Well I am joining the craze! After watching Brenda, Em and Zachary I had to give it a try. I think these cousins make a nice little addition to the elf community! so . . . .
Check Out the Cousin Elfs!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Extra Thankful This Year!
I love Thanksgiving! It is probably second to New Year's for me. There are no expectations except to eat lots of food. And if you time it right you can hit more than one house!
That is what we did this year. We started out at Dixie's. Which was extra fun because Jeff (Neil's cousin in the Coast Guard) got to spend a few days in Redding. It was Anna's first time meeting him. She thought he was pretty cool! 
Then we went to my mom's to load up on more food and have dessert. In the midst of all the traveling and eating, Neil and I did Anna's footprint for the month. (She was two months old the day before Thanksgiving.) And I also took some cute pictures of her in her cute Thanksgiving outfit!
Neil and I went with the gang to Mt Shasta on Saturday to get our Christmas tree. I can't wait to post pictures of it when we get it up. It is going to be great. Anna was pretty unconcerned about which tree we picked. We put her in her Snugli and carried her around. She stayed nice and warm and asleep the whole time. It was pretty crisp up there, but no snow! 
Neil and I went with the gang to Mt Shasta on Saturday to get our Christmas tree. I can't wait to post pictures of it when we get it up. It is going to be great. Anna was pretty unconcerned about which tree we picked. We put her in her Snugli and carried her around. She stayed nice and warm and asleep the whole time. It was pretty crisp up there, but no snow! The house now has shingles. And gutters. And the heating and cooling system is in. It is just cracking me up the order you do stuff in. Like one of the next things we have to do is put the shower insert in. It goes in before any drywall goes up. Why? You'll have to ask Neil.
Anna got to meet some more cousins this week. Eric and Liz were in town for the holiday so we got together at Aunt Denise's on Sunday. At one point while Uncle Jim was holding Anna in his rocking chair she started snoring. It was so cute. It was fun to get to just sit and talk to everyone! 
I hope everyone had a great beginning to their holiday season and I look forward to checking posts and seeing pictures!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
What a Change!!
Well, a lot has changed since my last post. So you will get a lot of info in this one. It is so much fun watching all the stages of a house going up. Apparently one of the first things you should do is get a "blue room". All the guys helping Neil were complaining because they had to leave the job to go to the bathroom. Lucky for us there is another job site right around the corner. But I know you will be happy to know we got one today. Was that too much information?
So onto something a little more interesting and a little less gross. Paul and Kenny came on Friday night (the 9th) and chalked out where all the walls would be. There were red lines all over the floor which I guess is what they measure the walls off of. It was neat trying to imagine a three dimensional wall from a flat floor.
Saturday morning in the rain they started building walls. Did you know that you build walls flat on the floor and then stand them up? And you build them top to bottom (roof to the floor). So you have to imagine it upside down. Strange. They worked all weekend and got all the walls up so that we could have the trusses delivered on Friday (the 16th). 
There was a huge pile of trusses on the middle of the living room walls. The truss company delivers them to the roof and puts them on the roof in a specific order. So that by the time you get to the spot where the trusses are laying , they are the only ones left that need to go up. You can see them in the middle of the picture all piled up. There is a long board they put at the peak of the trusses that holds them all together. Which they take off when they start putting the sheeting on. 
Paul built all these "Cat Walks" in the large rooms so that you have a guy on each end of the truss and a guy in the middle holding the peak. I didn't get to see him, but I guess Neil even walked some of them. Which he is not really a height person. You can see one of them behind Neil's head in the next picture. 
The boys got all the roof stuff finished tonight and we go for our roof inspection tomorrow morning. Once we get that signed off we will start putting the singles on. Actually the gutters go on first. So this is just about what our house lots like right now. Hopefully tomorrow it will look a lot different. 
So onto something a little more interesting and a little less gross. Paul and Kenny came on Friday night (the 9th) and chalked out where all the walls would be. There were red lines all over the floor which I guess is what they measure the walls off of. It was neat trying to imagine a three dimensional wall from a flat floor.
Saturday morning in the rain they started building walls. Did you know that you build walls flat on the floor and then stand them up? And you build them top to bottom (roof to the floor). So you have to imagine it upside down. Strange. They worked all weekend and got all the walls up so that we could have the trusses delivered on Friday (the 16th). 
There was a huge pile of trusses on the middle of the living room walls. The truss company delivers them to the roof and puts them on the roof in a specific order. So that by the time you get to the spot where the trusses are laying , they are the only ones left that need to go up. You can see them in the middle of the picture all piled up. There is a long board they put at the peak of the trusses that holds them all together. Which they take off when they start putting the sheeting on. 
Paul built all these "Cat Walks" in the large rooms so that you have a guy on each end of the truss and a guy in the middle holding the peak. I didn't get to see him, but I guess Neil even walked some of them. Which he is not really a height person. You can see one of them behind Neil's head in the next picture. 
The boys got all the roof stuff finished tonight and we go for our roof inspection tomorrow morning. Once we get that signed off we will start putting the singles on. Actually the gutters go on first. So this is just about what our house lots like right now. Hopefully tomorrow it will look a lot different. 
