8+ months old

Ammon is now almost 8 1/2 months old and his little personality just shines. He is such a happy little guy! He has four teeth now and has learned to scoot around on his bum. I'm hoping we're still a ways from crawling (they're so much easier when they hold still!). He has all of us wrapped around his little finger!
Josh loves to do his reading time with his little brother. so cute!

Inside the House

Well I've been waiting and waiting to take pictures until everything was done...but then I realized that might be a really long time! We still have to hang some blinds, paint in most rooms, do a tile backsplash in the kitchen, and of course there is still decorating to do. BUT, here is a look at a few rooms. Some of these pictures don't do the rooms justice but oh well!

This is the entrance to the office / music room

piano on other side of computer desk
downstairs family room...bigger than it looks!
Master bath...also bigger than it looks
Master bedroom. btw I love my roman shades! They can go down from the top or up at the bottom or anywhere in-between. They are so cool!
Hallway bathroom
Ammon will have a train room...the picture is actually a puzzle put together and framed by Grandpa Horton

Living Room...including one of the cutest little boys!

The top portion of the deck. There's a bbq to the left and stairs that go down to the left, then the lower deck is much larger but also much messier at the moment so sorry, no pic yet
Each closet has built-in shelves which are so wonderful! Maybe I shouldn't have picked Josh's to take a picture of because it could be tidier, but oh well!
Josh will have a pirate room
The girls will have a ballerina room. We definitely need some pink walls here!

Dining Room & the maple floor mark installed

Kitchen...the glass on the cabinets looks weird in the pic but the glass is beaded and really pretty. I love my pendant lights.
Another look at the kitchen. We will add some paint and a tile backsplash to add some more color. Another favorite thing is that the cabinets have self-closing hinges.
And another look. The door under the sign goes through to the mud/locker room & laundry.
Last shot of the kitchen. Gotta love all that cupboard space!
Well folks, there you have it! If you'd rather see it in person just give me a call...I might even fix you dinner!

Updates

So we both got callings in our new ward a few weeks ago...they sure didn't waste any time! Mark is the Young Men's President. That's the calling he left in our last ward so he must not be done with that one yet. I am choir director! That's also the calling I left behind so it just goes to show what Jonah learned that hard way, you can't run away from your job! (Not like we were trying, but you know...) I had my first choir practice yesterday and we had a good turnout so it's going to be fun.

I am also going to be in charge of a monthly cooking club as a R.S. enrichment activity, and I am super excited. Those of you with favorite cooking or recipe websites send them to me so I can get lots of new ideas...I will do it here at my house so I'm excited.

We both had to speak in church yesterday too...glad that's over. Our ward is awesome and we are getting to know people really fast...we sure feel welcome. This is definitely the right place for us to be.

I started ballet again...wahoo! It's been 16 months since I quit when I became too pregnant to continue. Well, I actually broke my toe last week the night before I was supposed to go back to ballet class, and I was so mad! But, I iced it, taped it, and went to class anyway. It was so good to go back and I was glad that most of the skills came right back to me. And I got one of my neighbors to go with me which makes it even more fun. I'm looking forward to getting toned up again...boy was I stiff after class! By the way don't ask me how I broke my toe.

I am also going to be teaching piano again. I will start off with just two or three students and see how that goes. I'm looking forward to it. This is also canning season...I've already done 26 quarts of whole tomatoes and will start on tomato juice tomorrow. Yet to do peaches, pears, applesauce, grape juice, etc.



Our cars are actually able to park in the garage now! Mark worked so hard to get the garage organized last weekend so we don't have redneck cars in the driveway anymore. Well, we still have a bunch of boxes on the side of the house we are trying to get rid of (a little in the garbage each week) so we are a little redneck but it's getting better!


Things inside the house are coming along nicely. I hung all the roman shades in the upstairs windows by myself last week! I felt very accomplished :-) We've got some things on the walls and decor here and there...still plenty to do but it feels more homey now. Some day I'll take pictures.


The girls started a dance class last week and they are so cute! They are both doing tap, ballet, and jazz and I just love watching them. These pictures are of Ella's first class ever. She listened so carefully and was actually a real natural. She is the one with the ribbons around her bun. Look at her great pose!



Josh will be starting 2nd grade basketball next week. Josh and Holly are both enjoying school and I can't believe it's already one month down! Ammon gave me my first sleep all the way through the night last night!!! I actually woke up around 6:00 a.m. wondering if he was okay, and couldn't believe it when I realized his big accomplishment. He is working on his two top teeth right now but is still such a good baby.

We went to the Utah State Fair Monday night...Dad Horton came along (this is a tradition for us) and we had a great time. My favorite part was the Home Arts exhibit...I think my goal will be to enter something in the fair next year... I can do something homemaker-ish and Mark can enter his giant pumpkin!

Well I guess that's plenty for now. Even if nobody reads this it's for my own benefit since it keeps track of things for my journal. Anyone know how to download a blog for a backup copy?

Here the girls are hanging out on the deck...still needs some finishing touches but is fun to kick back on!

I'm a few decades late!

You Belong in 1958

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

For Preparing Gospel lessons:

So Mark and I have to speak in Church Sunday...no surprise, being new in the ward. I've been working on my talk (on Service if you have any great stories to contribute) and I've been searching lds.org for material but not really finding what I was looking for. Anyway, I finally had inspiration and I remembered about this BYU website I haven't used for a long time but it is so cool...I would try to describe it but the web site has it's own description that is much better:

"This index links from scriptures to the general conference talks and Journal of Discourses speeches that cite those scriptures. So, for example, suppose you want to know who has cited 1 Ne. 3:7 in general conference; click on the Book of Mormon link at the left and scroll down to 1 Ne. 3; there you'll find the answer. Who has quoted Matt. 5:48? Use the New Testament index to find out. We have indexed the scriptures cited by speakers in LDS General Conference between 1942 and the present, and those cited by speakers recorded in the Journal of Discourses between 1839 and 1886. You can sort the citation index by scripture (the default), by speaker, or by date of citation."

What a great tool! Now I'm off to finish my talk and I'm sure I'll have better success. Here is the website:

BYU Scriptural Index

Enjoy!

August All at Once

Finally I found my camera & can post pictures of everything we've been up to!!! Get ready...there's a bunch!

At the classic car show Dress-ups are always a big hit
swimming party with friends


Let's go camping!
Emily found time between unpacking boxes to make bread
Josh's first day of Second Grade

Guy Smiley

Holly's first day of Kindergarten!

Playing in the mud in the front yard...


View of the house...everything's done but the yard