Halloween, A 9th Birthday, and the House

So the last few weeks have been busy. I am sad that my holiday weekend is almost over already! 4 weeks until Christmas vacation though. Here is a little update of what has been happening at our place! The Saturday before Halloween, we went to my mom's to carve pumpkins. In this picture, one is painted and that was a door prize at the gathering. The cat pumpkin was one I helped Laci with. The "Trick or Treat" pumpkin was Madison's and she got help from her dad on it.

These are the others that were done that day also. The cat with ears is Laci's second pumpkin. The skull is Madison's second pumpkin. They did a lot of these two pumpkins on their own and actually they turned out quite good. The cat in the back was Olivia's pumpkin.

For Halloween this year, the girls were all Crayola Crayons. I had gotten Laci and Olivia's last year after Halloween on clearance. Then we found one for Madi also. Madison didn't really like that I had them all "match", but I told her this would be the last time I had them do that!

Madison's 9th birthday was on November 8. It was a Tuesday this year and I had parent/teacher conferences at work. We took her to Build-a-Bear the Sunday before her birthday and then the Sunday after her birthday, the family came up for cake and ice cream. She got a lot of money this year. We let her spend some, but a lot of it went in her piggy bank.

Looking so grown up anymore. Where has the time gone?? Madison is also currently busy with parks and rec basketball. Practice is on Sundays and games are on Saturdays. We have one more practice tonight and a game Saturday. She is loving 3rd grade and is on student council this year. She is also in gymnastics once per week.

Also, the house continues to progress. The electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling were to the point that they could be inspected last Monday. Then insulation started. This is a view of the deck of the back of the house. The railing and steps need to be done yet, but it looks nice.

Insulation in one of the bedrooms. The insulation is foam insulation between the studs of the exterior walls. That is all done, so now drywall can begin. They will hopefully drywall the ceilings this coming week so that insulation can be blown into the attic.

The large garage doors were installed last week before Thanksgiving also. They need garage door openers attached and they are carriage house style doors, so there are some black hardware pieces that need to be placed on the front of them also.

Shakes are done on the peaks of the garage and the front of the house. Now a lot of the work in the interior. There are some exterior things that will have to wait until spring like the cement sidewalk to the front door and a slab of cement out the back garage door. Also, seeding the lawn and possibly the work on the front porch. The front porch pillars with be stone around the bottom and white at the top. Then a railing will be installed also. Moving along nicely and can't wait to be in and have our dog back!

A 40th Birthday!!!

Not much has changed for this beautiful 40 year old!! A few pictures to reminisce!! Cathy with Kendall when she was still a little one!!

Also with Madison. Madison looks so little here and she truly loves her godmother and "Auntie".

At the hospital when Olivia was born. From L-R: Amanda (Cathy's stepdaughter), Madison, Cathy with Kendall on her lap, Laci, and me holding Olivia. GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS!!!

Auntie holding Olivia. Cathy got to be in the delivery room with me for Laci and Olivia's births. She was also the first to notice shortly after Olivia was born that she had dimples.

Holding Olivia again!

Saturday was Cathy's birthday and we surprised her with dinner at The Brown Bottle. She got a funny gift from our cousin Michele. Cathy likes to wash Ziploc bags to save and reuse them. Michele wrote in the card about "I think 40 is going to be stressful enough for you, so here are some Ziplocs you can just throw away." We all had a good chuckle. Cathy hasn't been looking forward to 40, but she did enjoy her birthday and I think was glad everyone came to help her celebrate!

I can truly say that I am so blessed to have such a wonderful big sister! At times when we were younger, we didn't always get along, but I can't imagine life without her. I also realize that having a sister is such a wonderful gift and am thankful that my girls have sisters that will be their forever friends also! Love you Cath!!!

The House Building Continues...

Since last I posted, a lot has been happening with the house thanks to the beautiful weather we have been having. Supposed to get colder tomorrow though. The roof is shingled. All windows are in the house. The garage is missing the window right now, but that will go in soon. The patio door is in and the two walk-in garage doors are in also.

View of the back of the house with all the windows in and the patio door.

The stairs to the basement are in also. Makes me a little less nervous walking through now because there isn't a big hole in the floor.

Today the plumber started working and the electrician started working also.

Today they also started putting the soffit on the back side of the house also. Siding will be coming soon!!!

A Fun Weekend!

This weekend was really busy but fun! Friday night we had rehearsal and dinner for Terry's twin brother's wedding. Saturday morning we were up early and got ready for the wedding. Terry was a groomsman and Madison was the flowergirl. Here are a few snapshots from the wedding - I didn't do very good at taking pictures. This is the mother-son dance. Gloria and Tracy are dancing on the right of the picture and during the dance, Kim danced with Terry and Tracy's dad, Tom.

Also, during the mother-son dance, Terry and Todd joined Gloria and Tracy. Troy was no where around, so he missed out!

Here is a picture of Madison and Olivia by the dance floor. They danced quite a bit, but we left somewhat early. Laci wasn't feeling well.

