Extreme Home Make-Over Update: Gutted

So, the house is gutted...well, nearly all the house is gutted.  There are two walls in the parlor with plaster remaining and the kitchen and bathroom are still fairly intact.  We are heating the kitchen and bathroom to keep the pipes and well in good working condition...so they are blocked off from the rest of the house and we aren't doing much with them yet.

This weekend, Jut and I had the fun of cleaning out the old coal bin that was under the current living room.  That was an adventure.  We found lots of neat things...mason jar chicken waterers, a hockey stick, a cow bell, sleigh bell for a horse, a wooden barrel, an old harness and a few other random objects.  There were wooden slats for the floor and extra trim from the house.  Interesting treasures.  We also found a lot of junk.  It was intriguing to play the 'what will we find next' game.

This picture was the kids for the first time at 'our' house.  We had just experienced a fairly severe ice storm and things were slippery but they were excited to see what the house was looking like.

We lost several branches from the big tree in front of the house and there are several more that are loose but are caught up in the tree and need some 'help' in coming down safety.

E is standing in the former living room.  We wish we didn't need 4 bedroom upstairs and could leave this room with the vaulted ceilings...if we could extend the field-stone fireplace up, wouldn't it be pretty?!  But, we need the space upstairs...so no vaulted ceilings for us.

This picture is taken from a 'trap door' in the attic.  It is looking down into the former living room.  The stone fireplace would be directly at the bottom of the picture.  We are still hoping we'll be able to keep the wood flooring.  It is in great condition, but the floor joists aren't up to code...I think 'code' will be a major headache throughout this process because everything has to be brought up to 'code' since we are doing such extensive remodeling.

The wall of windows are going soon.  It is such a character trait of the house that we hate to see them leave but the lack of energy-effectiveness of them has them looking for a new home.  But they did give the house fun character.  People comment to us about them all the time now that the cedars are gone because you couldn't see them for so long that no one knew that they were there.

The stone pillar on the north side has had bird nest residue coming into the house for awhile...well, we can see daylight from the top of it...easy to see why the debris was coming in now that everything is torn apart.

This is taken from the west wall of the dining room.  The white fireplace is no more.  The china cabinet is sitting in the middle of the floor because we don't know how we are going to get it out of the house...That thing is a beast.  So, it keeps getting gently shifted around out of 'danger' areas.  The electrical was a crazy mess.  Our contractor laughed at the crazy roundabout ways that things were wired. There were bare wires around the fireplace.  We're lucky that the house didn't burn to the ground.

My grandparents' bedroom and staircase is this next picture.  This area will change greatly.  The staircase is going to run perpendicular to the current passage, and the wall separating the bedroom from the dining room will disappear once a few new beams are place across the house.  I'm interested to see how all these ideas are going to look in reality because despite all the time we've spent talking and discussing all of this, I still can't quite visualize all the changes.

The picture below is standing at the top of the staircase looking south.  The wall to the little bedroom is gone...and it is shows how truly small that little room was!

This area will be completely different from this design.  We will have 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and the laundry room in this space.  I believe that the room will begin coming off this week (in completely frigid temps, I'm glad I'm not doing it!) and re-framing the upstairs will commence.


Our contractor continues to marvel at the structural integrity of this house.  The foundation could not be any more level.  It is perfect.  He was leery at first of trying to build up but with the wonderful condition of the house, he no longer has those concerns.  We are praying all goes well as construction finally begins.

Below is another view from the upstairs standing at the attic wall and looking toward the stairs.

The thing I found funny was that in the little closet at the top of the stairs, the beautiful hardwood floors continued all the way to the roof line.  I remember asking G'ma once if I could crawl into the part that was blocked off and she said that I'd fall through the ceiling into the parlor.  I laugh now knowing that it is a completely solid (and beautiful) hardwood floor.

Christmas Card 2013...and Bike Riding

So, our Christmas card doesn't have anything to do with bike riding...other than the fact that he got it for Christmas...but I just lumped both events into 1 post.

X rode his new 16-inch bike that he got for Christmas today.  We went to the gym at church.  He rode for about 10 minutes in the morning.  He'd make a quarter of the length of the gym by himself before tipping.  He tried a second time this afternoon...and BAM!  He got it.  He rode circles round and round.  I don't think I followed him for more than a couple of laps in his second attempt.  Now, I just have to get him started and away he goes.  It was fun to watch.  His experience with his balance bike made all the difference in the world...E didn't learn to ride until this summer...she was almost 6.  X turned 4 in November.  Awesome.  Now, we do still have to work on steering. He hit a doorjam in the hallway on the way back to the back of the church.  Oops.  Slight scratch on the bike...door was fine.  :)

The Rush is Over...Merry Christmas!

