Happy Birthday, Isabel!!

The Birthday Girl Turns 4!!!

It is hard to believe that our littlest one is a little lady now! She celebrated again today with her friends and with her sibs at dinner. She had a great day.

Kris managed to throw up two more rows of logs after he ran 11 miles. It took him 1.5 # of ribs to recover at Isabel's dinner tonight! We are expecting snow on Friday so progress might be slowed down again.

Wish you all could have been here to help us celebrate.

6 more rows added!

According to Katahdin, "Northern White Cedar has an R-Value/Thermal Mass Factor of 3.78.(5)" On this past sunny Saturday as we were moving the 2 remaining log stacks from the yard to the sub floor, we contemplated a new term...the M-Value. Apparently the logs covered with a tarp kept these little guys protected.

We had a weekend with nice weather and extra hands. On Sat. Pete Gayer came and helped Kris. They were able to put up 2 rows on the second story that day. On Sunday we celebrated with the Bolenders' our Isabelle/Isabel birthdays as both of the girls have birthdays in the same week.

When the kids weren't helping with the logs they were playing "Chronicles of Narnia", "Penguin", and ice skated on a growing ice patch in our yard. As you can see the upstairs loft area is starting to take shape. It is exciting to see the progress in real life. I hope these pictures enable you to see it too!
Oh...I had to work this weekend. Kris decided to move a log pile at 11PM because it was so nice out and he couldn't sleep! :) You can see this large stack behind him in the above picture under a tarp. Where the pile is will eventually be the master bedroom.

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.