Walls Up

Now, all of the exterior walls are up and last night Brett, Kathy, and Dave put up the walls for the kids' bedrooms, closets, bathroom, and formal living room. Kind of exciting!! Here are pictures I took this morning. I'm sure some people are getting tired of seeing pictures of our house, but this really is for me and our little family to be able to look back and see the progression on how our house was built. So, sorry if this is getting old to anyone else!

Current view of the front of the house

Current view of the back of the house

Current view of the garage

News on the rest of the family: Brynnlee now eats baby food very well. She's pretty messy, but that's to be expected! Aubree is counting down to the days she has left until pre-school starts (which is four more days, she wants me to remind). And Austin is LOVING kindergarten! He hates weekends. Last weekend he was so worried that he wasn't going back to school - ever. I had to keep reassuring him that he'll go back on Monday. I'm sure he'll be devistated that he has a three day weekend coming up.

There should be lots of changes by the end of the long weekend. Brett has Saturday AND Monday off. YAY!! Let's just pray for good weather! So I'll be posting more on the house later!

Walls & More!

There has been so much happening on the house since I've posted last. First of all, our garage floor was poured Saturday morning. There was a little bit of a scare when the cement truck finished pouring all the concrete they had and there was still a spot left that hadn't been filled. Well, they were able to have just enough once they got it all smoothed out. Whew! By that afternoon, it was completely set and ready to be played on (see pictures below).

Lately, Brett, Dave, and Kathy have been busy working to put together walls and get some up. On Monday evening, Ryan and Valerie and kids brought pizza for everyone and we pretty much had a fun "barn-raising" party. Then last night, Kathy, Dave, Ryan, and Brett were able to finish putting up all of the exterior walls and marked off where the interior walls need to go, which will be worked on tonight.

I've been checking things out and my favorite thing to do is to look out where the windows will be to see what the views will be when we're done. Let me just say, we are SO lucky to have our piece of land! Out of every window is a beautiful view!! A couple nights ago I looked through all of the windows in the front of the house and I was sooooooooo excited to see that through each window, there is a gorgeous view of the temple in Rexburg - all lit up and beautiful on the hill!! And through the sitting room window in the master bedroom is a great view of the Teton mountains. We are definitely blessed!!!

Working late into the night!

That was the last of the cement. But they made it work!

Wah-hoooo!! All done!

Here's Kathy working the saw down in the basement.

Here's Dave and Ryan working on the walls.

A fun evening of walls, pizza, and play!

A cute picture of my niece, Kenadee and Brynnlee with a beautiful sunset behind them!

The rest of the kids playing while the others work. You just can't ask for any more than that!!

Lots Going On

I've got some serious backtracking to do! But first of all, I have to say that I let Austin go to school for the full 4 hours all by himself and I missed him so stinkin' much! I made it about half way down the driveway after he got on the bus before I broke down in tears. Brett tried to comfort me with a hug when I got in, but was laughing the whole time. He so doesn't understand how hard it is on a mom who is with a child ALL OF THE TIME to just let them go and see them grow up and there is nothing that I can do about it.

So to make the time pass quickly, Aubree and I kept busy painting toenails and making special treats for when Austin got home. That is one of my most fond memories of when I was younger - coming home from school to my mom baking. I hope I can make those same memories with Austin.

And now a flashback to last weekend. My brother, Andrew, came up from Utah to visit me and Nathan. He and Nath came over Saturday morning for breakfast and then to help Brett work on the house. I don't think they really knew what they were in for. Brett kept them very busy and they were able to get almost the whole floor laid and the floor trusses up in our bedroom. Without their help, it would have taken Brett a couple of days to get done what they were all able to accomplish on Saturday.

Last week, my sister-in-law, Kasi, inspired me to get out and have some fun with my kids before school started. So I decided to get together with some friends and their kids for a picnic and an afternoon at the splash park. It was so much fun!!! The day we went happened to be the day several area school districts put on a youth celebration for the kids in the area. Though we didn't stay for all of those festivities, it was fun to see a few extra things. Then later that night Brett took the evening off from building to celebrate my birthday. He planned to have his mom watch the kids and take me out. But since we don't get alot of family time anymore and also since Austin would be starting school the next day, I decided instead to roast hotdogs and marshmallows outside as a family. It was SOOOOOO nice!!!! Spending a fun evening together as a family was the best birthday gift ever!

First Day of School

Today Austin started his first day of Kindergarten! I can't even believe that he is already old enough to be going. That's just crazy to me!!! But he is SOOOOOOO excited to be going to school. He said that the best part for him was riding on the school bus. The way that they do it around here is a parent goes to school with their kindergartener for about an hour as kind of an orientation. So I got on the bus with Austin this morning, bright and early. I was suprized to see that they have a DVD player mounted to the ceiling and is playing through the speakers of the bus so everyone can watch and hear it. Austin thought that was pretty neat.

Once all of the kids had been picked up, Austin noticed that I was the only parent on board and said, "You're the only mom on the bus. I don't think you should be on here." Then after our hour of school was done, I decided to catch a ride with my neighbor and let Austin ride the bus with his friends. But before they left, I wanted to get a picture of him on the bus. So I climbed in and as soon as he saw me on again, he said, "No Mom, you can't get on the bus!" It looks like he is so ready to not need me anymore.

