Building in the Winter

So we bought a bank owned acre with a double wide. Our realtor suggested we give the mobile a face lift and rent it out. Can I just say that remodeling a manufactured home is last on our list of things we want to do in building. So we sold it and started a house on the land. We don't usually build in the winter because it takes so much longer (shoveling before you can even get to work, dealing with ice and short days, etc.), but we decided it was a go. Good thing because a week after we started excavating, we had an offer on our house in town! So it is all going to work out fine. We will probably move into a slightly unfinished house but at least we won't have to move twice.

In the preview, this picture was the correct direction. He loves to be at the jobsite (if dressed right)! He talks about 'trusses' and 'drywall' and 'Daddy-o going to work building houses'. It seems to be a great learning experience and it's fun to see he isn't just playing around us, he is actually paying attention to what we are doing.

Our 3 year old boy loved the day they set trusses, we are just thankful the truck made it up the hill. It's difficult to see in the photos, but this property is quite steep....and with the string of warm weather we have had--muddy! Steep and muddy have not worked out great for getting heavy supplies to the house, but we are so thankful we are as far along as we are.

The framing and the hill.

As of yesterday we had all the windows and doors in and the insulation guys were working. Siding was started and the drywall hangers will be here Monday! Yeah! I've been busy packing and trying to 'go-fer' supplies. We are able to stay in our house until the end of the month now, so that will give a few extra days to get things ready at the new house before we have to move in.

There is actually a beautiful view from the property, and there were some bonus features that came with the property...see the tree house, we also found a radio flyer wagon in the bushes and a big tire (for a sand box?).

Fall 2011

There is too much to write, our little boy has changed so much in the past 6 months, if only I could keep up with him. I see other blogs and I don't know how women find time to get on the computer and do this whole downloading and writing thing more than once a month! Nevertheless I will try. We went to Wisconsin and Illinois to see family and friends. Here he is with cousins, what a wonderful time.

On our way to see cousins, we went through Moline, home of John Deere. We stopped in to the pavilion and snapped some photos.

On our trip was anything short of large equipment, He loved everything he saw and experienced. Here he is with Grandpa in a friend's combine. I love how he tells and retells his perspective of it, including details about the corn shoot, the tractor and wagon, putting it in the trucks and then into the silos. HAHA! What a guy!

We had the sweet opportunity to go on a hay ride...in a manure spreader! It was cold, but beautiful and another thing our little guy loves to recount.

Driver(s) of the hay ride.

He just had his 3rd birthday, so he has taken on some more responsibility around the house. Here he is putting away the silverware, with narration of course...'knife, fork, big spoon, little spoon'

Another shot from vacation, great aunt Janice does face painting, so he had his hands, and feet painted with wheeled things, no surprise.

A great garage sale find...$.25 The thing is I bought it for a quarter, works beautifully, and when I opened the case I found another price tag $6. Sweet, I thought what a deal! I peeled the sticker off and found another price tag underneath for $10. As I chuckled at my quarter type writer, I lifted it out of the case and under the machine was another price tag $35. Well, he has had much more than $35 worth of fun with it and it's still ticking, er, I mean clicking.

At a friend's wedding, learning to play crochet. As soon as the hay bales were discovered, they were the hit of the party for little people, for jumping on and off of.

Here is one from the beginning of autumn, when we cleared the garden. 'Carrots from garden!' the whole time he crunch, crunch, crunched on his carrots.

Oh-the fun we've had!

We found out he is NOT allergic to bees this summer....6 times.  Poor guy.  He's showing me "tough" after the first attack which yielded 3 stings.

 Dishsoap, a little water, a bowl and a straw provide hours of fun.

 Only once will spoil 'em.  You can hear it coming for an hour before it reaches our street, and for that hour I periodically hear a little boy repeat "Cream Truck!"  Really it was only once he partook of this treat, but he will never forget.

 Some of the raspberries we picked at our friends' house.

 He's got some business to do...notice the phones in each hand...and his typical strangle hold on "Moo".

 He just so happens to love the one chore I always put off because I despise it so.  Cleaning the shower...I think it helps that we got a new scrubber brush.

 Showing off his skills on the trike.

Made for Megan

Makin' Jam

Here and there

Some friends of ours are building a house and live seriously in the boonies. So much in the boonies that they have to tell people to look for the road that veers right with the dead Isuzu trooper in it, then take the right after that....there are no road markers. They have had many many people come out to their property to help with the house, so I had an idea (slightly plagiarized from Dr. Suess)...My gift to all those who wander the roads in the boonies looking for my friends' house. Go 'Here'

Then go "near" to the end of the road :)

J's Grandma passed away the second week in July, he went to WI for the funeral and S and I stayed home and goofed off. Oh, yeah, we also kept the house immaculate for showings, of which we had zero. Here we are goofing off with empty thread spools...they make a great addition to a set of blocks ;)Here is the fantastic rug/mat my mom made for my boy, many hours have already been clocked playing here.

