House

Will this work better from my phone?

Picture broken

Sorry about those broken pictures. Its not my fault. Blogger is screwing it up.

Gingerbread House

On Friday, we were able to go to Chay's school to help him build a gingerbread house. They started things off with a mini-Christmas concert.



Then we built the house. Chay liked eating the frosting too.

House Update

The house is getting going. The framing is done. Here are Chay and Jace checking out one of the upstairs bendrooms.

And the stairs have been put in. 

It's starting to look like a house now. 

I was surprised yesterday that people were working there on a Sunday. With the framing complete, the roofers started installing shingles.

Finally Some Walls

We finally have some walls going up. Over the course of 3 weeks, we only saw workers there two days. It's nice to see some action again on the lot.

Field Trip

Chay's class had their first official field trip last week. They went to a community theater and saw Willy Wonka. Here is a picture from that trip.

School Thanksgiving

Chay's class had some Thanksgiving festivities on Monday. You can see Chay right up front in this picture taken by his teacher.

House Update

Our new house is moving along, but not nearly as fast as we would like. The basement walls have been poured. It looks like they're getting closer to the basement floor being finished as well. The only concrete left after that will be the garage floor, the driveway and the basement. There is a big stack of wood on the lot now so framing should begin soon.

We spent a good chunk of time this week picking out lots of things....plumbing fixtures, flooring, cabinets and countertops. The cabinet maker provided this computerized rendering of our kitchen.

Update

As usual...life has been busy around here.

Our new house has finally started to see some work on it. Last week, an excavator came by to dig out the foundation area.

This morning, a concrete crew started to get to work on the foundation. 

Last week, Chay had his annual checkup. He is 47.5 inches tall and weighs 47.5 pounds so the doctor told him he was a perfect square!

Chay played his first official hockey game of the season last weekend. 

Here are a few videos of the boys in action. 

Halloween

Happy Halloween!!

Last night, we carved pumpkins. Jace's is a ghost. Jenner's is a cat. Chay's is a tombstone with a ghoul.

For their costumes, Chay was a ninja and the twins were police officers. This is the first year that both were the same thing.

Below are pictures of the boys and their pumpkins.

At Long Last....

We've been waiting for this for a long time. On Friday, crews pushed back to the top soil so that they could begin excavation for our new house.

Chay was the only one of the boys that wanted to pose for a picture in front of the new location. The twins declined.

Hockey Season Begins

Hockey Season has officially begun! On Friday and Saturday, we attended the UND hockey games. And on Saturday and Sunday, Chay began his third season of playing hockey. He is in Termite Fall Camp where they decide his level and the team he will play on.

Chay Learns to Read

Chay  has been working hard on his letters and applying them to the skill of reading. He is doing really well in figuring out how many of the letters make sounds to form words. Its crazy to see him bring home a book and start reading it.

Bowling Party

Chay had a bowling party with a few of his friends to celebrate his birthday.

Everyone had a great time! The twins were excited because they got to invite one of Chay's friend's younger brother.

Catchup

Here are a few items to catch up on, in no particular order....

• Chay turned 6 on Saturday. See previous post for a few pictures
• Chay's soccer season has completed. Unlike previous seasons, the weather was great. The final weekend was cold, but otherwise, it was shorts and t-shirt weather for much of it, which is unusual. 
• All 3 boys, the twins especially, like to "go by the neighborhood" where we get to see the big machinery making roads, etc. We're anxious to get the neighborhood finished so that we can start building our house. The last estimate we have is that it will be November before we can start digging. Which means closing on the house in March. 

Chay Turns 6!

Our oldest son is now six years old.

We had a birthday party on Saturday. 

Happy birthday Chay!!!

Pumpkin Patch 2014

Last weekend, we took the boys to the pumpkin patch, same place as last year. They had a great time and picked 3 super big pumpkins. 

The boys found a bin of corn to play in. Kind of like a sandbox but with corn instead of the sand. Jenner was apprehensive to get in, but once he did, he had fun. 

This is the same spot as last year's picture. Its nice to see the pictures from year to year. The thing that struck me between this year and last year was how little all 3 boys changed. I'm used to seeing big changes but the twins are nearing 4 years old and don't change as much as they did in the past. 

Supper Time

Yes, the picture is of very poor quality. However, it is very rare to have all boys sitting nicely eating there supper. Normally I'm yelling at more than one of them to come and sit at the table to eat nicely.

Update

Things have been a whirlwind lately. Chay is settling in nicely with new new school routine. He started Fall soccer a few weeks ago. And the twins are still a handful!

Labor Day

Labor Day weekend meant lake time for us. The boys even spent the night at the camper once. This was a first for the twins. Spending the night also meant one extra day of swimming in the lake. 

It was mostly overcast and cool except for Monday. They boys also got to watch the docks get pulled out of the lake for the season. 

Kindergarten

Chay started Kindergarten today. He was excited and looking forward to it.

As we were walking into school, I said to "don't step in that puddle", which I'm sure he heard as "make a big splash in that puddle". So the first thing we had to do when we got inside was to clean the mud off of him. Typical boy I guess.

Back To School Night

Chay had Back To School Night last night. He is getting excited for Kindergarten to begin.

Boys Being Silly

Parade and Park

Here are a few pics from a recent trip to a park

Jace doesn't like getting his picture taken. So treasure this one! 

Chay, on the other hand, loves getting his picture taken. 

Jenner likes getting his picture taken, but doesn't always understand to look at the camera and smile. 

Our boys and Missy's boys went to a parade last weekend. The boys loved the fire engines, tractors, but most of all the candy! 

Tablet Time

Last night after bath, the twins cozied up on the couch for a little time with their tablets before bed.

Fourth of July

This year, we had a few fireworks to light off at the house. Nothing too big. The boys weren't too thrilled with them. They were noisy and scary. Then the rain came and threatened to wash out all of the fun. But the rain stopped before dark. We took the boys to their first fireworks show. We parked the pickup in a field and I put blankets down in the truck bed. We were all sitting in the back watching the show. The twins weren't too excited by it in the beginning. They were a bit scared. But they warmed up to it and had fun. We had them dressed in pj's which is good because they were sleeping by the time we got home.

I took pictures of them in the back of the pickup. But being close to them, the flash washed out their faces a bit.

Tour of Parks

Or maybe it would be more appropriate as "Tour of Playgrounds", but the boys call them "parks".

Being that we don't have much of a yard to play in or a driveway to round our bikes on, we have been taking the boys to playgrounds in the local area. We've been hitting different ones. The public park closest to our place has been dubbed the "hard park" by our boys. Sometimes we'll walk to a park, other times we'll drive. We haven't been to the same park twice yet, but I'm sure we will by the end of the summer. And we're planning on visiting the one that was close to our old house.

Here are some pictures from the last time we ventured to a new park.