Sunday we went to Tracy's to watch them open presents and then after we did a bit of shopping. The girls all got new pajamas! Madison's have peace signs all over them.

Laci's have "BFF" on them and a couple of monkeys.

Olivia's have a moo cow on them. They say "I get my cool mooves from mom". Olivia has a stuffed cow that she can't live without, so we just loved these pajamas and had to get them for her.

Looking More Like a House!

Framing began in the last week or two. The crew was off for two days last week because they donated their time to the Extreme Makeover house that was being built in Iowa. Framing of the main floor.

This is a view of the west end of the house. The doorway that is near the middle of the picture is the doorway to our master bedroom. The doorway that is on the left of the picture will be the laundry room/mudroom.

This is the kitchen area. In the left side of the picture is the framing of the walk-in pantry.

Living room area with a bedroom in the background.

Today the roof started to take shape also. Moving right along!!!

My Baby Girl!

Oh my sweet Olivia! Where have the past three years gone so quickly?? I remember the day you were born waking up about 2-3 a.m. having contractions every 5 minutes. I told Daddy that I was going to take a bath and see if anything changed. Since it didn't I called the hospital, Grandma Cheryll came up to our house to be with your sisters, and we went to the hospital arriving about 5:30 a.m. You were born right before 10:30 a.m. and have been a blessing ever since. You are spunky and down-right funny sometimes. You try to do everything your sisters do and I just want to make time freeze so you don't grow up so fast! I was talking at supper tonight with Daddy how about that time 3 years ago he and your sisters left me at the hospital all alone with you. I was sad that they had to leave us, but Daddy had to get your sisters home to bed because they had to get up for school the next day. How I would give anything to be able to have that quiet time with you all alone more often now!! We are so busy all the time, but you are so good about going with the flow! My hope for your future is that you enjoy life to the fullest and love your family beyond measure. Your dad and I love you so much and we just want you to be happy and healthy. We had Olivia's birthday party on Sunday and here she is after just opening a present. She was so much fun to watch this year - she knows her birthday is in September. She also knows she is three and she loved opening her presents and all the attention on her!!

Aunt Brenda got Olivia a Dora cup, plate, etc. Here Olivia is trying to open the Dora sandwich keeper. Not much luck!

This summer we went to the theater to see "Rio" when it was a 10 a.m. showing so cost was $2 per person. Olivia liked it and now we own it on DVD. So she picked out "Rio" for her cake this year. I also think she has watched it a bit too much. She recently took it to daycare and a little boy at daycare kept telling her shhh during the movie because she repeats most of the lines.

Waiting for everyone to sing "Happy Birthday" to her so she can blow out the candles. Her crown is from an "Olivia" dress-up set. She loves "Olivia" the pig and I love when she sings along with the theme song to the show. She also got a toy car from the show with all of the "Olivia" family in it.

The cake had lots of blue frosting so Olivia had blue lips and fingers. You can see her tutu a little in this picture from the dress-up set. She got blue frosting on that also, but it cleaned right off.

House Progress

Since last I posted, the basement is structurally done and now framing has begun.

Seal on one wall of basement, so backfill can be put in.

Looking at the basement. Backfill is done.

Garage floor ready for cement pouring.

Basement floor ready for cement pouring.

Garage floor poured!

Basement floor poured!

Framing began today!!!

Madison's Room in the basement. She can see where her window will be!!

Looking out the basement from another angle!

House Plans

Not sure how well this will work, but I am posting our house plan drawings. (I hope if you are interested, you can click on the pictures and see them bigger.)
This first picture is of the front and back of the house. The only thing that you won't see on these are the front porch railings and the deck on the back of the house.
This next picture is the two side views of the house.
This is the main floor living space floor plan. Main floor laundry, master bedroom suite with his and hers closets, walk-in pantry. Terry also made our garage big for all of the stuff we have. We can't have a shed in the backyard because of the lot covenants. Bedroom #3 in the plan will be Olivia's room.
This is the basement floor plan. Our lot slopes a lot, so we could have a walk-out basement, but we are not. We are just having a daylight basement, but we can take out a window in the recreation room and replace it with a door at some point if we decide to. Bedroom #4 in the plan will be Laci's room and Bedroom #5 will be Madison's room. Both girls will have walk-in closets and they will also have a bathroom to share. We decided to finish the basement right away also so that the house is completely move-in ready! So excited about the final results. Basement walls were poured Thursday, so they need to take the forms off on Monday. It is started and that is progress!

Footings are Poured!! Basement Walls NEXT!!!

This is the footings of our basement for our new house. It rained quite a bit on Friday after the footings got poured, so a lot of mud!! This is looking at the house from the back corner.

Today forms got set up so that the basement walls can be poured this week. More forms need to be set up tomorrow and then hopefully the cement gets poured for the walls on Thursday. This is the back side of the house.

This is looking at the front of the house. More forms set up for basement wall pouring on Thursday. Love going up each day to see PROGRESS!!!