end of week 16

I feel like we got quite a bit accomplished this week.

House #1 still needs electric. Their rock is looking awesome.

House # 2 got the 2 windows they were missing, so now they are all set! They are already getting siding, insulation and sheetrocking done! Their rock is slowly coming along.

House # 3 (OUR HOUSE) - we had a few windows delivered the same time as everyone else, but they only had 4, and one of them wasn't even the right window - so we are STILL missing 4 windows.
They blew in the insulation and our sheetrock was also delivered - I am both happy and unhappy about that since the windows aren't in. Our windows are supposed to be rush ordered, but they won't get here until Wed (right before Christmas, and we aren't working then) so I am thinking about just coving the 4 open holes with some plastic, because I don't want stuff getting wet or moldy inside my house. It will be awesome to get our sheetrock on, though!

House #4 got all their windows and are putting them in.
Houses 2, 3 and 4 have all passed inspection too!

House #5 got their doors and windows.

House #6 finally got their roof. Some of it was done earlier in the week, so they started the drip edge and the plastic cover. They should be finishing that today (they couldn't get on it this morning, because the frost was too thick and slick. but the sun is coming out now.) I started to help shovel out the snow. They had 4 feet inside, but it was light and fluffy. The hard part was the inch of solid ice under that.
They have doors and windows going in!

house building - week 16

so we are 16 weeks into building our houses, some homes are almost to the half-way point. Some people are excited about that, because they think the second half goes by faster than the first. I disagree it's called the HALFWAY point, because it is half done - it's not the two-thirds point, with only one third left - it's HALF - which means that we won't be done until 32 weeks -- that is getting dangerously close to the end of April - and we have to be done by April, so that we can get the stimulus money for first time home buyers. We have to be MOVED IN by April 30. Which means we have to have our open house and everything so we can get the certificate of occupancy.

anyway - house #1 has windows, doors, mostly shingled, and the rocking is started - but they have no electricity so that is what is next for them.
house # 2 has windows except for 2 that were resized, doors that need a little more leveling, mostly shingled, the rock started, and they have elecrticity - so insulation and sheetrock are next for them.
house # 3 (OUR HOUSE) has NO windows (mysteriously lost somewhere), we do have doors, and some shingles, and electricity, so as soon as we find those darn windows and get them in, then our house is next for insulation and sheetrock, and maybe rocking.
house #4 has windows, doors, electricity, some shingles. Not sure what is next for them.
house #5 has a roof, the blocking is FINALLY done, and doors are next for them.
house #6 has no roof yet, so that is what is next for them - and it will take 2 days, then we will have to shovel out all the snow from inside (UGH)

FINALLY... our house

I am so ashamed to say that I have been too lazy to go thru all the pictures I had of our home building project in order to get them on the blog. But I repented and made up this very simple slide show - the pictures are sorta small so I have also put a link under it, for the same pictures on photobucket and you can look thru them slowly if ya want - but they are all out of order (banging head on desk at this wonderful technology that I cannot get to do what I want - it's midnight and I am giving up)...

http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t163/MindySue_28/Building%20our%20house/

Halloween

Since Mom's birthday is so close to halloween, she has started making her birthday parties more of a carnival for the grandkids. Costumes are encouraged :) This year Tyson and I were just too worn out to dress up (eventhough we LOVE dressing up). We felt bad, but just never had the time or energy to put into it. But we got a lot of great characters this year. Thomas was a fireman and Grayson was his dalmation pup :) the cousins were a fireman, a knight, and a pink kitty. Chris was a pirate, Nate was Iron Man, AJ was a Ninja turtle, and Jess was a vampire.

my new friday night ritual

By friday nights I am pretty tired out.

We are required to work on building the houses Tues, Wed, and Thurs nights from 4 to 9:30 - I don't stay that late though, I leave at 8, because the boys need to go to bed. I had tried to stay later, but by the time I had picked the boys up, they were both in meltdown mode, and it was really tough on all of us.

