We've been FRAMED!!

It's been awhile since I have written about the house and I am happy to say that A LOT has happened.

This is right before we poured our concrete. The excitment is building...

Our footings being poured. Again can you feel the excitment building?!?

The wise man built his house upon concrete and 3 feet of fill dirt thanks to our 500 year flood rating! (It rains about twice a year here!!)

Yipee!! Our first walls are going up! How exciting! (and scary)

It is beginning to look more like a house now.

In front of our soon to be house. We spend a lot of our day down at the lot. It has been amazing to watch it go from paper (it has taken us about 2 years to plan), to dirt work, to concrete and now to actually see it framed (almost) is wonderful!!

Most of our upstairs is built out of bonus trusses and thanks to the Gorge having construction and our trusses being huge we had the WONDERFUL opportunity to pay the Arizona DPS to give our lumber company an escort over Beaver Dam Bridge!$!$!$ (It is the only way here without going through the Gorge!$!$!) Then we sat and watched the crane lift them into place. It was very thrilling and I am thankful the crane operator and our framer seemed to have a lot of experience. The whole construction experience is so interesting to me. I always say I am thankful there are other people who have figured out all the different ways to build a house. If it was up to me we would all still be living in mud huts!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

WHALA!! It is not quite the finished product but at least I can see it taking shape. I love that I can walk through it now and imagine where everything will go. I can hardly wait to have my family under the roof of this beautiful HOME that so much time and effort has gone into. We still have a long way to go but I can almost hear the laughter and feel the love that will happen within these walls. I look forward to all the memories we will make here. I can't wait to have all our family and friends over. We love the neighborhood and have already made friends. All the hard work will be worth it! I will keep everyone posted on our progress.

Sand Dunes

What do you get when you combine sand, kids, 4-wheelers, RZR rides, dirt, family, friends, lots of candy, good food and even more sand??? The answer....a fun Halloween weekend!! We went to Dumont for Halloween and had so much fun. It is a kids paradise! Dallin was able to get on his 4-wheeler whenever he wanted and ride the dunes. Megan dug in the dirt. (Actually she would lay down in it and bury herself in it!) And Mom had to let go of her instinct to constantly clean them up. There were arts and crafts, fun games to play and a PLETHORA of candy! Look at that loot!! I am happy to say that I have limited myself to a few a day and have shared very nicely with the kids.

As I said...I had to let go of my instinct to clean them. This is Megan after rolling around in the sand along with the leftover ice cream on her face that was her lunch that day. (An explanation of her bangs will be later on.)


Dallin in his riding helmet.

Meggie playing in the sand.

Here she is in all her glory! She loves 4-wheeler and razor rides. She could ride all day and she was super brave to boot. Riding the dunes can be kind of scary (like a roller coater) so I was a little nervous at first. Leave it to my 2 year old to say "It's okay mommy" and reach out for my hand. What a sweetheart!

My handsome boy with his helmet hair!

*SIDE NOTE* The other day I went to get Megan out of the tub and noticed her bangs looked awfully short! I looked all over for scissors or a clump of hair but could not find any. After talking to everyone in the house I found out she had pulled a bag down from a shelf that had some scissors in it. Somehow she managed to cut her bangs. I am just thankful she didn't cut the sides of her hair or her finger!! So for the next little while her hair may look a little funky so bear with me! (She always keeps things exciting!)

It's the GREAT pumpkin!

Carving pumpkins....in the past this has not been one of my most favorite things to do. It's an ooey gooey mess but this year I loved it (mess and all)! The kids are at that great age where everything is MAGICAL to them and in turn it's MAGICAL for me. I wish I could freeze time and keep them just as they are for awhile longer. I know this will not happen though so I will cherish all the MAGIC for as long as I can.

Megan with her little pumpkin. Her favorite part was getting the guts out of the pumpkin!

Dallin's SCARY skull pumpkin!
My pumpkin. When I saw this pumpkin the stem just screamed to be a nose. Originally, my pumpkin was throwing up pumpkin guts. Dallin thought it was pretty cool but I thought I would spare you guys a picture.

Such fun!! Dunes pictures will be coming soon.