Ryker Turns 5

My baby boy is growing up so fast! I am sure I say that every year, but its also true every year. Ryker has been looking forward to his birthday for a while. it is fun that its at the end of the school year.

This year he LOVED!!!!! his kindergarten prep class. he had so much fun and always came home with something new to talk about. He learned so much. since we were moving, his last day happened to be his birthday, so we brought cupcakes to share with everyone. His teacher, ms tiffany, gave me his end of year tests. basically just seeing what letters and numbers he knew from the beginning of the year till the end. he made some amazing improvement and can write his name. i am so happy with bountiful preschool and all they did for him. he is still asking me if its a school day. not quite buddy. and its going to be a very different school. but he loved it and i am so glad we got him into something.

so his wonderful happy birthday started with a surprise visit from grandma and grandad. they came in late the night before for a quick visit to see the house. my dad had never been out to our new place so it was a great opportunity to show off all our hard work. but we opened presents and then got him ready for school. said a quick hi to grandma and grandad and then he was off to school.

after school we got some great lunch and spent lots of time playing with grandma and grandad, and then we were off to the circus!

the kids loved it. ryker of course loved the motorcycles. rylie loved the tigers. rex just loved all the songs and flashing lights.

once we got home we had pizza for dinner and then ryker got to celebrate some more with a pinata and a shooting star cake.

he went to bed a very happy 5 year old and we are so grateful for our little man. he is just like his dad in so many ways and always wants to help. he is a great helper here at home with me as well as dad in the garage. he has a wonderful personality and we are learning more about him everyday. he is very strong willed and loves to make deals. he still has a lot of emotions for a little boy and we are learning how to deal with them. but its so great to finally be able to talk through things with him. we love our ryker!

plaing with the birthday balloons

fun at the circus

opening presents. he got some great maze and connect the dot books from grandma and grandpa deitrick

our birthday boy!

he got a fun writing tablet to draw and practice his letters and numbers

last day with Ms Tiffany, we will surely miss her she was so fun. she said she will really miss him too. 

rex was obsessed with grandad the whole trip

tigers

3 white tigers and 2 orange ones

rylie was in aw the whole time

spiderman doing some sweet stunts

who doesnt love a dog riding a pony

gotta love our mermaid acrobatics

she was nervous but loved riding the pony

rex didnt do to bad either. but we definitely made sure he was on the smallest pony haha. 

everyone loved the elephants

of course everyone loved the motorcycles

i think this just shows 3, but they ended up putting 4 bikes in there!

pinata time!

happy birthday ryker!!!

fun with balloons! they loved this game

Reno Finish

here all our reno pics. and some great before and afters. dang we did a good job. if i do say so myself.

building the behemoth bottom corner cabinet. this was actually quite difficult to get into the house. we had to remove the cross beam to angle it in. 

this was.... interesting to work in to feed my family

looks a little better with some color

finally able to put the kitchen table back in the dining room area

its so much more open. 

new lights!

all the door and drawers face frames

so many doors and drawers!

sanding the final coat to get it smooth and perfect. it was only 1am at this point. we were still mostly fresh

texturing the ceiling

got some color in the bathroom

peeling up 4 layers of laminate flooring

the last layer was insane

cutting out the old 

he did leave me a sink... kind of. at least for a little bit

rerouting water lines for the dishwasher

perfectly level. good work justin

sneak peak. 

first counter on. he was so nice to attach my sink before he left for 3 days to go to his grandmas funeral

puttin new valved in the bathroom on the otherside, and we broke the connection on this side and needed to to some impromptu plumbing fixes. thankfully our neighbor was up at 10p and let us borrow their torch. 

attaching more counters

working on the basement bathroom

pantry is in!

fridge surround is in

very tight space to work with on getting the dishwasher connected

such a better color!

laying the floor

starting to look like a kitchen again

uppers go in!

love!

we sheet rocked the laundry room and it helped just put it all together

let entryway light

took a few days to glue and clamp all the cabinet drawers

and all the drawers

our makeshift paint booth in the garage

priming all the closet doors

before and after kitchen

before and after main bath

before and after downstairs bath

before and after mast bath

before and after front of house

before and after back of house

i know these pics are not in order. but needless to say in the year and a half that we lived in the house, we did a lot. we loved what we turned it into and it was a great house for us. we were sad to go, but excited about the opportunities that come with a new location. hope the new owners take care of it and love it like we did.