Progress

Here's the latest pictures of the house...obviously there are some stages we didn't post pictures of, but oh well!  :) The first floor is totally framed, the rest should be finished in about two weeks. Seems like I say this every time I talk about the house, but we really have been blessed with great weather. And looking at the 10 day forecast, we are still being blessed. Hooray!

This is the window in the family room looking out to the backyard.

This is a picture Jake took standing on the leftover dirt mound, looking at the back of the house.

Not the greatest picture since the lift is there, but this the front of the house, garages on the right and entry on the left.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

#1 A house!  Hooray, we are really making progress on our house. The framers started today and should be done in less than a month. This is the stage I was looking forward to. Until now, it was just a hole, then a hole with concrete walls, then with a concrete floor. I know I should be excited about it all, but now that the house is really starting to take shape it's even more real. (Jake has the camera...pictures to posted soon!).

#2 Christmas. Well, not quite. No snow here (yet!), but it's rather chilly. And with Christmas comes a necessary project...Christmas cards! I just found out about a great promotion Shutterfly is doing...50 free holiday cards just for blogging about it. We debated sending any out this year, but if we can get this great of a deal, why not!?! You can participate too, just go here. Here's one of the few I've had my eye on...I think it will be perfect to show pictures throughout the year of our little growing family and our growing home. I'm hoping to share 2 pictures of each of the kids, one of the whole family, and a picture of the house. I think being able to write inside the card will save me some time beause I won't have to do a seperate letter and photo card. Ahh...the simplicity of Shutterfly! I always look for cards that actually say "Merry Christmas" and this one is just so simple and fun! There's lots of holiday and Christmas cards to choose from-check them out for yourself! And if you're looking for a gift for a hard-to-buy-for friend or relative, a photo calendar is a perfect idea-it's a gift that keeps on giving (literally-all year!)

Ahh...Life!

Life is good, I really can't complain. It is, however, super busy. Well, probably not-it's just not super unbusy like I'm used to.   :)   Here's a few pictures for a quick recap. I have lots of pictures I could post, but I'm not going to make any promises about posting again any time soon. 

Us at our lot-notice the trampoline in the background. It belongs to our neighbors of course. Who happen to have a little boy 2 months older than Isaac. They're already great pals.

And the lot without us.

We started digging Thursday evening. They finished Saturday morning and the foundation will be started on Monday. We have really been blessed with beautiful weather. And, according the forecast, the blessings will continue. Hooray!

This is what our house will look like when it's done. Except the siding and stone will be different. And the top left window will match the others. This is the original house our plans were used for. I drive by this house about twice a month-luckily I haven't seen any suspscious neighbors giving me crazy looks for stopping and taking pictures.

We went to a pumpkin patch/apple orchard with my parents. Travis and Bri joined us a little later. We all had a grand time. And, as was mentioned above, we had some wonderful weather.

The kids and I made cookies one day for Jake since he was staying home with the kids while I went somewhere that night. Any guesses what makes this happen? 11 of these cookies were yummy-the other, well, I guess I can't say for sure because it went straight to the trash.

And Leah. Oh, Miss Leah how we love you. Even more when you sleep. At all. But more when it's in your own room. She's really given us a hard time this week with sleeping. Last night she finally went back to her own bed. All night. Ahh...rest without getting kicked (by a child not in utero). Here's to hoping she's back to her normal easy-sleeper self.

And a quick baby update. At my last appointment I was 28 weeks and measured 27. No surprise there. I'm sure this baby will be a teeny one like the last two. Not even close to having a name picked out. We're down to just over 2 months so time is a-tickin'!

As for the rest of us...

Jake-SUPER busy with the election being a little over a week away. Besides being President of our county Young Republicans, he's also the campaign manager for his dad who is running for County Supervisor. He's active with about 4 other campaigns as well. He'll be home sleeping Wednesday November 3 since he'll have to wait up late to see the results of all the west coast elections. Young Men's is treating him well and he always has a good time with his boys. And if he has a few spare moments, they go to spending time on our house since we (meaning Jake) are acting as general comtractors.

Jenn-I'm a mom. To two toddlers. With another on the way. What more can I say. Oh, I love it! I really haven't been crafting or sewing lately due to limited space and time, but hope to get in a few projects soon. I was called as the Gospel Doctrine teacher in July so I have a lesson to prepare every week, but I really love teaching.

