisters and brother are all such great examples to me.  I love getting to spend time with them!  They are my very best friends.  I am so glad to have them because I always know that they will share the same values as I do and will always accept me for who I am.  They are true friends and we understand one another because we have known each other longer than anyone else.  I am so grateful to my parents for living worthy of their temple covenants so that I can be with my family together in the eternities.

A beautiful last evening on the beach!  There is Haystack Rock in the background.

Tommy is Logan's little buddy.

Here is my little sunshine girl!

We worked really hard to get a picture of Tommy smiling at the camera that wasn't blurry.  He is constantly moving!  There is Cape Lookout in the background.

Growing up, whenever we drove to the coast we stopped at a fish hatchery to eat lunch and stretch our legs.  Sadly, that fish hatchery isn't on the way when we drive from Issaquah.  So on the way home we discovered a park that boasted the tallest totem pole in the world so we decided to stop there to make some lunches.  We were traveling home on a Sunday and we have been trying to make the effort to not go out to eat on Sunday's when we are traveling.  We decided that just because we were on vacation didn't mean we shouldn't sacrifice a little to try and keep the day holy.  It makes sense to eat out if you don't have anything, but since we had a cooler full of food that we were bringing home we decided it wasn't necessary and had some sandwiches.  I am grateful we are trying to do little things like that to make Sundays feel a little more special when we are away from home.

We had a great trip and it totally stunk to come home.

We have been trying out different activities for family night these days.  Elsy always wants to make pink cupcakes (blaming Pinkalicious) so we made some for our neighbors and friends and dropped them off.  We ended up leaving them on doorsteps because people weren't home but it is fun to see Elsy get excited about trying to make someone's day better.

Tommy at his 18 month check up!  I forgot to take a picture of him in his diaper on the table.  He was just under 28 lbs (90th percentile), and 34 inches tall (93rd percentile) and his head was 20.25 inches (98th percentile).  He is a big boy and is so strong and stocky, not really fat.  I love his extreme eyebrows and his gappy teeth.

Here is one of those family pictures that could be used as a stock photo because we totally look perfect. ;)

So this week was a fun one because I had something to get done everyday!  I haven't had a week like that I don't think since we moved from Redmond when I had all those fun activities callings!  So it was nice to have every day be full of purpose.  Joy School was at our house this week (which was Mon and Wed) and then I taught piano lessons on Thurs and I had lots of errands to do on Tue and Fri so it was really fun.



On Sunday we finally walked around the temple.  Elsy has been asking for a few weeks now but we have been getting there to late to get to do it before church and afterwards we are always so tired and hungry we just go straight home.  It was fun to smell the flowers and enjoy a beautiful autumn day on the temple grounds.

The letter this week was C so we did caterpillars.  We started by stringing beads on yarn and making little caterpillars.  Then I read them a book I wrote in college about the stages of a butterflies life that Logan helped me illustrate (back when we were just barely engaged).  Then I passed out leaves I had collected that morning for their caterpillars to eat.  Sadly, the kids noticed little bugs all over the leaves and there was a little bit of chaos until I got all the leaves thrown outside haha!  But they loved it.

 

Then we made caterpillar C's!  (Quick side note, I was noticing the other day that my refrigerator looks like a mom's refrigerator... with animal and letter magnets, paintings from the kids, and artwork that Elsy has done at school.  I just had this thought like, oh gosh... that's me now! But then I got an overwhelming feeling of pride... like, yes!  This is my fridge!  What and accomplishment.  Kinda cheesy but it was actually a really special mom moment.)

Then after making the C's we just threw about 600 pom poms all over the living room while dancing to Mena Menah.  The kids loved it and we are still finding puff balls in the couch and around the house.

Oh!  And on of the moms sent me some more pictures from the first day of Joy School!  Haley, Elsy, Ella, Cache, and Doran.  :)

And there was even a picture of us together on the first day!  Except, Elsy was trying to wrestle away from me, that is a face of distress not just a little smile... more of a grimace. Haha!  And hurrah for double chins. :(

On the second day I taught them about the "Ch" sound and then we learned about different chores.  We sang "When We're Helping We're Happy!" and I had a bunch of chores for the kids to rotate through.  One was washing the windows, folding washcloths, vacuuming those pom poms up, washing dishes in the sink, and sweeping pom poms in the kitchen (I had to get my money's worth out of them pom poms!)

Tommy really misses Elsy when she goes to Joy School so he really enjoyed getting to be a part of it this week. :)

And of course we did coloring time.  It is really hard to keep Tommy in his chair.

