Fall 2010

Josh joined Evan and I for a hike today. We had a great time in the woods....Riley can hardley stand still long enough for the pictures. What another BEAUTIFUL fall day - LOVING this weather and don't want it to end!
On another note, teething is BRUTAL for Evan and making him feel just terrible - Poor baby!!




And here is the rest of my harvest for the year. I potted a few things to bring inside - mint, chives and I left my scallions and some of the bell and banana pepper plants up....maybe I can get a another week? We tore out the rest of the garden =( So sad to see summer go this year!!! Making sweet potato fries for supper tonight with my huge sweet potatoes! Notice Evan helping me.....Showing me his animal cracker...he pulls on my shirt when he needs another one!

Here we GO!!!!!!

It has been a crazy couple months...but what else is new? Here were are ready to leave for vacation and NOW I find a few minutes to put it in writing. Ridiculous?

Anyway....before we broke ground last year, we went to OBX. This year, as we are wrapping things up...(hahaha) or living here at least, it feels like we are at least closing this chapter of the book and we are ending it with another trip to OBX (one of the best places on earth to relax, at least that we can afford). We are so ready to relax....I can't even begin to describe. Having our first child and building a house (and all the financial stress that involves), moving three times and put them all into a nine month 9 span...and what you get is an emotional hurricane! By the grace of God we pulled through this, still standing - barely, but humbled beyond belief. I could write forever about all this, but I won't. I will just say that God didn't just open one door for us.....he opened quite a few, all at once and continues opening them leading us down more paths then I ever imagined. It's nerve wracking - and I am trying to get better at just focusing on one day at a time.....but that is SO hard.

Since May we have got half the siding up on the house, all the interior doors and hardware on, cut up 12 cords of firewood to heat this joint, put all the porch columns and railing on the porch, and a host of other things that I can't even think about. Josh has been AMAZING this year and pushed though more than he thought he EVER could! I am deeply inspired by his motivation and his desire to give us a home here!

Evan learned to crawl, stand, feed himself, talk baby talk, PLAY, and he took his first step the day after he turned 9 months old. He is an amazing little person to and I cherish everyday with him!!! He has just been such a beautiful addition to our family and we are just so in love with him!

So here we go, in less than 24 hours...to spend our first week together as a family - I couldn't be any more ready then I am RIGHT NOW - I don't even care that I didn't pack yet!
Thank you God for giving us this time together!!!!!

May 26, 2010 - 6 Months Old

Evan pulled himself to a stand for the first time....the day he turned 6 months old. Totally caught me off guard as I was trying to take pictures of him when he just stood up. The first time....he just fell right over. This is the 2nd time just a minute or two later. Once he realized that he could do it.....he just kept sitting down and then standing up again! So happy realizing that he was doing it by himself, I think. Really going to work on crawling now....we want him to crawl first!!
Daddy walked in just before he stood up the second time....so we both got to see it...and I just kept snapping pictures!!

We're Home!

There are so many things I could say but I can't seem to figure out how to put the words together to make it, make sense! Maybe it's because I am still SO exhausted or possibly I am still just at a loss for the right words!

This is US the last few weeks
EXHAUSTED
Injured and sore - (but at least we kept his fingers)
Making it work
Thankful
Determined
Happy to be together under one roof.
Thank you Lord for blessing us!

March 21, 2010

Moving right along....this week Josh installed the submarine....opps I mean a gas tank in the front yard. See picture above. I dropped it in the hole while he was sitting on it. Yep you read that right! To bad we didn't get a picture of that - the picture is just the dry fit.
He also put in the well pump and yesterday I watched our well water come pouring out. Had to see that to believe it! What a relief to finally have water! Yesterday he was working on digging our sewer trench to our pit, until the skid loader broke down. Opps! Have to wait till monday to finish that!
We pick up the kitchen on WEDNESDY.....yes this WEDNESDAY! No waiting a year and half for this one! Trying HARD not to think about it too much until then but getting more excited each day!
We put our porch furniture out on the porch this past week....that felt good! Gives me a place to sit and relax when I am up there with Evan.
Cleaning house like CRAZY...ridding the house of everything we don't want/need. Wow! When you move 3 times in 8 MONTHS...well you get it! It's got to be close to my heart to stay!
Gearing up for an exciting week ahead! Going for a walk with Evan and Riley today to enjoy this BEAUTIFUL weather! Yea for Spring!!


4 months old this week!

March 16, 2009 - Almost Home!

WOW!! It has been a ridiculously CRAZY 13 days! We have gotten SO much accomplished and I feel extremely encouraged at this point! Spring is here, the sun is shining and we are almost home! Can't wait to get back to a more normal life....whatever that is!

In those last days we...


- loaded ALL the floor into the house (Thanks Alan, Brandon, Bryan & Brooke - We appreciated ALL your help with this!)
-Cleaned everything to get ready for paint - Thanks Dad! The three of us spent 3+ hours each with our own shop vac! Whew!
-Got a well drilled and hit water @ 40 ft. Yeah! Saved money with a shallow well and we've got PLENTY of water pressure! Thanks well drilling guys!
-Primed the whole house and painted the ceilings - Josh was there till 12:30 one night!
- Painted the whole house in 3 days - Thank you Dad for giving us a WHOLE day of your time and Jewel and Matt for bringing us supper and spending the evening painting with us! Thanks so much!
- Installed hardwood flooring in the 1st floor - Josh and I during our 4-day flooring marathon - 1500 sq ft. Couldn't move afterwards!

