Moving along!

I have discovered I am not very good at daily updates. Weekly seems to be working better for me -- plus, you can really see the progress being made week by week! On Tuesday they removed the forms for the concrete.
It looks great! It's fun to walk inside the house - through a door - and then look out a window! This is looking out the daylight basement.
The concrete walls had wire sticking out of them from ties that were used to hold the rebar in place. All of these wires needed to be knocked off so that's what Leonard and Kanyon did on Wednesday. We all worked on it a little bit. Swinging hammers up and down or side to side until the wire would break off. Kanyon and Kaydra were pretty good at it by the end. The first day that they worked on it Kanyon accidently hit Miranda with a hammer! He said that he kept telling her that she was too close but she wouldn't listen. I wasn't there but Leonard said it didn't bleed much.
He fixed her up with some superglue (disclaimer: don't try this at home!) and she seems to be just fine. It could have been much worse. The next project was to put tar on the outside of the house to help protect it from moisture. We gladly let Leonard have that job. It took three 5 gallon buckets of tar to cover everywhere that will be underground.


He came in with tar all over him -- he was even wearing a jumpsuit to protect his clothes and skin. He said that the steelwool worked really well to take it off! Crazy man! BUT, our contractor says it looks great and should be a good protection. Leonard also laid drain tile this week. It's not actually tile - like I thought - but a big long tube that goes around the foundation and helps water drain out instead of seaping through the foundation. Sounds like a good idea to me!

Thursday the plumber came out and worked on the rough plumbing that will be under the foundation and connected the house to the septic tank.
They worked all day in weather where it rained, hailed, blew, and even showed some sun. It was a crazy weather day. But in the end, they got it all done and ready to move on to the next step.

Friday the plumbing inspector came out and PASSED all the plumbing stuff :) and our excavator started digging our drainfield.

He finished that on Friday afternoon and the inspector from Panhandle Health came out and PASSED that off as well. So they backfilled over the drainfield (if it works, we will never have to see it again!) and started backfilling a little in the garage. It's fun to see a little bit of progress each day - it feels like we are really getting somewhere now!

Tomorrow they are going to fill the basement and garage with rock to get it ready to place the concrete on the floors. I think they are planning to lay the concrete floor for the basement on Tuesday and then start framing the subfloor for the main floor of the house on Wednesday. Things are still going well and we are still really happy with everything. It's been good that we can work a little bit over there now too.

The kids still have three weeks of school left (we don't get out until June 11) but we are comming to Idaho Falls this weekend for Memorial Day! Hopefully we will see many of you there!

And just to show you that Miranda is none the worse for wear, here is a last shot. Isn't she cute! This is her favorite place to be lately.

Foundation work & Soccer

It's been a busy week. We have had people working every day since last Monday. It feels good to finally see some progress --- a little intimidating as well. Last Tuesday they started setting the forms for the foundation. It's interesting that this is the part of the house that we hope to never see again. It's also the part that used the most concrete. We went through three full cement trucks. The cement crew says our foundation will last until the end of the Earth. The size of re bar they are using is usually used for commercial parking garages and stuff. We do have a lot of weight to hold up with all the logs, but it made us wonder a little bit about the engineer that designed the plans. In the end, we will have a very sound structure. Wednesday morning we officially passed our first inspection by the county - with flying colors. It was nice to have that out of the way. They gave us the go ahead to start pouring concrete so pour they did.
As I said, we went through three full cement trucks! It was pretty cool to watch them work. On Thursday they took the forms off the foundation and started building the forms for the walls. I am so glad I don't do that for a living.
It is a TON of work and to think that they have to tear it all down once the concrete is set. They can't even admire their work for very long. I think there were 5-7 guys out there all day building, hammering, and sawing wood to make the forms for our walls. In the end, it looks like wooden walls.
In between the two sides of the wall there is the space where the concrete goes. It was cool to see the house take shape a little bit. We could see where the doors and windows will be in the basement and where the garage will be as well. AND I am LOVING the view we will have out our daylight basement and off our deck - breathtaking!!! (once all the grass grows back of course:)!
On Friday they finished building the forms and the inspector came again to inspect and again we passed! Everything was finished Friday afternoon and they planned to wait until today to pour the concrete. So today they poured the walls of our house!

