Business Woman

Megan's humor is really begining to shine through. Below are some pictures of her putting on my suit jacket, grabbing an old brief case, and a hat I wore when I was a child.

A Special Guest & Piano Recital

The weekend started with a special surprise for Megan and especially Jaden. Back in early October our next door neighbors moved to the other part of the state and their daughter was Jaden's best friend. This weekend she was going to stay with us while her mom went to help a friend of hers. We did not tell the kids that Claudia was going to stay with us and the look on their faces when she walked in the door was priceless, I wish I would have had a camera. It was great to see Claudia and her mom, they are missed.

Friday night Janelle had her Christmas piano recital for her students at a nearby church. This would be Jaden's first recital. Both Megan and Jaden, and all the kids, performed well. The best moment was when Jaden got done playing, he stood up and looked at his teacher (& mom) from across the room with the look of "how did I do?"

Jaden and Megan play after the recital

Jaden plays "Go Tell It On The Mountain"
Megan plays "The First Noel"

Christmas Programs

Megan and Jaden all decked out for their Holiday Program at school. It was a nice program with songs song by 1st through 5th graders.

Every year our church puts on a kids Christmas program. This year Megan was Mary(this is the 2nd time she has had this honor) and Jaden was an angel. Jaden wasn't too happy because he thought angels were girls. We need to teach him more about Gabrial and Michael.

Constuction Updates

The inside of the addition is now insulated. This is looking out to the south from the new kitchen and dining room.
Most of the house is now rapped in Tyvek and roofed. Notice no bricks on the front and new windows.

Back view.

Brick Removal

Our current house has brick a few feet up in the front of our house. Over the years the bricks have been slowly leaning forward falling away from the house. We decided as long as we were siding the house it was a good time to remove the bricks. We didn't want to do it too soon before they started the siding because we would then leave the house exposed to the elements. We asked the builders to give me a little notice so I could get it done so as not to slow up their progress. As it turns out the notice they gave me was a busy week and weekend so all I had was Saturday morning until Saturday 3 pm to remove them, about 7 hours. With a small jack hammer and the help of Janelle's dad we accomplished it at 3 pm. The front of the house was a mess with bricks laying everywhere because we didn't have time to organize, we just did demolition. Of course it snowed that night so everything was buried, leaving clean up a challenge.

The demolition crew.

Santa Visit

Today the kids got to see Santa at our community Christmas gathering.

Megan still participates and asked for an ipod touch(slim chance the elves know how to make those).

Jaden didn't know what to ask for.
Jordan finally wasn't scared and asked for Scooby Dooby Doo toys and an excavator, a real one.

Austen was scared so Megan joined him and he asked for toys.

Holiday Decorating

Today we spent the day decorating for Christmas. It was much different than other years because of the construction. We did not want to put up a lot of stuff that would have to be moved around so we put up significantly less then in years past. We even put our tee in a different spot than we have ever put it because we needed to be clear of windows(we are replacing all of our windows).

Jordan decorating the tree

Megan decorating
The always happy Jaden

and Austen enjoying the tradition

Austen liked a particular branch so he decorated it over and over again

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Janelle's side of the family. Below you can see Megan and Jaden had decorated turkey placemats for everyone.

We're Enclosed

As you can see by the pictures below they have now applied the plywood to the walls.

Walls Are Going Up

As you can see they have started building the walls to the upstairs addition. It is fun to now be able to step inside the additions and get a feel for the size of the rooms.

This is the view looking south from the "soon to be kitchen". The hole on the left will be a window and the whole on the right will be a patio door to the patio. You can see the wall of patio bricks in the background which will be next springs project.

This is the view out of the "new kitchen" to the East. The window on the left will above the sink and the window to the right will be from the dining area.

The kids enjoyed playing on the new addition. They used the big wood "stage" to play rock stars before the walls were put up and below they played "Anti-I-Over" the new wall between the garage and the kitchen/dining.

We Have a Floor

The weather has finally been dry enough that they would finally poor the basement floor. I believe they are about 2 weeks behind now. This is a view from our "big hole in wall".

Now that the cement is done they delivered the lumber. I lost half of my garage to our builders tools and now I lost half of my driveway to the lumber.

Austen and neighbor Hally tale a rest on the 2x4s.

Jordan is playing something in his imaginary word.

Hole in the Wall

One of the things that had to be done is cut a hole in our existing basement wall so we would be able to enter the new addition. Today they cut the hole in our current laundry room. As you can see they did a nice job of containing the dust and cleaning up. Our builder did come and put plywood over the whole until the new addition is enclosed.

Future Employment

With all the big equipment we thought we would let Jaden and Megan try them out. OK, so they didn't get to drive them but we let them sit in them.

Halloweeners

For Halloween this year Megan went as a Cowgirl, Jaden a Constrution Worker, Jordan as a Race Car Driver, an Austen was a Cowboy.

The two little ones always have such a hard time keeping up with the older kids so this year we let them drive their jeep(which was a gift from their cousin Michael).

Construction on hold

Construction has slowed with all the rain we received but here are some pictures of how far we are:

These two windows will be the two bedroom windows

The pictures make it look so tiny. Kevin, your room will be in little yellow house.

The basement walls are done but it has been too wet to poor the basement floor.

Things that go bump in the night

This morning I woke up and grabbed my towel and headed to the down stairs bathroom to take my shower. The house was dark and I was a little graugee. As I took the final down step I felt something under my foot. I was shocked that I had stepped on a toy since I thought things were all picked up the night before. I turned on the light only to find Jordan asleep on the bottom of the stairs. When we went to bed he was asleep in is bed.

Boys Watching

Jordan and Austen are often watching the builders through the window. As you can see the window got broken in the construction process.

She shoots, she scores...finally

Megan is in the red hat

Megan had her final soccer game of the fall season today and her Uncle Curt and Auntie Marti and cousins from the Twin Cities were there to watch. Megan has been rotating between both defense and forward all season and has been real close to scoring but just could not find the back of the net on any of her shots. She has hit the pole on several occasions but longed to get that one goal. Through out today's game she had some opportunities but came real close on another shot that hit the goal post. After the shot she fell back in disbelief of another near miss. With the game tied and time running out Megan got a shot from the top of the goal box and scored the game winner. The smile was larger than the goal itself.

Uncle Curt gives Austen the best seat in the house.