My...oh... My... Another month gone by!!

Well well well... It's almost the end of August already... Haden and Hannah are about to start school (wow!!! Monday!!!) - We've had a birthday party for the boys this month (and a mini-housewarming the same day), we've had 2 killer volleyball fests at the house, done some cattle herding, school shopping, 4-wheeling and have had 2 meet the teacher events!!! (oh, and we actually got a little sleep this month!!!) AND how could I forget - we finished our floors, had a horrible storm, had to take them out and start over!! DUH!!! THE WEEK of the party!!!

Our focus is off of the house - and back onto our family. 4 months was long enough of GO GO GO - so now we are 'chill - relax - enjoy'... :) We still have many projects to be done, but at a much slower pace!!! :) Our home is liveable now - and so that's exactly what we must do... LIVE!!!! :) A few pics of our adventures in August:

Happy 5th and 3rd Birthdays to our precious boys!!


So many of our wonderful family members and friends spent this very special day with us!


And we played some serious volleyball!

As Holton joins us... (and shows some booty-crack!


Some of the storm damage - trampoline flew into the house, knocked out both posts that support the porch roof (thankfully it didn't collapse) and then proceeded to travel across the creek into one of the trees:



and... the winds blew open our new french doors, and flooded our brand new floors...
New floors 2 days before, fully installed:


and the floors after... green are the ones that were ruined (upside down) - we were able to save half...



Anyway - I'll go for now... I've got many more pics - that of course are on facebook too!! :)

Much Love,

H,J,H,H and H

I must say - I'm quite impressed...

I cannot believe how much we got accomplished this weekend... We seriously couldn't get half of what we get done without Grandma and Papa (and Aunt Brit) down the street to wrangle the boys for us while we work... :) I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE our new floors!!!:)

Anyway - this weekend we got the floors in most of the baseboards and crown molding in the new living room:



Jer really gets the credit for those items, because I was able to escape on Saturday morning for sister Amanda's baby shower... When I returned... this was what I had in store for the next several hours: grout, beer and A LOT of tile....



I love the grout color Jer picked - but I DID NOT like working with Sanded Grout... That crap dries out way too fast... I got tired of adding water! But, after a few trips around with the mop on Sunday - it looks pretty good!




The girls managed to keep themselves busy - I felt like I didn't see them all day on Saturday! Their Ke$ha impressions:



They crack me up!



When the boys got home, they helped daddy load trash... Someone thinks that they are old enough to drive by themselves... really...



OH! How could I forget... Little man Haden turned 5 on Wednesday! I cannot believe how big he's gotten... Seems like yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital!!!

The boys helped make cupcakes and muffins for his bday:



ANYWAY - DON'T FORGET - BDAY party at our casa on August 7th for the boys... 3 and 5! :) Booking the bounce house today! :)

Much LOVE! Heather

And on to the FLOORS!!!

And here we go! We've painted the rooms... and I installed the tile last weekend... Our hardwoods (well... laminate kick ass floors) came in Tuesday and have been acclamating to their new environment since then... Those go in this weekend! yay!!!
A few of the latest pics:



The new floors we picked out:



Rooms after paint:







We actually took a little breather last weekend and went to a bday party... Holt had a blast... Haden and Han did too - but I can't post her pic without a big FIT! haha

We need a week off.... To sleep. :)

Well, well, well... Here we are, almost mid July already and we're still working our tails off to get this build done!!! :)

I"m not feeling overly clever today... We stayed up too late yet again last night trying to get the last bit of mud on the walls... Ran out of mud, so we're finishing up tonight and hopefully hitting the pillow fairly early...

Status as of yesterday:

Big room (living room) is textured, sanded the ceilings last night - and plan on texturing the ceiling tomorrow:




This is how pretty we look while sanding and texturing....



I think every piece of 'weekend wear' clothing we own (shoes included) are covered in mud:



You would not believe how tedious and time consuming mudding and sanding is? It seems like we've been working in SLOW motion, but we haven't! Hello???? Can we be DONE with this already? haha... I know, I know... Don't rush. But dang! We'd like to pick out paint! and flooring!

Ok, ok... I'll post more this weekend when we have the rest of the texture finished. Yay!

Much love,

H

Another Month gone by.... Sheesh!

I cannot believe that yet ANOTHER month has flown by... Just yesterday we were wrapping up Han's 12th bday party - and since then so much more has happened!

First of all, the house progress is amazing... Tiring... but it is really coming along. We have to stop having guests out on the weekends though - completely halts all productivity!!! and has something to do with bigger headaches than normal the next day! hahaha...

