Moving right along

Mr. Joe sent us another email this morning. These pictures were taken yesterday evening (2/24/11)

I guess they will be putting the shingles on today!

I can't wait to go out there tomorrow...

Wait, is that a house?

Things are moving right along! The realtor in the sales office sent us these pictures this morning. I can't believe how fast they are building this house!

When I went out that earlier this week, it was starting to resemble a house, but now it really looks like a house!! It looks a bit funny because they haven't cut out the window in the front. This view shows the bay windows off of the kitchen. We are actually making that an office, so the windows are a bit shorter so that the "desk" will fit. (It is actually a custom counter top that will match the rest of the kitchen) You can see the master bathroom window next to the bay windows, and then the master bedroom. On the other side is the one car garage, with a window on the side.

The front of the house...

I'm so excited to have a little front porch! You can see the living room window.
From this view you can see the door going into the side of the garage, as well as Ben's bedroom window.

Last but not least, the back of the house!

The window on the far left is Maddy and Sarah's room. The small rectangle window is the kids bathroom, and then the opening next to that will be the french doors from the dining room. The window over the kitchen sink is covered by the board, and then next to that will be another door. They haven't cut that out yet either, but it will open up into the breakfast nook area (a.k.a the "office").

It should be ready to be measured for cabinets on Saturday. Perk of being married to the cabinet guy... We don't have to wait until Monday!!

I'm SO excited! It looks like a house now! I think I'm officially going crazy.. I want to start packing already!

Progress

We made our weekly trip to see the "house", and we were excited to see that they had finished the plumbing and laid the foundation! It's funny how it seems bigger with the foundation than it did with only the dirt. The girls were having a blast running around while we were there.

The front porch..
They even had all the wood stacked so they could start the framing.
Maddy and Sarah posed for a picture...


View from the back of the house. Maddy and Sarah's room, and their bathroom to the left.

I took this picture from the back of our property line. The girls are going to love playing in this backyard!

We can't wait to see what they've done by next Saturday! Hopefully they start framing on Monday...

Now for some cute pictures of the kiddies... Here is Ben playing in his exersaucer. Maddy and Sarah were watching a movie on the portable dvd player, and decided to include Ben. I think he liked it!

Walked in to find Maddy and Sarah like this... They can be so sweet! I hope they are always good friends..

Ben having a good time playing.. what a cutie!

I had to take this picture on Sunday... Cricket helps me out with Ben when Joseph isn't there. I was the primary chorister, but now I'm the nursery leader.. Cricket is nice enough to take Ben for the 3rd hour. Scott had him yesterday, and tried his hardest to get him to sleep but couldn't. Then Cricket takes him... and just minutes later, voila. It was so cute, that I took a picture!

My cute girls after church. Neither one wanted to change out of their dress. They were just eating a snack, and I snapped a picture!

Joseph got a phone call from a friend who lives in the neighborhood, to tell us that there was a crew at our house framing! Whaaaaat? So we drove out there , and they have framed the whole house! There was a missing wall in Ben's room, but other than that...

Maddy in the laundry room

Maddy in her bedroom

Joseph standing in the doorway...

I can't believe they framed it all! It was so exciting to walk around and know where everything was. When we decided to build this house we chose it from a floor plan on a sheet of paper. There was no model home for us to walk through. I'm SO excited that it is turning out exactly how I pictured it in my head! We are going to measure our furniture and head back out there on Saturday, then draw it on the floor with sidewalk chalk to see how we want to arrange it all.
That way when moving day comes, I'm not trying to figure it out.

More pictures to come!!

Pinch me... is this really happening?

After almost 7 years of marriage... It's official... We are building a house! I'm still in shock, I never thought that this day would come. I wasn't going to be picky, we didn't have to build one. Buying one would have been great too, but it just worked out this way. So round about April 15, (the dreaded Tax day for most) we will be closing on our very first home! It is a modest 3 bedroom, 2 full bath, with a one car garage. BUT what I'm most excited for is.... a dishwasher!! We have lived the past 5 years without one, and 3 kids later, I am SO over it. I am now looking forward to the first load of dishes I get to load into a dishwasher!

Sadly, we will be moving out of the Myrtle Beach Ward. This neighborhood is located in Conway, so we will be attending the Ward there. Joseph's parents attend this ward, so our kids will still get to enjoy a set of grandparents during Sacrament meeting. Not to mention... we will be a whole 6 minutes away from the church... without having to deal with tourist traffic during the summer! I think my parents are sad that we are moving away from them, but they will see more of me during the summer than if we stayed where we are. Let's face it, those that live here know how bad 17 bypass gets, driving south bound during rush hour. My 10 minute drive to their house became 30 minutes or more. Plus they are starting construction on the overpass... and I want to avoid it at all costs. I was planning on not visiting them for a year or two, until that bridge was done... But now I don't have to deal with it! See mom? A win/win!

