Before the New Year...

Wow, is it really almost 2011?!?! Where did 2010 go?!?!

We've had a lot going on the month of December, I know I shared some. But I'll update on the last half (everything that happened after my last post....well not everything just the things I can remember)! :)

Donovan turned 18 months old on December 26th. Hard to believe he's almost 2! He is such a delight. He rarely ever cries (unless sister is picking on him). He loves to read books! He is also talking a TON. I'm not sure if it is because he has an older sister or what but he does talk really well for his age. We went for his 18 month check up and were surprised to learn that he had a double ear infection (he's so sweet and never complains we never knew). He's still just a little guy (well in height, in weight not so much)! :) He is in the 10% for height (pretty short) and just below the 50% for weight. He's just now moving into 12 month pants (although 9 months still fit just a tad bit to short).

Annika...hmmm....what can I say about her? We started doing preschool this year (which she LOVES), although we havne't done it in a long time due to just being plain busy. I'm hoping to pick it up after the New Year (wait that's tomorrow...maybe we'll wait a week or two)! :) She always asks to do school and would do WAY more than what is assigned for the day.

We are still working on the house, it is coming slowly, but we're hoping to be in by the end of February (or at least have close to completed). I haven't posted pictures in awhile, there is not much change in what it looks like. We're mostly now working on the rough in plumbing and heating.

David finished up his semester (Central Seminary) at the beginning of December. We were thankful for this since he's had a full plate with working at the church full-time, going to class part-time, working on the house, trying to be a father, and husband, needless to say life has been absolutely CRAZY! But with the ending of classes came more time to spend working on the house and a bit more time to spend with family! He plans on taking one class this spring semester where he will have to travel to Central one day a week (about a 1 hour commute one way), he also plans to take a modular course (meets for one week) later in the spring semester.

For me, not much has been going on. Taking care of the kidlets and helping with the house a bit (I now know how to side)! I also have been teaching 2-4 year old Sunday School at church which I LOVE. My class is cute and they are very good listeners. Other than that my days consist of cleaning, laundry, cleaning, playing with kids, cleaning, organizing, and cleaning (did I mention that?!?). :)

We had a great Christmas which started off down at my mom's house on Friday-Sunday, than we headed to Hudson, Monday-Wednesday (where we met w/ David's mom's side of the family all 31 of us, however we were sad that Geoff and Jenny and Justin couldn't join us, but we will see them later in January! Here is an album of pictures from my facebook account.

I hope you all have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and hope you have a wonderful new years! We are so thankful for the Lord's leading in our life and that His mercies are new every morning of each day of ever year!

May the Lord Bless you in the New Year!

Over a Month...

...that's the last time I posted. I'm sorry!!! :( I have pictures (but am going to link you to them that way I don't have to download them yet again)

Here are the Thanksgiving Pictures from this year! We had a great time!!!

In this over a month we've also gotten snow...LOTS of snow!!!
Here's pictures of the first snow fall and the larger snow fall we got last week.

At the beginning of December our church had it's 9th Annual Christmas Tea (which yours truly was in charge of). Everything went great! We had a total of about 169 ladies that attended. The speaker was great, the special music was fantastic, and the food delicious! I however got no pictures since I was busy seating ladies.

That about sums it up for now. I hope you enjoy the pictures and I'll try and not make it another month before I post again. 

A lot (39 to be exact) of Pictures! Enjoy the slide

I've been pretty behind lately...on a lot of stuff! Enjoy!

Fall Photos of the kids!

A few fall photos of the kids I took the other day!

 This one cracks me up...he's checking' out his socks!

House update...Looks more like a house!

Well I went to "the land" (as we've all been calling it for a very long time) and it didn't look like "just land" anymore. Yesterday morning the builders had the back wall up...that was it, by the evening you could kind of see where everything would be. We took the kids over to see the house and explain where the main rooms would be (the kitchen didn't have a wall up to divide from the entry way yet).

At the beginning of yesterday they had one wall up, this is what they had finished by the end of the day. David is walking up to the house (the garage is on his left).  You can see the front door right next to the garage, the next window is overlooking the stairwell that leads to downstairs, the next window is in Annika's room and the last window is in Van's room.