I wish I could go out and work earlier, but since we had to put Thomas in the afternoon class at school, he doesn't get home on the bus until 3:30 - which is right when I need to be leaving just to get there by 4. I hope that he doesn't feel unwanted, poor kid. The second he gets home, I wisk him off to stay with someone else. I barely get to even talk to him.
I am so grateful that my kids like to go to Tracie's. Her little boy Nicky, who is also 4, and Thomas play pretty well together. Grayson used to cry when I dropped him off, but I think since he has become mobile, he is getting along much better. Yesterday, Tracie says to me, "I admire you". And I gave her a funny face and asked WHY? - and she said "Because Thomas has SOOOO much energy, I don't know how you keep up with him." I laughed and said "Because I have no choice." She assured me that she loves having the boys come and I am just glad that I have such a wonderful person that I can count on. It is good to not have to worry, so that I can get the hours we need working on the houses. * The more we work - the sooner we move in. *

SO on Friday nights, I have very little motivation to fix dinner, so I started taking Thomas to Burger King, his favorite place to get hamburgers (since our MacDonalds doesn't have a play place - and thank goodness, becasue I HATE MCD's anyway). The first time we did it, I even ordered him those Apple Fries - and if he ate all his hamburger I would let him have some chocolate milkshake. And with Thomas's personality, it was Friday the next week, and he again demanded hamburgers for dinner, and I gave in. Now it is just something we do. I love that whopper jrs are only a buck. I stopped getting the apple fries, even though they were cool - it just isn't reasonabl to pay $1.50 for a few slices, when an entire apple only costs a few cents. And while the chocolate shake at Burger King, just seems to taste exactly like a vanilla shake, I get it anyway, to motivate him to eat.

GRAYSON

In these pictures he is about 9 months old - he loves standing up, cruising along the furniture, and he smiles much more!

Thomas's birthday

On Thomas's actual birthday, we took him to his favorite restraunt - WINGERS! He likes the cups he gets (I like the sticky fingers). So we took a few gifts for him to open. He got the Mickey shirt to wear for his party on Sat. When I asked him Months ago what kind of party he wanted this year, he proclaimed "A Mickey Mouse Party" - I have no idea where he got the idea, but I did my best to throw him his dream Mickey party :) He also got a book and a dumptruck. And at the party, we gave him a whole collection of cars from the movie CARS







I wish I could have captured his face when he opened up this box. He was so surprized to see this amazing collection -- we got him :- Lightning, Sally, Mater, Sarge, Sheriff, Doc, Mac, King, Chic, and Wingo.

I am a bad blogger

I was going to type that I vow to keep my blog completely updated - but it seems that whenever I do that, something goes terribly wrong - so all I will say is I am going to try.....
how sad is it that I don't even have pics from Thomas's 4th birhtday party? nothing from Halloween? or a single picture of the progress on our houses?
yep - SAD


if I could just get Grayson to go to sleep at night, I might have a little time to get some of this stuff up on here. But he thinks that he needs to be in MY bed, sleeping next to me, or he will only sleep on his own in his own bed for about 15 to 30 minutes at a time. Then he wakes up and screams for me - and he is a LOUD screamer.

here is what's new

Grayson has figured out how to go from laying down to sitting back up. He is working on his crawling skills, and can sometimes go forward if he concentrates really really hard, but most of the time he ends up going backwards.







Thomas started Preschool.



It is a really great school, that many other parents have said really helped their child with a certain special need - Thomas's special need is just help with social skills and behavioral issues, and since he just can't seem to hold still, his "fine motor skills" such as holding a pencil, using scissors, etc. are lacking as well. I have a meeting with is teacher on Wed. to hear what they have accessed from his 10 day "trial" period that they have been evaluating him.
He loves school. He gets to take his Lightning McQueen backpack, and ride the bus to and from school.

CORN SHUCKING

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa - the corn from your garden was delicious!

oh what do you do in the summertime?

when all the world is green? do you fish in a stream or lazily dream, on the banks as the clouds go by? is that what you do? so do I.
Oh, what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green? do you swim in a pool to keep yourself cool, or swing in a tree so high? is that what you do? so do I.
Oh, what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green? do you watch a parade? or drink lemonade? or count all the stars in the sky? is that what you do? so do I.

I finally got a slideshow done.

This is what Thomas did this summer -(and there are a few of Grayson)

dover plan

I know I already posted our floorplan- but we decided to flip it, so that the garage will be on th east - so here is the new and improved plan - PLUS - pics from the other dover we walked thru - and I even flipped the images, so that it looks just like how our house will look.

