I love Halloween

What a great holiday! Dress up like like crazy people, get free candy from total strangers. Ahhh, what a great time of year! This is my favorite picture of the kids so far.

Zane did it again this year... This is the third year in a row that he has wanted to wear his superman costume. He picks out one costume, we buy it and then the day before Halloween he asks to wear Superman again. It's amazing he still fits it! Of course the first year he wore it I made some major temporary size adjustments to it. I'm glad I didn't cut the legs off completely that year! Its had much love over the years. I don't let the kids play in their costumes all year. I have grand illusions of having a bucket full of pristine Halloween costumes that we can just pull out when we need them... but NOT FOR PLAYTIME! LOL... I suppose making him wait all year to wear Superman again makes him REALLY need it at Halloween time. Heh heh heh, my evil plan is working! :) Zane's real costume this year is Iron Man. He'll wear it tonight.

Cannon of course wants to be like his brother, so he loves wearing Zane's old costumes. Zane's Wolverine costume from last year is still awesome. Although we had a mishap in the laundry this week. Part of a seam was opened on the neckline and half his peck muscle stuffing came out in the wash. It took me a few minutes to figure out what all the white fluff was from when I was switching the laundry. It's all ok now... his pecks are a little deformed, but still awesome.

I love hand me down costumes. I love costumes in general, but when they are free they are super awesome!(Especially when I only let the kids wear them once a year there is no way I want to spend that much money!) I know I'm crazy. You'd think the more I spent on it the more I should let the kids should enjoy it and get lots of use out of it... But then it wouldn't be in tact for the next Halloween. So that's what I save it for. Ila's costume was given to us by Grandma Weikum's co-worker. She was pretty cute! And very warm! That's not the very best picture of her face, but at least you can see the cute pink lamb legs!

Fun times in the dust

Part of the remediation to eliminate the lead based paint in our house is to remove the carpet. We are happy with this, however, we knew we didn't want the carpet taken out until we had finished the work on the interior walls of the house. We were hoping to protect the original wood floors that we found under the carpet. We also wanted to remove the carpet ourselves, which would save us money rather than charging the contractor over $100 to remove it. Doug spoke with the contractor and he said that was fine.

Much to my surprise, I came in one day after the crew had put in all the windows. The entire house had NO CARPET! All of our tools had been moved around so that they could remove the carpet. I was a little frustrated. I called Doug and he put in a call to the contractor. He blamed it on the guys working on the house and said he had told them to leave the carpet in there. Hmmmmmmm? Oh well.

What was left behind was a lot of nasty dirt (don't ever look at whats under the carpet after you remove it! It's not pretty nor is it hygienic!) But we have added to the dust in the past week. We drywalled almost everything. Only a few small walls left, which we will finish after we have the next approval from the electrical inspector and after we hook up our hot water heater and test our hot water lines. Cross your fingers... I'm hoping for an easy time of that! We've also started to mud and sand. That part is really dusty. After Doug finished sanding the living room, we opened the front and side door and a huge cloud of dust blew out of the house. (It's been pretty windy the last couple days). It was awesome. He said he couldn't even see the back fence due to the mud dust cloud. I'm glad I was on the other end.

I'm taking a break today. I should finish mudding the bathroom, but the laundry piles are calling me. Since I've put them on the back burner for the past month, I better get that taken care of.

I'll post some pictures in a few days... I need some good ones with the walls mudded. We have real rooms now! When can we paint?!!! :)

Our House... Full of Surprises!

Before I start my post, I want to say a few words of thanks. All of our family and friends have been so helpful in this entire process... they've listened to our hopes, frustrations, excitement and heartache over the last 6 months. It's been a roller-coaster and they have all had so much patience with us! Now that we have the house everyone is happily and generously pitching in where and when they can. It is more than we ever expected and we are so grateful. We want to say thank you for:

• Lending us tools (SO HELPFUL!)
• Giving us advice and a bit of their expertise
• Giving us gift cards to Home Depot (AWESOME!)
• Working with us on our house (THANK YOU THANK YOU!)
• Giving us leftover supplies from their past projects (wire, adhesive, etc) (WOW!)
• Watching our kids (TOTALLY AMAZING!)
• Getting food for us while we are working (LOVE IT!)

