The Wall

Whenever Dan and I would talk about our dream home it always had a big shed stock full of outdoor gear and a rock climbing wall – this was almost a joke since we didn’t really believe it would happen . . .but we have some friends who have a rock climbing wall in their basement . . . and Dan and I realized our garage is 12 feet tall.  Plenty of space for a rock climbing wall.  So we decided it would make an awesome family present for Christmas.  By our preliminary calculations, we thought the project would cost 300-400 dollars, but the final, completely finished product was well over that original guess.  (I am kind of glad I didn’t know that at the time, because I’m not sure I would have agreed to it.)
And now that it is finished . . . It is AWESOME!  Whenever I open the garage to park the car I think to myself, “We are so awesome!”  Yup!  Awesome!
The kids favorite part of the wall is that they have their own hide out behind the slanted wall.  We decided to be very strict and make it so they could only access it by climbing up with a harness on, but that just didn’t seem practical when both boys are up there yelling that they have to go pee and each waiting to get the harness on and belayed down one at a time.  This seriously happened more than once.  So Dan built a ladder for easy access.  Below their hideout are two shelves for skis.  So instead of having a trampoline or pool as potential hazards we have a climbing wall and a hideout 10 feet off the concrete floor. Don’t worry we are still amazingly safety conscious and enforcing our strict rules.  I still think we must be slightly crazy.  Love it!
It was so much work.  Here is the process through photos.  You don’t get to see us do math until our minds hurt to get the angle right or get high gluing T-nuts in, or grumble when our math wasn’t quite right or how many times we went to Lowes but you get the picture.  A special thanks to Jon Messina who helped lift most the boards up and my sister Anna for helping me complete the wave along the bottom and many others who helped!

Definitely a Reeves

I always love to go back and look at baby pictures and see who looks like who, so here is Vince, Benji and Max in their blessing tux.  Charlotte’s picture isn’t quite as comparable since we didn’t have a car seat.

And here are passport pictures for the kids.  First Charlotte, then Benji, Vinson and finally a straight on picture of Max (we didn’t need a passport for him. )

We love Max!  He is such a good baby!  Here’s my favorite picture of him.

A baby, wedding and a funeral

Since Max was born, things have been pretty busy!  Here are some highlights of the first two weeks. 

Max was born on the 17th.

On the 19th, we went to American Fork for my brother’s wedding dinner.  And they got married in the Timpanogos Temple on the 20th.  Here is my brother, Rob, and his beautiful new wife Janae.  We absolutely love Janae, she is a perfect fit for Rob!

As you could expect from Rob, their reception was really fun.  We could dress up in Mexican clothes and pose with some Rob and Janae dummies.  They had frisbee golf and a pinata – which meant that the boys were entertained and not embarrassing.

That Sunday we went and visited Grandma Ward.  She needed to meet Max (who was named after her husband).  She hadn’t been feeling very well and was on oxygen but we’d been around to see plenty of ups and downs with her.  Well, this was the last picture taken of her.  She died the next morning.  I’m so glad we visited and she got to meet Max.

Her funeral was on the 27th, which was actually a really happy occasion.  We believe in life after death – so for us this was her being reunited with her husband and family who had already died long ago.  Charlotte kept saying, “Grandma sleeping” and looked really concerned when they put the lid down.  Charlotte and Grandma had a special relationship.  We will miss grandma but know we can see her again someday.

Baby Max

Max is here!  He was born September 17 and weighed 7 lb 13 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches tall(3.2 kg and 52 cm).

Max was named after Dan’s grandpa Ward and grandpa Reeves (both were named Max.)

After having babies in the Czech Republic, Davis Hospital seemed so ritzy.  I had forgotten that each room had a TV and DVD player.  The food was really good – and filling!  And they even gave me a complimentary hair cut – which is still so strange to me.

The kids have been really good with him.  Benji and Vince love to hold him and Charlotte likes to be just like him (lay next to him, sit in his car seat etc.) She likes to bring him toys and set them on his lap and put his shoes by his feet. 

In the hospital my sister Lorraine came to visit with her 2 week old Norah.  Charlotte was pretty cute with Max, but her eyes lit up when she saw Norah and she wanted to hold her and touch her and love her.

We’ve fallen in love with sweet baby Max!

Big news times two!

I was having a conversation with a friend, who I haven’t talked to in a while and I said, “Guess what?  I have some news.”

“You’re pregnant.”

“Well, yes- but that’s not what I was going to say.  Our offer was accepted on a house.”

So there’s our big news!  First I’m pregnant and due September 11.  Easy to remember.  I will find out the gender in a few weeks and this week have gone from looking maybe pregnant  - or a little chubby to most definitely no doubt about it pregnant.

Our next big news is that (crossing our fingers) we will soon be home owners.  Dan and I have spent a lot of our evenings looking for houses from Bountiful to Sandy.  We’ve made some offers and finally one has gone through.  It was a short sale in Woodscross (aka LONG sale).  Four months later they accept our offer and give us 3 weeks to do our paperwork.  We’ve had to ask for an extension and hopefully we will be homeowners on April 19th!

Here’s some pictures of our house!