I can’t even believe it!  After 6 years of living with a dungeon for a basement, we finally got it finished and it is wonderful.  Here are the before and after pictures of the amazing transformation our basement has taken these last couple of months.  You will be amazed!!!

This is where we begin.  From our kitchen a door separates our warm cozy home from the creepy, cold dungeon. When you first open the door, you see a large storage closet (total waste of space. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside.) and broom closet. The descending stairs to the right.

  

The Second picture is what you see as you begin the journey down the stairs.  This next picture is a view of it from below coming back up.  You can see the first set of stairs from here.

Here is what it looks like now, same views in the same order…

Here is the next set of stairs. View going down and then coming back up.

The wall jetting out was taken back and the top two stairs widen. The landing there at the top was leveled and a new back door put on that didn’t scrape the floor and actually opens all the way now.

 

Now we are down the stairs and in the basement. This next picture shows the landing in the basement. There is an unfinished closet on the right.  (this closet used to be a shower. A very nasty shower.  You really have to wonder with these old houses sometimes)  You can see in the bottom right corner of the first picture the cement half wall.  The second picture is a shot of the unfinished closet.

 

 

The cement wall was taken back to the full wall and the wall next to the stairs was also taken back a bit.  The closet is now finished. 

 

Continuing into the actual basement.  here is the view from the landing. Notice the wires, pipes and duct work everywhere.

We got new duct work done and you can see a door to the new closet where the washing machine used to be. If you look closely on the bottom of the ‘before’ picture, you can see where the half wall used to be.

Now into the first room of our basement. There is a cement platform, of sorts, and there used to be a toilet in the corner.  We decided to make a second bathroom.  On the left of the big black pipe we put the bathroom and laundry closet. Our washer and dryer are now side by side instead of opposite sides of the room.  On the right of the big black pipe is the storage closet you see above.

 

Here is the bathroom and laundry closet.  We call the bathroom Bryce’s “manly bathroom”.

 

In this first room there was only one light for the whole room. The windows were busted out and had not been replaced since long before we owned the house.  The walls were cement with plaster on top.  The plaster was falling off.  No ceilings to hide duct work or wires and pipes.  There were two big sinks next to the freezer that we never used. There were no outlets so we powered the washer, dryer and freezer through extension cords that went up through the ceiling to the upstairs outlets. You can kind of see those.

New windows, new duct work, 2 lights plus the light in the bathroom and the laundry closet. And we have

outlets!!!

 

Now for room #2. I decided to put the before and after shots side by side for this room. It’s the same story with duct work, wires and no outlets. Plus this part of the house is a rock foundation so the walls were literally falling apart. The walls had to be patched to keep the rocks in. There was also this weird window deal where you could see the stairs and first closet through it.  On the other side of the room there was a wall that was half brick and half cement. It was also falling apart.  Our furnace is in this room as well, and we had a closet built around it.  This room also had only one light in the middle of the room. Now we have four. This will be our new entertainment room ( TV room).

 

  

  

Last room. This room was much like the second room. The rock walls had to be patched and there was another window looking into the laundry room (first room). The window to the outside had been broken out. This room housed our water heater and again a closet was built around it.  This room could be used as a small bedroom but we are still debating how to use it. It used to be our storage room, but we love it so much we want to use it for something else.

  

Well, that’s it.  Lots of pictures, but then again, lots of work.  Thank you Innovative Construction Remodeling for our lovely new basement.

I have rededicated myself to blogging on a regular basis.  There is so much that has happened since last post and I don’t have the time or inclination to go into every detail of the last three and half months.  So here are the highlights of the last 3 months of my year 2009.

Katie turned five years old the 13th of October.  I can not believe I have a 5 year old.  She is so smart and wonderful to have around.  She is so photogenic.

We went to McDonalds for her birthday lunch.  We don’t go there often so it was a big deal for Katie.

Katie had a Halloween party for her birthday.  It was so much fun! Bryce helped out by doing a treasure hunt and his mom was great letting  us use her house as well as making the cake.  We also played games. Her friends came in their costumes.

And then there was Halloween…

My Supergirl!

Of course while Katie was celebrating her birthday, our other little girl was doing some growing up as well.  She didn’t like getting her pictures taken.  I finally got a few good pictures but WOW…what an ordeal!

 

This is my favorite picture.  I think she looks like Curious George.

