We have drywall!

Last weekend Karsten and friends/family got to work putting up all that drywall we had delivered.  It looks great!  So nice to see drywall up.  Here are a few pictures.

 Jackson's room

 I'm standing in the loft area at the top of the stairs, the door goes into our bedroom.

 Tristan's room

 Our bedroom, southwest view

 Our bedroom, looking towards the bathroom and closet

 Kitchen

living room

We had some great help this weekend and are so glad they'll come and help us out.

Hopefully the next pictures will be of more walls done, that's what he's doing today and tomorrow.

Karsten's birthday

Karsten's birthday was over a week ago.  It's been a super busy week so I am just now getting pictures up.  After picking up the boys one day we stopped at Farm and Home to pick out his birthday presents.  I started this last year and they just loved getting to pick out what they give their dad.  Jackson had in his head that his dad needed a new big pocket knife so that is what he found.  Tristan started out wanting to get him a hammer but I think he got overwhelmed at the selection at the store.  He ended up picking out some clamps that he was sure his dad needed.  We then stopped at the grocery store to pick out a cake mix (no home made cakes in this house).  Last Friday we got to work before the birthday boy got home. 

 Jackson busy decorating his wrapping paper.

 Tristan's all ready for the birthday boy to get home!

 They picked out a pink cake, of course.  Here they are busy decorating the cake with all the sprinkles you could ask for.

 Our finished product

 They attacked him when he walked in the door.  They were so excited to give him their gifts and cards.

 Such wonderful presents!

Love this one, everybody blowing out the candles.

We had arranged for a sitter for that evening as well and met up with some friends for supper.  It was a very nice evening with friends visiting.  Hope Karsten had a great 34th birthday!

Special Delivery

We received a pretty big delivery yesterday out at the farmhouse.  It's the moment I've been waiting for for a long time now....

IT'S DRYWALL!!!

I have seriously been waiting for this for a while now.  Karsten has been working his butt off out there but it hasn't been the big noticeable stuff, ya know.  I'm very anxious for some drywall to go up because then it finally looks like something.  He's lined up some helpers for the weekend so hopefully they can get a lot done.  I have to work this weekend so I can't wait to see what all they've accomplished.

Oh, and by the way, this isn't even all of what we've ordered :)

Heat please...

Back to the farmhouse updates.  Once again, there's not much BIG news to report out there.  Karsten has been very busy continuing to work on running the heat lines.  I didn't realize this took so long but after spending a little time out there, I understand a little more.  Almost all of the exterior walls have insulation in them and he has started to put the plastic barrier up as well.

 This is looking into the downstairs bathroom.  It used to be Grandpa's bedroom.  See the heat pipes?  We plan to make a built-in closet area on that wall to cover the pipes.

This is the other side of that wall.  This is part of the addition, there actually used to be a tree in that corner as well as a chimney.   This room is an entryway and we plan to have a laundry area in this corner.  

 Can anybody guess what these boxes have in them??  You guessed it!  Kitchen cabinets!!  They were delivered on Valentine's Day.  I know, I know we are soooo not ready for them.  But, I didn't want to have to wait for them when we are ready.  It's also kind of nice to spread out the expenses a little.  Whew!  I peeked in one of them and am very pleased with what we picked out.   Can't.wait.for.my.kitchen.

And now just a couple pictures of what the boys do when we are all out there....

 Riding bikes thru the house, they love this!  Hope it's not a major issue when they have to stop!

Then they decided these bags of insulation looked like good horseys...

As you can see we are still working really hard out there!  

birthday party

We celebrated Tristan's 3rd birthday last night with our usual family gathering.  On the menu was lasagna, garlic bread, veggies with dip, strawberries and black olives.  As usual, we had a great evening with family.

 Tristan originally told me he wanted a "candy cake".  I think his brother helped him with this idea.  I googled candy cake and found a picture pretty similar to this.  All I had to do was show it to my friend and coworker Jeri Kay and this is what she came up with.  Awesome!

 Birthday boy having some supper.  Black olives are his favorite!

 Blowing out the "3" candle!

 Tristan also told me he wanted a pink cake.  He has always liked the color pink.  So Jeri Kay and I decided to do a white cake but color it pink.  Tristan loved it!  Oh yes, and the cake tasted just as good as it looked.

 Present time!

 Road grader from Grandma and Papa

 Spiderman toy from Uncle Mike

 A can of black olives from Grandma and Papa

 Trampoline from Grandma Shirley

His something you need present, new shoes!

For birthdays I've trying to do the "something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read".  That way, the boys get 4 presents and it's not all toys.  Tristan got shoes for his something you need (his are getting too small), he got an ambulance for something you want, a Spiderman t-shirt for something to wear and "The Lorax" for something to read.  

I think Tristan had a pretty great 3rd birthday!

Tristan

3 years ago...

2 years ago...

1 year ago...

Today...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRISTAN!!!

Valentines Day

I am so proud of Jackson.  He's 5 years old in preschool and he wrote out ALL of his Valentines for his class.  It took some time, but he did it with very minimal help on my part.

This is him working hard on writing all the names.

He also decided at one point that his name was too long.  Especially when it came to writing his friend Ty's name :)