Nice Day

Today is a beautiful, sunny day. Despite being 10 degrees when I left work this morning, Kris has found it to be warm enough to take off his coat while he is working! Have we adapted or what? :) Kris built the steps going up to the second floor. The 4-legged building inspector approved!

After the ice...

The weather this week has kept us on our toes. We had snow on Thursday followed by freezing rain on Friday. The sun came out on Saturday and, despite the cold, turned out to be a beautiful day. Today is a rainy kind of day but as you can see Kris is still out there trying to work on the house for a few hours at least.

On Friday night we drove in the ice to get to the skating rink in Kettering for the dollar skate with Cedarville University. This was the first time the kids have been on an indoor rink and they loved it!

Saturday we stopped by a park that has about 5 old log homes. Someday we would like to look around at them a little more but on this day it wasn't plowed.

We also went to see the Little Miami River in the Winter. Kristianna and Wes were so surprised to see how it had changed from this summer!

We tried to take some pictures of the trees. It was a spectacular site to see the sun shining on their ice-covered branches. I don't think that these pictures quite do it justice but it they are still pretty.

Snow Day

Have you ever wondered what a bird could tell you if he could speak? Today we were as we saw 5 birds hanging out where our sump pump drains. They look very much like the 5 little babies that hatched this summer here!

The kids enjoyed another snow day today. Here are a few pictures of their fun in all that white stuff.

Our logs are covered in snow now but Kris is outside shoveling and building somemore. We also went and picked up a very exciting purchase for me...an old clawfoot bathtub for the kids bathroom upstairs. I have found out in searching for one that this area is largely interested in antiques. Isabel and I visited one antique mall yesterday. Those of you who are collectors should add that to your to do list when you visit! Our tub will need some work but the price was right!

Indian Rocks Visit to Cedarville

We were so excited to see Indian Rocks represented at the Christian School recruitment conference at Cedarville University. We had lunch with Don and Perry (Happy Birthday! :) got to see the 5 alumni from IRCS that are now at Cedarville. It was a fun day. Next year we look forward to hosting them here! It's hard to imagine that next year things will look much differently.

Williams and son

Kris recruited help yesterday and found Wesley to be a big assett even if he is only 8. Wesley shared some of his design ideas with Kris as well. I guess it was his idea to notch the beam in one of these pictures for the ceiling joists. Hope you enjoy the progress update.

Don Mayes and Perry Bansey are in town and a former teammate of ours is coming for dinner tomorrow night. The kids are looking forward to a day off from school.

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend.

Coyote, Will, Beam, Sunset

What an unusual Valentine's Day! While dropping Isabel off at Moms' Morning Out we saw a coyote running across the road in front of us! Kris and I spent the morning at a laywer's office writing our will. Perhaps not the most romantic...but we are glad to be putting things in order! Kris put up 4 beams today. I also through in a picture of the steps going down to the basement. The day ended with God showing off with another spectacular sunset! It was amazing and I have a lot of pictures to prove it! I took one from our deck on the garage apartment, one through the great room window, and one from the dining room doors. Enjoy the pictures and hope your day was a great one.

Ready for the next floor!

Here is a pictoral update to let you know that we are surviving and working hard despite the cold, wind, and snow. Kristianna and Wesley decided to go for a run today. Kris finished up putting up the interior walls on the main level. The weather is supposed to bless us with snow tonight and the ground is a bit dusted with the white stuff now. We will have to see how things go tomorrow. Kristianna and Wesley have done a snow dance and made popcorn and are sleeping with dreams of a snow day tomorrow!

Putting Goliath in it's place

There are so many things to show you today. First of all there are pictures of the prep work needed to place the monsterous beam in it's place. Peter Gayer came over and helped Kris place the interior walls and notched the tie-beam.

The beam was supposed to be placed today but there is so much mud that Kris opted to do this yesterday instead when the ground was colder. Cameron came over and assisted in the next group of pictures! It was a little nerve-wracking to watch from upstairs and see this beam come close to vehicles! It turned out well and they still were able to watch the SuperBowl.

Our last load came from Katahdin today and Doug Taylor (our rep. and Kris's resource) came to check it all out.

Here is a picture of the finished product. It still needs a bit of tweeking but "Goliath" is where it belongs.


Kristianna decided to ice skate on the multiple puddles over our yard! The kids really have enjoyed skating this year. This boardered on desperation to get some ice time. :)

Here is a picture of Wesley playing basketball. Both he and Kristianna have enjoyed the sport this winter. Have a great week.