It is 11:21 and I should be asleep but instead I'm enjoying the fact that the event of Christmas is over.  Sounds very 'bah humbug' doesn't it?!  But, Christmas is such a busy time...that I'm feeling relieved that it is over.  Expectations are met.  Life that has been counting down for the past 30+ days is done.  Kids are happy...everything got finished and what didn't get finished no longer matters.

The jedi robes that I spent hours making over at Mom and Dad's were a hit.  I finished them up on December 23rd at 10 PM.  As I was driving away from their house at 10:10, the neighborhood when completely dark.  Thankfully for them, they only lost power for 5 minutes or so (my grandpa was without power for 3 days).  But, I was so thankful that I was done sewing before the lights went out.  I then spent another 2 hours finishing attaching the frogs before going to bed.  Next year someone really needs to talk me out of making homemade gifts for the kids!  They cause too much stress.

My Christmas cards were sent out on December 23rd.  I had a great picture to send this year and I really wanted to send out the cards...but I didn't get around to it very quickly.  However, the USPS did a great job of making sure that many of the recipients received them on the 24th.  Go USPS!

Santa did most of his shopping via amazon.  Becoming a member of prime allowed everything to get here by Christmas.  Somehow there was never any time to shop this month.

This month was CRAZY!  I don't even really know why.  I'm not certain what made the time pass by so quickly and not leave room for anything else.  We didn't do many of the things that we would have loved to do...but we did get our gingerbread village completed.  The kids got to participate in the St. Louis Christmas parade.  We visited Santa at Cookies with Santa and then had an encore visit at our house a week later.  We got to see E preform as a 'We three king' in our church's Christmas pageant, and E and I had a date to The Very Best Christmas Pageant Ever at the local theatre.  So, we did a few 'Christmas' activities...but not too many for the craziness that I feel like occurred.

So, here I sit.  Thankful that it is over and that I'm sitting here with my feet up without the 'Christmas to-do list looming'.  Do you think the heavenly citizens 2,000 years ago breathed a sigh of relief when Jesus was successfully born and the 'gift' was given?  Did they think, 'Oh thank goodness...he's Mary and Joesph's problem for awhile now.'  Did the thoughts of, 'Yes, the heavenly hosts did a phenomenal job...never thought they'd be able to pull it together.' cross their minds?  What did they think about their big Christmas 'event'?  There had to be a bit of celestial planning for that event...and it had to give someone a headache!  :)

Anyway, I am glad the 'event' of Christmas is over.  Tomorrow, we'll clean up.  Tomorrow, we'll go back to a semblance of 'normal'.  Tomorrow, Jesus will still be discussed as a baby but the 'event' of Christmas will be over and we can just sit back and enjoy the baby and the reason that we go crazy for the first 25 days of the month.

Merry Christmas to all!

Hiding Upstairs is NOT a Good Idea

Yesterday, I was finishing reading an article and the boys happily romped downstairs after being sequestered in their room for a thirty-minute 'rest time'.  I think I may have left them unattended for 5 minutes.  I could hear happy noises and I thought all was well.  Upon inspection after coming down the stairs, I learned the happy noises that I was hearing was the gleeful sounds of undecorating the tree.  Thankfully only two ornaments were broken in their glee...there was a reason we didn't get a tree up until the week before Christmas and it will get taken down the week after Christmas.  I won't have any ornaments left by that time.  Crazy boys.

Today, I was folding laundry upstairs.  When I came downstairs, I found both boys with a spoon and the honey jar between them.  The honey jar looked much depleted.  Who knows how much honey they ate...but where do they come up with these ideas?

I guess hanging out upstairs is no longer a good idea.  Constant supervision is needed.  X and E never thought of these things...however, X is happy to engage in all the mischief that C can find.

I have my work cut out for me.  I'm glad I don't have a crystal ball to see all the craziness that they will invent in the next 20 years.  I'm sure I would go instantly crazy.

Happy Day!

We signed our life away today...well, mostly Jut signed and I watched.  My name will be on the title but I didn't wear out 3 pens as I continually signed my name for 1+ hours...lucky Jut got to do that.  Mom and Dad laughed at the huge stack of papers he had to sign. They didn't have to sign that many to buy the entire farm, but they also weren't reconstructing the entire house either.  Construction adds lots of paperwork, I guess.

The day started out a little shaky.  I spent forty-five minutes at our insurance agency trying to get our hazard insurance policy in place.  The end result was they denied the policy because part of the outside had already been taken off...vinyl siding and facsha...and they were really unimpressed with the window that had been removed upstairs.  If we put all those things back in place, which they were in place two weeks ago, then they'd give us insurance.  Why in the world would we put them up just to take them off again.  Needless to say, I think we will be changing insurance carriers in the near future.  The whole visit was exasperating.  Well, after some frantic calling and googling, we found a company that would happily insurance us.  It took all of 10 minutes in their office to get the policy in place.  PTL!  No photos to review...no haggling...just a quote and policy.  BAM.  Thank you!