Another thing I did this week was make a "Bathroom Steps" chart for Elsy.  She can totally go to the bathroom on her own but she hates to do it because she hates washing her hands.  So I thought a little chart like this would help.  Guess what!?  It didn't work.  :(

This weekend was conference and it was so wonderful!  I have always heard people say they are excited for conference and I have never felt more than just a little bit excited.  But this time I was super excited, I think because I actually had some specific questions that I was seeking answers too.  It was really a spiritual weekend for us at our house with a lot of prayers answered, and a lot of reassurances that we are on the right path, and just some really overwhelming moments of feeling the Spirit testify of the truthfulness of what was being spoken.

After Saturday afternoon session Logan went in to get the kids up but never came back.  The monitor was next to me and I saw he had gotten in the crib with Tommy.  

Elsy looked lonely so I climbed into her toddler bed with her and read to her too.  It was a nice little afternoon activity.

A few days ago my wrists started hurting and aching quite a lot and my ring and pinkie finger have been going numb.  I think it is carpal tunnel related because I have been crocheting a lot more lately as well as have been playing the piano more for teaching lessons, and I have started some new weight exercises that have been hard as well as journaling (I have been trying to write in my journal every day).  Anyway, the combination of all this and carrying a super heavy boy has made my tendons in my forearms hurt a lot.  I woke up this morning and the pain was pretty terrible.  After searching the house for a wrap Logan finally made me one out of the sparkly, stretchy leftover fabric from Elsy's Ariel costume from last Halloween.  I told him I felt like I was going to be in some sort of Cosplay and we laughed but I was grateful because it helped if feel a bit better.  I think I'm going to have to go seek out a doctor though here in the near future.

My dad and my sister were able to go to conference today and so was Logan's brother Hiatt.  It was funny getting this picture in a text from them.  It's funny how even though there were thousands of people there, they still ran into each other.

Tonight my dad was walking around temple square alone and he sent a little video to all of our family that I really appreciated.  He was filming the Salt Lake Temple and he said something along the lines of how the pioneers left all the imperfections in the granite.  And it was proof that even things with imperfections can make something so beautiful and holy as a temple.  And then he shared how that's the same with us, how we have imperfections too but those are there to help to make us beautiful and make us something more.  That was something that I felt was a recurring message to me throughout the course of Conference Weekend.  How our trials and our challenges are there to help make us who we were meant to become while here on earth.  That is why we are here. 

Our friends Tandy and Jason are really good singers and they taught Logan an arrangement they put together on the ukulele this weekend when they came for conference Saturday morning.  It is an arrangement for "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus".  They do such a beautiful job of harmonizing and Logan and I are trying to learn it.  But it has been nice today to listen to Logan practicing it over and over and singing it.  

I'm trying to be like Jesus;

I'm following in his ways.

I'm trying to love as he did, in all that I do and say.

At times I am tempted to make a wrong choice,

But I try to listen as the still small voice whispers,

"Love one another as Jesus loves you.

Try to show kindness in all that you do.

Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought,

For these are the things Jesus taught."

(Janice Kapp Perry)

I like how the song says "I'm trying to be like Jesus."  Even though I know I make mistakes, I also know if I keep trying then I will someday be able to be like Him.  If you missed out on conference, set some time aside to watch it.  You will never regret it. :)

More Bean Adventures

I still can't believe summer is over.  But this autumn has been kind to us and we are so grateful for the sunshine.  

I am still playing a bit of catch up so bare with me while I try and bring my blog back up to date with a July catch up and then a re-cap of our week.

I feel like I have a million pictures of Elsy when she was little little in swings and I realized I needed a few of cute little Tommy in the swing too.  Awww.

So this summer I began waking Elsy up from her naps at 3pm.  She has always been a napping rock star but it has begun to infringe on her bedtime.  So I have started to shorten her naps to two hours instead of three and I'm not sure if that is helping but I'm not ready to give up nap time... especially when she is still so good at it, so I don't mind letting her roll around in her bed at night for a while.

When I wake her up I sneak in and pick her up while she is still sleeping (because I don't want Tommy to wake up yet) and then I put her on my bed where she slowly wakes up.  Most of the time she wakes up really chipper, but sometimes she is quite the dragon.

I have decided that I really like the idea of going hiking with the kids so in July we decided to try out a short hike with the kiddos.  We decided to let them start out walking on their own and then put Tommy into the backpack after a while.  It was just a few paces onto the trail when Tommy lay down on the trail and refused to move.  We laughed about it so much it became a game for him and after several attempts at getting him to move along we just put him in the backpack.  He knows how to work the system.

