Friday, February 24, 2012

It's All Coming Together...

On Monday, they were back to put the house together!  It was so exciting to watch.  "The New Driveway House," as Charlie calls it, will be done in just a few short weeks!

The entire first story was put together by the time we got up there at 9 AM, but Charlie and I did go watch the second story get put on with his Aunt Cara, Grandma, Uncle Dave and Luke.


I wanted to stay pretty far back with the kids, so we are actually watching from the side of the house, up on a hill.  My father kindly painted images in my mind of the house blowing around in the wind and the cables on the crane snapping, so I wanted to be super careful with the kids.  Obviously (or thankfully, I guess) it went up without any issues.  The weather was beautiful and they had it all together by 12:00. 






Grandma brought up juice boxes for the boys, and they drank them in the back of some guy's truck.  This was an extra special treat for Charlie- we never buy juice boxes.    At one point I had to say to Charlie, "Look! The crane has the house in the air!"  Apparently the juice box was a bigger deal to my three year old  :
 He was so thrilled to have his cousin Luke there to watch with him!







While watching, my grandmother and I both said, "He better watch his hands!!!"  
I get the feeling this wasn't his first time- just ours!


The pieces seemed so small when they were sitting in the driveway- but put together they appear overwhelmingly large!  A few weeks of site work left and we will be moving in!


We've been inside a few times, but I keep forgetting the camera.  Next time we are up there I will definitely take some pictures to share!  

Thursday, February 16, 2012

We're almost there.....

This will be picture overload for some, but I'm so excited that I just can't help it!

--The four pieces of our house came today--

They will sit there until Monday (because of the weather) but they are there!  We have a long checklist of things that will all come together in the next few weeks, but with any luck, we will be moving within a month!
We are so grateful and overjoyed to see the completion of this process.  We are truly blessed to be able to move close to family and to have our own home again!

Here, the first and second pieces arrive.  



The second portion arrives:

 They used a bulldozer to pull them up the driveway.


 Charlie, watching with Aunt Cara:

We told Charlie they will be putting it together, like a puzzle.  He doesn't seem as excited about the house as he is about the trucks and machinery :)


We've been very happy with the process, so here is a shout out to Bill Lake:


 We went halfway up the driveway to watch the second piece come in.  It was a lot colder than it looks. Trust me. 




 Two of the pieces are wider than the other two, so it was a tight fit at the top!

 The first two pieces, along with the crane they will use to set them.  You can see the foundation between the pieces of the house.

Hours later, the kids were nearing nap time so we decided to leave.  On the way out, we passed the arrival of the third and fourth pieces.  We decided to stop and watch again.  Matthew slept through it, but Charlie was pretty excited.  We stood on the opposite side this time, so don't let the different angle throw you!





So that's it! A few weeks and we will be moving into our new home!  
I can't wait to start this new adventure!


Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentine's Slime!


Charlie and I made Valentine's Day SLIME!  So much fun.  He loved mixing it with his hands.  Afterward, it took on a more gak-like texture.  Very gooey, but you could mold it and bounce it.  It was a total hit!







Tuesday, February 7, 2012

House Progress

The new house is coming along!  We were able to tour its progress a couple weekends ago.  Here are a few  shots Martin took.  The house should come off the line somewhere around the 13th of this month.  I cannot contain my excitement!








Becoming an Accidental Almost-Vegan

Matthew was having some serious crank sessions in the evenings, and after a week of being unable to comfort him during these stretches, I figured it was probably something I was eating.  Typically, if a baby is colicky, Mommy is eating one of three things.  I wasn't sure I could eliminate any of them.    
Dairy?! 
Chocolate?!!  
Coffee??!?!?!?!??!
Call it love.  Call it desperation.  I cut all three at once.  I switched to green tea in the mornings.  I cut out all dairy and chocolate.  Easier said than done.  But it worked.  Then I tried to reintroduce them one at a time.  Coffee was fine, but I would now rather drink the tea.  Chocolate didn't seem to matter.  Dairy, oh how I will miss you!  I have been off it for awhile and tried twice to reintroduce it.  However, I don't think I have even paid attention to whether or not it bothers Matthew.  Here's the thing.  
_It_Bothers_Me_
We already buy rice milk for Charlie, due to the increasing research linking dairy consumption and asthma.  
We have been slowly working our way toward eating less meat, currently eating it less than once each week.  We're still working toward completely eliminating it from our diets.  This is by choice, and while some will agree and some won't, we are choosing this as a family.  It stems from health concerns, 
But now I have to eliminate dairy along with it?!  
Oh well, such is life.  

Anyway, because of this, I took some vegan cooking/baking books out of the library.  One of the first baking recipes I tried is for banana chocolate chip muffins.  The recipe was super easy!  These are by far the BEST banana muffins/bread I have EVER had.  They are super moist and they have chocolate chunks in them!