We are truly blessed with a wonderful family. You guys are amazing! Thank you so much!

And I begin my blog about our house:

After 6 months of looking at this house... it's finally ours! (And the bank's). We bought this HUD home knowing it would be a very low mortgage and very tall project! In the 40's when the Hanford area was developed by the US government hundreds of "prefab" homes were built in Richland. They were named "A, B, C, D" and etc. Our friend at the city office gave us copies of the original blueprints. We learned that our house is a "U" style and also called "The Portland." Quite a fancy name for a little place! This house was built in 1948. It's a 2 bedroom, with a kitchen, large living room, a small utility area and a smaller bathroom. After many days of deliberating and planning, we decided to put in 3rd bedroom, and make a small living room.

Because the house is so old, they had to perform a lead based paint inspection. They found chipped and peeling lead based paint on the window sills, window frames, and on the trim of the exterior of the home. This turned out to be advantageous for us because the state gave us $4,000 to get rid of all the evil lead based paint. Part of this correction includes brand new windows, painting our trim and replacing the carpet inside. Very nice!

Here is the backyard... I'm excited to get the kids shooting hoops out there!

The day we signed the house papers, I took Zane over and he pulled out the for sale sign. Doug called the agent later that day and told him to pick up his sign. He had no idea it had sold. We couldn't get the sign and the key lockbox out of there fast enough!

Once we were inside we started to make even more plans. We pulled up the carpet and low and behold found hardwood floors underneath! They are beat up, but with some super sanding and new stain they will look awesome. This also saves us money because we don't have to buy new carpet. The hardwood floors are all through the house except for one small area. The kitchen hardwood is covered with linoleum. We will refinish the wood in the bedrooms, hallway, and living area. The bathrooms, utility room and kitchen will get fresh linoleum.
We should have had a clue there were hardwood floors underneath when we saw the front entryway. It is hardwood... they just painted it white... BIG SIN!!
The previous owners put up a wall in the front of the living room to make a small (very very small) dining area. It was a poor choice of wall placement. The dining area was tiny and awkward. The walls were covered in fake wood paneling. (My dad would be in heaven). When Doug took off the paneling, this is the next surprise he found! Very bright and creative!
The kids enjoyed banging their hammers into the walls. It was time for that funny little dining room to say goodbye.

Here is the room with the yellow walls removed. We were able to salvage the framing and essentially just move the wall to where we wanted it for the new bedroom!

Here is Doug with the wall moved, and the second wall for the new bedroom getting ready to go up.
Imagine my joy when I pulled the paneling off that front area only to find.... MORE PANELING UNDERNEATH! Hilarious.

Here is a view of the living room before we put the new bedroom walls in. The huge antique air conditioner was the cooling system for the entire house. It doesn't take much to cool 860 square feet. And we decided this unit wouldn't be used in our house again. Next spring will be time for HVAC. We can live with baseboard heaters and space heaters throughout the winter. Did I mention it's a little house and it won't take much? :)
Allie helped me pull out the old air conditioning unit and frame up the hole it left. Doug put some pretty wood scraps over the outside. Once we put the insulation in and drywall over the hole it will be beautiful! Allie and Doug removed the two baseboard heaters. I figured we might as well get those out while we are cleaning up the walls. None of the walls have texture. They are all flat, which makes it easy to see any dink or scratch. We will spray on texture throughout the entire house before we paint.