Here we go

We are going to start building on our houses on Saturday!
We have our 4th preconstruction meeting tomorrow - and one more next week. I am pretty sure we will be doing some safety training, and digging and then staking our each house on each lot on Saturday.
Tyson and I keep singing "it's the end of the world as we know it" because we know we are going to be crazy busy for the next several months - but what we will get in the end - is going to be sooooo worth it!

of course....

I promise slideshows of pictures and then the computer crashes.

But we have it up and running again - thanks Dad and Nate!

but time is getting a little more cramped - we have closing on our house on Tuesday, and 2 NNHC preconstruction meetings this week, we are going up to Idaho this weekend, and we have several things we would like to get done before we start building.
I guess I will see what I have time for.

sooo many pictures

I counted - and in July alone - I took over 1,000 pics (gosh, I LOVE digital photography!) - and so far in Aug - yeah I know it's only the 4th - I have taken almost 400 - you could say that is an average of 100 a day - but I took about 250 at Bear Lake on the 1st of Aug, so that is why. LOL

I guess I need to make a few slide shows to get ya'll caught up on all the fun and kido cuteness - I will try to tomorrow (yeah, I know I say that everytime - but I mean it this time)
here are a few to start us off:

Thomas Stamping

Sitting UP

Jumperoo

Wearing Daddy's Raiders Hat

LOVING BEAR LAKE

Time for a change

if I can get a little time to myself this week, I am going to be changing the blog a little... we'll see how far I get depending on how much time I will have.

Grayson has been making my evenings more challenging, because he doesn't want to sleep on his own. He wants me to be there. So it takes a long time to get him settled down for the night - some nights its 10pm - other nights its much worse, like 1 or 2am.
Thomas has learned that he is in control of coming out of his bedroom - so he gets out of bed at 6am some mornings. So these 2 little boys with opposite schedules are really making things more difficult on me.

Cool!

one of the families that we will be building in Corinne with moved into our ward a few weeks ago, but we didn't even know it until today.
They have 2 little boys close to our boys in age - in fact the older boy's birthday is Aug 31 - so 4 days before Thomas's. It is going to be so cool for them - they are in the same sunbeam class, so they will already have a friend when they move to our new ward - they'll probably be in the same grade - I just hope that Thomas will actually interact with him so that he can always have a buddy.
Oh - AND they are building in the lot right next to ours on the east side.
We have also been told that the other family that will be building on the west of us has 2 little kids as well. So I am excited for when we get to finally meet the others, because it sounds like we are going to have some really great neighbors.

why is it?

why is it that I can think all day of stuff that I would like to add to my blog and then when I can actually sit down to type - I can't think of a darn thing?


lets see - we transitioned Thomas from a toddler bed to a twin size mattress. His nightly routine of bouncing on his bed, had completely wrecked his little mattress, and it was so lumpy, I thought it was probably the culprit of why he wasn't sleeping very well any more. So tonight it goes out with the trash. Grandma was kind enough to let us store the toddler bed frame in her storage shed out behind the house, so we didn't have to haul it all the way over the mountain to our storage shed in Benson. I feel guilty for not putting Thomas's new mattress on an actual bed - it makes me feel so "getto" - we have a bed, out in storage, but I don't want to have to haul it here - especailly if we will be moving "soon". He doesn't know any better, so he doesn't mind, I guess.

I am in the process of attempting to make a mei tai - an asian style baby sling type thing, for carrying Grayson on my back. He loves to be held alot, but has gotten so big so fast, that my arms get tired fast, so I always wish I just had a baby backpack. So I started looking on line and came across many tutorials for how to make my own. I bought the fabric yesterday - $11 - much better price than the $80 it would cost to buy one. So I have the pieces cut out, and tonight after the kids go to bed, I will get it sewn together. Then tomorrow I can test it out. I hope that Grayson will like it. And I think I am going to like having my hands free.

