A Not-So-Silent Night

The Midway Ice Rink is open until 10:00pm every night, but we had not yet ventured out after dark. Mostly because it gets so stinkin' cold once the sun goes down, and partly because we sleep when the sun sleeps.  

 But. The weather has been unseasonably warm, plus our Daddy was on a business trip and we needed some cheering up after dinner. We arrived just in time for the Zamboni to begin resurfacing the ice. It was cold enough then, but it had been warm that day, and it looked like many skaters had come because the ice was pretty trashed. But not for long!

We anxiously awaited our turn on the newly resurfaced gorgeousness.

It was perfection. Honestly? The best ice of the year. Amazingly smooth and rock hard.

 This is my little gymnast showing "how warm my heart is with happiness" as he entered the rink.

 It was cool enough for the ice to be frozen, but not cold enough to feel... cold. I know that doesn't make sense. We all eventually had to unzip our coats.

The Ice Castles have closed for the year, due to crazy meltage. But the rink lives on!

 Emmy was really workin' the ice tonight! She, finally, threw her fears aside and started really cruising. And crashing.

"Ouch. My bum."

Poor kid. You should see her knees today. I had to give them a rub down with some Comfry Salve to encourage the bruises to heal. She's a trooper!

Claire skates as little as possible. She can get around ok, but she'd rather ride. Did I mention that we're usually asleep by now?

 Amelia settled down and conked out. She was totally asleep. We skated around and around the rink, nice and easy, watching the sparkly stars, and she leaned back against her blanket and let her eyelids close.

Eventually Claire noticed that her compadre was sleeping, and took it upon herself to rouse her. Luckily Millie really likes Claire and thought it was pretty funny to wake up to Claire lying on top of her. I wish I had taken a movie of the giggles!

Today the rain is pouring down and it's has been rather darkish outside. If last night was our last night of skating for this winter, we certainly ended on a good note!

A new discovery

There we were, looking for something fun to do in the beautiful (if smoggy) city of Salt Lake. It's not often that we find ourselves there with no schedule to stick to, but such a thing happened today. We went down to get our taxes done this morning, but it was such a gorgeous sunny day that I wanted to do something fun while we were down there! Not that getting our taxes done wasn't fun. ?

I had been wanting to take my kids to the LDS Church Art Museum to show them some of the art by our Great Great Great Grandpa C.C.A. that they have there. I put enough in the parking meter to give us an hour, because I figured that would be plenty of time to see a few paintings (foolish!) and we headed inside.

Little did we know. 

After exploring the beautiful church history exhibits and seeing the paintings and climbing in the bunks of the passenger ship exhibit, we were informed that there was a children's exhibit upstairs. So up we went to check it out. 

OH MY GOODNESS.

It was AWEsome. I had no idea it was there or we definitely would have come before. This is a "Nephi's Ship" play place.

Amelia wouldn't go in the ship, but she thoroughly enjoyed the ocean.

It was basically a children's museum, but based on the Book of Mormon and the History of the church. 

Here Claire is preparing a dinner to feed to the missionaries.

Emmy is gathering eggs on the pioneer farm.

Jonah's mixing tunes from members around the world. 

Special Delivery!

Claire and Amelia were loving the garden area. You had to find the right shape to plant the different vegetables in - adorable. 

And here we have the beginnings of an ancient Mesoamerican city.

Until the gymnast decided it had stood long enough! 

Touch screen computer games, naturally, and Claire is practicing her abridging of the plates. 

We only had about 25 minutes left of our one hour by the time we got up to this exhibit, which was seriously tragic. We didn't get to see it all, which only means we will be returning! And get this: it's free. I know!! 

We drug ourselves away and headed back to the car, only barely making our time allotment.

We finished up our day in Salt Lake with a trip to Trader Joe's to restock our chocolate supply. 

That, I tell you, was a near perfect day. 

Emmy's Primary Talk

Emmy gave a talk in Primary today, and wanted to share it with the rest of her family. She even illustrated it. Here it is!

Before we came to earth we lived in Heaven with our Heavenly parents and Jesus Christ. We were only spirits, and we wanted to have bodies, so Heavenly Father told Jesus to create this earth for us.

Heavenly Father let us choose which plan to follow because he wanted us to be able to make our own choices. All of us here chose to follow Jesus!
Get it? Two thirds followed Christ! She had to explain her drawing to me. I'm slow.

Now we are on earth, and Heavenly Father still wants us to make our own choices. He has given us the scriptures, prophets, teachers, and parents to help us. But it is still our job to choose the right.

This Saturday I am getting baptized. I am choosing to become a part of Jesus's family and his church. I am choosing to follow him. After I am baptized I will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to be my friend. He will help me choose the right, and when I listen to him he will make me feel good inside.

