Construction Continues...We have Basement Steps Now!

Micah and I drove by to see the progress on our new home Friday evening at the start of our date and at first we thought no progress had been made, and then we noticed.....WE HAVE BASEMENT STEPS now! The next step is to start putting up the framing. And we recently found out that our framing package is on order. So, as soon as that arrives, we will really start seeing our house build up quickly!! We will keep you posted though......

View of our house from the back side!

Our Basement Steps!

A close-up of the cement steps! Nice, huh?

Playing in the Back Yard!

At times yards can be a pain and at other times they can also be very helpful and fun! When we move to our new house our back yard will be very small, but that is okay because the neighborhood will be bigger and more kid-friendly! Right now our yard is BIG and we have to mow and weed eat a lot, but that is okay too!

Right now we are enjoying some summer fun in our daughters' first back-yard! I took the girls out yesterday afternoon since it was so hot and we sat in our back yard on a blanket in the shade (well mainly I sat, Haley layed and Emily ran around)! I also filled up a bucket of water for Emily to splash around in and she really enjoyed it! As a matter of fact I think one of her favorite things for right now might be splashing in the water! It was just really nice to be able to relax and watch my girls "soak up the sun". I couldn't help feeling an overwhelming wave of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to live in that moment! I just love receiving tender mercies from Heavenly Father and how those tender mercies strengthen my testimony! Life is Good and Summer time is fun! I am glad I have such a cute family to enjoy it with!

Haley taking an afternoon "snappy nappy" on the blanket outside!

Emily inspecting the bucket of water!

My Girls Have Some of the Greatest Expressions! Like this one!

Emily's new bathing suit, from the back side!

Here's the front!

Our afternoon wouldn't be complete without "kisses for Haley"!

Yesterday evening Micah put Emily's white blanket around her and she enjoyed taking larger steps around the kitchen as she held on to her paper! What a little ham:)

All Covered in her white silky blanket!

Day TEN....We have a Basement Floor!!

We have been waiting and waiting and when we got to our new home site this afternoon, what a beautiful site it was! We now have a concrete basement floor! It is really starting to look more and more like a home! And this already has been such a wonderful journey for us as a family! We enjoy taking a trip to Belvedere (almost daily) and seeing the progress as well as dreaming about our future plans! It is so wonderful to have such supportive family members too that continue to help make our dreams become reality and our little girls are making this experience all the more sweet! We love our new home already!! (Have I said that before? Anyway, it's still true!!)

A view from the side of our home so far!

The Basement Floor!

The concrete slabs that will, one day, support our front porch!

Playing in the Sun!

Yesterday the girls and I went into town to play with their cousin, Eliza! Dooders watches her on Wednesdays while her Mommy has to work! And her and Emily absolutely LOVE each other so it's good bonding time for them!!

It was a hot summery day yesterday! We spent part of the morning inside playing around and watching some Baby Einstein videos. And then after lunch (lunch is ALWAYS a fun time with two almost 17 month olds) we headed to the back yard so that the girls could play on the swing set and try out the new water table that Mommers and Dooders just bought recently! Needless to say, the water table was a HUGE hit! They LOVED it! And I think it helped them be able to stay outside a little longer since it was shaded by a huge umbrella and they both THOROUGHLY enjoyed getting wet!!! Haley even liked dipping her feet in the water too! We love play dates, but play dates with cousins are THE BEST!!

Haley looking a little concerned all sprawled out on the floor!

The girls at their water table!

Eliza loved to pour the water out onto the ground!! (See the red cup nearby?)

Dooders with the Girls (Both girls look to be contemplating their next move!)

PRICELESS!

Everyone likes to watch the water fall...even Dooders!

Eliza's new skill.... climbing the ladder!

I sure LOVE this face!!

And this one!

Haley wasn't quite sure what to think of the water at first!

She got a little more used to it as each minute passed!

Swinging and Talking...there's nothing like it!

Day NINE ....The Gravel in DOWN and the Pests have been Treated!

