Construction Progress...Countertops, Tile and a Rain Barrel!!

Today marks an exciting day for construction of our home. Tonight is the first night that they have started to lock our home when they are done working for the day. Apparently they start to lock up just after they place the counter tops in.



We went to our house the last time on Saturday morning, so today we were so EXCITED to see ALL OF THE PROGRESS. They set our counter tops and our tile floors (in all the bathrooms and the laundry areas) and they hooked up our rain barrel that we just purchased late last week!

Picture of our Kitchen Counter Tops!!

Master Bath Tub!!

Our Rain Barrel!!

View of our House from up the street!

Emily LOVES Shoes!

Lately Emily has REALLY been into grown up shoes! So over the past month or so, every time she puts on a new pair, I have tried to snap a picture!! Now that I have a good variety I wanted to post them!! She is just too cute, I think we have the makings of a SHOE GIRL on our hands!! She is "no respector of shoes" that is for sure!

Mommy's Flip Flops

A Side View

Mommy's Church Shoes!

Daddy's Church Shoes!

Mommers' Green Shoes

Good thing Dooders was right there, to help her steady herself!!

Mommy's Excercise Shoes!

Mommy's Church Shoes Again on a Different Day....I LOVE her expression!

Mommy's Yard Shoes!

Another View of the Beautiful Yard Shoes!

Gotta Love Clogs in the Summertime, right?

Several Pair to Choose From!

Daddy's Brown Shoes...Backwards!

Working Away....Painting and Pouring!

The workers have been busy at our house over the past few days! They have been priming our house and PAINTING the first coat of paint and POURING our patios and walkways! We have only been in twice this week! Since they painted on Tuesday and Thursday we weren't able to go in and look around since the paint fumes were so intense! But they are doing a great job with what we've seen! We were also excited to see the outside yesterday. Micah and I were both happy, because it seemed like it had been a little while since we had seen any improvements to the outside and when we went yesterday we were able to see that they had done A LOT!

We have been wanting a rain barrel for our new house and Micah has been searching around for one. And he came across this company called The Rain Barrel Company based in North Carolina, takes orders and they have certain places they stop at to deliver rain barrels to. He called and the driver was already on the road to VA, luckily they carry a few extra barrels with them~ So, last night we met her (in our Nissan Maxima) and picked up our 50 gallon rain barrel and delivered it to Belvedere so that it can be hooked up! Oh, I am sure it was a sight to see, as I got to squeeze in the back seat between my two girls in their car seats while the rain barrel got to take shot gun, since it was too big for our trunk:) But we all made it safely to Belvedere, rain barrel included, and they should hook it up for us soon!

A Picture from outside our the dining room window of the man all suited up and spraying away!

Back Patio and Sidewalk!

A good shot of the entrance to our basement efficiency that we are going to be renting out to a lucky someone!

Me and My Girls in front of our New Sidewalk!

Emily was Tired, but here we are again and this time you can see all of our sidewalk!

Full View of us girls and the house!

Our Growing Girls!

Both of the Girls had well Doctor Visits yesterday! And much to our surprise they both did GREAT visiting with Dr. Wasserstrom! Emily was a little squirmy, but Haley just sat there and giggled:) What cuties:) Both girls are good and healthy and growing beautifully! Just wanted to share the stats:

Emily Marie

18 Months Old

31 inches tall - 25th Percentile

24 lbs. 10 oz. - 50th Percentile

Head Circumference - 48.5 cm - 90th Percentile ...That's My Girl!!

Haley Elizabeth

4 Months Old

24.2 Inches tall - 50th Percentile

14 lbs. 5.1 oz. - 50th Percentile

Head Circumference - 41 cm - 50th Percentile

Way to Grow Haley Boo!

Cabinets and Doors are in!!

