AND THEN THERE IS OUR SAUNA CONSTRUCTON

This past week we had some bumps on the road with the construction inspectors...

they really don't know too much about saunas here in this part of the world, so some of the inspectors coming by did not want to approve our sauna construction. 

They had concerns with the stove, water , and electricity being all in the same room...or like one of them said: "I just don't like it". 

 

Fortunately we have a great general contractor, who got it all cleared, so now the construction can move along.

 

Toilet area transformation this past week

 

Sauna control box is in...

 

Sauna vapor barrier...

 

...and the concrete flooring with a drain...

 

...sauna will have two wents. 

One will be by the stove and this other one is opposite from the stove, venting to the shower area.  Hopefully that will keep the air moving...

 

 

 

Shower area...

...the floor of the shower is cultured granite.  Easy to clean and maintain.

AND YOU THOUGHT THAT WE DO NOT ICE SKATE IN VEGAS

...well...actually...

we really don't...

that often...

but once in a while..

maybe once in a three years or so...

we will head to the indoor  ice skating arena for little bit of winter fun.

This Saturday we wanted to do something different and went ice skating.  The boys were done after an hour, but Maija did not want to waste any of our two hour skating time.  She kept going until she had worn us all out.

I, myself was a little nerveous, wondering if I still knew how to ice skate.  It has been AT LEAST 15 years since my last ice skating experience. 

But appereantly it is like riding a bicycle. 

Once you learn it...you will always know how to do it.

And I truly enjoyed myself!

And where there is ice skating there is also hot chocolate!

MARKUS TRYING TO SURVIVE HIS SOPHOMORE YEAR

Markus is having a quite a heavy load this year at school. The most challenging and hands down time consuming class is the World History AP class. 

It seems like he has hours of home work EACH day for this class...including weekends.

 

 

When he starts to be in despair....

 

 

 

there is just that much I can do to help...but I can make cookies for him...and I would like to think that sometimes a good chocolate chop cookie can make all the difference when it comes to getting your homework done.

 

 

 

 

KAI WORKING ON HIS EAGLE PROJECT

Last few months Kai has been working on his Eagle Scout project. 

He decided to make super hero capes for Primary Children's  Hospital. 

He made couple of proto types last fall, and took them to Salt Lake City, Utah when he met with the hospital personel. 

 

His project got approved by the hospital and the Scout committee and now he just needs to get it done.

 

Our ward members have been very generous with fabric donations, and recently Kai has been cutting the capes out.  Once he has everything cut out, he will organize a sewing event where all the capes will be sewn.  His plan is to make double sided capes, so that the children can decorate one side with fabric markers, and other side will be patterend fabric.

 

Maija is modeling Kai's proto type of the cape.

 

 

 

Kai cutting the capes out...some for girls and some for boys....

 

 

 

 

 

BASKETBALL SEASON CAME ...AND NOW IT IS OVER...KIND OF...

Niko and Kai both played basketball this winter with city of Henderson rec league. 

They had six weeks of games from January through mid February. 

They both truly enjoyed playing and learning from the coaches.  Both of their teams won some games and lost some games...but it was always fun to watch them play...regardless of the outcome!

 

I never managed to get a picture of Kai - he was just too fast on the court :)

 

But I did snap a picture of Niko after his last game.

 

 

After the last game Niko's coach called us and told us that he is putting a team together for another league and asked if Niko would like to play for his team.  He told us that he likes Niko because Niko plays with his heart! 

So, now Niko is busy playing soccer  and basket ball both for next month couple of months. 

 

He loves sports, so he thinks that life is just good being able to play both sports at the same time.

 

MARKUS GOES ABOVE AND BEYOND

Markus got recognized for his great success at high school.  In order to receive this recognizion he has to maintain 3.8 weighted grade average.

 

We enjoyed a banquet dinner and celebrated Markus' continued hard work at school. 

We are so proud of him!

 

 

TV AND XBOX!

The highlight of the month for Kai has been an access to the tv and xbox. 

As the construction continues the big tent over the family room got smaller and more contained to the bathroom/sauna area,

 

so Kai was able to unveil the tv. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



UPDATE ON THE SAUNA CONSTRUCTION

Last week we chose the tile, shower encloser and vanity tops to the sauna and bathrooms, if I did not mention previously, now we have decided to redo our flooring and vanities in our two other bathrooms in basement. And just this morning Jason said that he wants to redo the flooring in our upstairs bathroom as well...this is like a never ending saga :).

 

Here are some updated photos:

 

Shelving area by the toilet

 

This is where the toilet goes

 

 

Shower got drywalled and we added a bench to the end

 

This is the view from the family room.  This wall got moved one and a half feet toward family room.  The middle door is a door to the bathroom and sauna, and the other two doors will be closet doors.  We lost a lot of storage and closet area, so we are trying to add some back.