I'd like to bear my testimony. I know this church is true! I know getting baptized is the right choice, and the best choice. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Emmy Dayne Jepsoo

How many years ago was this? Didn't you just turn one?

You didn't have much hair when you were one. 

But you had personality.

And swagger.

Emmy, dear Emmy. What would I do without you?

There is so much life in your tiny little being.

Your laugh is uncontrollable, and infectious.

You brain is a like a sponge in search of moisture. If someone will talk to you, you will listen. You're just waiting to soak it all up!

You're always up for an adventure,

And your compadres are usually willing to tag along.

Did I mention that she didn't have much hair when she was a baby? She has since made up for it. 

You love anything girly and sparkly and pink and frilly, which cracks me up. That right there is proof enough for me that we don't learn everything from our parents example. You were a person before you were mortal.

 Crazy things go on inside that brain of yours, most of which I will never know. And that is fine.

Did I mention that you like everything girly? Does muddy count? Because, you like that, too.

I need you, Emmy. You smile, learn, and forgive so easily.

 You're also not afraid of work, which I appreciate.

You're really eight today? Eight years since you arrived? Eight years I've been loving and needing and watching you?

Yep, it's true! Here's to many many more years!

Project number 4,378

I have this weird quirky issue within the depths of my soul that makes me not want to share a project until it's finished. I'm trying to repent of that!

I want to be more like my brother in law and his lovely fiance and share the journey! They're the authors of The Grey House Revival, there's a link to their blog on the left there. 

ANY ways. My Christmas present from Caleb. This I must show you. 

So, we basically have two living rooms, which is weird. We decided to turn this one into a library, because having a personal library has been the dream of my relatively brief life.

See these awesome brackets? Caleb made them. As in designed, cut, welded, and installed. I lurve that boy.

See this awesome wood? It's from a 100+ year old building that we helped my Dad restore way back in the day. They were the rafters, and he let us have them for freeness. Because he's the bestest.

The boards were very long. 20 feetish long.

Caleb the wonder man managed to get some home, and then spent an afternoon chopping them to desired length out in the wintery driveway. Bless him!

 See all the nail holes? Those go down the edge of every single board. Who pulled all those nails, you ask? Muah. See?! I contribute!

I also stained every board, so I get so many points.

On Christmas day, he began installing them. I seriously like this kid.

This is that night, and he's still working away at it.

The big shelf is up! That board is heavy, man. The wood is incredibly solid mahogany. When the board was on the ground he lifted up one end, and it didn't bow at all. Solid. Like my abs.

*ahem*

So! Once those shelves were up, we turned our attentions to this wall. See how that other wall on the left has a beam going across the top? That beam runs the length of the house, it's a support of sorts. That's as technical as I get.

This wall doesn't have one, but we wanted the shelves to go across to this side of the room as well.

So Caleb framed in a wall. That double stud up there is for attaching the bookshelf once this little half wall is finished.

Then he put up some dry wall. I helped. The most.

Notice I didn't waste much time filling my shelves:) We have a lot of books, man, and they've been in boxes for six months on the library floor. I missed my friends.
Notice Claire somewhat subtly photo bombing.

And then not so subtly.

Oh, Hi Claire! Did you need some attention?

Have I ever told you that I love it when my kids are the photographers?

Bright and early the next day... no, actually, this was probably in the afternoon. We school in the morning. The next day at an unknown time, I started taping and puttying. Neither Caleb nor I had ever installed dry wall before, so it was nice to learn on a cute little wall like this one.

Caleb did a second layer that night.

Oooh, what flow! What finesse!

Three layers later, we were ready to sand!

One side of this wall is the hallway and front entry to our house. The other side is our library/music room. Neither of those places really wanted to be covered in white dust, so I built a plastic room. Because I'm nifty. Then I put on my grubbies and a mask and started sanding!

Amelia wasn't too thrilled about her Mommy being locked in a plastic chamber, so she dealt with it by removing all the books from the bottom shelves. And giggling all the while.

This is me being all Gangsta.

What?

Caleb arrived home from work when I was finishing up, which worked out awesome. The kids were ready for dinner and I was in no position to make some.
I very carefully made my way up to the shower, making as little movement as possible. That was tricky! I left some nice white footprints the whole way.

We decided to let the dust settle. The next day I took down my plastic room, washed the walls and ceiling and floor, and stepped back to view our handiwork.

Ta-Da!
I primed it this morning, and it's nearly ready for it's coat of yellow. Caleb has been digging the last boards out of the snowbank, and we'll get to work staining and installing those this week. Then some crown moulding, and we'll be finished!