The finished product

Wow! We finally finished our basement that we have been working on for the past 4 months. It has been a huge project that seemed like we would never be able to accomplish. In the end we have become amazed that we could actually create a living space with our own 2 hands and hard work. We have had a lot of help from family and friends and are truly grateful to them for all their time and effort to help us. We would have never made our deadline without them.
This whole project started when a women in our ward said that a Japanese Women and her daughter wanted to come and live here for the school year, but would like more of a place of their own. We had been wanting to make an apartment anyway, so this was the perfect opportunity to actually do it, and we felt it was worth while since it would bring in rent for a side income.
Then in the middle of our project for the apartment, I was offered to take over a preschool for someone who got a full time teaching job. We felt good about the opportunity to teach in our home and have another side income, so we said yes. I only made this decision after asking my sister in law, Meg, if she wanted to do it with me, so that she could teach one class and I could teach the other and she could help when my baby comes. She was very excited about the idea, so everything fell into place. This meant finishing an additional room for the preschool on top of the apartment we were already working on. We only had 4 weeks to complete this room and then 3 more after that to finish the apartment. I was stressing the whole time that it could not be done, but after we finished the preschool room on time and I saw that it could happen, I had faith that it would all come together. Wow, what an accomplishment. Hats off to my husband Budd, who worked every spare minute to make it all happen. I was amazed at his skill and inventiveness to make everything work, when problems arouse.
Here are a few pics of the before and after. The before are actually when we had already done drywall and mudding, but I forgot to take the pictures when it was just studs.
We are so happy with how it turned out and feel blessed to have these two opportunities in our basement.'

Apartment kitchen/front room before:



Apartment Kitchen/front room after

Bathroom
bath

Family in AZ

We had a fun trip to Aspen Grove with Budd's family the first week of June. Two weeks later we found out that Budd's Mom, who has had lung cancer, now has brain cancer. We of course rushed down to Arizona the next day to be with the family. We had a great week with everyone. We were able to have a lot of neat experiences and spend a ton of time with family. The neatest thing was when all of Budd's siblings and their spouses and Mom and Dad went to the Temple and did sealings. We had such an amazing spiritual experience all being there together. We were also able to spend a whole day together with the entire family swimming and playing and getting family photos. The rest of the week we spent mostly at Budd's parents just hanging out and being with them. The kids really enjoyed being with their cousins and swimming a lot. Brinlee even started to learn to swim without floaties and she was so excited. She even put her head under water for the first time and learned it was fun. That was a big deal for her. We really had a great time and created precious memories!

Girls Camp

I was called as Girls Camp director this year, before I knew I was pregnant, and ended up going 61/2 month pregnant. But I really had a great time. Even though I was stressed to leave a sick husband and kids behind, it ended up being a great break for me. We went to Star Valley Wyoming for 4 days and it was so beautiful. We were able to go river rafting one day and it was a blast except that is started raining while we were going down the river. It got really cold and I ended up with a horrible cough. But it was worth it for a great adventure. I had so much fun getting to know the girls and to just spend time with the girls being fun and crazy. We had some really neat spiritual moments also as we went on a sunrise hike and posted our flag of virtue, did a blind folded ropes course, and had many devotionals. What a neat experience it turned out to be and I think it was more for me than the girls. It was something I really needed. I was glad it all turned out well and all the planning paid off.

Summer Fun

Here is an update of our summer. It sure flew by. In July we had a Japanese women (Chiho) and her 5 daughter (Rina) stay with us for a month. We did a lot of fun things with the kids on the weekend, like going to children's museums, swimming, and much more. Brinlee loved having a friend all the time and she and Rina became the best of friends. Chiho was very nice and helpful. Since I am pregnant she would hardly let me do anything and she helped make dinner and clean the house every night. What a treat for me. We had a great experience with them and really do hope to be able to go visit them in Japan in a few years.

Aspen Grove: Excited about a Fish

One evening at Aspen Grove we went fishing with all the kids. Caylin got the first catch and the kids all went crazy over the fish. Here is some of their reaction.

More pics of Aspen Grove

Spencer and Brayden being Pirates
Swimming with the beautiful mountains in the background
Mommy and Spencer
Brinlee and Madelyn dancing
Family at Aspen Grove

Aspen Grove

What a wonderful week we had at Aspen Grove, June 6-12th. It is the best place for a perfect family vacation. We went with all of Budd's family, making 27 of us total. Everyone had a great time. The kids loved their age groups they went to each day from 9:30am to 4:30 pm. Brinlee was a Bobcat and had fun hiking, doing crafts, learning songs, swimming, going on treasure hunts and much more. Spencer was a Tromper and enjoyed pretending to be a Pirate and an Indian. He loved walking with his group while holding onto a rope. They both were able to be with their cousins in their classes and that made it really fun. They also loved their teachers who took care of them. Everyday at meal time they would look for their teachers and run up to them and give them a hug. It was so cute! The kids all learned cheers and song with their groups and performed them at a closing program.
While the kids were off having fun, all the adults were able to have fun also. We were able to play many sports. We had a lot of rain this year so we really enjoyed playing Wally-ball inside the racquetball courts. All the adults were able to play together and we sure had a blast. We also enjoyed our 5 0n 5 basketball game. Our team had 2 pregnant women (Kate being one of them)and 3 men and we played a team of 5 men. We sure surprised them that we could keep up so well and ended up only loosing by 1 basket. We played Tennis when the rained stopped for a few hours. We were also able to attend parenting classes that gave great advice and Kate was able to go to a watercolor class with Mom Keeler. What fun. We really enjoyed staying up late and talking and laughing all together.
In the evenings there were family activities that we all participated in together. It was so much fun to play games and share time together. The kids loved fishing and got such a kick out of the first fish we caught. They couldn't stop touching it and screaming because it was slimy. They all sat there and looked at it forever. It was so funny. We really loved the family dance the last night we were there. All the cousins had so much fun dancing and going crazy together and the adults were able to have fun being a little crazy too.
The kids both say that the best part was being with their cousins. There are 15 cousins on Budd's side of the family with 2 on the way. Budd made a bunch of foam swords for the cousins to play with and Spencer of course loved that. Spencer really loved being with his oldest cousin Collin, and the day we had to come home he started crying because he wanted keep playing with Collin. Brinlee loved being with all the girl cousins , especially Madalyn and Malaya who are her same age. She was also sad to say good bye to them. We only see them 2 times a year so this was such a special time. Thank you so much to Mom and Dad Keeler who made it all possible. What a great memory for all of us.

Spencer pretend fishing with Daddy
Brinlee and her cousins all dressed in PJs

Spence and Daddy
Brinlee and her cousins hugging their teacher