House Progress

My Dad and Jason came over on Saturday to help Matt & the girls move recently purchased lumber and to start working on the second floor. EXCITING!

The girls love it when other helpers are shouldering the work with them...or for them. :-)

The Master Bathroom is now covered and has become the storage room for tools.

The Master Bedroom will be the next to be covered.

Right now we can see the sky above.

For the past 3 weeks, Matt has wanted to work in the morning, come home to work on the house in the afternoon, and then go back to work in the evening, but he has been too busy at work. Today was the first day he was able to follow this plan. He was able to work on the house for a few hours before it got dark. It's not a fun plan, but it's the only way to work on the house during the week. We tried borrowing the Dauk's outdoor lamp to be able to work in the dark, but Matt can't have the light on and use any tools that require electricity because then we lose all power inside the trailer. Not acceptable.

A Few Things I want to Remember

1) Last night, I enjoyed watching Zoe work on her Personal Progress while listening to Emily voluntarily read scriptures to her siblings. It touched my heart. :-)

2) After losing his sneakers at church several weeks ago and buying him a new pair today, Noah said, "The next time we go to church, I won't take my shoes off." It was so sweet the way he said it and I agree it is a good plan!

Thanksgiving 2011

Our day started with pie for breakfast and fun in the snow!




The fun stops, though when your siblings throw snow in your face!

Noah cheered up when he got inside.

Matt shoveled the snow off of the new house, which wasn't much fun either, but necessary!

The older girls and I watched "Cow Belles" before heading to Dysarts for our yummy Thanksgiving meal. :-)







Noah has the best expressions!



Every year we try to figure out the perfect time to get to Dysarts, so we miss the long wait, but we have yet to arrive at the perfect time. We have learned to have the kids wait in the car until our table is ready. I waited in the car with the kids last year, so it was Matt's turn this year. :-) Our plan of action for next year is to arrive at Dysarts at 3:45pm. It is just non-stop busy any time earlier than that.

We went over to my parents' house after we ate to play and watch football. Eleanor & Zach were lucky because they got to stay behind to spend the night while the rest of us went home.


I hope I never have to go through a holiday without homemade decorations. I am thankful for little artists! Zach made the turkey on the left and Eleanor made the turkey on the right.

We hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Eve

It's snowing!

Zoe, Emily, & Eleanor are going to go play with Daisy & Anna today, I am going to make chocolate and pumpkin pies, and Zach, Kate, & Noah have plans to play in the snow!

We went to the Maine Jump yesterday. It was Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor's first time there. Zach has been there before, but new equipment has been added since he has been there. It was crowded, but the kids still had non-stop bouncing/sliding fun. The Daigle's were there, too, which made it even more fun!






We finished our fun day at church eating pie. Yum!

I forgot to mention in my last post that I took Zoe & Emily to see the play "Footloose" last Thursday evening. My Mom & my Grandmother came with us. It was fun to watch our talented High School actors. :-)

I've been meaning to post this picture of the latest work on the new house. Matt & the girls worked on closet walls last Saturday. Minor progress, but still progress!

The Latest

This has been our schedule this past week after school. Pick up Eleanor, Zoe, and Zach from school and head home. Emily stays after school for basketball practice. Load everyone in the car to bring Zoe to basketball practice and pick up Emily. Head home to cook dinner. Matt picks Zoe up from practice and then we all meet at home for dinner. I must say that with this schedule, we are eating more dinners together as a family. :-) However, progress on the new house is going even slower than before since Saturday is the only day to work on it.

Matt & I went to Bugaboo Creek Friday night for dinner and then we started our Christmas shopping! We are on the ball early this year and it feels great! The kids have started to do chores around the house to earn money to buy Christmas presents. :-)

We went to Tiffany Dauk's 40th birthday party last night. We danced, we ate yummy birthday pie, the kids played games, and we had lots of fun!

Speaking of birthdays, my new Kindle Fire arrived this week. Matt wasn't sure which I would like better ~ the XOOM or the Kindle Fire, so he bought both! I love my XOOM and I don't need a XOOM and a Kindle Fire, so Matt is now the proud owner of the Kindle Fire. He loves it! We are both happy with our new "toys". :-)

Emily, Eleanor, Zach, & Kate participated in the Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation today. They did a great job! Zach recited the 4th article of faith from memory. It is very impressive that he has the 1st five articles of faith memorized! The younger kids practice along with the older girls as the girls memorize the articles of faith for the Faith in God program.

As of tonight, we are memorizing a scripture together as a family. 2 Nephi 2:25 "Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy." Elder Richard G. Scott's latest conference talk motivated us to do this.

Zoe, Emily, Eleanor, & Zach are on Thanksgiving Break! This is the first year that they have had the entire week off from school for Thanksgiving. We plan to make lots of pies and have lots of fun!

Oh Deer

Zoe & I didn't get far last night after leaving home for Cub Scouts and Young Women's when I hit a deer. The deer ran off into the woods, but it was bleeding pretty bad according to the guy who was behind me. My headlight still works and there was minor damage, so Zoe and I headed to church again. We arrived safely and our activities went as planned. The Young Women are making a nativity for the Stake Creche Exhibit. Zoe and I ate dinner at Subway and we bought candy bars to eat on the way home while we listened to John Bytheway. Our drive got off to a rough start, but we had a great ending. :-)

Basketball & a few other things

Zoe and Emily had basketball tryouts last week for the Middle School teams. Zoe made the A team! She is very happy that she made the A team after ONE tryout. :-) Emily is an alternate for the B team, which is AWESOME! This is the first year that the basketball program has been open to 5th graders, so Emily is lucky to be able to practice with the B team. She won't play in any games, unless one of the players can't play and she gets picked to play, but she is going to learn a lot and improve her game as she practices. :-)

Emily earned this certificate from Matt a few weeks ago for being such a great helper around the house without being asked. We LOVE it when the kids see a need and fill it without being told to do so!


Zoe participated in the Honors Festival for band a few Saturdays ago. Her best friend, Morgan was there, too! They practiced all day with a guest conductor and then they put on a concert in the evening. Matt and I weren't able to attend the concert because we were at Stake Conference, which was a bummer, but Zoe was happy that she was able to have this experience.

Haircuts

I took Eleanor, Zach, Kate, & Noah to Walmart this morning. We stopped at the hair salon first for haircuts for the boys. Noah sits so still when he is getting his hair cut. He doesn't move, he doesn't smile, he doesn't talk, he just sits and waits for it to be done.

Both of the boys like their short hair. They didn't want to cooperate for a picture, though!


After shopping for what I needed, I let the kids look around at the toys and I wrote down everything they wanted. I have quite the Christmas list now!

House Progress

Door frame to the living room from the mud room

Looking into the dining room to the stair wall. Door frame to the bedroom is on the right.

Stair walls


Door frame to the master bathroom. All the exterior walls for the downstairs are up!
Taken from the master bedroom

Enjoying Mom's XOOM

Kate and Noah playing on PBSKids.

Under a tent...super fun!

Why rake leaves?

When they are so much fun to play in!