AAAhhh, the bathroom. We originally planned to leave the bathroom alone for now. Then we decided to extend it out into the utility area. We started ripping out the walls, breaking off the tiles, removing the sink and vanity. The pipes under the sink weren't very happy when Doug took the wrench to them. They disintegrated when he tried to unhook them.
Here is Doug beginning to pull off the tiled wall. The tile wasn't so bad, but we knew we had to move some pipes around, so it had to go. Good thing we did!
Check out the black stuff on the insulation... yup, that is mold folks! We decided then and there to take off all the walls in the bathroom. We cleaned out all that moldy insulation, sprayed the bare wood with bleach and it's amazing how the house doesn't smell so funky now!

Our poor bathroom. We decided not to move the bathtub after all. But we are replacing the sink and moving the shower head up at least a foot! I hate having to duck when I'm taking a shower to wash my hair. I can't imagine how the rest of my tall family would feel standing in there! The water would be spraying their belly button! (No not really, but it paints a funny picture).
We ripped out the vanity... the one with the angle cut out of the countertop because the door wouldn't open and close!
Doug and my wonderful brother Dan put a nice fresh layer of chip board on the floor. It was pretty scary underneath. Cement board and linoleum will be coming soon.

Here is the new utility area. We had all sorts of fun surprises for us here! First we pulled up the carpet and the pad. Under it was an array of MDF rectangles cut and nailed into the subfloor. It wasn't nailed in very tight because we could essentially pry it up with a hammer and puny muscles. The house was built with a wood plank floor. There are lots of gaps, the wood is tired and old and very very dirty. Here Doug is standing in a 1 1/2 foot deep hole. There was originally an oil burning furnace int he house. It was where he was standing. The previous owners ripped out what they could, then filled the hole with dirt, debri, some insulation scraps and broken parts of the furnace. We were all joking that there could be a bag of money buried under there! Either that or human remains. Either way it would have been interesting!
Here is another view. Zane is pulled old nails out of the floor. Doug is framing in the hole, getting ready to put a nice subfloor over the top.

A new wall and part of the new subfloor went up tonight, but I don't have pictures yet. We've been working on the house for a week now. It's been fun and interesting... and we only have 1 wall left to frame! Next comes some movement of plumbing pipes and electrical wiring. Then we begin drywalling, mudding, sanding (my least favorite part of all), texturing walls, priming, painting, and new baseboards throughout the house. All the kids keep asking is "when do we get to paint?" "Not yet," I say. :)

To see all the pictures of our house (before and during our mess making) check them out here on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/krisweikum/sets/72157624212862011/

Baby Blessing

We blessed Ila at church today. It was great having our family and friends there. She looked beautiful in her blessing dress. I can't believe I made that 8 years ago for Kyah! Allie took some cute pictures of her afterwards.

Ila Lisette Weikum

7 lbs 7 oz born at 10:05 on May 17. After a long day of doing somersaults in my belly, the Dr took her via C Section and brought her into our happy family! She tied with Zane as our smallest baby. She's such a sweetheart. Sleeps great, grunts a lot, and all around a cutie! We are grateful to have her here.

Its been 6 weeks since we had our new baby and time has flown by. I apologize for not posting any pictures yet. The time I have sitting down is now filled with feeding and burping Ila. In fact she's over my shoulder right now! Here are some pictures to appease your appetite.

Getting Used to Kisses

A quick story to log about Cannon...

Sunday was Fast & Testimony Meeting. Kyah decided she wanted to bear her testimony and she invited Cannon to go with her. So they make the trek up to the podium. I'm thinking two things in my head: First, does Cannon know he's not going up to say the prayer? He loves praying and always volunteers to pray. In fact he gets angry when he doesn't get to say the prayer. And second, should he really be going up there? A few months ago the First Presidency sent out a letter stating testimony meeting is not the place for kids to practice bearing their testimonies. But I held my tongue and watched as they walk up to the stand in the front of the chapel.

Kyah tried to get Cannon to go first. He wouldn't. So she stood and bore a very nice sweet and simple testimony. Made me teary eyed... as most things do lately.