Anyway - since the last update:

Hannah won a band award (the only one given that night!) and wrapped up 6th grade:



Jeremy and I celebrated out 6 year wedding anniversary:



Holton got the flu - and kept it for an entire week:



Once feeling better - he helped daddy an me put the siding on the house:



Which WORE that poor boy OUT:



Speaking of siding, we got the breezeway done and where the two garage doors used to be - can't wait to paint:





In the middle of all this madness - we celebrated Holt's 3rd birthday - and he got his first gas-powered 4 wheeler:



We added to our family two barn cats - Hank and Dolly... (Hank is a girl):



We painted Hannah's room upstairs and put in her new furniture - yes, it is VERY VERY VERY PINK:



We set up the boys room upstairs (almost there - not quite RIGHT yet):



We had some fireworks inside the house:



We finished the sheetrock in the soon-to-be living room, mud room, hallway and stairwell AND have started (and almost finished with) the first round of tape and bedding:




Installed a couple of windows:



And most recently - started sanding the ceiling to finish up the taping and bedding so we can texture:

PRETTTTTTY.... NOT!



On the list of to-do's for the weekend - hopefully we'll get to finish all of the tape and bed and POSSIBLY start the texturing process... I'm thinking we're another week out for that...

What makes all of the long nights worth it??? Moments like this:



Whew... Soon enough - we'll be done with the add-on... and start the remodel on the inside... and then onto the cows/horses/barn and the fences... sheesh! We'll see rest in 2013. maybe.

hahaha...

Much love...

H

25 Things I've learned since moving to our mini-farm....

1.) Spiders and me do not co-habitate... I do not care how "good" they are suppose to be for other bugs... You all must die. seriously. (already knew this - hello bought a freaking farm!! Hi GENIUS!)

2.) Drywall should be hung horizontally... for real.. not kidding... me stupid. you not. don't look at my mud lines.

3.) There is a reason that studs are set 16 inches apart... Learn from our mistakes... 16 inches... for real.

4.) A "rasp" is quite important when you are sheet-rocking...

5.) I learned what a rasp was.

6.) According to spell check - sheetrock is not one word.

7.) Many screws are necessary... NOT as necessary as dad says... (if I could interject with a picture example here - I would)... asshole...

8.) Listen to your elders...most of them can actually give you good advice... really...most do.

9.) Your elders might not be older than you.

10.) I am WAY stonger than I ever thought I was... and Jer is superman.

11.) That ANYTHING is possible with the right attitude. (thank you God)

12.) Don't borrow gas out of the barn... Just don't.

13.) That #12 makes Jer laugh - because he did. (the 4-wheeler is smoking like we lit it on fire)

14.) That "dishpan" hands - don't really happen... No dishwasher - 6 months - my hands are fine..

15.) Septic peeps want to suck your shit. because it costs $350. You don't need your shit sucked. well.. We hope we don't.

16.) Air-tools are THE coolest thing ever... other than the miter saw. that bitch rocks.

17.) Jer is a rockstar.

18.) You can live without air conditioning 24/7. Sweat will not kill you - unless you are trying to sleep.

19.) Sleeping = a $500 electric bill.

20.) June bugs = rockets... they love beer too. Cover your beer.

21.) I love beer...oh wait...I already knew this.

22.) Buy the expensive toilet seats... just do. especially if you have boys in the house.

23.) Don't squish the fat spiders -unless you want to see 400 little ones spread like wildfire.

24.) Screw dusting, mopping or even sweeping. Do it - you will be pissed in less that 5 minutes.

25.) Cows die. When they do - most of their body parts will end up in your back yard. and it stinks. really really bad.

Many...many...many more to come...

Much love... and many blessing to you and yours... (and ours!!)

H

Ok... Two in ONE day? NO WAY you Say!

hahaha... Cat in the Hat anyone??? :)

I've got SOOOOOOOOOO many pics of my itty bitty babies (who the heck am I kidding)!!! I should start describing them as my 'almost teenage freaking momma out - Hannah', my 'little boy that really isn't little anymore and has lost all BABY associated with the term BABY, toddler or little boy - Haden' and my 'baby that's not a baby anymore but more like a full size bulldozer boy- Holt'...

It's all part of it, right? Ugh... Killing me - but makes me so proud at the same time. :) As birthdays go by, I remember that my birthdays are going by too. I haven't found a gray hair yet, but I'm sure they are coming - and I can't see crap since my hair is still so blonde...(yay!) It also reminds me that I've kept them alive for one more year! (haha.. I know - sad... but damn - it is TRUE!) Especially with my daredevil bulldozer Holt! :) I wanted to post of few of my favorite recent pics... If you read my updates on Facebook - these are all there... But some folk haven't made it to the FB world yet - OMG? WHAT? haha...

ANyway - I got them all in the same shot - and while Holt's eyes are shut - Han looks so pretty! :)


I posted "To My Child" on FB - and it was then decided that I would forgo(sp?) working on the house that evening and blow bubbles with my kids... and so we did... And played volleyball, soccer and basketball... Maybe a little frisbee too! :) Holt drank more of the bubbles than blew... Oh well. He's not even 3 yet - I'll give him that. :)



From a few days before... I followed the boys around on a 'walk-about'... The creek is their favorite it seems! :) I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture!



I have so many more.. but this is it for the moment...

Much love,

H