 

Walking in the front door. 

 

  You are looking at the kitchen (although the wall near the entry is not up yet) and dinning room and part of the living room. The sink will be where the smaller window is at. The other large opening on the same wall is the patio door (that is in the dinning room) and the other opening is the window in the dining room. I had NO idea my windows were going to be that big! I'm very excited about that!!!

Now we're going to head down the hallway!  The first room on the right is Miss Annika's Room.

This is Annika's room. She requested that when we move we bring her bed, toys, and the dog! ;) She also asked that we paint her room purple (like her room here) since we didn't take her up on her wanting to paint the outside of the house purple.  Beyond her room will be a 1/2 bath and a coat closet.

 This is Van's room, it's not as big as it appreas in the photo (don't get me wrong it's not small either) b/c they have not made the wall dividing Annika and Van's room yet. You can see his little closet on the left hand side of the room...he's a boy he only needs a small one right?!? ;)

 This is the master bedroom

 Van is standing in the master closet doorway, next that closet (the thick boards) mark where the master bathroom starts, than behind that you can see (where the window is) the kids/guest bathroom. If you look close you can see kind of a in the corner a blue paper, that will be a corner linen closet.

 This is the basement. There will be 2 more rooms at the end of the hall (where each window is) and an office in between the stair well and the supporting wall (seen in the picture) and the other side of the hallway from the office will be another full bath and the utility room. The rest of the area (not picture b/c I'm standing in it) will be the family room downstairs). We are not planning on finishing the basement off right away.

Hope you enjoyed your tour of what we have done of our house! I'll post more later as the dry wall goes up and such! 

TODAY (10/07) Accomplishments!

At the end of the day the house looked like this!

I believe tomorrow they are going to put the windows in. (Come back and see, I'm sure I'll post another picture).  ;)

Having Fun & House Update

Having Fun!

House Update:

The basement walls are done and now we (David) is working on filling the basement with dirt (so the dirt level is with the footing level. He's also working on the plumbing for the basement. The cinder blocks have been laid for the garage. We are planning for the framers to come on Monday and do the floor tresses, than we have the excavating men coming on Tuesday to do the back fill (putting dirt around the basement and sloping out the landscaping, the framers will continue to frame on Wednesday and the following week we are hoping to get the siding and roofing done. So that is the plan for the next couple of weeks (I'll post pictures as we move forward).

First Day of Pre-K

Annika started her first day of pre-k (we are homeschooling so we didn't have to go far)!

Eating breakfast before school starts...

Showing off her backpack (it doesn't hold her books because it is to small).

Annika Carol Stertz - 3 Years Old - First Day of Pre-K

 Sitting at her "desk." She asked to use her tray while sitting on the couch.

Doing her school work. Following directions while coloring. She did a wonderful job!

Since it was the first day it was pretty easy. She got to listen to a story and than had to answer questions about the story. Then she got to color a bit. Tomorrow we start on the sounds of the letters of the alphabet.

A Few new ones

The first set of pictures are of what's been going on around here. By the way the reason I'm posting on a Sunday during church is b/c I'm home with a sick little guy. I believe he's feeling better, but I want to make sure, he threw up quite a bit last night, but is now happily resting.

The next set of pictures are the progress that has been made on our house. I couldn't remember if I shared that we are building a house. Although I know many of you know that already! But here's a few pictures of the progress. On Friday the Diggers came and dug the basement for us (the kids LOVED watching it) and then the men came and laid the forms for the footings. They are planning on cementing the footings on Monday. They had planned on doing it on Friday, but we have to have a pump truck come in b/c there would be no place (with all the dirt mounds) to put a regular cement truck). David and a couple of men plan on getting the walls put together (we are doing a ICF poured cement block wall...whatever you want to call it) by the end of this coming week.

This is a look of a man who spent all summer cutting and clearing trees, watching a digger pull up a maple tree like it was a tooth pick! ;)

 Donovan Loved the digger

 I woke her up to see the digger

 Getting Started!

 He loved it!

 "We're building a house, Donovan."

 Watching the digger.