We got that all squared away at 1:15 with closing set to happen at 4.  No problem.  So, as we had a babysitter, we finished some Christmas shopping and headed to closing.

Jut was green the whole time.  His palatable stress was slightly amusing.  I haven't seen him so tense...maybe ever, but he'll get over it soon. He's already looking better.  Besides, he does have a nasty head cold and slept miserably last night...so that might have something to do with his abnormal skin color.

So, we are the proud owners of a mostly gutted house.  Happy day!!!

To celebrate, we had Mom and Dad over for dinner.  It was a great time.  Dad even told me some things about the house that I didn't know.  Fun times.  I can't wait to fill the house with love and life again!!

O Christmas Tree

I broke down today and finally gave into setting up the cheap ten-year old artificial tree that I hate...and have hated ever since we bought it.  For the past two, or maybe even three years, we have cut our own...but our busy schedule,the frigid temps and 6+ inches of snow have made getting a real tree an improbable dream this year.  Besides, there are 7 days until Christmas...my poor children need a Christmas tree.

So, Jut had an elders meeting tonight.  After supper, he hauled my box of decorations up the stairs and left for his meeting.  I finished the dishes while the kids very impatiently waited for the unveiling of the tree.

X was worried that Santa wouldn't deliver presents to a small, fake tree.  E thought she was going to be taller than the tree and didn't know if it would 'count' as a tree.  C was just his manic little self climbing on the boxes and doing his best to cause confusion and delay.

Dishes finally get finished and I begin to assemble the tree.  The kids watch in awe realizing that it wasn't going to be a 3-foot tiny tree.  The excitement keeps mounting.  Thankfully, they had a book with the figurines to play with inside the ornament box.  So, while I fiddle with the tree, E reads the Christmas story to the boys several times and then they play with the figurines.  So, I wind lights around it and the kids start bouncing around with all their energy.  I finally take the lid off of the ornament box and they dove in.  Thankfully only one of the halmark ornaments took the brunt of all the enthusiasm...and a little superglue should make it an unnoticeable blemish.  However, I did feel a little crazy trying to pass out 'safe' ornaments while trying to keep the 'breakables' out the reach of little hands.  They can certainly hang up ornaments faster than I can find and unpackage ornaments.

Finally, the tree was 'done'.  I need to redistribute a few ornaments.  The top 8 inches is empty and I have some cheap glass bulbs to add along with a nativity scene and tree skirt.

It is amazing how some lights, a few ornaments and Christmas music can take a 'Charlie Brown' tree and turn it into a thing of beauty.  The kids didn't care how pathetic that little tree is...they were in awe of their creation.  They spent the rest of the evening playing 'Santa' filing their stockings with 'surprises'.  I don't know why I always hate that tree so much in the box.  It is a thing of beauty once it is decorated...and the kids just will remember the fun of decorating the tree anyway.  It is a beautiful little tree, even if it only has unbreakable, mostly hand-crafted ornaments.  Christmas is magical, isn't it?!

E is 6.5!!

E turned 6.5 last week.  Crazy how fast half years go.  We measured her today.  She has grown 2 inches in the last 6 months.  She's been eating like crazy.  We knew she was growing, but it was fun to see her grow more in the last 6 months than she did for the entire year that she was 5.

E is a fun girl.  She's growing up more and more all the time.  Reading is still her favorite past-time.  This morning she had made a few bad choices and to keep from making any further mistakes, she pulled out a Babysitter's Club Little Sister book and read the majority of it while she was waiting for Aunt Stacey to come and pick her up.  It did keep her out of trouble.

She loves playing with her brothers...she gets frustrated with them but she leads them around in their pretend games.  It is fun to watch.  Both boys are a little lost when she's not around to give them their marching orders.

She LOVES pie.  She ate 2 pieces of raspberry pie on Thanksgiving and begged for another piece.  I think it is probably her favorite food.  She's lucky to have a g'ma that loves to make her pies.

She's moving more and more away from 'little' girl things.  This growing up business is for the birds.  She enjoys time to herself each day to do her 'own' thing...whether it is reading or playing with her doll in her bed or creating a masterpiece from her legos.  She loves that she can write and draw better.  It is impressive to see how her skills are developing.  Just yesterday, we were waiting for the Whitaker's to come and so she sat down and wrote a story while she waited.  It was cute.

She still loves to cuddle up on G'ma's lap and watch movies with her.  The kids spend a lot of time with Mom this fall as we were demolishing the house and we almost always came back with E sitting on G'ma's lap watching TV.

Pretend play is one of her favorite things.  She loves making up plays for the boys and herself to preform.  She loves acting out stories with our homeschool group.  She loves acting out things in Jr Worship at church.  Her creative juices are working all the time.

