Vacation In The Addition

Early this year, our home addition project looked like this from the outside.

Daniel's work has been exceptionally busy this past year and it has been hard for him to make great bounds of progress, but slowly and surely he has been able to get the plumbing, wiring and insulation finished, and this past week Daniel took a week of "vacation" from his paying job to work on another big step of addition progress: drywall!!





With some help from a guy at church (and his wife and a friend of theirs), Daniel's brother, Daniel's dad, and two other guys who gave us some of their time, almost all of the drywall was hung!!  All that's left is a few minor detail stuff.  "The guy" from church is also going to do the mudding for us, which is a huge help.



On Monday, Daniel and my brother (Glen, who was spending the week with us) finished getting everything ready for the drywall.  On Tuesday morning, they went to two friends' houses and picked up extra drywall that they had leftover from their own projects and were giving to us!  This is how much free-to-us drywall we had:

Soon after they got home, I noticed some dark stormclouds rolling in and went out to suggest that the drywall be brought in ASAP.  Then the wind started to blow, so we all worked together and hustled the drywall in just in the nick of time!

Daniel and Glen (on the left) working to clear

the living room of all of the tools Daniel had been using.

Looking into the foyer from the new living room.
(Also looking at the old front door.)
Stairs to 2nd floor on right, along with a foyer closet
to the left of the stairs.

Looking into the Living Room from the foyer.
I know it looks huge, but we have a piano and an organ to 

fit in here along with whatever "normal" living room furniture we'll have.

View from the other side of the living room.
Foyer on the left, stairs (wood-stove will go on the L/Rm. side of the stairs),
doorway to a downstairs "bonus" room on the right.

In the bonus room (downstairs).
This will most likely be a toy room and eventually

morph into a school-room and/or office.

Under the stairs is going to be a storage closet.

Hauling the sheet-rock upstairs was a 3-man job as it had to go

out the door, then back in and up the stairs.

We have a den upstairs. :-)  This room will be an

informal living room and where our t.v. will be since we didn't 

want it in the main living room.  The little "nook" over on the far

side is where I hope to set up my sewing machine, or possibly

have a nice reading corner.  It has south and west facing windows 

and is positively lovely!

View of the den from the sewing nook.
L-R: Doorway to master bedroom, closet, (stairs), doorway 

to 2nd bedroom/nursery.

Upstairs nursery/2nd bedroom.  I *love* the closet all the way across

the end of this smaller room!!

View of master bedroom from the master-bath doorway.
Doorway from den is right at the left edge of the picture, the 

walk-in closet is down on the left.

On Thursday and Friday they got almost all of the downstairs walls up!

This is the living room in progress.

I didn't get many more pictures taken, but on Saturday the "drywall guy" was able to put on the first coat of mud on all of the upstairs ceilings.  It was greatly encouraging to see it coming together so quickly!  This week is a bit of a lull, but hopefully things can keep progressing and soon be ready for paint!




I'm afraid Daniel didn't have much of a vacation, but I am really proud of him for giving a week of his vacation time to forward the progress of our house!!  I am SO looking forward to having more space and I am especially excited about the closet space... and the attic space that will be easily accessed through fold-down attic stairs. :-)  {Currently you have to climb a step-ladder and hoist yourself into the existing attic.  Not something I like to do at all as I'm just short enough that it is very precarious.}

During this week I stayed busy with my regular mothering and housework chores (as best as I could!) and also making and fixing meals for everyone who was there.  I stayed hoppin' busy, but I enjoyed it even though I was dog-tired at the end of each very long day.

Anyway, our life continues to be anything but dull and boring. :-)  Thanks for coming for the tour!

Tiny Talk Tuesday ~ July 2012

This could also be titled "The Adventures of Susannah"
These are some snippets I've collected over the past several weeks.  Enjoy!!

Today in the middle of lunch, Susannah reached over and grabbed my hand.  Then she said "pay first" (pray first).  I was a bit puzzled because we had already prayed for lunch.  Then she started praying!

"Dear Djesus, tait-too nunch.  Eat now.  Sing?"

She forgot the "amen" between her prayer and statement that we could "eat now", then she wanted to sing a song (sometimes we sing before or after we pray for a meal).  WARMED MY HEART!!  This is the first time she has "prayed" all by herself.

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Sometimes Susannah still likes to be carried.  When she wants us to carry her, she says "Tarry you-you-you-you?"  

