Extreme Makeover!

I feel so blessed. Just want to share something else wonderful that happened recently. On Friday, May 29, Caitlin and Nicia knocked on our bedroom door and informed us that we needed to leave our bedroom immediately.
(A little background: several months ago I had seen pictures of how my niece, Rachel, had redone her bedroom for almost nothing in cost. I had mentioned to my girls that if Rachel could do it, perhaps some time this year I might like to try and do something with my almost unbearable bedroom. But then with the finances getting tighter and tighter, I had put that thought to the back of my mind.)


So because I had mentioned something to them earlier, I thought maybe they were having us leave the room so they could put new bedding on our bed. That was the extent of what I thought might happen. We were obedient, though, and grabbed some clothes and toiletries and headed out of the room. We were not allowed back in all day long!


Jared and Becky came for awhile, and Justin came later in the afternoon. Even Caitlin's boyfriend, Ben, was up there helping them. We heard banging, comotion, and more banging. We just stayed downstairs working in the office, playing Ticket to Ride, etc. Around 11:00 at night, we were finally able to go up and see our surprise, a very unexpected birthday/anniversary present:

The temple picture replaced the ugly big wall-mounted t.v. with the dresser crowded under it

A large treadmill took up this whole corner where the dresser and window are

(it's just a shadow the mirror on the door

is casting on the wall to the right)

The picture of Dave & I is one of our favorites at the beach. The black shadow boxes

on either side will have sand, shells, and my sand dollar collection in them.

I was overcome with emotion.....

All of my adult life, I have never decorated my bedroom, ever. Those of you who have seen my bedroom know how bad it was. This is a project that I know for sure would never have happened if it was left up to me. Closet doors put back up (with knobs too!), treadmill taken out and t.v. taken down (I would have Never have been brave enough to do that!), room painted a gorgeous toasted almond color, new drapes, new pictures on the walls, new bedding.....It's beautiful, and I am in heaven!!!

Without a doubt, I have the most amazing, loving children in the entire world. This was one of the main reasons Nicia had come to visit. Truly this was a labor of love by all that means so much to us and that we will remember forever. It has been such a lift for me. As we were all commenting, our bedroom is a beautiful sanctuary now, and I love to spend time in there now. Thank you, thank you, thank you a million times over to all of our children. We love you all infinity much!!!

Dinner for Two - Just Because

A couple of weeks ago Nicia and Alyssa were here visiting. (which we always love!) One afternoon Dave asked me to go out with him in the late afternoon. Kind of strange, since it wasn't Friday night, but we decided to go geocaching. I was thinking the kids would fix dinner while we were gone, since Caitlin and Ben had said they'd cook one night. We'd been gone about 1 1/2 hours when they called us and said that they had decided to go geocaching too and had found a geocache they wanted us to come and see. I didn't really think too much about it - just thought they had dinner done and decided to kill some time geocaching while we were still out. They told us where to go to meet them - on a road up on the hill overlooking Springville. As we drove along the road, I realized it was going to deadend into a culdesac. As we approached the culdesac, tears filled my eyes as I realized my children had not been geocaching afterall:

There in the middle of the culdesac was a table and two chairs, all set up for Dave and I to enjoy a full fledged homemade Italian dinner, served directly from the Car Trunk Restaurant! It was a beautiful spot overlooking the valley.

Ben, our waiter, served us a delicious chicken fettucinni dinner, complete with salad, amazing green beans, fresh homemade rasberry lemonade, breadsticks, and cheesecake for dessert! (my favorite)

They had music playing from the car, so we danced a little. So romantic!!

Emily and Alyssa had fun just playing around the culdesac:

As the sun set, Nicia, our awesome photographer, took more pictures:

The fabulous "Car Trunk Restaurant" crew

Nicia took a few more pictures as the sun went down, and we left our memorable dinner spot to head back to the house. After they had cleaned up the kitchen, the kids left to spend the night at Grandma & Grandpa Bascom's so we could have the house to ourselves for the night. The fabulous dinner wasn't the only surprise they had for us. When we got up to our room, here was what we saw:

Music playing, candles burning all around, rose petals everywhere. So fun, and so romantic! We have the most thoughtful, amazing kids - they thought of everything! And did all of this, just because...... Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all you did to help us to share a beautiful evening together. It was much needed, and we appreciate this sweet surprise so much!! We love you all!

¡Hasta luego USA! Hola Argentina!

