Construction: January 21

January 21, 2010

Basement Framing Begins

Back of the house / walkout basement walls

Looking out of Nate's future Simplx office window/door

Basement framing

Floor on top of the basement

Construction: January 16

January 16, 2010

Finishing the cold storage under the porch, ready to frame...

Construction: January 15

January 15

Building the porch and cold storage underneath the porch & working on garage floors

Smoothing out concrete garage floors

You can see the steam coming up off of the concrete because it is so cold out! 12 degrees!

Construction: January 13

January 13, 2010

Pouring the basement concrete floor. They have several giant cement trucks out there. Somehow they have to heat the concrete since the temperature outside is about 12 degrees!

Construction: January 12

January 12, 2010

Finishing up the basement walls

January 8 Construction

January 8 2010

The basement walls looking from the back and the right side of the house from Hardisty Road

The basement walls looking inside the basement from the back corner

Our Woods!!!

This photo is looking at our property from the back. If you look closely, through the trees, you can see the big yellow tractor working on digging the hole for our house. That tells you how much space we will have with our almost 5 acres!!!

Looking at our property from the main road (Dupont/Leo Road)


Here is our house under construction with our neighbors in the back ground

Here is the tractor that has been digging a hole for our house!!

This is looking from Hardisty Road

Construction: January 7

January 7, 2010

Basement walls are being poured with concrete during a very snowy and cold day!

Day 1 of Construction

We are doing it! We are building a house! We can hardly believe it is happening! We have finished all the designs finally, and now it is so fun to see those plans on paper put into real life! We purchased a 5 acre plot of land on Dupont/Leo Road right across the street from Cedarville Elementary School, whcih will be the boys' school in a few years. There are four 5 acre lots in a row across from that school. Ours is the last one that was available and it lies on the corner of Dupont/Leo and Hardisty Road. The 5 acres happened to be less expensive than a subdivision plot that 1/2 an acre. So of course we wanted to have all the space we could. Here are some photos of the very first day of construction!

Jax is Walking!!!

Jaxton is getting around very well. We are glad he began walking before Cooper came. That would have been extra tricky!! He seemed a bit timid at first about walking on his own. But he has had the strength and ability to do it. I think it was a matter of confidence. He certainly has that confidence now and he is so proud that he can walk!! What a cutie!!

Cooper is in a bassinet in our bedroom, so the other kids bedroom we turned into Jaxton's playroom. That way his bedroom can stay clean and all the toys can stay contained in that room. Here's our little toddler surrounded by his toys! He loves to "talk" on Mama's phone, even though he puts it up way too high on his ear to even hear the person on the other end. He likes to walk around the house with a phone pretending to be Daddy, because that is what Daddy does!

Christmas 2007

Christmas was wonderful. We spent Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day Dinner at Grandma & Grandpa Hutchinson's house. Nate was pretty sick, unfortunately, but it was still fun. We spent lots of $$$ on others this Christmas and it was fun to give to those in need this season. Nate surprised us Christmas morning with 2 beautiful painting sfrom Simon Dewey. One was "A Child's Prayer," and is of an innocent darling little blonde girl praying and looking up into Christ's face. Christ's arms are outstreched toward her. Nate said it reminded him of me. The other is a beautiful portrayal f the Baby Jesus wrapped up and laying on straw and hay. It looks so real, like a photograph. It is Baby Jesus, but it makes me think of this new baby of ours that is coming soon. How innocent and pure he will be, just as Baby Jesus is.

Christmas morning was so much fun. We gave Jaxton some tunnels to crawl through and he loved them. And also this giant Elmo. He was a bit overwhelmed by all the new things and super excited, but not sure what to do with himself and the piles of wrapping paper and packages all over the living room floor. He was fun to watch tear open paper and get so excited about ripping paper that whatever was inside really didn't matter! It was a fun Christmas!!

Toddler Time

Jaxton is turning into a little toddler!! Right about his birthday in November, he became a little sponge and has been learning things and picking up on things so fast! He understands so much and it is so amazing and fun to watch him grow at this stage. He does a lot of sign language. Here are the signs that he knows:

Bathtime

More

Please

Car

Milk

Hat

Baby

Light

Fan

Airplane

Night-Night

Duck

Prayer

Change diaper

Up

Jaxton's first word was "Dog," but he pronounced it "Gog." Here are more of the words he is saying:

Ball ("Ba")

NumNums (for food)

Mama

Dada

Bike

Jaxton can show you where he ears, eyes, nose, tongue, teeth, hair, toes, feet, socks, shoes, belly button, pants, and fingers are. He also knows the Christmas tree, Santa, and Elmo, and several others. I can tell him something or ask him something and he will respond to it. He totally understands what I tell him all the time. Because he can't really verbalize much yet, you wouldn't know how much he understands, but with his signing and me working with him, Wow! I know he is so smart. We've been teaching him "prayer" in sign by folding his arms. Now, when he's in his high chair ready for a meal, he will fold his arms without me saying a thing because he now knows that we have to pray before we eat. It is so precious to see him learn and grasp ideas and concepts. We got him a little baby boy doll to prepare him for the arrival of his little brother next month. Immediately he picked up on the sign for baby. Every day gets funner and funner and he gets cuter as his little personality begins to come through!

"...Hear the Snow Crunch

Jaxton was so intrigued with the snow!! He was amazed that we allowed him to eat it too! Usually we are taking things away from him that he attempts to eat!! We got him all bundled up in his hat, new snow boots, several layers of clothes and his windbreaker jacket & pants on top so he would be warm enough in this cold weather!!! We didn't have any mittens small enough, so he had 2 layers of socks on his hands. Despite that, after a while, his little hands got so cold that he broke out into a cry because his little fingers were numb. These pictures are from our front yard in Cedar Hills, so you can see the valley covered in a white blanket of beautiful snow and fog!!