Now for some pictures... I plan to keep a photo journal of the construction process. This was taken last weekend, 2/12/11.

It is so wierd to see a SOLD sign, and know that it's because WE bought it!!

Joseph inspecting... It looks super small. This can't be the whole house, can it??
They got started the morning we signed the contract. Clearing the lot etc. and then we had so much rain that nothing else has been done. (You can see the puddles in this picture) Joseph was out there this morning, and he said the plumbing was done, and they said they would pour the slab tomorrow! So, until then...

Off to a good start

I can't believe that we are half way into February already! It seems like time goes by faster everyday. The kids are getting big! Here is just a look, at what our kids have been up to lately...

Benamen (as Sarah calls him) is sitting up all by himself! He also loves to eat... graham crackers, Mum Mum's, cheerios... I guess that isn't too surprising, seeing that he is a BIG boy! It has been pretty cold this winter. Not something we enjoy here at the Beach. It was pretty nice yesterday, so the girls got to play outside over at MamaCheri's.
Erynn's friend brought over this new and improved "big wheel" It's pretty much the coolest toy ever made. You pedal really fast, and then jerk the handle to the side, and it spins you in circles. (the back wheels are similar to those on a shopping cart) I would have gotten on it if I wasn't so tall. It looked like a lot of fun. Maddy wanted to ride with Erynn, but had second thoughts as soon as I was snapping the picture...

Maddy was a nice big sister, and let Sarah ride her tricycle...

Well, she stood on the back so it was too heavy for Sarah to go anywhere... But Sarah was happy to be in the drivers seat, so she didn't care!

The other night Maddy thought that Ben was cold... so she put Sarah's sweater on him! I walked into the family room and found Ben happily playing with his toys, in a pink sweater. Maddy was giggling and Ben thought it was pretty funny too...



One of Ben's new tricks is putting his pacifier in his mouth... or taking it out and chewing on it. Pretty much he is a drooly mess for most of the day.

Father/Son bonding. Notice the Cubs blanket... yep, starting early. Ben has NO choice, but to be a Cubs fan.

Maddy LOVES to take care of her baby brother. It seems like there was a time that she loved to take care of her baby sister... but then her baby sister got big, and takes her toys instead of letting Maddy do whatever she wants to her. So she has moved on. And for the time being, Ben is all about his biggest sister. She is the funniest girl in the world to him. His other sister? Well, all she seems to do is take his toys and poke him in the eye. For now, he'd like to keep his distance. Sometimes, when nobody is looking, she'll softly stroke his head and say to him, "BenaMEN, BenaMEN, BenaMEN" and kiss him and walk away.

Big Thanks to my brother and his wife, for letting us borrow this... He loves it.

I have made several attempts to potty train Sarah... SO here she is on her throne. Weeks ago. Is she potty trained? That would be a big, fat, NOPE. Oh well, as long as she's potty trained before she starts kindergarten, I'll be fine.

Big sister, supervising Ben's nap...

Ben's favorite toy... Barbie. Lets face it. Cars, and planes don't have long, soft hair.

Poor boy, he doesn't have much choice with two older sisters!

Playing at the park with Uncle Ryan

Erynn and Sarah, playing on the seesaw... Well, I guess Erynn was holding her on the seesaw. Fun for Sarah, NOT for Erynn...

Closing her eyes... seesaws can be pretty scary...

Just in case you were wondering where Ben was while all of this park playing was going on... He was bundled nice and warm in his carseat. Keeping his eye on the soccer ball.

It is really nice to live so close to my younger siblings. I love to hang out with them and so do my kids. As much as Maddy would love to go play with them EVERYDAY, it looks like we will be hanging out a little less. WE ARE MOVING!! Not too far away, just to Conway. Instead of living 10-15 minutes down the road, we will now live about 30 minutes away, and we will be in a different ward. It is going to be weird for Maddy not to have Erynn and Josh in primary with her, but she'll make new friends. We have been blessed with the opportunity to build our first home. We are set to close on or before April 15th, and we are SO EXCITED!!

I will try and post pictures of the building process... I've already missed the boat on some of it! They cleared the lot and started preparing to pour the foundation before we had the chance to take any pictures. They're not wasting any time!