Since Saturday Saturday they have been working on the trim around the windows and doors and they ceilings and they also have been able to install all of our cabinetry on all 3 levels! The only cabinet we are missing now is the one in the half bathroom on the main level! We are really impressed at the speed and accuracy and willingness of the workers to accommodate us! They are doing a great job, and we are pleased to have them working on OUR home:)

Kitchen Cabinetry

View of the Kitchen Cabinets from the Dining Room!

Cabinets in our efficiency in the basement!


Just some of the doors that they have installed....these happen to be all the doors that you can see from our inside of our bedroom!

They had ordered the wrong back door, so the new one, with the correct swing, just arrived!

SubFloor, Porches and Boxes!

We hadn't gone to see our house since Tuesday, so since we missed visiting on Wednesday we thought it was high time we pay another visit to our future home and neighborhood! Micah couldn't come with us because he had to go out with the missionaries, so I asked Mommers and Dooders to meet us over there so that we could go in and take a look around! (Since we don't have banisters for our stairs yet I don't feel quite comfortable with Emily running around freely:)
It was nice to sneak in an extra visit with Mommers and Dooders and to see all of the progress the workers have made in the last 2 days!! Our porches are nearing completion, we have front steps, and subfloors for the areas that are going to be tiled!
I was so excited to see all of the progress, to show Mommers and Dooders around and take good pictures home to Micah so that he could envision all of the progress too! Each day our house seems more and more like ours! It will be exciting to move in and make it our home!

Dooders and Emily waving out in front of our house!

Another close-up of the double porches (and Emily and Dooders doing "nosey nosey"!)

The Girls bathroom is ready for tile!

Our Front Porch has steps now!! Exciting Times, now we don't have to walk a balance beam to get up there or pull ourselves up on the side of the porch!

I liked this shot, because it shows all that is about to happen!! Our appliances, our window framing, our counter tops, or counters and more!! All ready and waiting to be set up and used!

Our House is Coming Together Nicely!

This past week as we have gone to our new home we have watched how the workers have been so diligently working on the drywall! There are a lot of steps that go into dry walling, Micah and I had no idea! So, the inside walls are still in that process, while the outside is progressing too! Two things that are new from the outside are #1 We have a door for our upper porch now, which I LOVE and #2 The roof of the upper porch is almost complete, except for painting. Overall, our house is looking really nice. And we just confirmed yesterday that we will close on our new home on Friday August 20, 2010 and our closing attorney's office will be Tucker Griffin Barnes (where I used to work as a receptionist up until Emily was born in December of 2008!). A lot of work to be done, but in the end it will be so worth it!!

Haley and I in front of our house!!

Another View of the Roof and the porches (and if you zoom in you can see the upper porch door too!)

Haley is a Rice Cereal Eater Now!!

Well, since Haley turned 4 months old last week Micah and I decided to go ahead and get her started on Rice Cereal. We have only done it once so far, this past Sunday July 11, 2010 was her first time, but she really enjoyed it!! One thing we learned from Emily was not to give them the cereal when they are really hungry because then you can move the spoon fast enough and she gets frustrated because she doesn't quite know how to swallow it yet.....so I nursed her and then about an hour later we gave her the rice cereal! She was in a great mood and thinks she is SUCH a BIG GIRL now!!

Even though feeding babies solid food is tough at first because you have to be so vigilant, and I swore that I wasn't going to start Haley on solids as early as Emily, we couldn't resist on Sunday! And it just made our hearts happy to watch her learning and trying something new! She is one sharp little baby and I love her to pieces!!

Haley all prepared for her first try of Rice cereal!

As you can see, she is a Fan!

Learning how to swallow

Some came back out, but not much:)

Four Months Old and So Full of Personality!

