We've been busy!

There is a reason I haven't posted in over a month. Once all the family came and went, we finally buckled down and started on the never ending projects for this house.  Here they all are in no particular order.

 

 

Refinishing the dining table. Obviously I have to still redo the chairs too, but that will be another project to add to the list.

Repainting the coffee table that I found on craigslist for $15.



Staining the deck before the rain comes.

Side yard retaining wall before our neighbors reinstall their fence.

The big kahuna! This wall took up the majority of our time and resources, but it was so worth it. Scott did an amazing job and it is beautiful. I love it!



We also found this piano on craiglist for $90 and Easton started taking lessons a few weeks ago. He loves it!




The House

Now that we've lived in our home for two months, I figure that it is now presentable to the world.  Here is the front of the house, with dirt, dirt, and more dirt. If you are thinking about buying a new build, get ready for lots of projects!

Front entry room/living room/computer room

Behind the front room is closet space and a powder room.

Family room and dining room.

Kitchen.

The stairway is right at the front door, and essentially splits the upstairs in half. At the top of the stairs, if you turn right, you'll find the laundry room (no more dragging baskets up and down)....

Ginny's room....,

and the boys' room (a.k.a. the lego den).

If you turn left, you find the extra bathroom,.....

the extra, and almost completely empty bedroom,....

 

and the master bedroom.  Here is the master bath/closet.

and our huge bedroom. This picture only shows about 2/3 of the length of this room.  I don't know how I am going to fill up all the space yet, but I'm sure I'll have fun figuring it out.

 

Visitors

We moved into our new home on June 29th, and then had 4 days to unpack and get ready for a slew of visitors.  Scott's parents came on July 3rd for the baptism.  Then, my parents, my sister and her family, and Scott's brother's family all came up for the day of the baptism.  After they all went home, we had another week and a half to unpack more, because Scott's younger brother and his family came to visit for a few days. Now, my parents will be stopping through here tomorrow on the way to the coast for a few days. I don't think we've ever had that many visitors!!

Toolson cousins

Toolson family at the baptism.
 

Lots of people at the luncheon.

Pingel family at the baptism.

We've loved it though, and the kids especially loved being spoiled by grandparents, and playing non-stop with all the cousins.  If you ever want to visit, give us a holler and we'll make up a bed for you! (I'm a bad photographer, and didn't take any pictures while Scott's younger brother was here).

A Special Day!

On July 6th, Easton was baptized.  It was such a wonderful day! We had lots of family and friends there to support him, and he was so excited. He even had his cousin, Rachel, get baptized right along side him.  The day couldn't have gone any better, and it was a special day for Scott and I, as well, watching our first child choose to be baptized and become a member of the church.

Grandma and Grandpa Toolson

Scott, Easton, Justin(Scott's brother), and Rachel(cousin).

Grandma and Grandpa Pingel

We had a large luncheon after the baptism to feed all of our traveling family before they all drove back home. We were so happy that they all came to the baptism!

Our cute little family right before the baptism.

June Highlights

The month of June was one of the shortest, but also one of the longest months.  Short, because we did so much, and now all of a sudden it is July. Long, because we waited an eternity, or so it seemed, to move into our new house. 

We started off the month with Easton's 8th birthday.  He wanted a lego party. Easy enough! I made a cute lego head cake, and we played some lego games.  The boys had so much fun and Easton was thrilled with all of his lego presents.  He gets baptized this weekend, and he is loving scouts.  Being 8 really is great!

 

School ended on the 12th, and Luke graduated from Kindergarten. He was the tallest kid in all 3 classes, and when he went up to receive his diploma, the teacher announced that he wanted to be an Astronaut and a Marine Biologist when he grows up. Luke really does shoot for the moon!

 

 

We did some touring of our area. On the Saturday before Father's Day, we went to the zoo as a family. Then, the weekend after that, we took the kids to the Children's Museum down in Salem.  That place was huge with 3 houses of exhibits, and a gigantic outdoor playground.  We all had a blast, and then we finished off the day with a picnic at the riverfront park, and rides on the Carrousel.

 

 

 

 

 

Last week, my sister and her kids came to WA to visit my parents, and I brought all of my kids to join them for a few days.  They all loved playing with their cousins, but we had to cut our trip a little short, because I received a phone call at 6pm, that we were signing closing papers the next morning at 9am.  It was a quick pack-up of all our stuff at the last minute, and a 4 hour drive home until Midnight, just to be there to sign those papers!

 

We love our new house!!!! Still unpacking, and organizing (the kitchen is always the worst).  I will post pictures of it soon, I hope!

Camping

We knew we were going to be here for memorial day weekend, and the kids had 5 days off (more furloughs).  So we booked a camp site just a half hour from our house.  We hadn't been camping as a family since I was pregnant with Max.  It was so much fun!  The boys loved the campfire, going on nature hikes, and eating all the yummy camp food.  Ginny had fun too.  I was pretty nervous about the sleeping part of the campout, but she did great and eventually fell asleep and slept good for the night.  She was a little afraid of the fire, though, and kept backing away from it saying "hot, hot!"  Our campout was a success, and we'll definitely be doing this more often.

Beautiful view of the Willamette River.

So filthy, but so happy!

S'mores!!!!

This little guy was awesome to watch.

They could have watched him all day!

Portland Zoo

The kids had a furlough day on my birthday, so I thought it would be great to take them to the zoo.  It was a beautiful day, and so, naturally, it was packed!  But we had a great time.  Max was a big boy and walked the whole time instead of riding in the stroller.  Ginny was pretty taken with the sea lions.  Easton kept us on track with the map.  And Luke kept us all comically informed with his National Geographic animal commentary and fun facts.

I did not notice this face on Max while I was taking the picture.

And yes, Luke knows all the names of the different kinds of penguins.