Before Ben and Kerri set off on their adventure as ranch hands in South Dakota, they came for a quick visit so we could all see the new baby, which I never did get any pictures of. Mom, will you send some to me?
After watching Ben and Benson toot on the trumpet, Brendyn picked it up pretty quick. We were all pretty surprised that he could make the right sound, it takes some mouth muscles to get it right. He loved it!! He came into the living room where we were all sitting, and after blowing into it, he said, "That Awesome!!" He was impressed with himself!





















Brooklyne, Brendyn, Breahna-they had a blast playing in the bubbles.

Bonus points if you can figure out what's going on here with Benson and Baby Jane. He's preparing for farm life.

The finishing touches on the siding. That's Ben way up there. I'm not sure where Bill is...

The start of our hike up to Glacier Lake, around Red Lodge, MT. We always try to take a shot of our family like this before we get started. We usually get a good one after a few takes, but this is as good as it gets. Look at the 'stache Ben's sporting. :)

The lake really lived up to it's name.

Bill sort of looks like a chipmunk.

Believe it or not this was before we started the two mile climb. All he was carrying was water.

Whew! What a Week!!

Well, we are in. We made the big move on January 1st-a great way to celebrate a new year, I highly suggest it. We had about 30 people from our ward show up to help us-an amazing turn-out, even for Mormons! We had everything loaded and unloaded at the new place in about 2 1/2 hours. We even had lunch made for all 30 of us after we were finished moving. We are extremely grateful to all the people who came and helped.

There's still quite a few little things that need to be done to make things a little more comfortable, but our major goal of having the basement painted prior to move in was accomplished. Our sleep schedule is a bit lopsided now, so we are looking forward to going back to work and school this week to get us back on track.

The kids are so excited to be in the house. Who am I kidding, I think Bill and I are more excited than they are! It just feels like home. I had actually forgotten how dark the duplex felt to live there until we had to go back to finish cleaning. You know how when you were a kid and you rearranged your room, the first couple of nights felt strange and you'd wake up and have to reorient yourself to your surroundings because things were so different? I was expecting to get that feeling here, but I haven't felt it at all. It just feels natural, like we've been living here all along. And though the duplex did fit our needs, it just felt dark. And not in a bad lighting sort of way. I felt it from the beginning...just...dark. But it's all cleaned up and we turned our key in to the landlord yesterday, so no more darkness!! Hello, Big House!

Bill is still working hard every day to finish things up for us-putting a door on the bathroom was pretty high on the list, but not as high as getting the hot water going. We put in one of those endless hot water tanks (Rinnai to be exact) and were starting to think it was highly overrated. After calling the heating guy that bought it for us (Bill installed it himself) and wasting a couple of hours on the phone with the company, they finally found the source of the problem. We weren't getting hot water because the cold water line was what was feeding the water heater. Bill was stumped and wondering how he could have crossed the lines. I was freaking out thinking that we were going to have to undo all of the drywall that we'd stayed up so late to finish so many nights in a row so we could get access to the pipes. Turns out the place that he crossed it was just in the half bath on the main level where everything was still open. And he did it while he was testing the pipes for leaks and had capped it off in a hurry, thinking he would switch it back later. During all of this wondering why we weren't getting hot water, Ben made the comment that when he builds his own house he thinks he'll hire out the plumbing. I have to admit, I had second thoughts of my own about Bill's ability to get the plumbing done in a flawless manner. After all, he installs floors for a living, not pipes, and this was a pretty big job from start to finish. But, my hero pulled it off again, so far things are running down hill-and we're in the basement! What a stud!! But for the record, so far I'm not all that impressed with that water heater. It'supplied by propane, which I've never had before, so I won't even have anything to compare it to for cost savings.

The first bath in this thing was amazing! Everyone should experience the joy of a jetted tub that's deep enough to cover your knees. Ahh, this is what my brother was talking about when he recommended experiencing the blessings and comfort that a new home brings. This is the life!!

A hole where the nuker goes and no countertops-who needs 'em?!

This cardboard makes a great door for a bathroom-don't you agree?

It was 4 a.m. by the time Billy rolled around yesterday after painting the basement. He said it looked kind of yellow and reminded him of our old house that we covered everything in yellow just to get a coat of something fresh on it. Turns out it does look a bit yellow in my craft room because it's so stinking bright in there! It's awesome, great lighting for sewing and finishing my mom's scrap book!!
The rest of the house is exactly the color it was supposed to be and I love it. Bill was able to get some of the cabinets set yesterday. We went for the really tall ones on top to give us more storage space and it looks really cool. Just basic, entry level oak cabinets like we put in our last house, only taller on top and a bit of a different color. His plan is to finish things up today with cabinets in kitchen and bath, hopefully including countertops. I am last minute packing and then will be at the house to clean up the floors and get it ready for move in tomorrow. 10 a.m. is the time we've set. People from our ward will be here to help us. Some of them have had to be bribed with fresh baked bread in order to get the piano moved. Apparently they have some nightmare stories about moving pianos through curved stairwells and the thing never touching the ground, so it's an ongoing joke in the ward every time someone is moving. The question all the men want to know before they commit is, "Do they have a piano?"
This will likely be my last post for the next few days. I will be disconnected from the cyber world until we get settled in a bit. I'll try to post some pics before the weekend is through, but no promises.

