Happy 30th Birthday Amanda!

Well 30 has come and gone, and admittedly, I don't feel any different. :)

I had a great birthday on Monday. My sister, Rachel, and her husband and children came up to celebrate. They watched Jared and Jenna (Kevin was at school) for us while Derek and I went out. We went to Ashlawn-Highland, which is James Monroe's house. We have three presidential houses close to our house. We had already been to Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's), so we planned to hit up Ashlawn-Highland and Montpellier (James Madison's). Unfortunately, we ran out of time for Montpellier. I have heard it is a great place, so maybe some day. We had lunch at a place called Michie's Tavern. It was an Inn back in the 1700s. We had been wanting to go there for a while. It was decent, but very pricey. Despite that, I am glad that we made it there before moving. We also made a run to Target and Dairy Queen. What would my 30th birthday be without a DQ ice cream cake? :) I know most of you think that a run to DQ isn't a big deal, but the closet DQ to me is 45 minutes away. I can't wait until we live in NC and have one close.

Anyway, we made it home in time to pick Kevin up at the bus stop. Then Derek took the kids to the store to buy gifts. They really wanted to give me gifts this year. Both Kevin and Jenna thought of a gift, on their own, that they wanted to get me. It was really sweet. Kevin got me orange roses. So pretty. Jenna bought me a watch. Mine died a little while ago. I love having a watch, so she knew that I really wanted a new one. I told Derek to let her pick out whatever she wanted (at Walmart), and I would wear it, even if it wasn't something I would pick. She actually did a decent job. I thought I might end up wearing a Dora watch or something like that, but it is a nice looking gold and silver watch. :) Thank you to everyone that got me gifts. I felt very loved.

Rachel is awesome. Not only did she and David watch our children, but she also made me dinner, helped pack lunches for the next day, and did a lot of the post dinner clean-up. She is the best sister ever! Thank you so much, Rachel! (And thank you to David too).

We ended the night by putting the kids to bed, and then the adults played Mario Kart. It was a lot of fun. Derek and David definitely beat Rachel and I. She and I were having a rough time trying to drive. (I better not hear any "woman driver" jokes!) :)

Amanda and the cake


Kevin, Amanda, Jared and Jenna blowing out the candles


Licking off the candles. Mmm...


Thank you to all the people that called. I love getting to talk to people for special occasions. It's a treat. You can see my new watch in this picture.


Getting ready to open presents


Opening the watch from Jenna. I love seeing how happy she was to give it to me. Kevin was the same way with the flowers. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture.


Some great earrings from my parents. I was talking on the phone when this picture was taken (I'm holding the phone between my ear and shoulder).


A beautiful skirt from Derek


A new peeler from my sister and her husband. This is a bit of an inside joke. Everyone hated my peeler. It didn't really bother me, but everyone else that had to use it complained about it. Rachel had been "threatening" to buy me a new peeler for a long time. The new one actually does work really well. I love it. Thanks Rachel and David for showing me the light. :)


I thought this was a cute picture of Kevin. He really enjoyed playing with the tear off opener on a box we got in the mail.


Tuesday was Jenna's last day of preschool. They had a big party with a bounce house, magician, awards, and pizza. Jenna and Jared had a good time. Jenna is a fairly shy child. She surprised both her teacher and I by being the first child to volunteer to help the magician. I was a little worried, but I figured it was good for her to volunteer. She did really well...right up to the end of her time helping. All of a sudden, she burst into tears. Both her teacher and I ran up to rescue her. She was upset that the magician had pulled things out of her hair and nose (he made balls "appear" from there). Later she told Derek that she "volunteered because [she] thought it would be fun, but it wasn't fun." I guess it will be a while before she volunteers again. The magician was actually very good. I am always amazed at their tricks.

Jenna receiving an award for her accomplishments this year


Ms. Darlene gave each of the children a "Graduation Book"


The magician made balloon animals for each of the children at the end. Jenna got a poodle on a leash.