I think I will get the photos off my camera onto the computer, and then I can post a few more recent pictures - sorry I never did post any of Bear Lake - maybe I will add a few of those too.

finally some news

after waiting over a week after e-mailing the NNHC, we called today to ask if there has been any progress.
He said yes, that finally we have 5 families approved for the Corinne building project. The last family was only approved yesterday, so there will still be at least another week or 2 before we can begin the preconstruction meetings.
Also, we decided to flip the house plan that we chose, so that the garage will be on the east side of the house, so it will take a little bit of time to get that approved as well.
so that is what is new

ah, man

I think Thomas has broken our DVD player. he was crawling behind the tv armore to get a toy, and pulled on the cords, and it came crashing down from the top. I just tried to watch a dvd, and it doesn't want to read it. I am not mad At Thomas, but I am not happy that we have only had that thing for less than a year, and I don't want to have to find another one that can upconvert to HD.

frazzled

well, if I wasn't a frazzled mommy before, I am now. Grayson has not been feeling well, and he is pretty much inconsolable. He seems to hold grudges. He looks at me like "I feel crappy - why did you do this to me mommy?" He is FINALLY napping, but I know it is not going to last long.
And Poor Thomas, is feeling neglected because I have to concentrate so much on Grayson. I worry that he might start thinking that if he cried that much, maybe he could get all the attention. So far he is being "good", but I just know how that little mind works.
Well, gotta go make Thomas feel like the center of attention again for a little while, while Grayson gets some much needed sleep.
(now if only mommy could get some sleep) :(
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.
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pics

I got my photos organized, so next will be the pics from bear lake - these today, are just to wet your appetite :) Enjoy!

I apologize

to all of you who keep checking in here and I haven't updated ---

-- we are going to Bear Lake this weekend, so when we get back I will have something new to blog about. :)

quick update

a third family has been approved in our group, we got a call from the NNHC this morning. it's very welcome news. just 2 more to go. (but I am still not getting my hopes up)

LOT

It's almost the end of may - it's the last week *eek*
and I have only blogged 3 times this month - shame on me

so below this post is the video of our lot

here are some still shots of it...







there is still no word on when any other families might get accepted, but according to the last time AJ talked with the NNHC peoples - it could be a LOOOOOONG time - I guess the government is kinda getting more strict on the "rules" of who they allow into the program, so it may be more difficult for others to get approved. When we had last gone in to sign papers, we signed one that gave a "closing" date in Aug, and the guy said that we would be getting started before that for sure, but NOW, I am not believing that at all - being the pessimist I am about all this - I wouldn't be surprized if we had to go back in and resign the papers at a later date, because we didn't "close" (or in other words get started building) even in Aug.

This Land is MY land

Recovering from our wild weekend

It is kinda rough to go on "vacation" with little kids.

We've been up to Idaho to be with my cousin Camile and her family as they were sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple on Saturday - then we stayed overnight in a hotel, cuz we didn't want to make the kids be in the car for like the entire day --- so Thomas got to swim in the hotel pool, and he thought that was awesome!
I got TONS of sleep because I slept in one bed with Grayson, and it was so easy to just nurse him and he went right back to sleep - so that was awesome. Tyson slept in the other bed with Thomas, and .. well..... he didn't get very much sleep at all. At one point I could see that Thomas had his feet in Tyson's face LOL - but Tyson stayed up a bit later than us all (to stick to his usual night time schedule since he works late nights - He'd gone to Ian's house - he lives in Idaho Falls) and then Thomas woke him up at about 5 in the morning. Tyson did his best to get him back to sleep - but at 7 am Thomas woke Grayson and me up as well. So it was an early day for us.

We then spent sunday morning hanging out with Ian and Brynde. We went to Smittys for lunch - for my birthday~! Tom, Lori, Alex and Joni came to lunch too. Then before we headed to Blackfoot, we took Thomas to see the Falls and the Temple. We took a short walk by the falls. I got a few pictures before my camera's battery died :( Thomas really thought the falls were so cool - he didn't want to leave. But we bribed him by telling him we needed to drive to Grandma and Grandpas house to see their dogs Bandit and Murphy.

After our visit with grandma and grandpa Owen (Tom and Lori) - we started our very long drive home. Grayson was NOT happy, and it took him a while to finally put himself to sleep. I think today that everytime I put him down he thinks I am abandoning him forever, so he has been really clingy today, and I blame the car ride. Thomas, eventhough he was DEAD TIRED, never gave in to the sleep, so he was awake when we got home at almost 11 pm. That was crazy to me, since he hadn't had a nap in 2 days and didn't sleep real well sat night.

But this morning Thomas (and Tyson) slept in until 10am - and Thomas is down for a nap now. Grayson also slept in - he went back to sleep again when we got home at 11, and didn't get up this morning until 8 am. Which also translates to ME getting a ton of sleep as well. I woke up at 7:30, and just enjoyed the quiet house for a while before getting Grayson up.