 

 

   Little sweetie.

 

My girls!  Just had to add it.

 

November brought us a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.  We spent Thanksgiving with my sister, her family, Bryce’s parents and his Brother and Sister in law.  It was so much fun. Tried to get a Christmas Card picture, and this is what I got.

 

I should have used this one–

 

Love those girls!  We had a great Thanksgiving dinner.  It is really nice to be with family.

December has been a very busy month.  First- our most exciting news—we are doing our basement!! I will post pictures of that project when it is all finished.  We just got our sheet rock up today.  I am so thrilled I about cried when I saw it all put together.  Now we just have to tape and mud the sheet rock, paint, put in the bathroom toilet and sink, and flooring.  I can hardly wait to see it done!

Katie was in a few performances for Christmas and Bryce played one on the three wise men in a nativity at church. I made his costume in 2 days.  That was a busy week!

Christmas was a blast.  We went to a family dinner at Bryce’s Aunt Ramona’s house for Christmas Eve.  Later that night my parents came into town.  It was a nice surprise for Katie to wake up to not only presents and a stuffed stocking but Grandma and Grandpa too!  After opening gifts and eating candy to our hearts content we headed down to Misty’s house for Christmas dinner and family frivolity. The day after Christmas we were able to support Jacob, my nephew, in receiving his Eagle at his Court of Honor.  It was beautiful.

The next day was Sunday and we rushed home just in time to get ready for church.  It was a stressful day because we were blessing our daughter, Elizabeth that day.  I was so worried that she would poop in the dress that she only wore it for 10 minutes.  I worked on it for about a month.  There you go.  Let that be a lesson to us all.  I didn’t get any pictures of the dress or the family that day, but I did get some later with help from Bryce.  The blessing was beautiful and now I realize that the most important thing about a blessing day is not the dress, but the blessing.  I will still make my kids blessing outfits, but maybe I won’t be so concerned with it the day of the blessing.

That being said—here is the dress!

       

 

Wow! That’s it.  Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year to all!

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged.  I am trying a new program and it has taken me this long to be brave enough to try it out.

Here is the whole story of Elizabeth’s birth.  At least from my point of view.

About 2 am on September 15th I started to feel some strong surges. (Surges are what we hypno-birthers call contractions.)  I had been having them strong on and off for a couple of weeks so, I thought this was one of those early mornings that I probably wouldn’t get any sleep.  I decided to go to the bathroom to see if that would help, then tried to lie down again.  They still kept coming but they didn’t hurt or anything.  They were just uncomfortable enough to not let me sleep.  I tried going to the bathroom again but nothing helped.

2 & 1/2 Weeks before arrival

I looked at the clock and by this time it was about 3 am.  I debated waking Bryce but thought I should give it about an hour.  About 3 surges later I changed my mind and put my head on his chest.  He patted my head and asked what was wrong.  I told him I couldn’t sleep because I was having strong surges.  He didn’t really respond.  I realized he went back to sleep so I woke him again telling him I was having strong surges and they were coming quickly.  He immediately got up and started to time them.  They were about 3-4 minutes apart. I still was not convinced I was in true labor because they didn’t feel strong enough and I thought it might just be false labor.  Bryce had me take a shower to see if that would slow things down, but it didn’t.

About 4:30 am Bryce called our midwife Chris. I told him to tell her that it would probably be awhile since I could still talk through the surges but we think it might be labor.  She told us to time how long the surge lasted and if it was longer than a minute then it’s a good bet I’m in labor.

Bryce timed the length of the surges and they were longer then a minute, but I was still convinced it was false labor because they were not unbearable.  I labored on my ball for awhile and then decided I needed to lie down on the bed.  Bryce thought it was time to get the pool ready.  We had done a “dry run” the night before to see how long it would take to get it ready when the time came. We joked later that we should have just left it up since we used it 8 hours later.

(Bryce and Katie breaking down the pool the night before labor started. Also the very spot Lizzy was born.  That’s right, in the middle of the kitchen.)

I relaxed through each surge for awhile while he was getting the pool ready. At 5:30 am he called our midwife Chris, our doula Michelle and told them things were getting serious and they should probably come over.  Then he called my sister, Misty to tell her to come get my mom and Katie.  She lives 2 hours away but we thought we still had plenty of time.