Age 6 has its challenging moments...there are defiant attitudes and mean behaviors, but overall we are enjoying the year.  Watching children grow is an amazing and wonderful experience.  I'm glad I get this opportunity.

Extreme Home Makeover Continues...

Our contractor had a group of guys out to the house for the first time today!!!

Yahoo!! The professionals have arrived!!!!

Now, we still don't technically own the house...we are waiting for the surveyors report and township approval to split the parcel...but before the month is out...the mess we have created will be ours and we'll have an even bigger mess!  But, we need a mess to get what we want...so bring on the mess.

It was amazing to see how much the guys got done today...you could tell that this wasn't their first rodeo.  They seemed a bit more proficient than Jut and I.

Life with E

E was reading her Bible today in the car. I asked her what she was reading. Her reply was "Judges". We chatted about it for a minute. I asked her how she chose Judges. She explained that she started in Genesis and just kept reading. I was pretty impressed. It has been a couple years since I picked up the Bible to read it cover-to-cover.

Then it dawned on me, that meant that she had read Leviticus. There are some things in there that aren't really appropriate for six year olds. Well, let's be honest...there is a whole bunch of stuff in the Bible that isn't particularly appropriate for six-year olds. But, how do you tell a child..."Yeah, I don't think you should be reading the Bible." That just seems crazy...but I don't know that she really needs to read it all either.

So, I asked if she had any questions about what she read...she didn't. I dropped the conversation. However, I may have to rip out some pages if she gets past Ecclesiastics.

It was Time

 We haven't had a 'professional' picture taken of the family since C was born.  So, this was our first experience as a family of 5.  The kids cooperated somewhat...and the photographer had a quick finger and so the brief smiles C gave, he captured.

Funny things that I notice...C has Diesel 10 in his hand, which I knew when the picture was taken.  Again, the photographer did a pretty good job of capturing C when it wasn't in front of his face.  The thing I didn't notice until we got the pictures back was that E was wearing a very green ring.  I guess I didn't check wardrobe close enough.  But, it does add character to the pictures.

I think this was the best one of the kids.  C was not cooperating at all for these pictures.  I was amazed how well that they came out.  But, it is a great picture of X.

This one was the best of C.  I love his expression.  He's just too adorable.  It is great of X as well...even though it isn't so flattering to E or Jut.

It was a fun experience.  We'll have to try it again sometime.

Halloween Antics...

The second most anticipated holiday of the year...Halloween...costumes are discussed for the ENTIRE year leading up to the event.  I can't even begin to describe how much the kids love Halloween.  I don't remember ever being as excited about Halloween as my kids are...(but I probably was even though I don't remember).  Unfortunately for my kids, I don't get nearly as excited as they do about it...so they are left to create their own costume concoctions.


Well, for all the discussion...not much gets decided about costumes until the day of...In the morning, E was going to go as a bride.  We even picked up my veil from Mom's so that she could wear it...then she changed to a sparkle fairy...then it was a panic because it was 4 and she didn't know what to be.  It was a cold, rainy night this year.  So, I suggested wearing a full body red leotard to keep her warm...to keep her modest we hunted through her dress-up clothes and pulled out her lady-fairy costume.  We pulled off the wings...and deemed her a 'lady-bug monster".  She found some red netting that we put over her hair and a pretty ribbon to help secure it to her head.  The finishing touch to her costume was some wolf ears to make a 'true' monster.  It was quite the costume.  She looked very pretty and not very much like a monster but in her mind she was a monster...so a monster she was.

Thankfully, the boys were so much easier.  X was very content to be a cow...no discussion or changed minds...just the costume on and off because it was too hot to wear indoors for very long.  C didn't really like that whole 'dress-up' idea.  He had the bumblebee costume on for about 5 minutes and decided he was finished with that crazy idea.  However, once he found out candy was involved, he had a whole new attitude about his bumble bee outfit.  He loved the candy...ate more candy throughout the night than I would have ever allowed the older ones to eat.  He just unwrapped what he wanted and ate it...the little stinker.  I am probably very fortunate that he wasn't up all night with a stomach ache!

Just for comparison...here they were two years ago when C was just 4 days old...

Thankfully, X has grown into the costume a bit more...and maybe we need to get a bit more creative for next year! However, my prediction is that C will be wearing that cow next year...everyone needs a turn as a cow!!

Haunted Houses...

 The library sponsors a few contests throughout the year.  In October, they hosted a 'haunted house' contest.  As soon as E saw the display for it, she was ready to make hers.  We got a bag that she could place her 'decorations' in as she finished them.  Then, Jut found her a box to use.  She was ready like a week early to turn it in.  She was so excited.  She had her vision for what she wanted to do and she did it.  She named her house "The Pink Ghost".  She was incredibly proud of her work...(I did try to make some suggestions but she wasn't taking any of them because she thought it was perfect already.)