It was a trail along Jacob's Creek.  The perfect distance for little legs, about two miles round trip and we decided that that was perfect for Elsy's feet and our backs (we took turns carrying Tommy).  We hiked into a little waterfall area and ate lunch.  We were sad we didn't bring the kids swimming suits because while the weather was a little chilly when we left, by the time we got to the creek it was sunny and people were splashing in the water.  And boy is it a chore to keep Tommy out of the water!

I was surprised at how much energy Elsy had!  I carried her a little of the way back because she seemed a little tired but when I put her down she basically ran all the way back!  Tommy fell asleep and collapsed down into the bottom of the backpack.

Oh how I love my little man!  I just love his blonde hair.  I wondered if I would get any kiddos with my complexion with how dark Logan's genes are.  But here he is!  Blonde hair and blue eyes... and super tan.  I just love how he holds my hand everywhere and comes and hugs my legs if he is feeling nervous.  He always has a car or a little superhero in his hands and they are always making loud noises.

Elsy always wants to walk around the temple every Sunday.  We don't always get to but we did today.  This is from a time we walked around the temple in July.  I took this picture and just couldn't believe how old she looked.  It made me think of those pictures people take of their eight year olds in front of the temple for their baptism pictures.  She sure is growing.  She walked around singing "I Love To See the Temple" at the top of her lungs.  

Tommy and Elsy have also recently taken to holding hands.

I hardly ever can get a picture of both of them smiling so I had to include this one.  They are becoming such buddies.

Another exciting thing that happened this summer was Logan and his business partner Johnny presented their project, ShowIt, to investors.  They spent quite a long time preparing for it.  Doesn't this look like a first day of school picture? Haha!  Anyway, the meeting went really well and helped steer them in the right direction on what to do with this idea.  We are constantly learning as Logan moves forward with his talents and ideas.  He really can do anything he puts his mind to and it is fun being a part of it!

And then here is a picture of me on the job as well.  We are always driving to the park, grocery store, play dates or groups, the library, etc.  I love chauffeuring my kiddies around.  We keep library books in the car and I am constantly handing them back new books, singing songs, and just chatting with them.  

This crazy girl has got sass.  She can be such a sweetheart and such a stinker.  She loves to turn off the lights in nursery and has been driving the leaders a little crazy with that one.  She knows what she wants and knows how to get it.  This week my goal is to not give in to tears.  Instead I will be pulling out the "Calm Down Jar" again and handing it to her immediately when she starts to melt.  I want to teach her there are other ways to communicate than to scream and cry when she doesn't get what she wants.  This girl has an amazing vocabulary and loves to tell me what words start with.  "Ssssssnake!  Snake dat starts with a S!"  I have been impressed with her abilities to do this, even with words that could be mistaken for a K when in actuality it is a C.  She also likes to tell us what things say by sliding her finger along the word.  She usually makes it up, but I am proud of her for knowing that groups of letters can be read.

We got to church early one day and let Elsy pretend to drive.  She looked so old and mature!  Today she told me she was going to drive someday and that I wouldn't have to.  I can't even imagine that!

Napping under a living room tent!

My friend Laura told us about Ebright Park.  It is a fun one!  The first time we went there all three of us wore our sunglasses.  Now every time we pull up in the parking lot they instantly want their sunglasses.  Tommy loves to wear his "Haaa!" and his "Sussss" (Hat and Sunglasses)  He has been blowing us away with how many words he is trying to say.  And I am starting to understand him more and more which is awesome!

I just love following my kiddos around while they discover the world around them.  There is nothing more important than helping them along the path of life, teaching them what is true and false, what is safe and what isn't, and how to be happy and not sad.

Part of our goals this summer were to up are game on taking care of ourselves, spiritually, physically, and mentally.  Logan decided for his goal he would wake up at 5:30 am every week day to go exercise and then come back to read his scriptures before work.  I was blown away at his ability to do this every day, all summer!, even when we went to bed late.  However, he always ended up with extra time and would fall asleep on the couch after reading for a while.  I finally convinced him to sleep in his bead that extra half hour and then just get up at 6 am. Haha, so he has been doing that the last couple weeks and I think that has helped a little.

I have been reading my scriptures in the morning instead of during nap time and have been trying (but not always succeeding) at waking up before the kiddies do.  It is really empowering to wake up before your kids.  But at different stages of being a mom I don't think it is always possible to wake up before them!  In order to do this, though, we have been having to go to bed sooner than usual.  We have always been night owls, even before we were married.  We seriously stayed up until almost midnight every night!  But since the beginning of the summer we have been trying to be in bed around 10:30 am and it has been a real game changer in our lives.