I can't wait until tomorrow when they will take off the forms and we can actually see the walls of the basement. Things are moving right along!!

In other news, Kanyon finished his soccer season. He played on an all-kindergarten team and LOVED it. He did quite well and was starting to really get the hang of the game by the end. He loves to score and managed to do so in nearly every game.
He's pretty competitive and really enjoyed playing. He played with several kids from his kindergarten class so that made it even more fun.
His teacher even managed to come out to watch a few minutes of one game. That made all the kids so happy! I am proud of him and how much he has grown up this year. He is reading quite well and starting to really catch the reading bug. He loves to be outside with his dad and seems to be following in his dad's footsteps with the hunting gene. He loves to be outside with his BB gun. I love him and I am go glad to have him in our family! Love you buddy!

Excavation Day

We actually broke ground today! It feels so good to say that! We have been planning this day for well over a year (more than that if you count the time dreaming about it). We thought we would dig last summer but it didn't work out -- but today, the waiting ended! It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and the temperature reaching near 70 by late afternoon. The excavator and our contractor arrived about 9:00. I spent about an hour with them making sure the house was facing the right direction and that it was going to be in the right place and then they started digging. They didn't finish until about 8:00 tonight. As before, pictures say it all so here they are!

Here they are before they started, measuring and figuring out where everything would go.

Here is Miranda when she saw the track hoe moving. She thought that machine was ALIVE!!! :) First couple scoops of dirt! Joe was the excavator and Dylan was the helper.
Here is Kanyon enjoying the big machines
This is the footing trenches for the garage
This is the septic tank
This is what it looked like about halfway through the day. They dug the garage and the basement corner which helped them dig and correctly place the septic tank. They placed the tank and then finished the rest of the house.
Here they are almost finished. We have SO MUCH DIRT!!!!!
More dirt!
This next one is the best picture. They are all finished and you can really see the change we had today! It is a little overwhelming and very exciting all at the same time!!
They will be setting footings tomorrow -- things are really underway! :)

Logs!

Our logs arrived on Friday! It was so cool! It finally feels like this is really going to happen. It better -- otherwise we have a lot of really expensive firewood! Len rented a big forklift tractor thing and was able to unload all the logs. He did it in about 3 hours. Not too bad for a beginner. I think he enjoyed the machine a little too much - he's already looking for an excuse to rent something else. The first load was the biggest and it was a little scary to watch. I thought for sure he was going to drop it - but he didn't. He did manage to almost get stuck as he was backing up with the first load. We were both a little worried about that. After the first load things went pretty smooth. Sorry, but this post is going to be mostly pictures because they tell it all!
It was overcast but didn't rain much. It sprinkled a little toward the end. We were VERY grateful for that. We had two trucks of logs -- it's weird to think that these are all going to come together to be my house! I can't wait!
Here is the first truck:

Here is truck #2:

Here is Kanyon sitting in the tractor - what is it with boys and big machines?!

Leonard with the last load off the first truck - those two guys were the truck drivers - Eric and MattThis was the very last load for the day -- Leonard was pretty precise by this time.
Here is a good picture that shows what we were up against.
As soon as the tractor started to leave the driveway it would sink. We are SO glad we put in the driveway last year. What would we have done?
And finally, here is the stack of logs that will one day be our house! It also shows the beating our driveway took with placing the logs.

These are some of the more interesting looking logs. It was fun to think - "Where will THAT log go?"

And last but not least, if you made it this far in the post you will receive a special treat. I missed Easter but Miranda looked so cute today that I had to take a picture of her in her new dress. I braided her hair this morning and she looked so pretty. She felt pretty too, spinning around the room like a ballerina. She's getting so big! Love that girl!

Now if only the rain will stop so we can dig a hole! Wish us luck -- some prayers would probably help too! :)

Did you hear?????

WE GOT OUR BUILDING PERMIT!!!!!
It's true! Monday at 3:00 they called me and said it was ready to be picked up. We have been working with the county for over a month (almost 2) trying to get the permit approved. They called and then they said they closed at 4:00. I raced to pick up the kids from school, took Kaydra to piano which started at 3:30, raced to the building department, got the permit and then back to pick up Kaydra about 4:10 - yes, I was late, BUT we got the permit in hand!!!

The bad news is that since Tuesday morning it has been raining almost non-stop and it is too wet to break ground ---- so we are still waiting. Hopefully it will stop soon.