Jut decided to make one too.  They were going to work on them together...but mainly Jut worked on his after the kids were in bed one night.  But, to E, they were doing it together and that was awesome.  He called his, "The Original Ghost Busters".

So, they submitted their entries...and the patrons of the library voted for their favorites.  There were a lot of entries in the children and adult categories.  I think there were around 10 kid entries and even more adult ones.  E's entry was obviously done by a six-year old without adult 'help'.  There were many of the 'kid' entries that looked like they had substantial adult assistance.  There was another entry by a 6-year old that was completely covered in perfectly cut felt in coordinating colors.  It was a pretty house, but my 6-year old couldn't have mastered that!  By anyway, I digress...Jut got the call that they could come pick up their houses.

He went over and the ladies at the library told him to let E know that she had taken 4th place in the kids' category.  E was so excited to know that she took 4th when she was up against so many older kids.  She was ecstatic to know she did so well.  The library workers have all complimented her on her house as they have seen her since and congratulated her on her 4th place.  It makes her feel so proud of her work.  I'm thankful that people saw an honest 6-year old's work and appreciated the effort that SHE put into it.  It made my mommy's heart smile to see her hard work recognized and appreciated.

She's already got plans for next year's house.  She's hoping for 3rd place!  :)

X is 4!

X turned 4 on Saturday.  He and C had their b'day party that evening.  It was a good time.  Aunt Jenna, Lydia and G'ma Daron arrived on Friday evening.  So, they got to spend the entire day with us.  Aunt Stacey came to our house Saturday afternoon to take the b'day boy and E out on an errand...and they managed to weasel donuts and a trip to the park out of their generous aunt.  It was a wonderful day for my little guy.

Let's see...things that I want to remember about X at 4.  He is a wonderful older brother.  He has so much patience for C's antics.  They are playing together more and more.  It is fun to watch them together.  X is a good younger brother too.  He and E typically get along very well and have lots of fun with with their imaginative play.

This summer the kids started digging holes in the back yard.  I don't think our landlord will ever believe us that we never had a dog here.  There are so many holes out back.  X loves digging the holes.  After he gets it deep enough with a shovel, he brings all his construction type toys over and plays in the dirt.  He is undoubtedly a boy with his love for dirt!

X also decided that standing on his head was fun this summer.  He loves to run to the couch or a chair and pop upside down and stay there for a bit.  I thought it was kind of weird but I read in a book that it is a 'normal' phase for boys.  Go figure.

He learned he could climb the fence to climb into the cherry tree this fall.  He loves being up in the tree with E...but he can't get down.  So, it does lead to some issues.

The boy is still completely obsessed with Star Wars.  G'ma Daron got him a millennium falcon for his b'day and he loves it...although, he loves his Thomas and the Shark too...he'd been waiting for that for a LONG time.  So, although he loves Star Wars, Thomas is still a huge favorite.  The boys spent forever playing with their new play sets today that they received for their birthdays.

School is a favorite time of day.  Lately he's been asking me, "Mom, how can I be helpful today during school?"  That means, "I want something to do."  He has a dry erase maze book that he loves..but he enjoys the math manipulatives of tangrams, pattern blocks, unifix clubes, etc.  He can generally write an "A", "L" and "X"...so, we'll get his name one of these days.  He memorizes scripture with us...he can recite the books of the new testament.  He loves to add.

He's still my cuddler.  He wants morning cuddles.  Climbing into bed in the middle of the night still occurs.  He is just the sweetest little guy.  Whining is sometimes an issue, but we continue to work with it.  Its difficult being stuck in the middle!

We started 'commision' jobs this fall.  X is so reliable.  He does his jobs every day.  He always earns his full commission.  He is a dependable guy...and he likes to make mom happy.  But, I love his willing attitude to be a helper.

We'll see what age 4 brings us!  :)

C at 2

C at age 2 is a lot of fun.  He is so much fun, but he also takes a lot of my energy.  I joke that if he were in school he'd have a one-on-one aide.  Mischief always seems to land in his lap.  Part of that is just the normal 2 year old curiosity about life and part of that is normal boy, but I think C might have received an extra spoonful of 'mischief ' when he was getting his attributes assigned.  I just found another place that he colored all over the carpet with a marker (thankfully it is washable...and grr to his sister for not taking care of things!)  He loves coloring...on everything...if it is someone else's paper or something other than his own paper, it is even more enjoyable.

He's just starting to say letters and point to words.  Now, the letters don't correspond to the words, but he's starting to become interested.  He loves doing 'school' with us...if that involves coloring or his own 'worksheets'.  He loves the dry erase boards.  He always asks for 'green' but only about half the time does he really get green out when he asks for it.  But, it is always exciting to see that initial learning occurring.