MAIJA LOVES HER STUFFED ANIMALS

When boys were little they would get all these stuffed animals as presents, and they really did not care about them. 

I would keep donating them as soon as we got them. 

 

And then Maija came along...oh how things changed.

 

She can not get enough of her teddy bears and other stuffed, soft things. 

 

She does not care about dolls, but she must have at least 50 stffed things. 

 

And how big is too big...I have not figured that one out yet...not with her.

 

 

These were a few of my Favorite Things in 2012

One of my good friend hosts a wonderful party each year.

We have about ten of us get together.

We have a potluck of chicken in Cafe Rio style.

And we each share a list of some of our favorite things from the past year. We also give each person a sample of our favorite thing (valued around $3-$5). I gave a crocheting hook and a sheet of crocheting directions to everyone this year.

Below is my list of some of my favorite things.
        

Item	Store	Price	Why I love it!
iPad	Apple store	$$$	I can multitask…watch movies while I work J
Vitamix	Costco	$375	Love making smoothies, even soups  with this.
Bountiful Baskets	Several locations in Henderson	$15 +	http://bountifulbaskets.org/
The Bair’s Organic Garden	Bairs	$	My friend's garden. Her daughter sells the products of their garden. They are wonderful.
Google Blog		FREE	http://www.blogger.com/home   Keep my family/friends updated what I do.  I also a list of several blogs I follow.  I see updates to all the blogs I follow on my home page.
Downton Abbey	PBS Netflix		Downton Abbey is a British period drama television series. The series depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the post Edwardian era— with the great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy. Such events depicted throughout the series include news of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in the first series; the outbreak of World War I, the Spanish influenza pandemic, and the Marconi scandal in the second series; and the Interwar period and the formation of the Irish Free State in the third series http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/
www.anawhite.com	http://ana-white.com/		FREE and EASY furniture plans.
Brookside Dark Chocolate, Pomegranate	Costco	$10	So addictive I can not buy it  anymore.
Bloom	503 Hotel plaza, Boulder City, NV 89005		Bloom is a salvage, vintage, design boutique that celebrates the discovery and restoration of unique treasures from around the world.   http://letyourselfbloomagain.blogspot.com/
Crocheting	My newest hobby.  Internet has ton of tutorials…this is how I am learning it.    Favorite crocheting  site so far: http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/

 

 

I COULD NOT RESIST....

Every mornong after Markus leaves to go to seminary...around 6 am,

I go to our den,

 I snuggle in our comfy lazy boy chair,

and read some talks from conference Ensign, regular Ensign, or study some scriptures. 

 

It is a perfect time.

 

I am fully awake after making breakfast for Markus, yet...everybody else is fast asleep so the house is completely quiet. 

 

I have a perfect view from the window in the den out to the front yard.  This time of a year the sun rises while I do my morning scripture study...and some mornings I can not help myself, but grab my camera and go out to shoot some pictures.

So, once again I could not resist...

 

I had to go and freeze the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAMPOUT CONTINUES WHILE SAUNA IS GETTING BUILT

This past week our builders have been working hard on our sauna.

Take a look at the progress.

 

 

Looks like a mole visited our basement. 

Because of the plumbing had to be changed around, there was a lot of digging  and jack hammering involved. 

Lots of dust and shaking, and very loud noises went on this week in our house.

 

 

 

Framing, electrical, plumbing, insulation and drywalling got done this week.

 

 

Drain for a bigger and better shower area.

 

 

View to sauna.  We will have a drain in the floor, as well as water spiket in sauna.

 

 

Framing between sauna and shower area.  The shower will have two shower heads.

 

 

Sauna floor, after the plumbing has been covered.

 

 

Everything got insulated yesterday and today. Shower area.

 

 

Insulated sauna.

We used R-13 on the walls and doubled it to R-26 on the ceiling.

 

 

 

View from the family room; on the left there is space for a closet, door to the bathroom, as well as another closet/shelves area on the right.

 

 

Shower got drywalled today.

 

 

Sauna also got a radiant barrier/water proofing over the insulation.

 

 

This is the toilet area, which also will have a build-in book case on the wall...for all that bathroom reading material.

 

 

Opening to toilet area under the staircase.

 

 

View from the family room later tonight.  It is starting to look like a real room again.

 

The highlight of the week was the inspection of the construction.  So far so good.  Everything that needed to pass (plumbing, electrical, insulation, ect) passed.  Couple of more weeks and we may have things looking close to being done!

 

The kids do love camping out up in the main level.  They are having such a great time hanging out together.  In fact Maija told me yesterday, that she really does not want to move back to her own room, she enjoys sharing a room with her brothers much better...according to her it is so much more fun not being alone. 

If anything, this building project has really brought our kids closer together!