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.

A Few Video Clips (Pictures to come later)

Annika's been into making up her own songs lately (the only problem is we can't understand her...well some of the words and the songs just don't make sense). But I love her facial expressions in this short clip!



Here's a clip of Van and Annika singing together.



Note: She didn't get him at the end...mom got to them before the girl could do anything! ;)

And here's a recent one of the Van-man walking. While he can now walk, crawling is still his preferred method of transportation (it's faster with a lot less bumps)! ;)

Almost a month....I'm Sorry!

Wow it's really been almost a month since I last posted! I apologize for that! We've been pretty busy. On our way back from Chetek earlier this month we had a man pull out in front of us on Highway 8 (if you know the Hwy it's pretty busy and can be quite dangerous), praise the Lord no one was hurt! But it did mean that we needed to find a new (which we still haven't done). Also we are getting everything in order to start building our house. David has cleared almost all the land (with some help) and we are closing on our loan today! Which means we hope to break ground by next week (if that changes I'll let you know).

Now on a video and some pictures...

First off is our Van-man (can you believe he's going to be 15 months old tomorrow...b/c I can't!!) Oh and no walking yet, he's taken up to 5 steps, but I think he just likes teasing mommy! ;)

He does however LOVE to dance (go figure). We have the movie "Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princess" which is one of Annika's favorites (b/c she can ballet dance), but I think it's one of Van's favorites also as whenever it comes on he comes right to where it's playing and watches (and eventually starts dancing). He's got the ballet moves down! ;) Poor guy he's doomed w/ an older sister! Although I don't think he minds all that much! Daddy can even whistle the song and he starts dancing (no matter where he is). It's quite funny!





Now for some pictures!
First is a set of Donovan! Because they were too cute not to share. Annika came and said "Mom, Donovan pulled out all his clothes from the drawer."

And the last batch of pictures!