I got into the pool just before 6 am and things really picked up.  I was having trouble with the surges in the position I was in.  I had the “bear down” feeling and wasn’t sure if I was really ready to push.  I changed positions and it was a lot better.  My doula showed up just about 6 am and I told her how I was feeling.  She told me to just go with it.  I was still unsure if I was completely dilated, but I trusted in my body and went with it.  Michelle told me to reach inside to see if I could feel anything.  I felt the bag of waters bulging and my sweet baby’s head right behind.  I couldn’t believe it!  She was really coming.  That gave me all the confidence in the world to get the baby out.  With one push the bag of waters released.  Second push she crowned.  Third push her head emerged and last push she was born.  Bryce caught the baby and brought her into the world.  It was very exciting!

Our midwife walked in the door just a minute after Elizabeth was born and did all the new born stuff that needed to happen. Elizabeth was born 6:32 am at 9 lbs 21 1/2 inches long !  My labor was a total of 4 1/2 hours!  It was the most beautiful thing I have done in my life!  Very empowering!  I wouldn’t change anything about the birth and totally believe in hypno-birthing!

Bryce woke up Katie and had her come down stairs and meet her new sister.  Misty showed up an hour later and after making sure all was well, just took Katie for the night so Bryce and I could get some rest.

I can not say enough about my midwife and doula.  They were both awesome!  And my absolutely fantastic husband who was supportive through the whole pregnancy and was amazing at the birth.  I am so very blessed with this family and all the support I have had.

Thanks again for all the prayers that were coming our way for this baby. The lord was watching over us that morning and I know her brother is watching from heaven too!

Welcome to the world Elizabeth Anne Beattie!!

Birth day

One week old

Here are some photos of the ultrasound I had yesterday.  See if you can guess the gender!

Here is the little hand waving at big sister Katie.

Cute little profile!

It was hard to get  really good 4D picture.  The placenta is right in the way!

Any guesses?

We are so very excited about having this new addition to our family!  Katie can’t wait to be a big sister and change the baby’s diaper!  Got to love it!

We had so much fun for easter.  It started off a little crazy.  Bryce and I had planned to go to Oak City to visit my sister the day before Easter and then spend Easter with her family.  Wednesday, I decide to call Questar, our gas company, to come and do a quick carbon monoxide test.  I just had a feeling that something was wrong.  They came out, found a gas leak, and several other problems and shut off the gas.  We called the Air Conditioning people to come and fix it but they couldn’t come out until the next day.  That night, half our electricity went off.  The next morning we called the power company to come fix it.  They said that one line had fried and the other was on it’s way out, so, they turned off the power.  They told us we had to update some stuff before they could re-run wire and get us up and running.  And the air conditioning people said they couldn’t fix the gas until the power was back on.  So there we were, no power or gas.  I packed up and headed to Misty’s early.  I was so glad to spend the time with her family.  It was so much fun.  My mom was with me so she got to spend Easter with us as well. 

Here is Sophie and Katie.  They love to play together.  It is so fun to have a cousin Katie’s age.

We had an Easter Egg Hunt with the city on Saturday, but we were 1 minute too late.  Katie did get some eggs from some nice kids who shared.  Sunday we had a hunt at aunt Misty’s house.  This was more fun for Katie.  Not as many kids, and way more eggs!

Bryce stayed home to get things fixed up but was able to come down on Saturday after a sealing and Baptism.  He got there about dinner time.  Misty cut his hair and then shortly after dinner he passed out.  We decorated eggs Saturday night.

Sunday we went to church with Misty’s family.  After church, lunch, and a nap for Katie, we opened baskets and did the Easter Egg Hunt.  It was so much fun.

We headed home that night.  Our power was on, but still so heat.  We finally got the furnace working this morning.  Yeah!  Warm showers tonight.

Again, as soon as I figure out my camera, pictures will be posted.  We found out we are expecting again.  I am so excited and sick.  The sickness has not been as bad as in times past, but the tired as been double!  Whew, I wish I just had an ounce of Katie’s energy to get me through the day.

I will be posting pictures soon!  I got a new camera for Christmas and I am still learning how to use it.  But I have a new closet and I am so very excited!

My dad came out for a couple of weeks to help me with it.  He did most of it, but I still helped so I am taking some credit. Bryce helped too!  It was a family project, even Katie got to mud and paint a little.

Now on to our stairs and then to our fire place!  Hopefully then we can put the house up for sale.  Here’s hoping!

