Lana and Tanner pictures

Today the kids told me what they wanted me to take pictures of. Since I went to our 2nd photography class last night I was eager to try out the new things I learned. First up, Lana...







First she wanted me to take a picture of her "owies".


Those red ants sure are nasty little buggers.


Then she figured that as long as I was taking pictures of her feet, then she needed me to take pictures of one of her hands too.


Hangin' out on her chair. Those kids love their chairs. They're exactly the same and yet they still fight over them.


And lastly, George the Lion. Why is his name George? Because she refused to give any of her animals names. So I told her his name was George. She argued with me for an entire day that his name was not George. When Paul came home she introduced him to George the Lion.

Next up, Tanner...



Hello Mr. Tonka truck.





Here mom, take a closer look at my bum and my truck.



Thanks Tanner.

"Bless his heart!"

I have never heard that saying until we moved south. "Bless your heart, bless her heart, bless his heart, bless their heart." That's the southern pity phrase. So that is the phrase I use today for Paul. Bless his heart. That man has been so busy this week (not to mention a beef jerky makin' Manrichment last night and a 2 am run to the church to unplug the dehydrators) and did not even get a rest today. He and Dave (bless his heart too) worked all day on the house while me, Tanner and Lana played at our Stake Pioneer activity. Then later this evening he came straight from the house to the church to prep the fireworks for the ward activity, he cut the watermelon, lit off the fireworks and then cleaned them up. What a guy!

Tanner trying to swipe the toy car while everyone else is preoccupied.

Way cute picture of Tanner and Gunnar, the bishops boy. Tanner's mouth is full of a freshly made biscuit. Yum!

After the Stake Activity and Tanner's nap, we brought dinner to Paul, Dave and their helper Jay. The roofers were just about wrapped up and it looked like the Brick Masons were about 2/3 of the way done. Yay!!

Here's the primary kids playing tug-o-war at the ward activity. The Primary boys challenged the Relief Society Sisters. We totally slaughtered them just to keep them humble (that's a pioneer trait right?).

The Elders Quorum (aka Paul) put on this fabulous fireworks show. A guy in our ward had this remote detonator (yeah, sounds a little scary right?) but it was sooooo cool. The fireworks were all hooked up and you push a button and they all go off in sequence. Paul is always wanting to light fireworks and now I'm pretty sure he's gonna want to get one of those detonators. It was so darn cool that I might actually consider it.

I'm pretty sure that the neighbors who live by the church were thinking, those crazy Mormons, why the heck are they lighting off fireworks, don't they know the 4th of July was 3 weeks ago? Well, at least they got to enjoy a pretty-impressive, free-of-charge, 5 minute fireworks show.

Loving the brick

It's been a busy couple of days out at the house. We've had people installing the windows and back door, the duct work for the HVAC, the soffit being painted, brick going up and the roofers putting on the shingles.

I am really happy with our choice of brick. I am looking forward to seeing it all done. The kids have been really excited to go check out the house because that usually means a stop at the playground. We've also met a number of our neighbors. A few came out and were chatting with us until almost 9 last night. They are all really nice and some have young kids. The girls that live next door are so sweet. Every time the see Lana they always have a big smile, call her by name and are quick to usher her off to play. Tanner is just loving all the attention he gets from everyone. I of course forgot to put on bug spray and will be enduring some nasty mosquito bites the next couple of days. The kids seemed to have escaped them, thankfully. But will I ever learn?

Framing...done!

Looking inside the house from the front entry way door.


This is quite possibly my favorite part of this house. Our screened in porch.


Looking down the hallway. Lana's room first door on the right. Tanner's room second door on the right and bathroom at the end of the hall.


This wall of our family room will be 2 very large brick arches.


My favorite and most fantastic home builder hard at work.


2 of 3 fantastic electricians (not to mention brothers of Paul) who took off work to come wire our house. You guys are seriously awesome!


Looking at the front of the house from inside the garage.


Inside the garage.


Looking at the storage room inside the garage.


Fantastic electrician number 3 hanging out on the rafters.



