Monday, October 21, 2019

Progress

 We've been making progress on the addition! Always slower than we would prefer, but progress nonethelesss. 

One weekend T and I got the seven downstairs windows put in. 


The big girls had spent the night at Noni's. It's kind of funny because as fussy/discontent as Lou is, she is the only one of our babies who has ever been happy to play in the pack and play. All the other girls would only play in it if they were isolated...if they caught a glimpse of anyone they would scream until they were picked up. Lou on the other hand will play happily in there as long as she can see us. So all we have to do is set it up where we're working and she will spend a good 30-45 minutes playing on her own. If we walk out of sight all bets are off though. Haha.

 

Here was the progress a couple of weeks ago. 


Unfortunately our progress has been largely thwarted by the crazy streak of weather we had in September. I feel really bad for all the farmers. Some even had to leave crop in the field because of all the crazy rain and snow. :( 

We literally got nothing done one week because we spent hours every available night clearing water. It was awful. :{ The water was over 1/2 an inch deep upstairs and raining down on the downstairs, and, as we later found out, running down the walls into the basement and completely soaking a 6 x 10 foot space in the living room. We didn't realize it though until it started smelling like mildew. :(

And most of those rain showers weren't even predicted! One weekend there was a big rash of storms predicted so Noni and Papa were SO nice to come over and spend hours laying down tarps and trying to make thing water tight. Thankfully they did because it poured for days! It looked like we were making a swimming pool!


They also gave us the idea of how to clear the water with the shop vac and it worked way better! The tarps did a good job and kept most of the water off. We still had to clear it, but it didn't go raining on the downstairs so it was much better. Thank you SO much Noni and Papa! 


We were feeling pretty desperate to get a roof on with all that rain. Our trusses were scheduled to come on a Tuesday and then we wouldn't have been able to start putting them up until the next weekend, but there was a cancellation and they ended up being delivered on a Friday morning! 

I didn't realize the significance of this at first, but God was blessing our socks off. Because they were delivered early T called Grandpa and Grandma who were able to come right out and we were able to start setting the trusses that Friday...moving on down the road so that we ended up getting the roof finished, papered, and water tight less than 12 hours before our crazy September snow! PTL!

But backing up a little...the trusses arrived at 7:30am and T ran out to help the guy unload them. He had a huge crane that was able to set them down right on top of the walls!


There were three big bundles, but the trusses themselves were a lot smaller than I imagined they would be. 


Bug and Peaches were the only ones awake, but they thought it was pretty cool to watch!



Later that day we got to work getting them set. I found some funny selfies on my phone that night. :)



Oh and I have to stick this picture in. The girls love to make cookies for Grandpa. I came down and found them baking and being so sweet to include everyone. :)


More pics tomorrow!

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Snippets of Peaches

We were doing Peaches' Cubbie lesson during lunch and Boo started singing the Cubbie song. Peaches was apparently really feeling it. It was making us laugh so I snuck a video.

 

Peaches is in a phase where she will be doing something super cute, but then clam up as soon as I start videoing. She was being SO funny saying, "I'm a STAR!" I thought she meant like a movie star (although she doesn't know what that is), but she meant an actual star. :)


I was trying to get a video of her in the morning because whenever I tell her it is a preschool day she gets SO excited! This particular morning someone had woke her up so she was pretty grumpy. She still showed some excitement though. 


Happy Saturday! :)

Friday, October 18, 2019

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Leftover Thursday

 Before school started Noni and I did another round of freezer meals. Peaches took this picture. :) 


Speaking of Noni, she set up and official piano studio and the girls have been having lessons every Friday! They love it!


Even Peaches is getting in on it!



Lou wants to join in so she started practicing on her own! :)


I came in and found her standing the other day! She was crying because she wanted out, but also happy to see me, but also wanted to make me feel guilty apparently. Haha. 


Happy Thursday! :)

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

September Snow!?!

We went to bed on September 27th and woke up on December 1st! :P I couldn't ever remember snow in September and then I heard that we broke a record and that it was the first time since the 1920's. 


You can see the leaves hadn't even started to turn yet!


In just a couple hours it was starting to stick pretty well.


We should have been roofing, but that's kind of hard to do with an inch of snow on the roof!


The girls were super excited and wanted to get out all the snow gear.


Peanut didn't even wait for it though...she had to start building a snowman right away!


Apparently Fall decided to forego it's arrival and let Winter move right in instead. :P
 
 

Since it was so cold and wet we decided to take a break from the house and have an official snow day.  We played a game of Life while Lou took her morning nap.


And tried to keep Peaches occupied with sorting blocks from another game. ;)


Then we headed to the city for some shopping. Our first stop was lunch.


Then we went to Hobby Lobby and got the stuff to make our Halloween costumes!


We spent several hours at the mall, found some good deals, and then grabbed some dinner before heading home.


Lou is such a messy eater. :P


It was a nice family fun day and we enjoyed the impromptu break from the house. We hoped to get back at it the next day, but unfortunately we woke up to even more snow! An additional 2 inches! 


Crazy weather!


After church the girls got all bundled up and played outside for hours!




I was thinking how cute their snowmen looked with hair, wondering why they don't usually do that, when I realized there's not usually branches with leaves still on them when it snows! :P


Peanut  made hers with pigtails. :)


Thank goodness it only stuck around for a few days before melting. I'm still holding out hope that we'll have a few more weeks of nicer weather before winter hits for real!

Monday, October 14, 2019

Fire Station Fieldtrip

Peaches school got to go on a field trip to the fire station! She had a super snotty nose, but was SO excited about the field trip so I kept her home that day and then Peanut, Peaches, and I met her class there. I tried to keep her hands clean and her nose wiped. :/ 


She loves big trucks/trains/planes etc. so she was so happy to get to climb up on real fire trucks!
 

Her friend A's dad is a volunteer firefighter and was able to give us the grand tour. He did such a good job showing the kids everything!


Peanut was excited to see everything too!



They got to climb up on several trucks and he explained what the different trucks did. Some are for fires in town, some are for brush fires, and one was just a water truck that refills the other trucks. I think there were 6 trucks in all.


They got to see all the gear and where/how it is kept for the firefighters to quickly get dressed, and he showed them what he looked like with all his gear on since that can look scary to a little one.

Then he let them try on his hat. So happy!



What a fun field trip!