Thursday, November 08, 2007
What a good day!
We had a great day yesterday! But how could it not be a great day when you start it wearing these shoes! Auntie Brenda got these for Anna and she loves them. They even stayed on her feet all day. 
This has been a busy week for our house. It is finally taking shape! The footings were formed on Friday and the plumber came on Saturday. Then he came back again on Sunday, because our house is the cool new place to hang out in the neighborhood. It seems the whole neighborhood is young families. Every night we have been down there a new family has come down to meet us. They are all super nice and friendly. Which I am excited about. But the plumber had been gone for maybe two hours when Neil and I got to the property Saturday night and the kids had used it as a jungle gym and broken the pipes. In order to pass our first inspection we have to prove that the house will hold water. So you have this pipe that is like 5 feet out of the ground which is connected to all the plumbing and you fill that pipe with water. So the inspector puts his hand in the pipe and if he feels water, you pass. Well that's the pipe the kids broke off. So all the water leaked out. So that is why he came back on Sunday. So we passed our first inspection on Monday and then the footings were poured. Then the poor plumber guy had to come back again on Tuesday because the concrete guys hit a pipe and again our water was gone. So finally I think the pipes are safe because yesterday the concrete guys came back out and poured the slab!!!!
Hear is a picture of Anna and I standing were our front door will someday be. That is the garage to the right and the office to the left, and behind us is where the kitchen and living will be. It is so funny how small it looks when it is flat. The house is 1660 square feet, but it sure doesn't look like it.
This is the front left hand corner of the house and it is going to be Anna's Room. Last night after the concrete guys left Neil and I put Anna's name and date of birth in her first house. So cute. We are thinking about staining the concrete instead of laying tile in the kitchen and dinning rooms. So we went down to the house to make sure none of the neighborhood kids thought it would be cool to carve in our floor. But we put Anna's name where we knew we would put carpet. And we took pictures of her next to her room.
I am starting to get sooooo excited about this house stuff. It is just more believable now that it is happening and I can see progress.
We are hoping the framing will start this weekend. So maybe by the end of next week we will have walls!!! Crazy!!!!
This has been a busy week for our house. It is finally taking shape! The footings were formed on Friday and the plumber came on Saturday. Then he came back again on Sunday, because our house is the cool new place to hang out in the neighborhood. It seems the whole neighborhood is young families. Every night we have been down there a new family has come down to meet us. They are all super nice and friendly. Which I am excited about. But the plumber had been gone for maybe two hours when Neil and I got to the property Saturday night and the kids had used it as a jungle gym and broken the pipes. In order to pass our first inspection we have to prove that the house will hold water. So you have this pipe that is like 5 feet out of the ground which is connected to all the plumbing and you fill that pipe with water. So the inspector puts his hand in the pipe and if he feels water, you pass. Well that's the pipe the kids broke off. So all the water leaked out. So that is why he came back on Sunday. So we passed our first inspection on Monday and then the footings were poured. Then the poor plumber guy had to come back again on Tuesday because the concrete guys hit a pipe and again our water was gone. So finally I think the pipes are safe because yesterday the concrete guys came back out and poured the slab!!!!
Hear is a picture of Anna and I standing were our front door will someday be. That is the garage to the right and the office to the left, and behind us is where the kitchen and living will be. It is so funny how small it looks when it is flat. The house is 1660 square feet, but it sure doesn't look like it.
This is the front left hand corner of the house and it is going to be Anna's Room. Last night after the concrete guys left Neil and I put Anna's name and date of birth in her first house. So cute. We are thinking about staining the concrete instead of laying tile in the kitchen and dinning rooms. So we went down to the house to make sure none of the neighborhood kids thought it would be cool to carve in our floor. But we put Anna's name where we knew we would put carpet. And we took pictures of her next to her room.I am starting to get sooooo excited about this house stuff. It is just more believable now that it is happening and I can see progress.
We are hoping the framing will start this weekend. So maybe by the end of next week we will have walls!!! Crazy!!!!
Friday, November 02, 2007
A Cousin Halloween!
There were cousins everywhere this Halloween. We had a pasel of babies at Jennifer's home in the afternoon.
Wesley came up from Sacramento (his mom came with him!) and Jason was there too (he is the duck!) with his sister Kara. Of course Tessa, Bella and Jack (who was the dragon!) were in on the fun. You can see how much fun the babies were having. We couldn't get the mobile kids to all stay in the same place long enough to take a group picture (I am hoping Jessica got one), but the babies slept right on through all the fun. You can tell they are all used to getting their picture taking. The flash doesn't even phase them!
Anna was so warm in her costume, she basically slept the whole time we were at Trunk or Treat too! She was very cute as the Cheshire Cat. I was hoping to go as Alice and getting Neil to be the Mad Hatter. But we were very lucky to get the one costume done this year.
Anna was so warm in her costume, she basically slept the whole time we were at Trunk or Treat too! She was very cute as the Cheshire Cat. I was hoping to go as Alice and getting Neil to be the Mad Hatter. But we were very lucky to get the one costume done this year.
We broke ground on or property on Tuesday! Already it is starting to take shape. I am sure I will be posting pictures as we go along. Or you can stop by and see any time.
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