I have to say, I did pretty good today all because I got to go with him. Tomorrow will probably be a different story when he does it all by himself. I'm already tearing up! He'll do great, though, and he'll have so much fun and make so many new friends. I'm just going to miss him!!

Here he is on his bus with his friend, Carson.

When all of the kids in his class arrived, he said, "Wow, Mom, look at all the new friends I get to make!"

Lots of Work Done

Brett and his parents have been busy working on the house with some help from Brett's cousin (who builds log cabins for a living) and his brother Ryan. Here are some pictures of what they've accomplished...

This is the current view of the back of our house

Here is the current view of the front of our house

These are the floor trusses where the main floor will be, looking down into the basement.

Our roof trusses are ready and waiting!

We had a bit of a scare Wednesday night. Aubree came running in the house to tell me that Dad fell down and got hurt. So I ran outside to see if he was o.k. When I asked him what happened, he told me that he was standing on the six inch ledge of the cold storage room with a 9 foot drop into the cold storage room on one side of the ledge and also a 9 foot drop into the basement on the other side. Well, he had been carrying a truss when he lost his balance and started to fall. When he saw that he was going to fall, he decided to hold on to the truss hoping that it would catch on the top of the wall and that he could hang on to that instead of falling 9 feet. That's just what happened, but while that happened, he ended up scraping his side on the truss as he fell.

I think that that really scared him because yesterday, he came home from work with Aflack insurance that he bought for himself. Now I'm thinking that it was a good idea. Hopefully we won't have to use it!

Book Of Mormon Stories Video

Here is a movie that my little brother, Nathan, put together with his roommates. It's pretty funny. Check it out! (Nathan is the "missionary" in the sunglasses and the roommate that wakes up, just so you know.)

Red-Neck Swimming Pool

It has been really hot in our house for most of last week. On Thursday our digital thermostat inside said that it was 89 degrees F in our house!! I think it was only a few degrees cooler than it was outside. And that was even with our little one room air conditioner running all day! So like I said, it's been really hot in our house. After being so incredibly hot on Thursday, I told the kids on Friday that we could get out our kiddie swimming pool to cool off in. Now this goes to show how hot we were - we have no grass to play with it on, just dirt, which would turn into mud, and make a big mess in our house and in our bathtub. But I was willing to go through all of that, just to get some cooling relief.

So I went outside to go find it and couldn't. I remembered that it was up at my in-law's shop (where we have most of our stuff stored since we have no place to store it here). I came back inside with the bad news for my kids. Still desperate for relief, we came up with a different option...

This is what I call our red-neck swimming pool! I put my feet in and dangled Brynnlee's in too. Everybody LOVED it!! Though I am happy to report that we brought our kiddie pool home last night. So we are all looking forward to playing in the water in a normal fashion!

The New Family Wagon

We finally found something that will work for me toting all three of the kids around without smashing car seats together. I LOVE that we have room now and I don't have to break my hand getting seatbelts buckled anymore. Yay!!! And it's a bonus that it doesn't look half bad either! Poor Brett, he's so jealous. He, he, he, he!

Swimming Lessons

Monday was the first day of Austin's and Aubree's swimming lessons this summer. Austin did lessons last year, but this is Aubree's first time and she is LOVING it!! That little girl is pretty fearless. If she sees Austin do something, she is confident that she can do it as well. It's been fun to watch my two little fish, soon to be three - Brynn gets so excited when she watches the kids swim. She wants to get right in there too! Fun, fun, fun!! Oh, and by the way, if the background in the swimming pictures look a little strange, it's because their swimming lessons are in a garage. Yep, you read that right, a garage. There were some issues about having them outside and so now they have to be done in a garage. Hey, not a big deal while they are still small.

Work, work, work!

Brett has been hard at work getting things done on the house. His cousin came over to help get him moving in the right direction and he's been moving along since then. Austin has been going out with Brett every evening that he's been working on it and helping. And he really does help. Whenever Brett cut a piece of wood, Austin would pick it up and take it down to the basement for Brett to nail into place. He's a really good worker and I think he loves spending that time with his dad.

Yesterday, Brett had the day off, so guess what he did all day...you guessed it, he worked on the house! His mom, Kathy, came over to help as well and thank goodness she did! She was amazing!! We (I say we, but it was really was Brett and Kathy and me only while the baby was sleeping) worked all day on getting the wood put on top of the concrete so that the framing for the upstairs can be put up. It really doesn't look like alot, but it sure felt like it especially in mid-90 degree weather. We all have pretty mean sunburns. Next time, SUNSCREEN! So that is where we are as of today.

I had to add this picture of Brynnlee out working too. Actually, I'm just showing off how cute she looks in a cowboy hat, even though it looks more like a sombrero on her. Oh well, Brett's still pretty proud!

Moving Along

Our concrete in the basement is done! Lately Brett has been backfilling all of the dirt around the house and getting the garage ready for cement. His cousin, Dave, will be here this evening to help him get started on framing! Wow, I can't believe it!! So these are the most recent pictures I have...

That little boy is our next door neighbor, Carson. He and Austin are the same age and really good friends. His dad is doing our concrete floors and he wanted to come help build Austin's house. What a good little worker he is!

Cement going in our cold storage room

The basement floor is finished! The kids are going to LOVE riding their bikes in there!!

The kids riding in the skidsteer

Aubree's not afraid to work with her dad!

This is Nathan driving the loader! I even took a video of it that I'll post later.

I'll post more when framing gets underway!!