Pumpkim Pie and braces???

Well they are two newest additions to our household. Ben got braces yesterday, top only. He will be getting the bottom ones in 8 weeks. Like his papa he just doesn't have enough room in his mouth for his permanent teeth. The goal is to widen his pallet. Then with a retainer to guide in the rest of his permanent teeth we will eliminate the need for secondary braces to straighten his teeth! He did very well. He told me this morning his front two teeth are sore, but other then that it hasn't been bad. No more astro pops for him! Right, Uncle Chris?


Oh yes, and as for the Pumpkin Pie, he is our new cat. My friend, Celeste, and I got a wild hair and went and got our children kittens yesterday. Celeste's lookes like this one other then the color. "Buddy" is black-darkbrown striped. Brianna and Noah agreed on Buddy right away including his name. Boy was I impressed!!! It took my three, Gideon didn't have much of an opinion, a bit longer. We finally settled on his name this morning. We do have to watch Gideon. He likes to pick him up but doesn't care how.

Now to fill you in on the rest of December... Ben and Emma had a piano recital on the 6th. They were wonderful!

Here is one of Christmas, a token picture of the mess! We had a great time and all the presents were perfect.

Happy Birthday Ben

Well the month of November has been full! My Grandmother died on the evening of the 8th. These are the flowers Marcia sent. They were beautiful. My mom sent them to Westhills Village after the funeral so the people there could enjoy them.








We finished our homeschool coop. This is Emmalena at the fimal open house. She is the one in the middle with the white shirt and blue pants.







We had a great birthday a couple weeks ago for Ben and Grandma. This is the race track Ben bought with his birthday money from Nana.
Corey made the table yesterday and we've all had a great time playing with it.
















Sorry some if these pictures are sideways. I didn't think about it until I had them up on the blog and figured if I didn't post them anyway I'd never get it done. This picture is of the kids after we got home from church this afternoon. I thought it turned out great, other then the cheesy grin of Daniel. Oh well that's his personality anyway!

OK, OK, OK

As promised here are some pictures! I uploaded them all backwards so go down to the bottom of this blog and read up!



And finally a picture of the front of the house. Can you see me. I'm on top of our dirt pile. I'll take some pictures today of the siding.













Gideon is one.














Uncle Toan hooking up our new electrical.

















Larry loved the kids and they loved HIM! He was the nicest man.













The first of 12 new window openings!














Corey's Vanna impression.












Pouring the floor.














Larry Olson digging our septic system. The small excavator is digging the stairwell/entryway.














Here's Gideon!













Ben was very impressed. And so were the rest of us!




























And sliding. This picture is from the west end of the house. It is much taller then it was before.














Still sliding...











and then slid it over.













They moved the house to the opposite side of the foundation...














Then moving time.












They blocked everything up higher and higher until the could get the trailer wheels under the house.












Now that you are down here, this is a picture of the set up of the moving.

Ta Da

We've been busy!! The Saturday after the footings were poured our plumber came out to put in the rough plumbing.



Then Corey, Dad and I put in the gravel to form the bed of the floor. At the moment we are willing to do about anything to speed up the process.


Then everything went fast. Justin and the crew came on the 13th to tie in rebar. In the next few days they put up all the forms, framed in the windows and had it all reinforced. Then came the concrete.At one point we had in our yard, my van, the pumper truck, 3 concrete trucks, two bobcats, Dad's tractor, Frank (our lawn tractor), four long trailers, Justin's black truck and a Hills material truck to cordinate the concrete trucks. Wheeew!



But we now have walls. The forms are down and the floor is supposed to be poured on Thursday. The house will be moved sometime next week!

I'll keep you posted.

On a Roll

Footings! Yesterday four men came and put our footings in. Ben had a great time watching. And of course had to go shirtless, 'cuz that's how all the other guys were. His mom though made him put sunscreen on. He offered the workers his sunscreen. What a sweet kid he is. Later Mom, Ben, Emma, Daniel and I all watched as they poured the cement and finished it off. The bobcat, a.k.a. MaryAnn, that was left in the basement did get pulled out this morning. The kids thought they might have to leave it there.

Ben and I were enthralled with the whole process yesterday and got to watch most of it. Putting up the forms really isn't that hard of a job but these guys had it down to a science. They came finished off the hole, put up the forms, leveled them, shoveled in and packed down gravel, put in rebar, poured and skreeded the cement, put up the upright rebar and answered all of Ben's questions in 5 hours. 8 am to 1 pm. When they came and tore the forms down this morning (at 5:45am) they told us they'd be back sometime probably late next week to put up the wall and such. It's all looking promising. Hopefully the house will be moving in a few weeks. That's good since we have a ton of things to get done once that is done. Which reminds me, in the middle of it all the windows were delivered yesterday. Toan will be helping (doing, he is really fast) us with the electrical stuff and James is coming up for a week in September to help us with whatever he can get done in a week. We are looking forward to working with them.

In the midst of all the mess it's nice to feel settled with a permanent plan.

Now a few words about the last picture. This is how they unloaded the packer from the trailer. I'm not sure but I don't think this is an OSHA approved method of offloading and moving heavy equipment. I could be wrong however.