Then Cannon gets up. They pull the microphone down, he sticks his mouth on it and says loudly "PLEASE BLESS THE FOOD!"

Kyah tries to prompt him of what to say to correctly bear his testimony, but he won't do it. By then Doug has walked up to the podium to take care of the situation. He finishes by bearing his own testimony. Cannon was a little embarrassed about the entire situation. But he sure was cute!

And a quick story about Zane...

We were eating dinner last night and Zane was being very polite. He was eating his food, saying please and thank you and just looking very cute overall. I had the urge to lean over and give him a kiss on the cheek and tell him I loved him. He grinned, said thanks, then rubbed the kiss off his cheek just like normal.

Then he said "Mom, I'm going to have to get used to kisses."

When I asked him why, he said "Because when I'm older I'm going to get married and that's what you do when you get married." I laughed and resisted the enormous urge to squeeze him and kiss him on the cheek again. Then we had a little talk about not kissing girls until much much later in life. He thought that was a good idea. :) At least for now!

SUPER DAD

I'm so grateful for an amazing husband willing to go above and beyond all expectations. He is Super Dad (and Super Hubby)! These are a few of the things he did while I took my week long jaunt to camp and to Missouri!

• Went to work
• Made sure the kids were at school and all activities on time
• Watched Becky's 4 kids along with ours so she and Alex could stay at camp
• Cleaned my mom's house
• Cleaned our house
• Washed and changed our sheets!
• Did our laundry (yay!)
• Loved the kiddos when they were missing their mom
• Arranged all the travel plans while I was too emotional to make decisions
• Had an impromptu birthday celebration for my nephew while his parents were gone on his birthday
• Gave me no expectations or demands for us to get back quickly! (HUGE ONE!)
• Bought new tires for my van
• Helped a co-worker move
• Went to Spokane for mortgage licensing training – thank you to great parents that were willing to watch the kids!

I did not include the normal daily stuff like feeding the kids (sometimes is an adventure in itself), getting them to bed and keeping their room clean! If anybody has been home with their kids, you know these can be enough to do in one day!

I knew the kids were in good hands while I was gone. He is fantastic!

I love you Doug!

Road Trip!

One summer in college, my roommates and I decided to take a road trip to North Carolina. We were young, crazy and full of energy that I can't even imagine now. We left Utah at 6 pm and drove through the night straight to Charlotte. After a few near death experiences with a herd of deer in Eastern Colorado, another when my roommate was driving drowsy in Tennessee and after repairing a flat tire in Kansas, we finally made it back in a week or so... unharmed, happy and ready for another trip!

Oh how my traveling stamina has changed since then!

Last week I was enjoying camp with the 90+ 5th graders. We had beautiful weather and fun times until Tuesday night when we received sad news. My Grandma Holsten in Missouri had passed away. I hadn't seen her in 10 years. She turned 99 last November and we all had big plans to go visit her and the rest of our relatives in Missouri this summer. Of course, all of us felt guilt for not having gone there sooner. Grandma was a strong little lady, amazingly healthy and happy for being nearly a century old!

Doug was awesome. He was already being Super Dad by watching the kids all week while I was at camp. After I talked to him, he took charge. He checked airline flights, called my brothers, my sisters and talked with my

parents. He called me back and had arranged me to ride with Allie and Tom the next morning. We would make the marathon trip to Missouri in 2 days, stay for a few days, then come back.

I knew it would mean so much to my dad for us to be there, but being 7 months pregnant, I wasn't sure I wanted to drive there! I had a selfish hour when I didn't want to leave camp early (I'd been so excited for camp week all year!). I shed tears, mostly out of frustration in myself for my refusal to make a decision! I didn't want to drive, but knew that if I ended up paying the large amount for a flight that Allie and Tom may not be able to go... but in

the end I decided I had to ride with them. By the time I had packed and got back on the road to go home Wednesday night I was looking forward to the road trip ahead.