Trains are a favorite.  He loves, loves, loves Thomas.  He seems to always have an engine in his hand.  We read lots of Thomas books.  However, he does play with all of the different types of trains that are around the house...Big trains, little trains...the boy just loves trains.  He loves anything with wheels really...matchbox cars, tractors, trucks, construction vehicles.  Right now he loves the tractor and combine.  G'pa is harvesting using both and so C has spent quite a bit of time playing with his too.  He also loves playing with Duplos and building stacks.  His imaginative play is beginning to develop and I'll hear him talking with his toys.  He is at such a fun stage.

C's vocabulary is exploding like crazy.  His sentences are typically around 3 words..."Moon up sky" or "Need drink, Mom." or "Watch 'coveries, Mom" (The Great Discovery) or "Dad home?  No church.".  He LOVES to talk.  He loves that he can communicate his wishes.  He just started tattling on his older siblings.  I hear, "Mom, Nander blah, blah, blah" , or "Mom, Espeth blah, blah, blah."  I can usually only understand the first two words and then he goes on talking but I can't decipher what he's saying but I can tell by his voice inflections that he's tattling on his brother.  If the olders are excited talking about something, he has to be right there talking too.

He runs everywhere.  He's lost that toddler gait...he's all boy running.  He loves to jump...loves to jump off things (especially the furniture).  If he's not jumping off things, then he's climbing up on to things.  He has the cutest gallop.

He still likes to rock at nap and bedtime.  But, many times, he'll look at you after a few rocks and say, "crib".  And that means cuddle time is up and he's ready for bed.  Most nights he'll put himself to sleep but sometimes we end up in there for quite a while because he doesn't want to be alone while he gets himself to sleep...but that is happening less and less frequently (but it happened tonight).

His favorite book right now is a non-fiction children's book called Eruption.  It is all about volcanoes and how scientists decide to evacuate an area.  It has great pics of volcanoes but isn't your typical book that 2 year olds would enjoy.  He likes looking at the maps and point to them and say, "Casey Thailand".  He can generally point to SE Asia where Lindsey is.  But, his love of that book amazes me.  He has chosen to read it almost every nap time and bedtime for the last week.

C is currently adamant that he wants to wear undies.  But, he has no real concept about using the potty.  He's had a couple #2 successes on the potty, and he goes everyday that he naps when I wake him up but he doesn't really get it.  .  However, that doesn't stop him from refusing to wear a diaper and pulling out X's undies and putting them on.  Thankfully, he typically has very small accidents that only wet his undies when he's wearing undies, but after the second pair of undies in a morning, I get fed up with changing wet undies and force the diaper issue.  Tonight we solved the underwear issue by wearing them on the outside of his clothes...looked rather funny but much easier to clean up.

C can be a rather shy guy.  Object permanence hasn't become a reality in his world yet.  So, he shuts his eyes when he doesn't want you to see him..  He'll get shy with people and bury his head in my legs or turn his head so that he can't see them when he wants to be coy...or is feeling a bit sheepish or shy.

We sang "Happy Birthday" to him...and either our singing was awful or he didn't like the attention or something, he was quite distressed through the whole thing.  He wanted nothing to do with the candles, either.  He perked right up when he was given his piece of cake, though.  We'll see how he does this weekend for his and X's b'day party.

One last note:  C outweighs X by 1.5 lbs...he's roughly 37.5 lbs, but he's still a couple inches shorter than his big brother...so X is still mostly a clothing size ahead of him.

Happy 2nd Birthday to my Whirling Dervish

See You Later...Part 2

We bid our good friend, Lindsey, 'farewell' back in January 2011 as she left for a 27-month stint in Thailand with the Peace Corps.  She came home last spring.  She instantly became one of the kids' favorite people again.  She always made them feel special and loved.  Tomorrow she is leaving for another 1.5 year stint to teach English in a rural village back in Thailand with the Churches of Christ in Thailand.  Once again, it was hard to say goodbye, as she is one of our favorite people, but we know she's doing what God wants her to be doing (despite all the hiccups in getting back to Thailand this fall).  It is funny to think that X is now about the same age as E was when she left the first time, and C is about the same age as X was.  We know that C won't really remember her when she returns, but we'll all remember how he always called her "Casey" (her younger sister's name) until the night before she left when finally he said, "Lindsey" when looking at her picture on the camera.  But, he'll know who she is...we'll pray for her daily and send her lots of letters...and get the fun of looking forward to seeing the elephant stamped letters delivered to our mailbox.

Lindsey, you fit right back into our life so seamlessly this spring.  We treasure all the memories that were made.  We look forward to hearing about all your new adventures in this next saga of life, but we also will be very excited for when you come back again!!  Shalom, friend.

G'pa's New Ride

Last fall at the end of harvest, Dad got a new combine.  The kids have been excited for harvest season ever since because they had their own seat in the new combine.  They have spent hours climbing in and out of the combine as it sat in the shed throughout the year waiting for a chance to ride on it with G'pa.