Bridge at Sunset, Rosario, Argentina

Hola!
Well, tomorrow is the big day for Dave and me. We leave on a plane headed for Buenos Aires at 1:40 in the afternoon and get there the next morning at 7:45. We're so excited and a little nervous at the same time. Tuesday Caitlin will travel with the other missionaries from the mission home in Rosario up to temple in Buenos Aires, which is where we'll be meeting her! :) This is one of the highlights of the trip for me. I've been getting more emotional every day. Just thinking about it brings on the tears! (thanks to the Danes genes)

We plan to take Caitlin to Iguazu Falls, and then travel through her mission area, visiting the wonderful families she grew close to (another highlight for me). We'll have very limited access to the internet, so no blog posts for awhile, but hopefully some great pictures to post when we return home! Bueno adiós a todos nuestros amigos!

Weekly Happenings

First I need to apologize - I'm having trouble getting paragraph breaks to work in this post. I don't know why everything is running together. It makes it harder to read, but I can't seem to fix it.

Tuesday: Friends, frosting, and fun.

Emily and her friend, Alicia, had been working on improving their reverence in Primary. Their reward was baking cookies together, so here they are:

The only kind of cookie cutters I have are Christmas, so it was Christmas a little early! :) They had a lot of fun though, and the next day Alicia and her sister Katie both wrote thank-you notes to Emily and me. Emily promptly wrote a note to them and ran it over to their house. It's really nice that Alicia just lives around the corner from us. She's been a good playmate for Emily.

Wednesday: Dave's parents, Mom & Dad Bascom, had us over for a birthday dinner for Dave, delicious pot roast, potatoes, carrots, and salad, with apple crisp and ice cream for dessert. After being sick for a week, it was so nice that I didn't have to cook that night! Thank you, Mom Bascom!! We had forgotten our camera, so Mom Bascom has the only pictures taken that night. Only downer was that I broke a new bottle of Lighthouse Blue Cheese dressing right before we walked out the door. Darn!

Thursday: I finally cleaned off the bar and mopped my kitchen floor after about 3 months. It was badly needed! I should have taken a picture of the before and after...............So nice to be able to walk on the floor without sticking to it!

Friday: Dave & I went out to Red Robin for lunch to redeem his free burger and fries. We both tried something new that came with his burger: garlic parmesan fries. YUM! If you've never tried them, you need to!

Saturday: Flag Football. Our stake got together with a Provo stake for a men's flag football tournament. It's being held right here in our park, so I went out to watch Jordan for awhile. Here he is on the run: (one in front with white shirt and dark blue shorts)

Jordan absolutely loves any kind of sport, and it really is fun watching him. Plus Emily played in the park with Chipper while we were out there; it was a beautiful fall morning!

With being gone to California, catching up after the trip, and getting sick, I hadn't gotten any of the fall yard cleanup done yet. So I decided Saturday would be the day to tackle it. I repaired our broken leaf rake and got some leaves raked up.

(notice the "not so white" white socks)

Emily's annual fun in the leaves - we missed Caitlin for this!

Dave came out and tried to help, but the rake broke again, and we were out of bags. The BYU football game was starting soon, so I knew that was it for yard work that day. We did get three bags filled though. During the game I went and bought a new rake and more bags. Guess what we're doing for an early family night tomorrow????

After the game Jordan went with friends, and Dave, Emily, and I headed to Salt Lake to do some shopping at Linens 'n Things. We had gifts cards to use up, since their store is closing. We bought new drinking glasses, and some needed kitchen utensils. Then we met Bill and Karen (my sister) for dinner at Gecko's Mexican Restaurant for Dave's birthday, where they treated us (thank you Bill & Karen!) It's so nice that they live close enough we can get together once in awhile!

Sunday: I came in the kitchen and here's what I saw:

Chef Emily. She had put on Dave's cooking apron and was ready to make him breakfast in bed.

Emily made the toast, and I made an eggs, sausage, hashbrowns skillet thing - I think the scouts call it rabbit guts, so it doesn't look like much, but it tasted good!

Later, after probably a decade, I tried my hand at making homemade lasagna. It turned out really well. While I was at Nicia's she showed me how to make lasagna without cooking the noodles. So slick! Anway, homemade lasagna and homemade garlic breadsticks, and Dave was in heaven with another family birthday dinner. (with more family who wasn't with us on Wed.) I think Emily took this shot of us at the table..........

Opening presents: I love this next picture, so sweet.

Emily, her Daddy, and the coupon book she made for him.

I have so much to be grateful for, but I'm especially thankful for my family. I'm so blessed to be able to share the joys in their lives.

Happy Birthday, Dave!

Today is my sweetie's birthday, so in honor of his special day, I thought I'd post a few pictures of his earlier days till now:

Love the smile, love the pose!

"Peace" (from our hippie party)

June 16, 2000, a very special day for us!

Peaceful dreams for a Daddy and his precious Emily

Happy Birthday, sweetheart! I love you!