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Last week my sister gave us some corn on the cob and I fixed it for our supper.  It was the first COTC that Susannah has eaten this year.  I had to reminder her to not bite into it too far (into the cob) and to move her mouth around on the cob to get more corn. :-)  Towards the end of supper, I glanced over and noticed the END of the cob was missing (the ears were young and the pointy end didn't have any edible corn on it).  Then I noticed that she seemed to have a mouth full of food.  Upon investigation, I discovered that she had bitten the end of the cob off and was chewing it!  I had her spit it out and we had a good chuckle.  I then explained to her that the cob was food for the pigs, not for us to eat. :-)

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Trying to get Susannah to say "horse" with the H sound, I was saying "Huh-huh-huh HORSE".  She would say "Huh-huh-huh WORSE!"

Yellow = "Lallow"

Spoon is still "stoom"  :-)

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Susannah is an imitator, through and through.  Last evening we were in the kitchen and I heard her "reading".  I turned around to see what she was doing, and she was holding my pocket calendar book in front of her, opened facing out, reading to a stuffed animal that was on the floor in front of her.  I asked her if that's what they do in her class (Sunday School) and she said "God's Word, BIBLE!"

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Susannah now wears "special car panties" for naps and bedtime ("Cars" pull-ups).  Most of the time I don't put her shorts or pants on her for her nap so she sleeps in just her shirt and pull-ups.  This afternoon when I got her up from her nap, I noticed that she had put on her pajama bottoms.  I asked her about it... and then noticed that it sure seemed like she didn't have anything on underneath her pajama bottoms!  I asked her where her "car panties" were, and she said "hiding!"  Then she moved a toy on her bed to reveal her pull-ups and said "peek-boo!"  Then she went on to explain to me that she had done some "lallow" (yellow... what she calls #1 when she does it in her little potty or pull-ups) in the car panties and then took them off.  I told her that next time she could take her car panties off first and use her little potty. :-)

Sylvia ~ 4 months

My, the days are flying by and I have so much that I want to remember!!  Sylvia is growing like a weed and changing, learning and exploring equally fast.  Here are a few pictures and snippets of the past month-ish of her life.

She continues to suck the middle two fingers of her right hand for comfort and to fall asleep.  Sometimes when I go to feed her, she keeps her fingers in her mouth and just starts sucking harder... silly girl. :-)  I have to take her fingers out of her mouth for her so she'll eat from the real food-source. :-)

She could spend a long time playing on her play-mat, holding the ball or fingering the toys hanging from it.  Now she has outgrown it... or "out-rolled it" would be a more accurate statement. :-) She rolls easily from her back to her stomach, but mostly reserves stomach-to-back rolling for in her bed.

Visiting with her cousin, Rachel, who is about 2 months younger.

2 sweet people:  Mrs. Fawley and Sylvia.  Mrs. Fawley has always been a special person in my life and it is a sweet blessing to me that she can meet my own girls.

My mom and Sylvia at my sister's baby shower.

Baths.  Oh my goodness, does Sylvia love BATHS!!  She is like a slippery fish in the bathtub.  Keeping her on her back is like trying to keep a ballon standing on it's "pointy end"!  Towards the end of each bathtime I end up having to use one arm, elbow-to-hand, to "pin her down" on her back while I wash her with the other hand.  Otherwise she flips over onto her stomach in the blink of an eye.  Most of her bathtime she spends with the lower half of her body twisted, trying to roll over. :-)  She loves wiggling and being on her tummy in the bathtub.  After I'm finished washing her, I do let her "play" on her tummy for a bit, keeping my hand under her chin so she doesn't stick her face down in the water. :-)

She likes to spend some time reading.  Here she is reading The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  :-)

In the past week or so, she has really developed her grasping skills.  This duck is probably her favorite toy.  {An aside about this picture:  Since she was no longer using the swing as a "swing" but only as a place to sit and play, we packed up the swing to open up valuable floor space.  Now her sitting time takes place in her car-seat. It's easier to move from room-to-room, too. :-) }

Catching some fresh air and vitamin D!  With the super-toasty weather we're having this summer, she doesn't got outside very much or for very long. 

Trying out the Bumbo seat!!  She is still pretty wobbly in it, so I usually jam some towels or a stuffed animal beside her so she doesn't topple over.  She loves to sit in it, though!  Here she is seeing a new angle of her gym toys. :-)

So sweet in her sleep.  She is eating 5 times a day and sleeping through the nights very well.  Her last feeding is usually between 9:30 and 10pm, and then she sleeps till about 7:30am (sometimes a little later, sometimes a little earlier).  She wakes up (or I'll get her up) and eats, then plays until close to 2 hours have passed since waking up, then she takes about a 2 hour nap.  Between her evening and night feeding, she usually doesn't take a nap.  By that time her sleep tank is pretty well filled up, so she usually eats about 7/7:30 and then again about 9:30 or 10.