Our logs are being delivered tomorrow. I'm sure pictures will be coming soon!

Kanyonism

Today after church:
"Tempted! We learned about tempted today. Like when people try to get us to do bad things we are tempted. And sometimes when you're a teenager your brain goes crazy and you forget everything you have learned."

Me: "Who told you that?"

Kanyon: "Sister Hall."

:)

Vacation - the final days

So I've decided I need to wrap this up so that I can start blogging about the current stuff again! After Legoland, we stayed one more night in Carlsbad and then headed back to Jodi's house. One thing I remember was as we were packing up to go back to Jodi's, was that Kanyon's birthday crown he got at Legoland was mangled beyond repair. Leonard said to him, "Kanyon, I suggest that you throw this crown away." Without looking up, Kanyon immediately responded with, "I suggest I keep it for a souvenir." The things he says. ;)


We made it back to Jodi's without incident and let the kids all sleep in sleeping bags on the floor. We were up early the next morning and on the road at 7:50 a.m. How do I remember that? I thought about it several times that day -- because we spent the entire day in the car. We arrived in Idaho Falls (with a stop in Provo again to pick up some stuff from the Livingstons - and several smaller stops along the way) at 9:30 p.m. We traveled for 12 1/2 hours total. It's funny because I often work 12 hour shifts and as we neared Blackfoot we discussed how we would much rather work a 12 hour shift than spend 12 hours in the car with three kids. It's amazing how much longer it can seem even though the clock moves at the same pace.

Friday we woke up and hung around the house. Leonard and I had an appointment with Yellowstone Log Homes to pick out our logs for the house (we have a few character logs that we get to choose). It was so cold! It had snowed the night before. It is crazy to have such changes in the weather from California to Idaho. We were both freezing when we finally finished. After that, Leonard decided he hadn't had enough of the car so he drove to Challis to go fishing. Crazy man! He said he couldn't wait to only hear the water instead of the kids talking/screaming in the car! :) The kids and I did nothing but recover from the long drive we had the day before. We visited with cousins and everyone else. Mom invited everyone (my brothers and sisters and families) over for dinner and we went to bed early.

Saturday we decided to brave the cold weather and head to the park for an Easter egg hunt. We debated back and forth about if we should go and in the end we left Miranda and Dreyken but took the older kids. We didn't get very far because as we were waiting at a stop light waiting to turn left, a car going the opposite way ran the red light, hit another car, and then they both slid into us. Courtney was driving and they hit her minivan. Kanyon said, "That felt like a roller coaster." We didn't get hit very hard (thankfully) and there wasn't much damage to the car, but it meant we wouldn't make it to the Easter egg hunt because we had to fill out the report and wait for the policeman. Mom came and picked up the kids so they wouldn't have to wait while we filled out all the paperwork. The kids were sad but they were troopers and didn't really complain.

That afternoon we did an Easter Egg hunt in the basement at Mom and Dad's. Yes, Miranda is in her pajamas - at least they are cute ones! She stayed in them all day.

We also dyed Easter eggs. The kids had a good time and they got WAY more candy than they needed! It was fun to play with all the cousins again. I think I miss getting together with my family more than anything since we moved from Idaho Falls. They are so fun to be around!

They all came back for breakfast the next morning and it was delish! We had Belgian Waffles with Coconut syrup with sausage and hash browns. It was yummy! Then we piled back into the car - weighed down by a steal we found on Powerade at Smith's (we brought home 195 bottles but that was only about half of them - most are for a school fund raiser!) We made it back to the farm in time for a lovely Easter Dinner prepared by Kay. We have such great families and it was so good to see almost all of them. I think the only immediate family members we didn't see on the trip was Markell and Andre, and the Stephan's. Maybe next trip! :) We had a great time and loved to see you all.
Thanks again for everyone who stopped by to say hello!

That wraps it up for our vacation post. We traveled over 40 hours in the car -- right about 3000 miles. The kids and I were gone 12 days. We broke down once, traveled through six different states, gave Miranda Motrin several times, went through more diaper wipes in one week than I EVER have (poor sick girl) and ate some delicious food along the way. Most of the memories are great BUT I hope we don't ever have to drive that far again - at least not until the kids are older - MUCH older!