Now I have the kitchen all cleaned up. We left the house a little messy before we left because I just ran out of time to do the things I needed/wanted to do. I am getting the laundry all caught up and putting away all the stuff we packed and took with us. So I think I may be able to relax tomorrow if I am lucky.

Also thanks to everyone who has wished Tyson and I happy birthday!
Tysons birthday was on Friday. He had the day off of work, so he relaxed. That night we went to Ryan and Marcela's house just to hang out and have fun. They surprized us with balloons and delicious birthday brownies.
So it has been FUN!

I will post pictures tomorrow after I get the camera battery charged up.

I won!

well, if scrapping wasn't enough of a reward in itself, I also won 2 prizes for National Scrapbooking day. One will be a $20 gift certificate to scrapbook.com and the other is a prize package worth $150! I get MORE supplies to scrap with! I am so thrilled!

Happy National Scrapbook day to me.....

It has been a long time since I have had the mojo to scrap, but NSBD and all the online crop challenges almost always have a way of getting my creativity flowing.

On friday night I really wanted to get my scrap supplies organized and maybe even scrap a little, but Grayson wouldn't go to sleep until after 11pm - and didn't sleep more than 2 hours straight that night, so I didn't get much sleep, but I refused to sleep in on Sat, cuz I wanted to do the challenges for NSBD which started at 8am mst.

Tyson, my wonderful husband, helped me out with the kids, and Grayson took a good nap during the day, so I got to scrap.... I then stayed up way too late scrapping (I was on a roll, it was nice to get my mojo back, I haven't scrapped since just after I was pregnant with Grayson).... so at 2am when I was all cleaned up from a glorious day of scrapping, Grayson woke up. I fed him and laid him back down, but he only stayed asleep for about an hour. Now it's 5 am and he is wide awake, and I have only had that one real hour of sleep.

I am a real grump when I don't get enuf sleep, and today is going to be a long day, we are going to go to church in Logan to see Shellys baby Alex get blessed, and then go to her house for lunch after. The earliest I can see getting to take a siesta is about 5pm tonight. And what do you want to bet, that Grayson won't cooperate?

It might be a while before I feel like scrapbooking again, cuz I feel like I am being punished for it right now. If this is how it's going to be, then I may have to put my stuff back up on the shelves for a while longer.

But I really did enjoy myself. I haven't had time yet, but I will be uploading what I got accomplished to my Scrapjazz gallery (link on the lefthand side of the blog), so you can come check it out -- probably tomorrow-- cuz if I have any free time today, I will probably only want to sleep.

just a little longer....

the usda called again asking for more info - so I am getting that in the mail right now, and then she says we will finally be approved!

edited to add - we got the call from the NNHC a little while later and he said that she did approve us, and he sent me some papers to sign, and I have e-mailed them back to him. So we got the lot we wanted and the house plan.

Still no idea when we will start building - he says there are others who have applied, but no one that is for sure, so he has to wait for them to be approved. So we need 3 more families to get thru that long application and approval process before we will even have an idea of when we will get to start building.
(AJ and Jessie, by the way, have only one more family that needs to be approved and then their group can get started - so they will possibly start building in a few weeks. They have their lot and house plan all picked out as well.)

here is a picture of about where our lot is - it's not a good shot, because I took this before we knew that we could have that spot, and it was not even started being developed yet - so in a week or so, I will go back out to Corinne and take an actual picture of it. but I LOVE that there will not be any homes build behind us, so we will have a nice view of the mountains - our house will face south, and the backyard is north.

the DOVER

that is the house plan we have decided to go with - we got to walk thru the one in Nibley yesterday (thanks to Jessica and her cousin for helping us with that!). (sorry, the pictures are not great).
After we walked thru the house, we went to Lowes and looked at paint and lighting. It was fun to see what Tyson and I agree on and what we have totally different ideas on.
we agree already on what we want on the exterior - we want gray siding with black trim and the gray stone/brick like on this house....



We got the paperwork sent to the USDA, so by next week we sould be all approved and hopefully they will know how soon we will get to start building. They were talking about starting at the end of march and the end of april - but obviously that didn't happen, so who knows. The sad part is that there is no way that we will be able to get the houses done before the end of the year, so we won't be able to take advantage of that "first home buyer" tax refund of $8,000 :( SO unfair.