Still here..

Well, I am horrible at blogging lately! Things are so busy around here (we didn't even do Christmas cards this year and I still haven't gotten my Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks:(

Anyway, things are good, just busy and a little stressful.

Where we are on our house right now:

-we have part of the house sided (it got too cold and siding was cracking when cutting in)

-we are finishing up wiring the house, will be done soon

-we have most of the walls insulated (next will be the ceiling)

-plumbing will be finishing up soon

-A lot of the geothermal heat work has been done

-I can't wait for drywall to go up, which hopefully will be in a couple of weeks

It all takes time but is going well. We just ordered appliances yesterday so we are very excited about that!

I have a few pictures to post but they aren't very recent. I need to take more pictures of the house. We actually have more siding up than in these pictures but I haven't taken any recent ones yet. It looks really pretty out there now, the snow covers up all the ugly dirt :)

I love our front door. I couldn't decide on a color so just got it in white and then will paint it later!

She did it!

You would think going through breast cancer and having a carcinoid tumor in your lung would slow you down. Not for my mom! She decided to run in the Des Moines Marathon on October 17. I still can't believe she did it. She ran as a part of the Iowans for Africa Team through our church at Orchard Hill. The team raised about $85,000 to build a school in Mozambique.
Here are pictures of the amazing day:)

Way to go mom, love you!

25 today

Happy Birthday babe, love you! :)

weekends

I love how much we get accomplished on the house in a weekend. I wish they would not end:)
Next weekend...shingling!! Come help if you want to have fun :)

My birthday boy

Our boy turned 3 today...wow how the years fly by:) Roy has been the best well mannered dog ever. Happy Birthday to you big boy!:)

I need to update more!

I have not been very good at updating house pictures lately. I need to do better!

Aj laying block for the porch

Putting outside walls up

Starting roof trusses

Front view of the house. The right is the garage with a side entry. Now all of the sheeting is up. Next is to finish the garage roof trusses. Then we put sheeting on the roof and shingle. It will be good to get this house enclosed soon! Our windows are here so those will be put in after the roof is all done.

Side view of garage

Other side of house. Those are the two bedrooms in the basement.

Back of the house. On the left bottom there is a side walkout.

A Laugh Much Needed

I was working with a few of my kids on some sight words. The word we were working on was "it". I had my flip letters out that spelled "it". One of my first graders who loves to grab things went and grabbed more letters. He happened to grab the flip card with "sh" on it. He then connected the flip cards together. I thought ha, how nice. Then he said with full excitement in his voice.... "CAR WASH." "It says CAR WASH!!!" My associate and I looked at each other and then the laughter came out :) I love his innocence. Moments like that make me love my job:)

Moving Up

Things are taking shape now and really looking like a house to me!
Here are a bunch of pictures of the basement process.
Today I got to walk on the main level floor, man that felt good (despite the rain!)

New Toys

Here are our new 3 wheelers! AJ bought them so we could hook up our little trailer we have to the back of one then bring tools back and forth from the house to the building.

Riding with Amy ..very slow:)

Welcome Morgan Mae!

Aj's sister had another girl July 17th! We were able to drive to the hospital to see her the night she was born! Grace was so excited to meet her new little sister. Grandma Kelli got her a baby doll that cries, closes her eyes, and makes all kinds of noises. Grace LOVED it! She named her doll baby Morgan:) First we named her baby Christy but that soon got changed!

It was so much fun to meet our new niece!

Two weeks later we made it for another visit and play date!

We love you Grace and Morgan!!