Haley turned FOUR MONTHS OLD on the 9th of July! She is such a joy to our family. She truly brings out the good and the happiness in all 3 of us! You can't help but smile when you look at this sweet little princess! She has learned many things in her short life of 4 months. And here are just a few that we picked up on over the last month:

~ She has started to reach for things more now, both with her hands and with her feet! She loves being able to make her toys that play music play now!
~ She fell asleep (after about 25 minutes of fussing) on her own, in her pack n play on Thursday night!! That was quite the accomplishment for Haley. Up until this point she has always been rocked to sleep and placed in her bed fast asleep!
~ She has also started to take her afternoon naps in her pack-n-play too....instead of by the front door in her car seat....another huge accomplishment for our little Honey "B"
~ She enjoys listening as we read books now! It is so fun to watch her stare at each page:)
~ She laughs A LOT and A LOT more easily now too!
~ She has started to make more talking sounds now, I think she really enjoys hearing her own voice! She has started "talking" to herself when she wakes up instead of crying....a nice change that is for sure!!
~ She is also a Champion Sleeper! She has been sleeping through the night for about a month now and she usually sleeps from 10pm until around 9 am!! Although last night we put her to bed at 9pm and it is already 8:15am and she is still sleeping!! Love it!!

Overall Haley is growing so beautifully and is developing quite the little personality of her own! She knows what she wants and is not afraid to share her opinions! We love her and are so happy to have her add her own little spice to our little family of four!

Haley and her Bear!!

I love every ounce of this little baby!! I think it is great how she has her legs crossed in this picture too!

Another Adorable Shot with her good friend the pink bear!

Now for some Sister shots....Emily is so careful to be gentle with her Haley!

Emily is such a good big sister and Haley is such a good little sister! These two were made for each other!

Mommy and her Happy Girl!!

Daddy and His Little Haley Boo!

Our Most Recent Family Shot!! (As you can tell we have 2 girls who LOVE to Drool!)

Gray Family Picture Time Once Again!

We don't get up to NOVA to visit with Micah's family nearly as much as we used to now that Haley has come along...there's a lot of extras to carry with two kiddos ya know? But nonetheless, we were excited to head up for a visit during the last weekend of June!! We were excited to get to visit with Micah's sister, Rachel (as she was visiting from CA), and also to get to meet our newest niece Lily!
It was a great trip, always full of adventure as we travel with our two little girls!! We won't even mention the excitement that comes along with them sleeping in new places:) We even brought Haley's pack-n-play with us and she still felt it necessary to scream until midnight! I am telling you that little baby can protest when she wants to!! Emily did pretty well adjusting. She only screamed for about 5 minutes and then she was out for the night!
Also on that Saturday we got to spend a few hours playing with our nieces and nephews (the girls' cousins) while Nathan and Sarah went to the temple:) There were some pretty crazy moments as we did our best to take care of 7 children!! Overall, everyone was obedient and we had a good time together! And most importantly Nathan and Sarah had a nice time at the temple together!! (And we got to go back the next weekend and they watched our girls while we went to the temple!).

Now for some pictures from overnight trip!

Emily playing with her cousin, Abigail! Gotta get the lamb all ready for a ride!

Our Sister in Law, Sarah, was gracious enough to get some photos of our girls!! And so I just wanted to share a handful of our favorites!! (Okay, so maybe more than a handful, but I LOVE pictures of my girls!).

Haley Looking Up from her Tummy!

That Smile Melts My Heart!

Another Cute One!

I Love Haley's Toes!

Such a Good Girl and So Happy to Have Her Picture Taken!

Emily wasn't quite in the mood to smile, but she is still as beautiful as ever!

I love this! I wonder what she was thinking about?

ALMOST smiling in the rocking chair!

I know Sarah was working hard to get her to smile! Emily's expressions just crack me up!

Bring in the little sister and everything changes!

Haley looks like she is having a good time and Emily looks like she is about to make a run for it at any second!

All of the Gray/Reid Cousins!

Mummis with all of her grandchildren! (This picture was a little chaotic, it may have had more success if it was at the beginning of the photo shoot!)

Another Great Photo!!

A Group Shot!