And we had a great time. I hadn't seen many of my cousins for 14 years. But we all had an instant camaraderie. We hugged, laughed, cried and shared many stories about our crazy visits to see them in the summers of our youth. The funeral was very nice. We spent the day in Stover where my Dad grew up and where my grandma lived until this last year when she finally sold her house and moved to Kansas City with my Dad's sisters. It brought back many memories!

We dragged our feet when it was time to leave. We were having such a great time with our family. But with

promises that my cousins were going to come visit us in Washington, we finally left Kansas City Sunday night around 6:30 pm. We drove 6 hours Sioux Falls SD, stayed the night then drove the entire next day to Cheney WA. Allie and I finished our drive to the Tri-Cities Tuesday morning. Wow! Somehow I'm not as tired as I should be. But I know I'm not quite ready to get back in the car!

Here is a map of our journey to the Midwest. According to Google, it would have taken us 26 days to walk this far! (That is without stopping to sleep or eat). I am thankful for a big backseat in a vehicle. :)

Camp is coming!

It's that time of year... spring is in the air, the days are getting warmer, the heat is turned off, the AC isn't on yet, we can leave the windows and doors open for the fresh air, the daffodils are blooming... and yes, the highlight of it all, we are getting ready for Camp Wooten. :)

Some of you may think I am crazy. I actually look forward to this week long "camping" trip with ninety 10 and 11 year olds. I normally don't like this age group, but I've learned a bit of patience.

Two years ago my sister asked me if I wanted to come to camp to help be a teacher because they were short that year. I ended up making a great friend, the Jason Lee librarian, Shirley. I was her assistant teacher for the fire-building class. We had a great time. I've never seen myself as a pro fire builder - that's Doug's expertise - and frankly, I'm the cheater type that likes to pile the big logs on, douse it with lighter fluid, use one match and watch it burn! In any case, my second year at camp, they decided I was teaching my own class. Shirley moved on to her love... "owl pellets" and they made me in charge of the fire building class. All went well... I had a great time teaching the kids how to build fires (But don't do this at home kids!).

So this year will be my third year at camp. This year I am teaching fire building again, and the powers that be also asked me to come up with a curriculum for the survival class, which goes hand in hand with my fire building class. So I also found myself teaching survival to the kids on their "pre camp day" at the park last week. How did I become this involved so quickly? And why am I still excited about going?

Last weekend I went to Camp Wooten for the cleanup day. I enjoyed the sunny skies and the deer staring at me in the middle of the night when I was walking to the bathroom. It was nice quiet weekend away in the mountains even though we worked hard cleaning and getting the camp ready. It was a gorgeous weekend.

Can't wait to get back there in 5 days! Camp Wooten has become something that I look forward to now. It's wedged itself into my little heart (even in spite of all those 10 year olds that are there as well!)

BLESSINGS (It's a long one!)

I apologize in advance... its going to be a long blog... and not as funny and lighthearted as I like to spend life in general. I guess I am throwing my fairytale life out the door for a few minutes while I type this out.

Its been a crazy few months! I feel like so many things have happened, they've really helped me to put things into perspective. I'm really just in the mood to hide in a corner and read a book since the kids are in bed and the men are watching a movie that I have no interest in. But I will do my best to quickly tell our story! 2010 started out quite interesting!

So here is the condensed version! (Very condensed... leaving out many of the roller coaster emotions in between.)

BLESSINGS PART 1:
In January the doc said the baby had a hole in her heart. We went to the specialist and they said "No, she is fine!" In February, the doc said the baby is too small and that she is being starved. He gave me a series of steroid shots to develop her lungs because we possibly might have to deliver her at 28 weeks and put her in the NICU for 3 months. I had to set up biweekly non-stress tests at the office, weekly doc apts and weekly ultrasounds to monitor her closely. If she started to get too weak, we would have to immediately induce. Wow! Stressed out! But guess what... they sent me to the specialist and they said "No, she is fine! She is not too small and she is growing." I'm losing my trust in the ultrasound tech at my doctor's office!