I went by our future home site last night before heading home from a long day in town. I was SO HAPPY to see some progress had been made on our home yesterday!! It looks like they have finished laying and spreading all of the gravel out on the "ground level", put plastic down and treated for possible pests!! Good Times!

View from an angle

Front View of the Basement Level of our House! Gonna be cute, huh?

LOVED this little pink sign, and notice that I didn't "remove it, I just slid it out:)

Emily Swings and Talks!

Last night we took yet another trip in to Belvedere to check on the progress of our house, there was none that we could see yesterday though, but we decided to take a walk and let Emily get out at the little park and play! She LOVES the baby swing and wants to swing in it every time we are there for almost the whole time. Well, yesterday Micah decided to put her on the big swing to see how she would react and although she seemed very cautious she LOVED it and thought she was such a BIG GIRL! Especially since one of the little girls who lives in the neighborhood, who is 7, was there swinging too! She kept looking at her and grinning the whole time! She is growing up way too fast! She just gets more adorable by the day!

Big Girl on the Big Swing!

Getting a Little More Confident and Comfortable!

An Adorable Video of Emily talking on the way to Belvedere last night! She is just SO FUNNY! I love her little voice already!




Sorry we don't have any pictures or videos of Haley in this post ~ she slept pretty much the whole time last night. But soon, I will post more of Haley's adorable momens too! I promise!

Day Eight..... Sewage Pipes!

Since yesterday was such a crazy day (weather wise) we weren't sure if they were going to be able to do any work on our house or not. One minute it looked like it was going to pour down rain and the next minute it looked like a perfect day for a play date! So, needless to say, we were excited when we pulled up yesterday afternoon and and saw this......


Gotta love sewer pipes! And normally I wouldn't call it a beautiful site, but since this is OUR new home, I will call it just that, a Beautiful Site!

Making Perparations to Pour the Basement Floor!

When we went to check the progress on our house on Friday evening this is what we saw!!
Micah, Emily and I all thought it was pretty cool to see this little digger down in our "basement hole" and wondered how in the world they got it down in there? But nonetheless, this is part of Friday's process to prepare the concrete to be poured on the basement floor. They also dug the drainage ditch and filled it in with the drain pipe and (since we are in VA) red clay! Exciting times! We can't wait to see what progress they Make on Monday (as long as it doesn't rain on their parade!!).

Also here's another side view of the progress, and also so we can get a view of our neighbor's home!! They are really coming along on it (and the inside looks AMAZING too)! They are supposed to close sometimes in the next week or two!

A Fun Summer Evening!

We don't get to see my Dad and my step-mom much during the summer months, because every one's schedule is so crazy. So we were excited when my dad called yesterday afternoon and invited us up! Luckily we didn't have any plans so we were able to head up to Crozet for the evening! We had a nice time and enjoyed talking and playing and catching up on life with members of our family that we don't get to see to often:) It was a great night! And a perfect night to spend some time outside and that is just what we did too! We had our dinner first and then we all headed out so the girls could play and we could all eat some ice cream and chit chat! I am so grateful for nice, relaxing evenings, and the opportunity that we get to enjoy them every once in a while!

Emily enjoying some ice cream with Daddy!

My Two SERIOUS ice cream eaters!

Haley enjoying some shoulder time with Pop!

Avery LOVED her ice cream cone too! Can you tell by the big grin on her face?

You've got to bite the ice cream cone "just so"!!

After her ice cream our little chocolate princess spotted an airplane, and Daddy saw it too!

I love getting giggles from my little Honey "B"!

Can you tell Avery LOVES to ride her bike?

Emily was beginning to get used to the feel of Avery's big girl bike! Good thing Pop was there to keep her steady:)

Gaining a Little More Confidence! I LOVE that smile!

The Tar is ON:)

There's not a whole lot to update right now, but we did go by there yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and we saw that all of the tar was up on the foundation! I guess they need to wait for that to dry, before they can continue! Hopefully we will see more progress this afternoon! We will keep you posted!!