I have always had a good habit of reading my scriptures every day since I was probably in middle school!  But Logan has always struggled.  I have mentioned to him now and then that it is important to be reading his scriptures every day but he never seemed to see it as a priority.  After an entire summer of reading, earlier this week Logan came to me and said something along the lines of, "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you sooner.  I can't believe I didn't think I needed to read the scriptures every day.  I am learning so much."  I was so happy for him, that he was able to feel that difference.  It has been a great change in our family to be doing these goals together. :)

While Logan wakes up early to work out, I have been going to the Zumba class at the Duthie Hill LDS church building.  And I LOVE it!  There are four amazing instructors that teach three times a week for one hour and it is such a great work out and is so much fun!  All the kids play in the back of the gym with nursery toys while I get a crazy good workout.  Its so fun but since it is so late in the morning (9:30) I only go once a week because I usually like to be ready for the day before that.  I also have been running this summer and that has been something I always hated but now it is something that I really enjoy.  I also do my weight days in the hallway of my apartment outside the bathroom while the kids take a bath in the mornings.  I feel so good, and it is so nice to chase a kid or run up the stares and not feel out of breath!

I have made the discovery that playdates are not a greater stress for me, but are a wonderful thing to keep my children distracted with friends while I get other things done!  We have neighbors, the Carruth's, that have a little boy, Cache, that is Elsy's age and a little girl, Nora, that is Tommy's age.   We love having them and other friends over.

This summer has been a great one but it has also been a hard one in many ways.  Logan has seen me struggling and brought me home some flowers one day.  He must love me or something. :)

Okay I am all done with July!  Hurray!  But look at this cute picture of Tommy that my brother-in-law Marshall took when we were at the reunion in June!

And this one of my pretty Elsy that Logan took!  Oh my gosh my kids are the cuuuuuuutest!!

The internet was down at Logan's work this week so he got to take an extra work from home day and we loved it!  The kids are quite the distraction for him though, sometimes.

Here is tJoy School group on their first day!  Haley, Elsy, Ella, Cache, and Doran.  Tomorrow is our first day of Joy School at our house.  I just planned everything out, right before doing this post.  Hopefully it goes well!

We are going to be doing the letter C.  Here is a picture from when they did the letter A.  Elsy has been talking about the letter B all week so I feel a little pressure about my C's haha.  We are going to be doing caterpillars.

We are trying to go to the park a lot with the sunshine we have been having, since we know the rains are going to be coming down soon.  My friend Andrea showed us a new park, Grandview Park.  It feels like it is on the top of the world and may be our new favorite.  Especially since we can have three way slide races!

It also has a walking trail that Elsy enjoyed riding her bike around.  Here she is after she found out she had to let Tommy ride on her bike for a few minutes.  She climbed up onto a rock to cry.  I thought the sky matched her mood. 

This week she wasn't very kind to a boy at play group.  When we got home I gave her a talking to.  And then we sat, and once I could tell she was feeling bad I told her there were three things she needed to do to make things better.  She had to say she was sorry to Hunter, then she needed to pray and say sorry to Heavenly Father, because when you aren't nice it makes him sad too.  And then she needed to take the Sacrament on Sunday.  She said she was sorry to Hunter when we were at play group (because I made here haha) but then we prayed together and I could tell she was feeling the Spirit and that was really special.  Then, today, while we took the sacrament we talked about how we were doing the last step, where we decide to do something different than be unkind next time.  We did this with a couple things throughout the week.  I know she is young enough and pure enough to not need to go through this repentance process, that it isn't necessary until she is eight when she can be baptized.  But I also am realizing that I need to teach her to do these things so that they are a habit for her before hand.  I have been struck to the core, lately, by the words of the second verse of "I Am a Child of God."

"I am a child of God

And so my needs are great.

Help me to understand his word

before it grows to late.

"Lead me, guide me,

walk beside me,

help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

to live with Him someday."

I don't want to miss the opportunities to teach my kiddos, before it grows to late.  Every week, when I write down my weekly goals, on the very top of my goals for the kids it says to "Talk of Christ."  I know I miss many opportunities, but I am trying to remember that the reason I am home, taking care of my children is because I need to teach them about Christ.  About what is right and wrong.

Okay, I know that when other people put pictures up of their kids with messy faces and they think their kid looks so cute... all I think is, "Gross".  But its true that you think your kid is cute no matter what and since this is my blog, I can post whatever pictures I think are cute and the general public doesn't have to enjoy it. :P

Okay, so we have taken on a lot of new things the summer!  One of those being Logan's new woodworking hobby!  He made me a beautiful shelf to help prepare him for the big project of the summer which was an entertainment center!  It has gone through various stages over the course of the last three months but it was finally finished this week.  I thought I would post some pictures of the different stages!