Jared the frog


Today we put Jared down for nap in his bedroom, and Jenna and Kevin had quiet time on the couches in the family room. Unfortunately a few minutes after Jared went to bed he came screaming out of his room. He had heard thunder. Derek tried to tell him it was just a truck. He went back into his room right as another huge crash of thunder was heard. The poor kid was terrified (he hates thunder). After trying a few different ideas, we let him have quiet time on the couch with Jenna and Kevin. That was his choice because he could be where they were, but cover himself with the pillows so that the thunder wouldn't get him. It worked. The thunder didn't get him. :)

This is what we found at the end of nap time. So cute! (In case you can't tell, he is asleep).


Kevin had made a nice fort next to Jared. :)


Jenna has turned into a budding little photographer. She is constantly asking to take pictures with our camera. Here are some of her latest pictures.

Jenna took the first six at Kevin's baseball game. I told her that she couldn't take them of other people. That is why they are so random.













Derek


Jared rummaging through his mother's purse


Kevin (we think that this has a nice artistic flair to it)


Kevin took this photo of himself holding his baseball shirt

Graduation and Camping

Jenna graduated from preschool on Friday. She actually has two more days this week because of all the snow we had this winter, but they went ahead and held the graduation on Friday. I am not a big fan of graduation for preschoolers. I like the idea of a "moving up ceremony," but I feel that graduation should be reserved for bigger accomplishments. In high school and college one must work hard to graduate. In preschool, you just have to pay money and show up. Anyway, the school went all out, and they had caps and gowns. Jenna looked very cute. Her class recited the books of the Old Testament (she goes to a non-denominational preschool at a Baptist church), sang the "Presidents' Song" (with the last names of all of the Presidents of the U.S from Washington to Obama), an "ABC...Jesus Loves Me" song and a poem about how many days are in each month of the year. It was pretty impressive. She has had a phenomenal teacher for the past two years. Ms. Darlene has been wonderful to Jenna. Jenna was so shy when she went to preschool last year. Ms. Darlene took her under wing, loved and encouraged her, and Jenna has really come alive this year. She was really blessed to have such an amazing teacher.

On her way to her seat


Jenna


Performing with her class


Receiving her Certificate (I think they actually did call them diplomas)


Jenna with her teachers, Ms. Julie (the assistant) and Ms. Darlene


Friday to Saturday was a Father/Son campout for the males from our church. They went to a boy scout camp about 1 1/2 hours from our house. Unfortunately it poured on them Friday night. I think they had a good time anyway. The young women also had an overnight campout that night too. Since Derek and the boys were off camping, Jenna had to go with me to the young women camp. We had a good time together. Camp was at the farm of someone from our church about an hour from our house. It was beautiful. I have no idea how much land they have, but we drove for four miles on their property to get to the camp site. They must have camping events up there fairly often because there was a pavilion, benches around a huge fire pit, and two flag poles. It was really fun to hang out with Jenna. She copied all of my night and morning routines. When she saw me do things like wash my face and put on deodorant, she wanted to do the same thing. I let her. I figured it wasn't a big deal for one day. We were really lucky because even though it thundered and lightninged all around us, it never hit us. We had a lot of wind, but that was it. I had to re-stake parts of my tent a couple of times, but it was no big deal. Overall it was really fun.

Jenna all ready for bed (It was completely dark when I took this picture, so I had to guess where to point the camera. I was happy that she was actually in it). :)


Jenna eating breakfast on Saturday


Jenna took this picture of Amanda at the campout. She did a good job.


This is our little group of tents. We had about 10 people (7 young women, 2 leaders, and Jenna) in our ward area.


Jenna looking at a stream on the property.


Amanda and Jenna


The stream




I took this picture from where we all parked our cars. We set up our tents in an open area on the other side of the bridge.


Pictures of the property. It was so beautiful.




On an unrelated note, we have not officially put the house on the market yet. It is on Craigslist. We decided to put it there while we negotiated with some Realtors. We did find one that will work with us. Hopefully we can meet up in the next few days, and have it officially on the market this week. Please pray that it will sell quickly.

Jenna's moment of Zen:

Jenna said that Derek made Jared cry.
He said "I didn't make him, he chose to cry when I told him what he needed to do."
She said (angrily) "I just decided to cry because of what you did to Jared."