Josh is wrapping some things up this week, among other things he is getting a propane tank put in, putting in the well pump and hopefully we will pick up the base kitchen cabinets to put in end of this week! YEAH!!! I am hibernating at home with Evan and Riley for the next couple days! Catching up on bills, e-mail and continuing to pack up.
Thank goodness my Mom was able to take SUCH care of him while we were "hammering down" the last few weeks! We missed him so much during the day and we couldn't have done it without her help!!! Thanks so much Mom!!

February 28, 2010

This was Sunday. In between holding up ductwork while Josh strapped it to the ceiling, I sat in here for a couple hours deliberating paint colors and trying desperately to find the strength to keep going! Seeing the drywall helped.
Trusting every day that He will continue providing....because that is the ONLY way we have gotten this far on this project!! Hanging on to the fact that next week we are painting!

Getting Closer....

The house is insulated, the drywall is hung and being finished. Next weekend we will start painting, hopefully! The furnace is running and we are burning FREE wood to heat the whole house....and it's warm!! Yeah Josh! - he did all the HVAC in the house and hooked the furnace up this week! All the doors are in and the garage doors are on. We've got electrical outlets and lights. The kitchen is being built and the floor is ordered. Still working on my paint colors and mentally getting ready to start the moving process again for the 3 time in 9 months - This time not pregnant!! T-minus 30 days!
3 months old yesterday!

February 18, 2009

WAY TO GO JOSH!!!!
Josh passed all his inspections this morning and the house is being insulated right now! They will be finished today and the drywall starts tomorrow morning! We have hired insulators and drywallers to complete these tasks - because, well it makes more sense! Josh has completed EVERYTHING up to this point however! Electric, framing, concrete, roofing, plumbing, HVAC - he was even the architect! I say WAY TO GO JOSH....because well he deserves to hear it! Evan and I are so proud of you!!
I am on the Internet and the phone everyday I'm not at the house, searching for the things we still need...trying to find them for rock bottom prices. This week I went down near Philadelphia to pick up the kitchen sink and I might head down again tomorrow to get our microwave. This weekend, probably going up to the Poconos to get some other materials as well. Trying to save money however we can!

The last few weeks have been a little crazy! Josh only got home after 12:00 last night trying to get ready for his inspections this morning. We have been working quite a bit to try and get to this point. I have been fortunate to be able to be there helping him over the last several weeks, which although exhausting, I have really enjoyed - Thanks Mom for helping us out with this!!

Evan is doing great - 12 Weeks old yesterday! Can hardly believe that! Pretty much sleeping through the night now!!! Yeah!! He is "talking" so much and he seems to discover something new everyday...yesterday it was his tongue. It's so funny to watch him realize that it is there. So glad that the only part he will know about this building process are the stories we will tell him! It still overwhelms me that all of this happened at once! God sure had us fooled on this one! Just trying to get through one day at a time and looking forward to spending time together as a family more often when we move in - still pushing for March 31st.

Loving the warmer weather today....hoping it keeps melting the snow - Have to get a crane up the driveway tomorrow!

February 3, 2010

Evan is 10 weeks old today! It's amazing to look at how much he has changed in those 10 weeks. Among many other milestones, he now talks and smiles with us and it is so rewarding and exciting to interact with him everyday!! The miracle of life still surpasses my earthly understanding EVERY SINGLE TIME I think about it! WOW! We love him so much!

The house is coming right along and we are still trying to meet a move-in deadline of March 31st. Of course we will be moving in unfinished at this point but the most important things have to be completed for occupancy so we can manage without the rest - we've done without a kitchen and flooring in the whole house for over a year before, those MUST be done this time, so we are figuring we can go the distance without a few less crucial things. Evan will be bunking in our room for a little while.
Yesterday we finalized our kitchen and handed it over....what a relief to finally relinquish that responsibility to SOMEONE else! This past week Josh ran all the plumbing and heating, A/C lines in the whole house. WAY TO GO JOSH!! What a task! This week he is going to run the electric lines to all the rooms and also hooking up our furnace so we can start heating the place. Drywall shuld be started by the 15th if not before.

Josh is plugging away everyday...tirelessly. I think the end of a project is always the hardest and the most draining. No exception here and it's probably just going to get harder...just praying our way through! God is faithful and so far we have been blessed to continue! We believe that He wouldn't have brought us into this if He didn't intend on bringing us through it. The finish line in sight now...we're on the home stretch!

January 7, 2009

This week Josh put our porch posts up and we are thrilled with the way they turned out looking! Just can't wait to sit out there this summer! Now we just have to find some railing so Evan doesn't just crawl right off the edge while we are out there. He also finished framing our master bathroom - it took some EXTRA time because he got pretty creative while he was building it. Anxious to see what that looks like when drywall goes up. He is ready to start running the plumbing and eletrical beginning of next week and we are looking to hang drywall by the end of Jan. begin of Feb. YEAH!!! I was busy planning Evan's new room last night....at ohh about 3am when I was feeding him. Can't wait to have fun decorating that!
This saturday...Josh and some friends are pouring concrete in our garage! Mind the fact that we are below freezing right now. Thank you SOO much guys! Josh has the whole garage tarped in plastic and insulated and we've got hay covering the ground. We will have heaters running all day! Just praying it all goes well and they can get it done without it freezing. Evan and I are going to make our way up there as they are finishing so that we can all three put our handprints down in that concrete and lay claim to our new home!

Pictures to follow....hopefully on sunday!