One thing about her naptimes:  It is not unusual for her to wake up around the 50-60 minute mark into her naptimes.  For about a week I thought she was waking up hungry, and I was feeding her all. the. time.  It was not a schedule either of us liked very well.  Then I got wise and decided to see if she would go back to sleep.  Sure enough, she does.  It is amazing what a little bit of training can do. :-)  She almost never wakes up un-happy, and often times I go in to get her up having heard no noise from her, and she's just lying there awake and sucking her fingers.

Ironically, as I'm typing this, she has woken up in the middle of her nap and I don't think she's going back to sleep.  :-)  At her lunchtime feeding she was more interested in looking around than eating, I think that is catching up to her now!

She is still wearing some 3-6 mo. clothes but 6 mo. clothes are fitting her nicely.  She has her 4 mo. checkup next week, so I don't have any current stats on her yet.

She is very smiley, and a pretty quiet girl.  Just in the last 2 days she has discovered how to blow raspberries.  That is a favorite pass-time for her now, and yesterday she spent much of her afternoon wake-time on her tummy, fist jammed into her mouth, "singing" and blowing raspberries.  I tried to get it on video, but by the time I thought to get the camera she was about finished.  I got a few seconds of it.  :-)  She is very cute and silly looking with her cheeks all puffed out.

Our Life in Pictures

Wow, I feel like it's been forever since I've written a blog post!  I don't want too much time to pass without writing down some memories and sharing some photos, so this is a quick, photo-filled post.

Sylvia is loving her play-mat lately.  I think the other day she realized she has feet... or maybe just that feet appear every once in a while. :)  She been trying to grab them lately.

Susannah was having room-time one day, and while it's not unusual for her to be quiet (usually coloring) for a part of those 30 minutes, on this day I thought it was just TOO quiet.  I peeked in to find her slathering herself with diaper cream!  She had opened one of her dresser drawers (which she is not supposed to do) and found a tube.  I was glad that she mostly had it on her skin where I could wash it off fairly easily.  She thought it was exciting!

A few weeks ago when Daniel was gone ALL. DAY. LONG. every day of the week (he was on call) and Susannah and I were both getting antsy from not seeing Daddy, I introduced her to markers (washable!!).  She LOVES her markers!  She does pretty good about not getting them on her clothes or writing on her skin.  I just have to go behind her and recap them after she's finished since she can't quite get the lids back on them yet.  She loves to draw "grass" (zig-zags), "water" and "rainbows".  Ovals are also something she draws a lot of, and generally she does pretty well getting the oval shape accomplished. :-)

Sylvia is just as cute as ever.  This is how she sucks her fingers much of the time.  A friend at church made this blanket for Sylvia (it has pink elephants on it) and it is my favorite blanket of Sylvia's.  I'm hoping that if she has a favorite blanket it will be this one.

A day or two after the huge dorecho storm that swept the east coast two weekends ago, we had another smaller storm come through.  It dumped the largest hail I've seen here yet for about 5 minutes.  (By the way, we did not have any damage or lose power from the dorecho, though many friends and family throughout the state had quite a bit of damage.)

Daniel went out and brought a few hailstones inside.  It was neat to see the layers in the largest one (on the right).

July 4th!!  The previous week we had barely seen Daniel at all, so we were happy for a relaxing day with ALL of us home, together.  That evening we took Susannah and Sylvia to their first fireworks show.

Susannah wanted to walk around or sit in my lap most of the show, seemingly not really interested in the fireworks after the first 5 minutes.  Then after they were over she was begging and begging for "more sparky red?" and all but crying when she had to get in the car to come home.

Susannah has been interacting more with Sylvia lately, and it is fun to watch them together. :)

The past few weeks held some blazing hot temperatures for us.  While this thermometer is probably a degree or two off, this shows that it really was very, very hot.  I looked a the thermostat and saw "104" and decided to grab the camera.  While I was getting the camera it bumped up to 105, then 106.  While I was taking pictures it went up to 107 for a few seconds, but I missed that.  Then it dropped back down to 106, then 105.  HOT.  Laundry dried quickly those days!!  The only reason I went outside on those days was to hang the laundry, and only to do that because I couldn't bear the thought of heating up the house with running the dryer!

Tired of being cooped up in the house, I made a little pool for Susannah to ply in under a shade tree.  She loved it!  I wished I could fit in one, too. :-) She played with her bath-tub toys, most often making soup, or mayonnaise, stirring it 'round and 'round with her spoon (or "stoom" as she still says).  She would say "stirt up!"  :-)

And that's a little peek into our past few weeks of life.  :-)  I hope to get some more posts up before too long.  Really.