Coming up next, windows and exterior doors and brick.

My big helpers and inside framing pics

This is why we have kids right? For the manual labor?

Tanner loved that hammer. He drug it all over the house, over and under all the boards. It was so cute!

Lana loved to point out all the ants crawling on the ground. (I have warned her multiple times about stepping on the red ant hills because they're vicious little buggers.) Now she keeps her sharp little eyes out and points out every single ant.

Okay, so here's the first look at the inside of the house. Good luck figuring out what it is you're looking at exactly because it's kind of hard to explain a picture of wood. I am standing in the corner of the dining room which is the far back corner of the house. On the left side of the picture is the screened in porch. Behind the screened in porch is the master bedroom. In the middle of the picture is the great room.

Here I'm still in the corner of the dining room. We're looking at where the kitchen is going to be. Behind the first wall is bedroom #4.

This is a better view of the screened in porch. The big opening on the left side of the picture is going to be a window not a door.

And here is the back of the house. The left side is the master bedroom, middle is the screened in porch, and right side is the dining room.

We stopped by the house yesterday while they were putting the boards up on the roof. We are using Tech-Shield which is this material that looks like aluminum foil attached to the underside of the boards. It is amazing. We walked underneath what they'd put up and it felt like we were just under the shade of a tree. If you've never been in a house under construction in Mississippi heat, then just take my word for it that it's hot. Miserably hot. But this tech shield stuff is like the greatest thing since sliced bread. Okay, maybe not but it's still pretty cool. (hah, pun intended) Hopefully that stuff will make wiring the house for Paul and his brothers a little more bearable this week.

Framing continued

Paul took the kids to play on the playground while I got to enjoy a fabulous and very informative enrichment photography class last night. So this picture is taken from the playground. They've finally started framing out the garage and looks like they've finished hanging the rafters aside from over the garage. When we stopped by the house yesterday the ice cream man drove by. I haven't purchased anything from an ice cream truck in years! We decided to treat our framers to ice cream sandwiches, Paul and Tanner (mostly Paul) enjoyed a couple of Neapolitan ice cream sandwiches and Lana and I enjoyed some fudge bars. It really was a nice moment walking around the house while eating ice cream.

Rain...we have a love/hate relationship

It rained all day yesterday which resulted in about 5 rafters being put up before it started to pour. Then it rained this afternoon which means the framing is going slower than usual.

I'm happy that we're finally getting rain because it has been uber hot the last month and I was tired of being sweaty all the time. Seriously gross. On the other hand I'm a little annoyed with the rain because it's kind of hampering our building process and making the site all muddy. Oh, well.

I just noticed that I have a smudge on the lens of my camera. Hmm, I wonder who could have left that nice slobbery type smear?

Framing, day 2

Ok so it is MY (Paul) turn to blog about the house... as you can see under the framed wall, we have exposed the 103 glorious cubic yards of steel reinforced concrete. If the foundation were poured with sugar cubes it would have taken 19,222,272 sugar cubes. If you were to take those sugar cubes and line them up in single file, they would go over 150 miles! Now thats a lot of hot cocoa. See those pecan trees to the left of the house? They have to go so we can install our sewer system :( I have yet to figure out the volume of the pecan trees in sugar cubes...sorry to disappoint.

Lots and lots of concrete

Confession: I feel like a stalker taking pictures of the contractors at work. It's worse when it's a contractor that I haven't met yet and they don't know who I am or why I am taking pictures. So if some of the pictures aren't as crystal clear as the others then you'll know that I took those pictures from the safety of my car with the dark tinted windows in front of me. I would be really bad at being a paparazzi photographer. Or maybe I just need to buy myself a telephoto lens.



The pump truck. That was pretty cool. The guy controls the truck with a remote.


The framing package delivered.


Lana and Tanner running around on the slab.

Happy Birthday Lana!

4 years with you have flown by so quick! Sorry I made you go watch the concrete trucks this morning, although you didn't seem to mind. Don't worry, I made you some cupcakes to make up for it. We love you!

Form boards and plumbing