Extreme Homemakeover Family Edition

It started with a simple conversation in August while sitting around with family one lazy day.

"My mom is trying to figure out what colors she should paint her house..."

"oh! We should remodel your moms house for her!"

What?! really?!

"and we should do it over Thanksgiving weekend"

Lets get the ball Rollin!!!!

After only 2 months to plan and prepare and pick out new flooring, paint colors and carpet...

Turkey day finally arrived and so did around 15 family members......

We all went to work...and didnt stop for 4 days! sun up to sun down.

After day #1 Mom stayed at my house so she could watch the 'babies' while we all worked on the house so it ended up being a complete suprise for her at the end.

Everyone worked together flawlessly.

Craig got his 'ghostbusters' on...and attacked the house with the spray gun!

The rest of us attacked the other rooms with paint...

For sure OSHA would have shut us down had they seen the shenanegans going on there....

Here is some of the crew at the end of Day #2-paint day.

Day #3 FLOORING.

Craig, Kang, U. Dave & A. Kate went crazy on the floor while the rest of us (me) did touch ups all day long. (day 3 had a smaller work crew :) )

The fend for yourself table.

Fun to congregate around while eating triscuts & drinking out of liter bottles of soda really fast so we could get right back to work.

A HUGE improvement!!!

U. Ric working some unexpected magic on the bathroom floor.

The Project captain aka the Legend

Finished project:

The kitchen

bathroom

The crew waiting to yell MOVE THAT BUS! ha.

TA DA.

Pics after the carpet got put in the next day.

Amazing.

and it smells awsome.

and the grand finale.

Craig got the TV hooked back up.

Life could now go on. :)

We are so blessed with such a great family that works so well together.

A generous donation from my moms parents who paid for her new flooring & U. Ric's company who donated all the paint made this possible.

Along with hard working family members to help her put it all in and give up thier 4 day weekend to give thier time to my Mom to make her home a nice place to be.

We were all exausted. But there is no other feeling than to serve another. Especially my Mom.

Then hearing them all say ' it was the best Thanksgiving weekend any of them have ever had' and there was no other place they would have rather been is pretty amazing.

I love this quote. It spells out our weekend and our family perfectly.

"In family relationships, LOVE is really spelled T-I-M-E, time."

Masons 3!!

Mason turned 3 on Nov. 24th!

He is such a big boy now.

He is starting to get his 'own friends' - so we threw his first 'friend' party this year!

There is no other place that this kid would enjoy more than Krispy Kreme donuts on his birthday, so away we went!

At the party store, he was supposed to pick the plates, and presents for the kids in some sort of 'theme'. Right, like a 3 year old gets the theme idea...so we had "Cars" plates, Toy story goodie bags, and Dinosaur balloons! PERFECT for him!


9am. HOT donuts waiting to be devoured!!

*I might throw my 31st birthday party here too!*

Braeden, Nixon, Ashlyn, Mason, Brody, Taylor and Paige enjoying chocolate milk and donuts.

The cake of dreams

Pounding his 3rd donut!

I told him it was time to open presents and he wouldnt stop until all his donuts were eaten first...kid knows his priorities :)

His cool Gun from Brody!

Funnest game from the Horn girls.

He got PJ's and a cool buzz lightyear car from Jorgenson kids.

All the buddies after thier sugar feast.

Opening his presents from the family...buzz and woody bendy toys!

Then we headed out to Applebees for dinner ....

and then the movie Tangeled.

Kids loved it, we loved it!

Such a FUN FUN day!

Mason is so full of life.

He has so much happy energy and makes us laugh all day.

He sometimes uses his big head as a weapon against his sister.

He loves to try new things.

He is adventurous and friendly.

His sugar junkie ways make us laugh.

He loves his Miles and his Paigie.

We love you Mason.

Hope the simple things always make you as happy as they did on your 3rd birthday!

xxoo

Off track-pretend city!

Playing at Pretend city.

My kids favorite place, and I love it too!

This place teaches kids to work hard, make a mess and then not have to clean it up...real good! :)

Here mason is being a farmer picking strawberries

This girl would NOT get off the crutches all day....all fun until you really have to use them one day! :)

A 3 year old and water = love.

Working in the mexican restaurant....

Being rock stars...I think they miss the stage :)

The babies...too cute!

These girls are hard to get pictures of because they were all over! loving every minute.

Maybe they will open thier own restaurant one day with Taylors chef skills!?

Such a fun day!! The kids play for hours without problems, and have a BLAST!

2nd tooth...bon voyage.

We have an awsome tooth fairy!

This time for the 2nd tooth she brought Apple cider!

Early November (after being lose for about a month) Paige finally lost her 2nd tooth!

and she checked out clean with NO cavities at the dentist too!

Cavity prevention

Here is

exibit A:

Sugar junkie at the dentist for first time

Exibit B: The junkies teeth

(which we suprisingly found had no cavities)

Exibit C:
The junkie getting his teeth counted by the dentist.
His little hand is showing his nervousness :)

He passed!
My tough boy!!

Off Track...Police!

We were 'off track' from school in November.

There were so many fun things we planned to do along with some other moms and thier kids for the whole month!

One of the first things we did was head to the Chino Hills police station for a tour.

Sheriff Miles

McGruff came out to say hi and to SAY NO TO DRUGS! Mason and Ash excited to go see the jails....that hopefully scares them straight! :)

In the jail cell...

Mason was a little too happy to be in there...

Kids got to see the jail holding cell, the one toilet (with no doors), and how tiny the back seat of the police car is...

hope they never get to see any of those places again! :)