Monday, December 23, 2013

House Update...

The progress on our house slowed down a bit, because of the snow we had here in Maryland over the past month (2 snowfalls).  The roofers finished the roof on Friday, so know we are officially 'under roof', which means our contractors can now work on the interior of the house without worry about damage from any precipitation.

Below is a front elevation drawing.  We have since gotten rid of the half circle window on the large window above the front door, because I didn't want heat pouring into our sitting room in the summer.  We are adding a cupola (pictured here in the windows with copper roof pic) and a weather vane (here) on the top of the roof.
The two sets of French doors and balcony on the top left will be our Master Bedroom, and overlook our neighbor's horse farm and our woods.  The center top window is our Master Sitting Room.  The top right window will be the Superhero's Playroom.  The two sets of French Doors with balcony on the bottom left will be our Family Room.  The window on the bottom right will be a Study/5th bedroom,/superhero's downstairs playroom.    The window all the way on the right is on our garage.



Progress!!  If you look close, you can see the roofers putting on our shingles.



Side view


Master Bedroom


Master Sitting where Eric and Colton are standing


Master Closets and Master Bathroom

Superheros Upstairs Playroom



Colton's Room

Blake's Room


In the next week, we should have our basement framed and our windows in.  We are so looking forward to seeing the progress when we get home!

Cold as 'Ice'

Today is our first 'official' school day off for Winter Break.  Mimi, Juliana, Colton and I just got back from an afternoon of ice skating, Little Caesar's, and Starbucks.  Blake's daycare was open today, so Eric dropped him off this morning, so he could run around and play with his little friends for the last time of the year (2013).

Here are some pictures from our ice skating date...

Juliana only used the walker during her first lap.  Then we held hands on her other laps.


Colton did an amazing job today using his walker.  It was his second time ice skating, and he is getting so fast!


Here comes Batman!

There was Christmas music playing, and colored lights on the rink.  What a great first day off!!

Holidays Thus Far...


                                                          Hanukkah at Mimi and Poppy's









Sitting on Santa's lap at Bass Pro Shop





                                                  Blake in the Christmas Program at school



                                                 Last day of teaching before Winter Break!






                                                     Train Garden at the local fire station






We are heading to Florida tomorrow for some more Christmas fun!!

Monday, December 9, 2013

Fall Photo Dump

Fall is quickly coming to an end, and we having snow here in Maryland today!  Last night we went sledding with the superheroes in my parent's backyard, and I actually took my skis out and skied down the hill on the side of the house.  Schools are closed today due to the weather, and we are all at home cleaning up and playing indoors.

Here are some pictures from the past 2 months of what the boys have been up to.







Colton and sleepy Blake with Baby Jaguar and friends


Fall decoration shopping...  I have no clue where we were, but the superheroes are so cute to me in this pic  :)



We took the superheroes to an awesome farm about 45 minutes away from our house.


Corn Maze

Colton and a friend going down a big slide

Playing in a corn "sand"box

Colton in the back riding on the tricycles



We went trick-or-treating a few days before Halloween in the village center near our old home with Tyson and Keilan, and our old neighbor Andrew and his family.


Blake, Tyson and Colton

Colton and Andrew


We went to another farm with Uncle Nick, Aunt Erika and Tyson and Keilan in early November.

Brousins:  Blake, Keilan, Tyson and Colton playing in the corn "sand"box

Blake and Keilan


After Christmas, I will have a holiday dump, and include our festivities from Hanukkah.  We will be spending our Christmas in Florida, and we are SO looking forward to it!



Saturday, November 23, 2013

Moving right along!

Well, it's been a few months, and we have been super-busy building our house.  We FINALLY broke ground a few weeks ago, and so far the framing of the basement, garage, and first floor is finished.  Our framers said that the second floor, roof and windows should be installed by the next 2 weeks!

It has been so fun going to the house and seeing all of the progress.  Eric and I have been working on creating a running trail in our woods, so we get out and run whenever we want.  We have already purchased our kitchen cabinets and counters, tile, fireplace and some other fixtures, and thanks to Pinterest (here), we have narrowed down many more purchases.

Here is a picture of the plan of our home (here). We made it a little bigger, flipped the floor plan, moved the laundry room up to the second level, added a mud room, and enclosed the upstairs loft so that our Master is larger.  As far as the outside, we are going to use a linen-colored siding, lots of stone, and black batten-board shutters for more of a cozy look instead of the brick.  Our Master Bedroom on the top floor will have a balcony overlooking a horse farm and an 100 acre farm to our left with cattle.

So far, here is the progress...

Colton standing where our fireplace will be installed (our woods are behind him)


Colton, Daddy and Blake in our woods

Front of our house

Our future Family Room

Top level is Master Bedroom, Family Rm below, and basement walkout.



Sunday, August 18, 2013

Summer Photo Dump

Tomorrow, my "summer" comes to an end.  Mama goes back to work tomorrow, and my days of hanging with the superheroes all day is over.  This has been my first summer "off", since last year was my first year teaching... and I have to say it was AWESOME!!!  Even though it is a lot harder to stay home with my family since I do not have any formal breaks, I LOVED every minute of it, even the exhausted ones.   We just got back last week from our last shindig in Florida, so a few pictures are from there as well, along with some random ones from the past few weeks.

Wish me luck tomorrow!





Playing at the playground near our house

This is a picture of our next door neighbors house for our soon-to-be new house!