Before and After...Oh, and Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. I have had a nice Mother's Day. Jenna made me a card. Kevin made me a card, a really cool bowl filled with kisses (mmm....), a flower, and a little flower clip to hold papers or pictures or whatever. I got a rose at church. It was just a nice relaxing day. After being gone for the last three days, it was really nice to spend the day with my family. Derek didn't have any meetings today, and was actually able to ride to church with us (often when he doesn't have meetings, he still takes the missionaries, so he doesn't ride with us). What a great day!

Jenna's Mother's Day Card (she made it at school...it took her two days)


The flower from Kevin


The card from Kevin:

The Outside


The Inside (He wrote the Lyrics to the song "I Often Go Walking")


The flower clip


The bowl with kisses






The rose from church


Now, for the pictures you've all been waiting for...the Before and After pictures of my house! It isn't on the market quite yet, but I only have a few small things left to do, so hopefully I will be done in a couple of days. At least all of the painting is done!

The outside of the house (no before and after here...just nice spring pictures). Most of the flowers are gone now. So sad.




The kids' rooms (again, no before, only after, sorry) - These took a couple of days just to move people into the right room and organize all their stuff.

Jenna's Room (I painted the walls, trim, ceiling, and closet, put up the boarder and stickers (all easily removable) and put up her new bed (my old bed):






The boys' room (This room was already red and orange, so I decided to play it up. I re-painted the walls to make them fresh, and added the boarder and stickers. Sorry about the unmade beds, the boys were getting ready to hop into bed for the night):






The Dining Room

Before (Unfortunately I didn't take before shots, but you can see the dining room in the background of these pictures):






After (We painted the walls and trim and replaced the curtains and blinds):






The family room and stairwell

Before:










After (We painted the walls and trim, including all of the doors and window frames):










The Master Bathroom

Before (I know you all love this bathroom. Isn't it a beauty? :) ):








After (we painted the cabinets, walls, trim (including the door, window, and towel holders), and laid new flooring):






The kitchen - This room took me the longest, by far.

Before:








This one is to see the old countertop better


After (We painted the cabinets (1 coat of primer and 3 coats of paint!), changed the hardware, added crown molding to the cabinets, painted the countertops (using a countertop painting system I found at Lowe's), and painted the walls and trim (including the windows and doors). We redid the flooring in here shortly after we moved in, so that was already done.):










A close up of the new countertop


Not pictured - We painted the upstairs bathroom (the kids' bathroom). It was a bright green. It's tan now. We painted the upstairs hallway and trim, including all the doors. We also painted the front porch, fixed and painted the railing, painted the front and back doors, painted the trim around the outside windows and doors, hung new blinds in several of the rooms, planted flowers (which the deer ate), and cleaned the windows (which all have to be re-cleaned thanks to my children). We have also done a lot of organizing.

All I have left is to organize the Master Bedroom, clean up the dining room (it has acted as my painting supply room), clean the windows, wipe up some finger and foot prints on my freshly painted walls (lovely, I know), and give the house an overall clean. We will need to re-organize the walk-in attics and put down new mulch, but we can do that after the house is on the market.

Needless to say, I am exhausted. I am ready to be done with the whole thing. Let's pray this house sells quickly, and we can move as a family to NC.

On a completely different note, I want to say Happy 30th Birthday to my best friend, Stephanie! Her birthday is this coming Tuesday. She is six days older than me. :) We used to tell people that we were twins born six days apart. We are sisters born to different mothers. :) I was blessed to celebrate with her in Utah this past weekend. She is so awesome. I cannot think of a better friend. She is so kind, loving, generous, smart, funny, beautiful, spiritual, musical, charitable...(well, you get the picture). I cannot say enough good about her. Unfortunately she lives in Utah, so I don't get to see her very often anymore. That is the only thing I hate about living in the east. I cried on Friday night knowing that I had to leave on Saturday. (Don't get me wrong, I was excited to see my family, but I don't know when I will get to see Steph again). I love you Steph and I miss you tons. Have a great birthday!

Amanda and Stephanie