Tarred Foundation!

Construction Continues!

We took another trip to Belvedere yesterday afternoon and saw that the foundation walls are complete!! We are excited! Next comes the basement floor and then they will start building up! We even got to meet our first neighbor yesterday. She lives in the town home just to the left of us! Our house is starting to take form and it's looking more and more like the bottom of a home, our home!!

Here's a Shot from the front side!

Here's a shot from our neighbor's porch! As you can see we still don't have a basement floor yet:)

We had to snap this photo of the guy spraying the tar on our foundation walls! We were so exciting to actually SEE someone WORKING on OUR HOME!

A Fun Weekend As a Family!

I don't know if your family is at all like ours, but it is very rare that we have a weekend to spend that is not already all planned out for us. Well, this weekend was just that for us! For once in a LONG time, this past weekend we didn't really have any "have to's", which made it super nice. And the weather was Great, so we got to play and spend quite a bit of time together outside too! Our girls are getting more and more fun by the day. Emily is starting to be more verbal and she is "as sharp as a tack". And our little Haley is starting to smile a lot more and she is even beginning to laugh and coo! Her and Emily love to entertain each other already!

Here's a Picture of Haley on Friday morning just after I got her dressed for the day, she was just laying back on our pillows just Smiling Away! Love that little Tongue too!

Here's Emily sportin' one of her new summer outfits, as she is checking out all of her other clothes as they are hanging up to dry!


On Saturday afternoon we decided to go by Kroger to pick up a couple of things, and on the way in we stopped at Belvedere to take a little walk around the neighborhood and play at the little playground!

Here's Emily looking Cool in her Sunglasses and Hat, All Ready for a Stroll through the neighborhood!


Here's Haley sporting her sunglasses too! I love putting sunglasses on little babies! Their expressions are priceless because they don't realize what is actually on their face!

Of course we could pass by and not let Emily have a little "swing time" on the swing set!

And ever since Mommers and Dooders got their new swing set she LOVES going down the slide!

One of Haley's favorite things to do is to take a bath and she thoroughly enjoys bath time in the kitchen sink for now. Although she is soon going to be to big for the sink! But I LOVE having bath time with her, because she is so happy (in spite of the expression on her face in this photo she was actually having a fun time)! I am sure she will love the baby tub just as much!

Another Close Up of our Adorable Little "Honey B"!

On Saturday afternoon when we got back home from running errands, we decided to water the plants! And boy did Emily enjoy herself! She loved holding the hose, and making the water come out! But her most favorite time was when I filled up a big bucket of water, she LOVED and I mean LOVED splishing and splashing! She got soaking wet, but it was a warm day and it didn't matter!

Here we are watering her little tomato plant together!

After she came inside and got changed and warmed up, she was ready to work again. So she saw the broom sitting out and went to work! She seriously scaled all of our floors! She is such a good helper already!

On Sunday morning she looked so adorable in one of her new dresses that we had to snap a few pictures! I love this shot, just as she is preparing to climb the side of the cabinet!

Another Cute Shot!

I love her expression in this one!

Happy to Have a New Sippy Cup!

Since both girls were happy at the same time, we thought we would take advantage of it and get a little photo shoot in. And since Haley was in her crib and Emily LOVES to get into Haley's crib it worked out nicely for everyone! And Haley only seemed a little nervous!

Emily LOVES being a Big Sister and Haley LOVES having a Big Sister!

Haley is such a little Ham! I love the look on her face!

We were so blessed to have this wonderful weekend together! And we are looking forward to another one soon! There's nothing like spending time together with three of my favorite people in the whole world! When I reflect back on just a little over two years ago and how Micah and I weren't sure we were going to ever be able to have children I feel so blessed to look back and see that Heavenly Father indeed had a very special plan for us and that these two precious daughters were a part of that plan! Timing is everything, and trusting in Heavenly Father's time table, even though it is difficult to do at times, can also be one of our greatest blessings! I am so grateful that I can be together with my family forever!