Finally, harvest season came around.  G'pa started with beans.  One Saturday night, we all ran over to the farm to help jockey vehicles between Dad and Ronnie.  G'pa was still running some beans.  I asked if the kids wanted to go and see if they could ride with G'pa.  Without missing a beat, X jumped on that suggestion.  So, I walked him and E to the edge of the field.  Dad was dumping in the bins and I walked X over.  He tensed up as I took him up the ladder, but as soon as G'pa had him inside the cab, he was grinning from ear-to-ear.  I walk back to the edge of the field and E was in tears because she wanted to go to.  G'pa noticed and waved her over.  She scampered up the ladder and jumped in right beside X in 'their' special seat.  Away they went down the field.

They came back just chattering as fast as they could.  They were so impressed.  They can't wait for corn harvest so that they can ride it again!

C loves the combine when it is off.  He loves playing with our toy combine.  He loves climbing around the cab and ladder of the real combine when it is not running.  But, with the engine running, he has no desire to be anywhere near that noisy piece of equipment.  So, he was very content to play on the tractor while the 'big 'ns' went for their ride.

Watching the combine come down the field

Just some life...

How is it that time passes so quickly?!  I look at C and think, "Wow.  X was this old when C was born."  I can't imagine having another one right now.  I can't keep up as it is.

C is coming up on birthday #2...just a few weeks.  Crazy.  He's crazy but so much fun.  I love this age despite all the boundary testing, gravity defying behaviors and general mayhem that 2 brings.  I love the exploding vocabulary.  He had his first bleeding incident a few weeks ago involving the 'monkey tree'.  So, he loves to tell you about it.  He says, "Tree hurt knee!" all the time.  Very cute...reminds me of E when she was about the same age and got her finger caught in the toybox.  Whenever he replies to me, he always ends it with "Mom"..."yes, Mom" or "danks, Mom".  He does the same with the kids too.  He loves calling out for E...or "Esbet" and he's just really starting to say X's name..."Dersh" or something or other.  Mainly he calls X, "Luke", "R2", or "Han".  Its funny.  Imaginative play is really picking up, too.  "Monsters coming!" is another phrase frequently expelled.  He is too cute and too funny for my sanity sometimes.

Birthday #4 is drawing neigh for X.  He's still my sweet, cuddly munchkin.  He loves school.  He loves his maze book to work on during school...I think it is his favorite thing to do right now, but that may be because it is the only thing that is just his that C or E don't get to play with.  I'm beginning to see how he's getting 'squished' as a middle child...C is more physically dominating...E is just 2.5 years cognitively older.  He gets bullied by both siblings in different ways.  It is interesting to watch and help him navigate this new territory.  But, he's generally a happy-go-lucky little man and makes the best out of his situation.  He's a great little brother and an awesome big brother on most days.

E is no longer a little girl.  Thankfully the attitude is settling down now that school is into a routine.  She loves learning...loves math, science and social studies.  She is so much fun to teach (the majority of the time).  She's loving dance this year.  She's in preballet and thinks it is great.  She's already all excited about the recital next spring.  I'm hoping she'll love her class all year.  Last year got rough but she's learning new things and I think she'll enjoy the more structure to class that she has this year as opposed to last year.

School is going well again.  It took us awhile to get into a rhythm and days that we have to do errands really mess up our schedule, but we are doing pretty well.  I like the curriculum.  E likes the curriculum.  So, that is good too.  I miss FIAR somedays...the freedom to choose activities and theme and sometimes worry about the rigor of what I chose but I'm certain that it will be fine in the end.

Deconstruction (by us) has started on our house.  Financing is getting worked out.  We joked last night that if the financing doesn't go through, we are going to have quite the mess to clean up!  The baseboards are coming out slowly but surely.  Mom has been a great help each night coming out too.  We are having fun and learning a thing or two already.  I think it gets more fun each time we go out.  It is interesting to start pulling things out and figuring out what is underneath.

Jut and the kids are having fun playing Xwing in the evenings or afternoons.  X would play it every day if he could.  StarWars Wii or Xwing are his favorite things to play.  Jut loves having the kids involved.  They have a great time.

Extreme Home Makeover Daron Edition...And so it begins

After months of waiting, we are finally beginning to remodel our house.  It is hard to believe that we hatched this idea a year ago and are just beginning to move forward with our plans.  We've met with our contractor numerous times since May discussing the possibilities and budget.  He gave us the go ahead two weeks ago to start demolition.  Hopefully he'll start in a couple more weeks.

Thursday night we started the demolition process...Mom came out to help and we pulled the majority of the kitchen cabinets off the wall.

Today was a not great weather day...so Dad decided to take down the cedars that needed to come down in front of the house.  I'd never seen the front prior to today...I really liked it.

This is what the house looked like on Thursday night when we were there...