Fourth of July swimming. It was really the first time we had been in the water for the year. It was still pretty cold but my little fish wanted to swim. He remembered seeing fireworks (maybe from last year?) and the day before we went to see the show we were praying, thanking the Lord that we were going to be able to see fireworks and instantaneously he said "Boom, Boom, Boom!" It was a trying not to laugh moment.

Posing for a shot after his haircut...it has now grown out and is sooo blonde. I love it and don't want to cut it off.

some of June

Above is photo of Grandma and Grandpa H when they came for a visit in June. Their help watching S was much appreciated so I could finish the touch up painting on the new house, which we finished the week of July 4th.

Daddy-o's birthday...helping blow out the candles. Happy 33rd!

He has become quite the big helper in the kitchen. This also helps keep him from unsupervised exploring while I'm working in the kitchen, he's right there with me. Here he is helping with the dishes (licking the spatula) after we made brownies for Daddy-o's birthday.

A favorite place to play during the somewhat rainy months. Rain is something we haven't seen for about a month, and we have spent almost everyday of that month outside.

Grandma Judy came to see us the beginning of June.

Check back soon, I will be posting more soon about the rest of the summer :)

Spring happenings

For some reason I could not post words with the photos yesterday. So I am trying again.

We had noticed some marks on the inside of S's teeth so we went to see a pediatric dentist. He did awesome! I was so thankful he kept his mouth open and didn't cry. The biggest blessing of the trip was that is was staining, not cavities. The dentist said staining can come from the minerals in your saliva, so it was nothing wot worry about. Yeah!

About a month ago he started putting more words together, which is really cute because he uses the adjective after the noun, which is common in many languages, just not ours :) After seeing a shoe had fallen off my friend's newborn, he said "shoe baby". One morning I showed him the difference between a ripe banana and a green one. That afternoon he asked for something to eat and I offered him a banana. His reply was "banana green".

For months now when I would be putting him to bed he would lay his head on my collar bone then sit up, touch it with his hand and say "bone". Now he does this all over, he will touch my wrist or elbow or jaw or knee and say "bone" then find the corresponding bone on his body.

He has also been playing copycat, when we put our chin on a fist or cross our arms, or sigh or say mm, hmm. J put his hands behind his head with interlocked fingers after dinner one night and sighed. S followed suite exactly. Last night in the garden he had a hand spade and I had a regular shovel, I used my foot to dig out some dirt and then next thing I saw was S putting his little foot on the little spade (complete with a grunt) and thrust it into the dirt. Haha!

One Sunday evening we were driving home and saw a combine on a truck heading to Alberta. All through town we passed it and then it passed us, while we were showing/telling S about it. From then on for the past few weeks if we are driving through town in the evening he asks "tractor, gone?" I love how his little mind is remembering and being sparked by familiarity. He does the same thing when we are close to the airport. On day he saw a red plane, so when we are on one of a number of roads around the airport he asks "eeeeeeooooooorrrrrr, plane red?"

I have been buying bananas by the box (the ones they take off the shelf when the green ones arrive) for $.10/lb....awesome! So I've been dehydrating them to make banana chips, 64 lbs total so far. S has been helping with this as much as a 2 yo can and calls them "chips." We started some seeds for the garden, he love to water and outside help me weed. I am so thankful for rubber boots. Last night he decided the dirt in the garden looked good enough to eat, quite a sight :)

With spring came the big yard clean up from the dog. As S played in his sand, he would repeat "poop, Chee, Mama" Yep.

Several weeks ago we had clear skies for a number of nights and before bed, he would stand at the window and watch the moon, telling me "moon, ars (stars)". We then had some cloudy nights and he asked for the moon, I explained to him it was still there but behind the clouds. When the clear nights returned he asked again for the moon, but it has not been visible until after his bedtime, and this week was the new moon, oops. Someday He'll understand the moon calendar.

This week we went out to help some friends who have 10 acres and are planning to build this summer. S has country running through his blood...he had a blast! He wandered around through open forest and bushes (glad he has a bright orange coat) with confidence to explore like a boy should. S and Chile...when she would get out of his sight, he would call "Chee!" and she would return to his side to explore some more. I loved that he was so comfortable out there!...and it makes me anxious to get out of a subdivision :)