Isaac-Growing like crazy. He really cracks us up every day. He loves to jump off anything (furniture, stairs, beds, etc.) and prefers to be pantsless. (He claims they make him run slow). He is still working with a speech therapist and is getting better. People other than me can understand him, which is nice-for me because I don't have to translate and nice for him because he doesn't get frustrated. He loves nursery at church is learning lots of things at home with. We opted to note send him to preschool this year. We may not send him next year. I have a teaching degree for crying outloud. :)

Leah-What a stinker. But a cute one. So she gets away with everything. She is a climber and a getter-intoer. She loves to take off her diaper and really wants to be potty-trained. I really think I'm going to try here in the next couple weeks. She is getting used to nursery at church and only cries for the first few minutes. She loves to copy her brother, but can also be quite the instigator. Coloring and baby dolls are her favorites these days. And milk. This girl loves her milk!

Alright, that's a really quick update without much detail. But there you have it. We're here. We're well. We're really well actually.   :)

Hooray!

I'm happy to announce that we finally purchased our land and should begin building as soon as we close and have our construction loan. Hopefully that will only be about 10 days. We'd like to be in our new house by Spring, like May at the latest. Naturally, things will go other than how we have planned and it will take longer, but we're optimistic. It was quite a process of choosing where to buy land. We had actually even decided to wait until Spring to buy and start building. But while we were on vacation Jake felt strongly that we should just go ahead and start. I agreed! We were all ready to make an offer on one lot when we learned the development with the other lot we were considering was going up for auction. Great, we thought! Now we'll get a great deal on our land. Not so much. While we were actually the only bidders that showed up, the developers were not willing to go less than $2,500 off their original asking price. Strange for an auction, but we left really confused and not knowing what to do. After lots of phone calls, emails, prayers, and thought we finally made a decision and now own a lot in Evans View. The city is supposed to be passing a tax abatement that we are really excited about: 7 years of 100% taxes. Meaning, for 7 years we pay NO property taxes. :)  Because of this, the price of land is going to go up because the tax abatement is only for new construction. We're really glad we went ahead and purchased when we did. There are only a handful of houses in this development so far, but from what I can tell (peeking in their garage) it looks like the people right next to us have little kids and that the mom stays home during the day. I'm really excited to get started and even more excited to be done and in our own home again. Living with Jake's parents is going well, but I'm sure we're really going to feel crowed in 2 bedrooms with 5 people and all our stuff. Plus, I'm sure Jake's parents won't mind the peace and quite that comes with not living with 2 crazy toddlers (and soon a newborn!). Oh, and in case you're wondering, we still don't have a name for this little boy. We'll take pictures soon of the land, but in the mean time, here's a link to the website for the development. We bought lot 11 in phase 2. Ahh...progress!!

For Real...

Alright, I really am going to be making our blog private next week. Just another reminder to email me or leave me a comment if you'd like to keep up with our little family. Also, look forward to an update next week about the home-building status. I think I've sent an invite to everyone who has requested one so far. If not, just email me again-sorry!

And a picture from our trip-it wouldn't rotate...oops! This and me and Leah as we were waiting to take off to Orlando!

Since they're sleeping

I was just uploading all the pictures from our camera and thought I'd post a few cute ones. Jake and the kids are still asleep so it seems like an ideal time to do some posting. :)

First up, we headed out to a parade nearby. It was a bit of a rainy day so there were hardly any people there watching. Because of that, we left with a boatload of candy. And we got to try out our new double stroller we had just bought the day before. I've been waiting months and months for this baby to finally get to the stores. It's the only one that will fit our infant carrier-which will be helpful in a few months! (Yes, that means Isaac will have to walk, but what can you do?)

 

Next up is our trip to Branson that mentioned a while ago. I finally am getting the pictures posted...

The kids spent literally hours in this little wading pool. Isaac ripped open the bottom of his foot from it being so soggy. Poor guy!

The next several pictures are from Silver Dollar City. Where we roasted. Because it was hot. REALLY hot. 

Lastly is a picture from the fish hatchery. Isaac and Jake probably enjoyed it the most. We all would have enjoyed it a little more if it hadn't been so incredibly hot and humid!

Oops...

Alright, I realized that I hid comments and that meant no one could leave a comment to ask for an invite. Sorry if you tried and couldn't! I think it's fixed now-I'm still trying to figure it all out!