The End of the Season

So Jordan's first "school" football season has come to an end. Even though he goes to the charter school, he played for the Diamondbacks of Sage Valley. He is number 51 and did a great job for the year, starting every game.

He played a number of positions, including the kicker, center, defensive line and offensive line. This is scrapbook page for this season. Now on to wrestling!

Halloween Comes Early

Every year we go to a Halloween Party at our friends, Joel & Alli. It's such a blast! Jim and I love coming up with costumes that will entertain and slightly appall those in attendance. This year was no exception. We went as Octomom and the Dr. who performed her procedure. Jim carried an advertisement for his clinic listing acceptable payment methods, such as food stamps and welfare checks. It also listed the criteria for a procedure at his clinic as "willing to turn your uterus into a clown car (stuff as many inside as you can)." I only dropped a couple babies all night, which I though was pretty good for any octomom.

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International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Here's a little known fact...

September 19, is International Talk Like A Pirate Day and it also happened to be the day that my youngest brother Spencer go married. They chose "period" costumes and both looked amazing! Instead of using flower petals my niece passed out chocolate "gold" coins, to those who were willing to talk like a pirate.

They had a professional hair braider come in and braid the hair of the bridesmaids the participants. She did an awesome job.

So here are a couple of scrapbook pages I did for them. They are a beautiful couple!

Per Your Request....

One of many catch up posts...

We had a very busy September over the next few days I'm going to post the updates.

Does Anyone Know What Day It Is?

Tuesday....

Ella already told me that. Tomorrow is the day she gets to go to McDonalds with her classmates. Tomorrow is Jordan's first football game. But what about today?

Today is Jim's Birthday. If you ask him what today is, he'll gladly tell you.

Tuesday....

Here is a collage of my favorite pictures of Jim from the year. You know that split second when your camera is flashing, but the picture hasn't been taken yet? That's Jim's favorite time to jump into pictures. So this is my favorite out takes of him on all those special occassions where the picture includes the photot "buttinski" as he is lovingly known.

Happy Birthday, Jim! We love you!

A High Five is in Order...

Our construction project was finished quite a while ago. We were gone on vacation and the majority of it was finished. When we came home all that was left was some finish electrical and carpentry. I have to say that I can't imagine how we ever lived without all this room! It's so nice to have a place where the entire family can sit and watch a movie and not be on top of each other. Here is a picture of our favorite part - the amazing fireplace. High Five - it's all through!




Also Ella started kindergarten at Thomas Jefferson Charter School. This is a picture of her on her first day.

Of course, she is such a social butterfly that school is a great place for her. Right now she sits next to Zoe and Luke.



Jim and I dropped all the kids off the first day. It was a bittersweet moment, but we got in the car and HIGH FIVE - all of our kids actually lived to reach kindergarten, but based our current experience with our teenager we may not be able to say the same about high school! Smile!

Here were are in Yellowstone!

We Have a Mantle!

Day Thirty-Four

The finish carpenter started today. We are going to have bead board around the walls in the living room and a rock fireplace.

There is Jim getting the pantry ready for painting! He's become quite the handyman.

Here is the mantle. It's hard to see the detail up close, but it looks amazing!

It's Almost Finished - Addition Days Twenty-two through Thirty-three

So I don't know how I managed to go that long with out updating my construction project. The month has flown by and so has the addition. This time I'll go newest to oldest....Here's where we are today

Day Thirty-three
The texture is completely finished. The ceiling has been stamped and sanded and the walls are ready for paint!

Days Twenty-eight through Thirty-two
A whole lotta mud! They taped the drywall in three different days allowing each one to dry before they could get started on the next one. What a messy bit!

Day Twenty-Seven
This was probably our busiest day of the entire project. We had a follow-up framing inspection followed by the insulation, the insulation inspection and the drywall installation. I'm happy to say that we don't have any more insepctions until we are finished. Whew!

Days Twenty-One through Twenty-seven

I'll make this quick as there aren't any pictures. HVAC inspection. Electrical installtion & electrical inspection and the walls are ready to get covered. Framing inspection...They found a few minor hand ups with the framing inspection so we need to get those fixed and get on with the project. The roofing is complete!

Addition - Days Sixteen through Twenty-One

Day Sixteen - We have walls
Man those framers are fast! From concrete to walls in just a few hours. It's amazing to see the rooms take shape after seeing the concrete looking so drab.

Brenden takes the opportunity to put some wood in the fire pit

Days Seventeen & Eighteen

They finished the walls and the roof is on. The windows are in. The kids set up their tent and attempted to sleep in the addition on Saturday night. When the thunder started shaking our house we decided it was time to bring them in. Nonetheless on Sunday they slept out there and had a great time.

Jim has become quite the handy man through it all...

Day Nineteen

Sunday - peace and quiet~

Day Twenty

HVAC gets finished and the fireplace is installed

Day Twenty-One
In just three weeks...

The kitchen is now opened up to the addition. They did an awesome job on the arch. It flows along nicely with the rest of the openings in the house. The large opening is not a window, but where the bar will eventually be. The electrician comes tomorrow and we should be ready to sheet rock by the weekend!

Now Where Was I?

DAY TEN
Ahhh yes...the back fill is complete! We no longer have a trench surrounding our house. Everything is no ready for the concrete to be poured and then on to the framing! I love how it went from a giant pile of dirt to a lovely smooth sandy surface...

DAY ELEVEN & TWELVE

Saturday and Sunday went by without a hitch, mainly because there was no work scheduled. We did, however, get a couple of really nice racks from Joe's Sports as they were going out of business. We have installed one in our garage already and are planning to install another. They are very sturdy and we hope they will help our garage stay a bit more organized!

DAY THIRTEEN

Hooray, June has arrived and so did the cement truck. But instead of pouring cement, he ended up taking it to another job. It was at this point, sadly, that we realized that the existing slab is going to have to go. It had too much slant to meet the footer surrounding it. Again, Jim gets to be the fill-in- guy and break up another 300+ sq. feet of concrete to keep the job going. Luckily the excavator pitched in and they got it done quickly. At first it felt like a major set back, but in reality, it only put us off one day. We also had the siding removed so it looks like some serious progress is being made.

DAY FOURTEEN

Two weeks has flown by and wouldn't you know that it rained today. They poured about 70% of the concrete and will finish it tomorrow.

Got to keep the air conditioning working somehow!

Can't go outside today...

DAY FIFTEEN

All the concrete and the flat work it done! It looks amazing, especially the fire pit. We would have loved to leave our hand prints, but alas, all the kids were at school. Our name will be our mark!

Framing starts tomorrow (Thursday) and I forgot to mention that they don't make our color of siding...so now we have to decide how to monetarily deal with that...Sigh....I just keep telling myself that it will all be worth it!