I found some pictures of different entertainment centers on Pinterest that I really liked and then Logan drew up some plans on Sketchup.  I think the hardest part of this whole process for him was having to maneuver around an 8 foot entertainment center on our probably 10 or 11 foot wide porch.

After dinner each night the kids would want to sit in their spots and watch the work be done.  Because it rained so much this summer Logan built a make shift porch cover canopy to protect himself and the equipment from the wet, but every night he would drag what he had done inside so it would stay dry over night.

It was fun to see it coming together slowly but surely.  And it turned out so professional too.  This pictures is of the night where he was cutting a little dowel of wood and covering and sanding down all the holes where the screws went in.  I like this picture because it shows our old tiny entertainment center in comparison.  Logan got a new TV when we first moved to this apartment and it was overhanging the edges of the old entertainment center and we had to screw the TV onto it so it wouldn't fall off.

I did some research on paint and decided I wanted to do a chalk paint with a little bit of a distressed sanding job.  So in order to do that we had to stain the whole thing so that when we sanded it through the dark wood would come out instead of the cedar color.  Here is Logan taping all the wood planks that we wanted to leave the stained color right before painting it with the chalk paint.  This was the day before we went to the Oregon Coast, Logan said he wanted all of it done except for the doors before we went on vacation.

Logan was so nice and drove all the way up to Kirkland to buy me some Annie Sloan chalk paint from a little boutique up there.  We had a fun time painting it together.

And here is Logan applying the wax coating.  I just love the way the wood stain turned out against the chalk paint.  We used Valspar Dark Walnut stain and Annie Sloan Antique White chalk paint with the Annie Sloan wax over the whole thing.  We also discovered if we treated the wood before we stained it, the wood absorbed the color more richly.

We made the deadline of having it done before leaving to the Oregon Coast the next day.  But because we went on vacation the project got put on the back burner for about a month before the doors were completed.  I wanted some sliding barn doors and the hardware for that can cost an arm and a leg... literally.  So Logan looked up how to make his own hardware.

Look at how happy he was to be working out in the summer sun!

What Logan ended up doing for the hardware was building it all out aluminum and then painted all the nuts and bolts and wheels, and bars with black spray paint.  I thought his way of hanging them all out so they wouldn't get fingerprints on them was pretty handy haha!

Voila!  I absolutely LOVE it and it looks even better than I wanted it to.  Now I just need to decorate it!  Logan was so kind with my picky-ness and we were glad we paid attention to the little details because it turned out perfect.

Yesterday we went to Rattlesnake Lake again.  We cracked out Elsy's old Obedience Sticker charts again because she needed a reminding.  I think that is something we will be rotating to quite a lot!  Haha!  But for her reward she said she wanted to go to the lake and throw rocks in the water.  She is her father's daughter.

It was a beautiful day and we all shared an apple and had fun throwing rocks in the water.

Another exciting thing that happened was my sister, Sharee, had her third little baby!  Then named him Levi Rube Liebing.  Rube was a very close family friend and hunting buddy of ours who passed away almost two years ago.  What an special name to pass on to a special new little baby.  We are all so excited to get to know him.

Before I left for the Women's General Broadcast last night we went and got doughnuts at Krispy Kreame.  The kids LOVE it there and Tommy knew exactly which doughnut he wanted.  

And of course, Elsy wanted pink with sprinkles.  She daintily ate of the tiniest layer of the top off to eat the frosting and then promptly wanted to eat our doughnuts instead of the rest of hers.  We had fun watching all the doughnuts get made too.

I just loved the broadcast last night and I wish I could share every feeling and insight I had with the world so they could know what beauties the gospel holds.  I just felt like I was floating with how much was said that spake directly to my soul.  I always like to go to the church building for the Women's Session because I feel like I can feel the Spirit there easier.  I was so touched by the music and the messages that I felt almost as if a conduit of light was coming straight down onto me and enlightening my mind to the things I needed to do to help myself in the things I have been struggling with, worrying about, and questioning in my life.  Logan and I talked for a while about the quote that Uchtdorf shared from The Little Prince, that went something like this, "One sees only with the heart.  Everything essential is invisible."  I was struck with how true this sentence was.  How the love I feel for my family is invisible, how the truthfulness I have from the gospel can't be seen, or even heard really unless it is felt with a humble heart.  Logan and I had a great conversation about Uchtdorf's talk.  How we can't force people to listen harder in order for them to understand the gospel, but we hand try and help them to listen differently.  I am so grateful for the messages shared and am excited for this weekend when we will get to hear from more leaders of the church at General Conference. :)