This was the view when I got out there this evening...Dad, Mom and Jut worked all afternoon but got it all taken out.

Part of me would love to keep the three stone pillars in place...I love the look from the outside...However, I'm not in love with them on the inside of the house...so they'll probably go...but I love the character that they give the outside.

So, our next goal is to take out the trim...without damaging it...that will be next week's project.

Starting First Grade...

 We started our second year of school at home the day after Labor Day with the rest of the public school students in Michigan.  This year we are using the Heart of Dakota Publishing curriculum of Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.  It is a history-based curriculum that follows American history until the Civil War.  Pilgrims, colonists, pioneers...goes right along with all the traditional Am*erican Girl books that E loves.

E loves reading...not writing...but loves reading.  Her wonderful reading level made picking a curriculum difficult for me because her reading level is far beyond the typical first grade curriculum...and she's not really ready to do reading activities for older grades.  So, we are figuring that out as we go.  My goal for her this year is to get her to write more.  Her math skills are right on target.  She loves science experiments...I can't get her to stop reading.  So, writing is my personal goal for her this year.
 

The Lighthouse Visit

For our vacation this summer, we spent a week with our good friends at their home.  They have five kids and our littlest ones are 6-weeks apart in age.  Our families mesh together so well.  We have a great time.

Well, one of the things that we wanted to do was visit the lighthouse in Ludington where our good friend was a lighthouse keeper for the week.  When we decided to do it, I didn't realized that it was going to take us 1.5 hours to get there.  I did know that it was a two mile week along the beach to get to the lighthouse, but the logical part of my brain didn't really analyze the logistics of trekking 8 kids down the beach for two miles.

So, we all climbed into our vehicles 'right' after lunch to start our journey (We started about 1 hour later than we intended b/c it takes a long time to get 12 people moving in the same direction!).  The trip went smoothly.  We parked.  A park ranger had just finished a demonstration somewhere and came walking by with a wagon full of stuffed animals.  Kids thought that those were pretty cool.  She stayed and chatted with us for quite a while.  Then, we started walking.  The kids were excited to see the water.  They wanted to play in the water.  We were in a time crunch to get to the lighthouse by 5...so we had to keep pushing them along.  That was fairly easy for the first half mile...then we started getting stragglers.  We saw some shipwreck ruins which the kids enjoyed investigating.  When we were about a half-mile out, we could finally see the lighthouse and that put some pep back into the kids steps.

We got there right about 5.  They were closing down the lighthouse for the night.  Thankfully, we knew someone on the 'inside' and they were all waiting for us despite our tardy appearance.  Just as we reached the lighthouse, I looked up and waved to our friend and consequently stubbed the bottom of my big toe on a huge rock and almost lost C out of the backpack carrier as I almost fell to the ground.  I tore a huge chunk out of the bottom of my toe and it started bleeding nicely.  It was a great way to start our visit to the lighthouse.

So, we all go inside the lighthouse.  I head to the bathroom to wash all the sand our of my toe to properly assess the damage.  Lindsey starts the video about the lighthouse for the rest of our group and gives a little presentation.  I bandage up my toe.  We prepare to climb the 120 steps to the top.  It quickly became apparent who would make the assent and who would be staying at the bottom.  C charged right up those winding, see-through steps.  I don't think E even attempted one.  X made about 20, but thankfully he's so light that I just carried him up (but don't tell anyone official that because it is against the rules).  Our friends' twin 4 year-olds also made the climb.  Our friends couldn't.  So, Jut, myself, and 4 kids (plus Lindsey) went to the top.

C loved it at the top.  That boy tried to run around the top like it was a racetrack.  He made me so nervous.  I think he tried climbing the railing too, but we foiled all of those attempts quickly.  It was beautiful at the top.  It would have been really nice to sit and relax up there for a bit, but with C running around like a crazed maniac, that wasn't an option.  

Lindsey took the kids up to the very top where the light was too.  They thought that was awesome.

When we got back down the steps, (just a side note:  C trouped right down them as well as he went up them.) Lindsey's aunt and friend had made us all dinner.  So, we even got to eat at the lighthouse!  That was awesome!  I still can't believe that they had enough food to feed our small army of 12.  It was such a blessing.  I really don't know how we would have gotten everyone back down the beach and then to a restaurant to eat before numerous meltdowns would have occurred.  Dinner was an amazing blessing.  So, that was cool.  Then, Lindsey had popsicles for dessert, too.  Kids thought that it was perfect.

Then, to make life even easier for us, they bent another rule and went and got our vans to save us the trek back down the beach.  So, while the guys went for the vans, we went out to the water to play.  It was perfect.  The kids had a great time.  They finally got to just play like they wanted to do when we arrived.  C loved the water and the gentle waves.  

It was a great day.  I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do it and that we got such VIP treatment once we arrived.  It was fun!!

Picnic at the lighthouse

Popsicle dessert