Are we there yet?

We're tired. It's 2 a.m. and Bill is painting as we speak. He was helping a friend with a DIY project tonight and was supposed to come and get me after he finished so I could be there for moral support if nothing else. I had fallen asleep for a good hour before he finally got here and was almost in a coma when he tried to shake me. Now I'm awake due to the strong winds we are receiving-gusts recorded so far at 61 mph! There is a bent gutter flapping and hitting the roof, sounds scary!
We primed the basement at about 7 p.m., ran out of primer, had to make a last minute trip to Wal-Mart. Wasn't as quick as it used to be-the last house we did was only 3 minutes from WM, this one is 15! My fast trip took me over an hour since I had to drive to the duplex and get some money first-am I ever going to learn to take my purse with me everywhere?!
We finally decided on a color for the basement. We're using a sprayer for simplicity and speed (in case you've never done this, I highly suggest it. It probably uses double the paint, but it's well worth the extra money!). We hmm'ed and haa'd about a good nuetral, homey color that could be used for the ceiling and the walls. Since we're starting in the basement, we wanted it to be a lighter color and since we want to keep the home looking 1900-ish, we went with a color called "Churchill's Hotel Vanilla". It actually has a spot on the paint card that says it's a...hmm, I forgot the exact words, but something about hostoric registration color choice. Nice marketing, eh? Worked for me!! It's sort of an antique white look. I think it will be a good beginning color for the entire house. As we live in the home and get more of a feel for how we want it to look we will paint by hand, room by room, likely leaving the ceiling this color. They say if you want a room to look bigger, keep the ceiling color light. We still have not completely decided on trim color, but we know we want wood and we think a deep brown stain will do. The white trim we had in the last house was cute, but completely impractical. Smudges everywhere are not conducive to "casual housekeeping" as I like to call my style.
My step brother the electrician and his dad were out today. The original plan was for them to finish wiring the entire house and trim it all out even though we don't even have sheetrock in over half of the place. The method to this madness was supposed to avoid a change in electrical laws that require more expensive breakers (probably designed to be a safety thing, but at this point all we are seeing is dollar signs). This would mean that we'd have to go through the entire 2 remaining levels and remove all of the plates and fixtures so we could drywall, and then put them all back on again. Yuck! Miraculously, plans changed and we're waiting on all that. But, we are in a mad dash to get the basement painted so we can have them finish there before we move in. We're already a day behind and they stalled for us today on other things, like some lights in the garage. I have definately come to appreciate the ease and convenience of light switches. It is so nice to be able to walk into a room and flip a switch instead of trying to find a cord in the dark and line up the prongs to the halogen ever so carefully to avoid death by electrocution.
We picked up the cabinets for the little kitchen and the bathroom today. In order to do this we had to get rid of the last several months of various housing scraps-shingles, siding, and lots of sheet rock to name a few. Our trip to the dump was enlightening as usual. We are a sickening throw away society. The guy next to us was throwing out quite a few things that looked well enough to be donated, but you know, I'm sure it was easier this way.
Tomorrow the kids are going to a friends house for probably most of the day so we can get some things accomplished and they can pretend they have a life. We are all looking forward to being in the house so we can have some sense of normal again. I have some packing to do still and I think Bill may be setting the cabinets.

Woohoo!!

One level is now completely sheetrocked and textured-only 2 more to go!! Tomorrow we paint...
The kids were great helpers tonight, being promised a burger from Wendy's after we were all finished. Taylor playfully put a "kiss me" sign on my back, which Ben crossed out and wrote "kick me", then he proceeded to do as the sign suggested. The kids ended up falling asleep on the floor upstairs and it was after 1 a.m. before we left the house. No restaurants were open. Sorry, kids, maybe next time. We hope there won't be any more of these late nights, or should I say early mornings. We're planning on moving in Wednesday or Thursday this week. Woohoo!!

HERE WE COME!

Effective immediately our mailing address is:
uh, email me and I'll give it to you. I'm not sure about the safety of posting it here.
But the point is, we're moving in!! We gave our notice here in this little rental and we'll be country bumpkins just after Christmas. So ready or not, here we come Big House!
My step brother is wiring the house and he'll be finished with the rough in this week. Bill will be finished with the plumbing this week and the insulators are coming next week. What more do you really need in life? It will be a mad rush to get as much of the dry walling done as possible before we get the rest of our junk in, so if anyone wants to come and help we certainly wouldn't turn you down...:)
Sorry, no pics. I'll try and get more this week.