Our Crazy Wonderful Life . . .

  Lately I can't help thinking that I'm the luckiest person in the world. When I step back and look at our life, it does nothing but put a smile on my face. NOT IN ANY PARTICULAR ORDER 1-We are building the home of our dreams. Something that not a lot of people get to do, especially at 27 years old. So in that, I'm extremely proud that we are able to do that. A place where our kids will grow up and learn so many things that comes along with country living. Valuable lessons that will help them throughout their lives. 2- I'm married to my best friend and true sole mate (I know kind of sappy). His positive traits truly make up for my negative ones and vise versa. That's why we are perfect for each other and work so well together. 3- The two best kids in the ENTIRE world. I'm not too sure how else to express how great they are. Austyn is the most polite, smart, FUNNY, fun, cute, and sassy 2 year old. She is so brave and adventurous. And I love how she likes to get dirty. I also love how she likes to get pretty and dressed up. Honestly you couldn't ask for any better of a kid. And Quade is my little sweet boy. My mom swears he doesn't know how to cry. And daily she tells me how disgustingly good he is. He really is. Honestly the only time he fusses is when he's hungry, poopy (if I didn't notice him going), or tired. And the majority of the time not even then. He has gone entire days without any crying. He sleeps 6-9 hours and NEVER cries to be feed at night. He only grunts when he wants me to get him up. He has the most loving blue eyes that just melt my heart every time he stares at me. He loves to be snuggled and loved. I get so selfish with him, that I only want him for myself. It's so hard to share him with ANYONE (even Jordan). I don't think any mother could love her children more than I love mine. 4- I'm able to stay home with our wonderful kids. But still able to step right back into the perfect job (for me anyways) whenever I need to or want to. 5- Having family so close to us all the time. With Jordan's work schedule and off work schedule it's a true God send to have the family that I do so close and so eager and willing to help. I wouldn't be able to do it without them. I tried to imagine my life away from my family. Even a few miles away, but it wasn't possible. Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for working so hard to create this family circle. It wouldn't have been possible without you. I know in my eyes this is the most perfect life anyone could ever dream of.
  We unfortunately have experienced quite a few deaths lately, but also have had quite a few births. It's definitely the circle of life, but it got me thinking of how fortunate we all are to have each other and each passing day. Some deaths were expected, some were not, and some just weren't fair. It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day hustle and bustle of life and take things for granted. For some reason the amount of deaths really affected me and I found myself needing to take things slower, appreciate the little things, and just enjoy life more. Because we never know when God's going to call our name. It was a reality check/wake up call to change a few ways of thinking for me. And for that I'm thankful.

  Enough of the sappy stuff and on with the house stuff. Jordan and his crew poured our garage floor. Thank you everyone for all your help. He also got all the trenching done that he wanted. And my Dad and him are in the process of building our pump house, which will double as a storage shed. We unfortunately came across a few snags and are held up for a week or so (hopefully not too much "so") but there are plenty of things that are still getting done.

The concrete crew

Elliott fell in the concrete

The finished project. Jordan and my Dad stayed

until 11pm to finish 

Late night at the house

The pump house

  The kids are wonderful. Quade had his 2 month check up. He weighed 12 lbs. 4 oz. and was 22 1/2 inches long. They said everything was perfect with him. Austyn is like I said earlier, amazing. She has such a big imagination right now, and is so fun to listen to her version of the stories. And then each time she tells them listen to how they change as the story goes on. She does try to push her limits, but when called on it she will shape up pretty quickly. She no doubt about it is in the "2's" stage, but I think of it more as the terrific 2's. I would hate to think of any stage with my kids terrible or miserable. Don't get me wrong, there have been stages that I like more than others, but never any age that I dreaded. I looked through our pictures and found a picture of Austyn and Quade at the same age in about the same pose. They look pretty similar, but everyone I showed it to could tell the difference easily.

Austyn is top and Quade is bottom

  And I again, am still trying to keep up with everyone else. I started the Insanity workouts a week ago. That is a perfect name for it, because it is so insane. I actually really love it. It is so challenging and also so rewarding to watch myself get better and better. I have only lost 3 so far, but at least I'm doing something in the exercise area. Maybe blogging about my progress with keep me motivated to stick with it. I tend to dwindle if I don't see results or if I miss a day. Wish me luck!

  Sorry about the mushy stuff at the beginning of the blog. I just started writing and that's what it ended up being. Maybe it was my way of a positive vent session. Hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for keeping up with us.

Roof, windows, and siding . . .

  It has been awhile since my last post. Busy busy, you know! But since then we got the roof on the house, all the windows in, the plumber and the heating guys came back to finish their next stages, and the siding is  on. Jordan and my family have been doing all the electrical too. They are so handy! Next thing is to do the insulation and then drywall. Jordan still has many extra projects to do like, trenching in all the electrical and water lines to the house, building our pump house, and pouring the concrete in the garage floor. He has stayed very very busy. We also got all of our appliances. They will have to stay in our shop for awhile, but we'll have them ready to go. We picked out the color of the outside of the house (gray and white), and now we just have to pick out the color of carpet and paint in the house. I'm thinking a light tanish color all the way around. We'll see, I'm not good that the decorating part of things. We get a few inspections this week. So if all goes well, we can start the insulation shortly after.

Before siding and windows

Windows being put in

Siding and windows in !!!!

  Quade is doing good. He unfortunately got RSV when he was only two weeks old. We all got sick, but I was so worried about him. It was so sad. Made me want to cry (ok I did a little, maybe a lot. Damn hormones!!). He weighed 9 lbs 4 oz at his 2 week check up. He's going to be a big boy. He is starting to lose his dark hair just like Austyn did. He is sleeping so well already. He will sleep anywhere from 6-9 hours a night. We are all very thankful. It's nice to be rested again. He is quite the little eater too. We can only go 2 hours in between feedings during the day, but I'm good with that if he sleeps good at night. So far he is very easy. Hope he keeps it up. He is starting to coo and smile, so sweet. Here are a couple pictures I took with Jordan's Fire gear. The ones that I edited turned out so good. But unfortunately the file is so big it wouldn't upload any of them. But these ones are still good.

  Austyn is doing wonderful. She is the light of our lives. I just can't get over how wonderful she is. She could stay this age for ever in my eyes. She has become quite the little climber these days. She will climb on anything and everything. I was bent over the bathtub giving Quade a bath and she was in there watching. All of a sudden I noticed her climbing on my back. She was kneeling on my back while I was giving a bath to Quade and I barely noticed. I'm either very tired or very numb. We were in Home Depot the other day picking out bathroom fans and I looked up to see where she was and she was on the second shelf of an end cap on the isle, just looking at people as they walked by her. Yes, we have become THOSE parents. Oh well, at least she was having fun and didn't hurt anything. She is also enjoying working over at the house. She loves to just wander around by herself and climb on the dirt and rock piles. I'll walk around the house to check on her and she will tell me that she's fine and to go back in the house. So cute. She also got sick, she got croup :( It was horrible. I felt so bad for her. That was a rough few weeks at our house, with two sick babies.

  Jordan is so busy. Story of his life. He is doing an amazing job with scheduling all the people for the house and doing all the projects that come up. I know he enjoys doing things like this and he is so good at everything he does. His next big projects are building a pump house for our water system and pouring the garage concrete. I'm sure they will turn out perfectly like everything else.

  I am doing fine. Not too much going on with me. Just trying to keep up with everyone else. Trying to figure out a way to lose the rest of the weight that didn't come off with Quade. It's a little harder now with two kids. Not too much EXTRA time to workout. If anyone has any ideas PLEASE let me know.