I will be sad when my parents leave.  I actually got to talk to adults during the day.  Katie is fun to talk to, but still just four.  I will miss them.

I am learning not only to blog, but to use Facebook!  Wow, I am really coming up in the world!  It helps that Bryce is such a computer guru.  He’s got me hooked on this thing.  Now he is cooking dinner because I can not tear myself away from the computer!  He he. ….

We had a great Christmas!  Katie had a Christmas concert for dance.  She was so cute as always.  After her concert she got to sit on Santa’s lap.  This is the first year she wasn’t scared silly of him.  She ran right up, jumped on his lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas.

We decided to make this Christmas a little more relaxing.  We only gave 3 gifts for each person to represent the wise mens’ gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  It made Christmas shopping so much easier in some ways, and little more difficult in other ways.  There was so much I wanted to give Bryce and Katie.  I ended up stuffing their stockings pretty full of gifts!

Katie’s favorite gifts were her new doll house and rocking horse.   Bryce loved his new holster for his gun and his concealed carry permit that came in the mail the day after Christmas!  My favorites were my snow boots and camera, but the ring Bryce got me has to be my absolute favorite!  He is always telling me that I am his ruby and so he got my a ruby ring.  He is so romantic!

Hope everyone else had a great holiday!

It seems like it has been just a whirlwind of activities the last few months.  It is time to post what we have been up to and show off some pictures!!  Of course I will start with my all time favorite “I’ve just been caught” picture.  Our family loves Karaoke.  Here I am singing away.  I turned and Bryce took a picture.  We don’t claim to be the best, but we sure love it.

Next, Bryce and I just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.  I can’t believe it has been 5 years and we are still madly in love.  Every year Bryce hides little notes for me to find on our anniversary.  He’s such a romantic!  This year he told me that I would definatly find the note before I left to go Cross Guarding!  I tried to find it but couldn’t.  Sure enough, right before I left I found it and had to take pictures!

People on the road would honk at us.  I even had one of my sub’s for crossing ask me if I was Aurora of “Bryce and Aurora”.  I said “Yes, I am!”  She then congratulated me for our 5 years.  He is such a sweetie.

October started off fun.  We went on a family vacation to West Yellowstone with our friends the Hanfts.  Mike, Elisa, and Calli.  As you can see it was very cold.

We think we may try to go again when it isn’t snowing.  We didn’t see too many animals but we did have a lot of fun.

KATIE’S BIRTHDAY!!!

Katie turned 4 this year.  I can hardly believe it.  She is getting so big.  I took these pictures at the same reception hall Bryce and I had our wedding reception.  Pretty cool.

Katie once again had a dance concert.  This time it was here halloween performance.  She did a chicken dance.  She was so cute in her costume!

She did a great job!  I was a little worried because of last year’s fiasco, but she performed like a pro!

I thought these pictures were funny!  Here is Katie working side by side with Dad.  She had a bloody nose and so to be sure it would stop bleeding, on both sides, she insisted on plugs.

Just makes you hungry doesn’t it!

HALLOWEEN!!

Here is Katie’s costume.  I had to get it finished before I had my gallbladder surgery.  She was so cute, I took lots of pictures!  Here she is.

We called her a disco bug, but she looks more like a fairy.  I was supposed to dress up the same way, but I barely got her costume made 2 days before my surgery.  And I just didn’t feel like sewing afterwards!

Bryce dressed up as Robin Hood again.  I made him his costume a couple of years ago.  And I dressed up like a cat.  No sewing required this time.  But next year will be awesome!

We went to a party on Halloween at the Hanfts’ house.  We had a lot of fun.  I was still not feeling my best but I managed to eat a lot anyway!

November is now here!  Whew what a ride.  I am the Enrichment Leader in our ward and this year for our service project we donated a Christmas tree to the Safe Harbor Christmas tree auction.  Our Relief Society hand made many of the decorations for the tree.  I made the advent quilt and put together a program for the Relief Society Sisters for enrichment night.  Our tree turned out so cute!  Here is the tree and advent quilt. It auctioned out at $800.  That’s pretty good since we only spent $150 on it total.

Whew!  What a ride.

Next was Spencer’s birthday.  I have hit the one year mark for losing our little boy.  I can’t believe it has been a year already.  I will have his page up soon.  Please be patient.  I am still getting used to all this blog stuff.