What Have We Done?!

Yesterday we had some new friends over for a play date and lunch.

This was a special date. I've been a part of an August due date "club" associated with cloth diapering. Random, I know. Us ladies belonging to this club shared each others' burdens and joys during the months of pregnancy and rejoiced with each other in birth. So when I had the opportunity to meet one of the ladies IN REAL LIFE, I was excited! It was great to turn an online experience into something a little more tangible.

We made spaghetti, cheesy toast, and sliced apples. There was eight children under 5 years old in the house, and it was a great time!

Fast forward to today. It was a preschool morning, so after picking up the kids we picked up some sandwiches from Jimmy Johns.

We were all eating happily when Thor said, "Mom, we should have had Jimmy Johns for lunch yesterday when the kids were here!"

I said, "Oh, maybe we should have..."

Thor exclaimed, "What have we done?"

New friends- what fun!

Sweet August babies practicing head control!
The little guy just woke up from a nap and was not all that interested in playing along.

Solid.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.   1 Corinthians 10-13 

I realize this verse is talking about our lives and our foundation being in Christ. I cannot help but relate it to the home we are building (it is, after all, Paul's parallel!)

As we live our daily lives, we are actually building up a structure. We should be using our time, money, skills, everything we have- with an eternal purpose in mind. 

With that in mind, our home is on a nice solid foundation. We tore down the old house, tore out the basement, and dug underneath until we came to clay. 

It was hard to picture what it would look like gone. Now it's hard to even remember this being there...

There was actually topsoil going down 6 or 8 feet, if I can remember... which is not really normal! The topsoil was hauled out and more suitable fill (clay) hauled in from the pasture. It was then compacted well. Then nice large footings were poured, and finally the structure goes up. 

And here we are ;)

So alert!

Stepping back to survey...

Daddy was shooting a gun out in the pasture!

Some kitty love.

The kids, just running through the kitchen area!

Such a handsome boy!

Soulful eyes... I believe he is taking note that the cats outnumber him now!

Christmas Craftiness

Now that we cannot spend countless hours outside (it has been oh, about 15 degrees on average this week!) and the days are shorter (the sun goes down by about 5 pm!) ... I have been feeling a little bit more crafty!

I knew I needed a tree skirt his year; last year we just did without! I had in my mind that it needed to be a ruffly skirt, not some limp red-and-white, stereotypical Santa Clause one.

So I pulled out some fabric scraps and went to work!

Oooooh!

Thor has been Mr. Decorator this year. He is very, very excited about Christmas!

Large and In Charge.

First "ornament" to grace the tree...

 I've also been busy sewing up cute little outfits for the littles. I have been wanting to make a pair of "monkey pants" for quite some time, and I had a pair to work off of. So I traced away and copied the design... and here we are!

Lots of room in the rear

I will let my iPhone camera roll tell the rest of the story!

Just when I thought I was SO over the chevron love... it came out in a stretchy knit. 

I just started cutting, and here's what came of it!

Sweet girl.

Notice the tiny rolled hem on the bottom of the ruffles? Sergers are amazing!

I swapped out my regular serger foot for a gathering one, and adjusted the machine settings- bam! Ruffles! Amazing.

Fun on some floral fabric!

Me and my sweet, sweet baby...

Yipes! So cute!

Motorheads

Well, the first new arrival out to our property isn't a form of livestock, as expected. I am patiently awaiting the installation of my fence (well, at least until the spring... if not in place by then, we will have free-range animals, ha!) 

We showed up at the church's school fundraiser one night not planning on anything but socializing, but left with a nice little prize... a kid's dirt bike. 

Instruction!

Maycee's turn!

Beautiful evening.

Gotta love the training wheels!

It is red, and shiny, and very ride-able. And the positive side of it all is that it doesn't require much attention or food... just a small amount of fuel. I can appreciate that, now that winter has set in!

A Gift

Well, today was a lot of fun. We had a trip out to our land to watch the house go up, and happened to be there as trucks were arriving to pour concrete into some of the main floor walls. 

Love those little feet

It was also fun because I hadn't seen any of the progress since the stem walls were poured. It's one thing to see plans on paper. It's another thing to see the house bloom before your very eyes!

Looking towards the master bedroom and bathroom...

I was amazed as I saw the nice large windows and open living area that will be our living room, dining room, and kitchen. I could almost envision myself inside and feeling like a part of the nice wooded surroundings that we have.

Squeeeeal!

Some people have said, "It's so neat that you are building your dream house!" Until it has been mentioned like that, I have never in my mind thought I was living out part of my goals or dreams by building this nice home. Today I told my mom, "Moving out into the country is fulfilling my dream. The home is like... more of a gift."

The last six years involved a lot of work. We sold the home we moved into when we got married, built a home almost completely on our own, bought into a business and decided that we were better off starting our own, got out of that business partnership and started building a business from scratch. In the midst of this, we were having children; four in five years to be exact! So while this has all been good and fun, my true longing has been to move my family out of town to a place where we all have room to run, and grow, and live a little more freely.

I have never had in my head an ideal or "dream" house. In fact, Leif has designed this with only a little input from me! (My input essentially amounted to: large windows and large main floor laundry room.) 

I'm thankful that he has a good eye for design because I think it is going to suit our family well. I cannot wait to have people stay over and to host holiday parties, among other ideas I have in my head!

Anyways, what I'm trying to say here is this. As I see the home unfold before my very eyes, I am thanking God and thinking to myself how this is better than I could have really ever imagined. It is spacious, it is beautiful. And just living in the country would have been enough. What a gift!

Climb aboard to watch the show!

Pump truck!

Maycee hears the truck roll in and grabs big brother's arm!

So much to watch!

Luckily my Mom was there to lend a helping snuggle...

Three five and under... and a cat

Mud and Walls

October was unseasonably cold this year. Novemeber has been the same. 

Except for yesterday!

We saw the sun. It was awesome.

It cheered us up. A lot.

Oh. And the after the snow melted... mud showed up. 

This week, we are seeing an exciting development. Walls!

Beautiful North Dakota day.

Lots of planning, measuring, working!

The barn kitties love the kids.

A peek over the hedge.

Oh... hello, little flower!

Sand piles!

Looking from the west towards our master bedroom!

We are so blessed with so many awesome mature trees.

Dax lost a mud boot... it really bothered him at first, but that feeling passed and he had a dandy time.
{He had to ride home with just a diaper on!}

Sweet two-year-old.

I like all of the lines and textures in this picture.  So much work represented in one tiny little picture. (Move the grain bins, build the barn walls, and of course... stack foam for the house... )