So I go back to my regular doc... he decides he still wants one more ultrasound to make sure everything is ok. He says my previous ultrasound at their office also showed very low levels of fluid. The doc is flustered, but quite patient with me while I break down in his office. I'm frustrated about the constant good and bad reports back and forth each week. I call Doug and he is the sweet hubby who allows me to rant on the phone. He offers to let us live in Utah for the next two months so my old doc can deliver this baby too! I was seriously thinking about it. So after another week of stressing about it, I get another ultrasound. This time a different person does it. He seems to be much more experienced... and the results ... "the fluids are just fine!"

So my doc finally agrees nothing is wrong and that I don't have to have all the extra tests, ultrasounds and weekly doc appointments. So life is back to normal! Yay! Baby is growing, has a healthy heart, moves around all the time... and I've actually started showing! I keep telling people if they just get fat before they get pregnant they can hide it for a long time! Plus, they are already used to carrying the extra weight. Life is good! :)

So the baby stress seems to be old news... and now we can actually start thinking about names. We have no idea, but this is not normal for us. Its usually a decision made in the 4th quarter anyway.

Wow, that wasn't quite as condensed as I wanted, but I digress... here are the other things we were dealing with!

BLESSINGS PART 2:
My mom found a lump on her lower eyelid in December. She went in, had a biopsy and found out it was cancerous. They had her come back in and they did surgery to remove the cancerous area. Her last check up last week verified that they did get all the cancer out and the cancer is not a type that travels through the blood stream. So it did not and would not spread anywhere. But meanwhile... there was some stress and worries between January and now!

BLESSINGS PART 3:
Great Grandma has not been feeling so hot. Doug and I visited her at the end of February and she was having dizzy spells and muscle spasms that were causing her to fall to the floor while she was walking or even sitting on the couch. Her arms and legs would just start flailing everywhere. She didn't know if she was having a seizure, if she had brain cancer, or what. She had a nasty bump and split her skin open on her head just before we got there. She had a really bad cut 5 inches long up her shin from one of her falls earlier that week. She had been talking to her doctor, but didn't know what to do. She went into the hospital and her pulse and blood pressure were really low. They realized that she needed a pace maker! They flew her up to Spokane to do her surgery as soon as possible. Everything went well and she is now as spunky as ever! I haven't seen her this energetic for a while... and she is still recuperating from the surgery. Amazing!

BLESSINGS PART 4:
We've known for a while that Doug was possibly going to lose his job. When I say a while... I mean over a year! He has the lowest seniority in his office, so when the state was laying off, he was naturally at the bottom of the totem pole. But here it was and they were getting memos from the DOC administration saying all the layoffs are over... oh, but wait, just kidding! They just hadn't finished in the Kennewick office where he was working! So they offered Doug a job in Yakima (sorry, we are NOT moving there) or he could be on the layoff list. We chose the layoff list. His last day at work was March 5th. We were scared and excited for a new step in life... until on March 2nd, Doug also got a letter from the state saying "Just Kidding, you still have your job." Please show up to work as normal! It was frustrating, but it's a blessing to not have to worry about that too!

CONCLUSION:
So within a month, we were dealing with some of the most stressful incidents anyone can have in their life... well almost anyway! We didn't have to change jobs, didn't lose a child or a loved one, and didn't have any major issues from my mom's cancer. It all seems so silly now, but at the time I remember thinking... "I can't take anything else! Why is everything happening at once?" I guess it's because Heavenly Father knew I could handle it and I needed it to learn to rely on Him.

I am so blessed to have such a patient and loving husband. I have not been the most patient or loving wife the last few months and he has really put up with me. I am so thankful for my kids. Somehow through all of the stress, I love and appreciate my kids more now than ever. What a blessing it is to know that Heavenly Father is there for us. He gives us peace and strength all at once. For one of the darkest months in my life, it's amazing how everything has turned out just fine. What great blessings!