House Update

This summer we worked constantly on the house. By "we" I mean everyone, even the kids. At this point, we have most of the electric done, but still have more to finish. We shifted gears and started to work on getting the outside done. We really need to get the soffit finished and the place closed up before it starts to get any colder. When you think about building a house, you generally don't think of all the little things that have to get done before you can see any "progress". But all those little things take a lot of time. Some of the progress you can see now is that we've started the stone work on the pillars and the chimney. The picture below is what it looks like before.

 This is the side entrance to the house on the driveway side, with the pillars done. We will wrap the posts so it will look like the front pillars.

After the pillars are done, but before the steps are finished.

And now you can see the chimney taking shape. The shakes are also up on the east side of the house. The are other areas we have worked on while they were doing the stone, like the west side of the house and a lot more painting of trim and shakes. 
We are still hoping to be in before Thanksgiving. But really, it's hard to say when we'll get in until the electric is done and the drywall is up. I think it should go pretty fast after that. Every time I go over to work on the house, it's harder to leave. Some days I just want to throw in an air mattress and rough it out. We could make it an "adventure". What do you think?!
~ Misty

The Rest of Summer

I truly thought I would do more blogging this summer. Apparently having five kids at home all day, everyday, makes it difficult to sit down at the computer and do this. After reviewing which pictures I wanted to use, I also discovered, I don't really have that many. I guess when I'm not taking a picture a day, it's easy to forget to grab the camera. In short, this summer was mainly about hanging out at the pool during the week and working on the house. The house took up a huge amount of time, so an update on that will follow this post. 

 We didn't do much sports wise for the kids this summer. I wasn't sure how much time I would have or how to manage schedules, so we kept it simple. Annaliese did t-ball, Hailey did track and both Hailey and Jackson did golfing again. Hailey met a friend, Nika, at golf. They hit it off really well and it made a huge difference for Hailey to have a friend to golf with. Next year they'll do intermediate and hopefully I will be able to make it to the course more to "practice" with them.

Piper has continued to GROW! She's walking now, finally, but still has her chunky little legs. This is one of my favorite pictures of her. I say, "Raise your hand if you're cute?!" and she raises it really high. Yes, she's definitely cute!

 
My brother, Ronnie, made it home from Afghanistan. We are so happy to have him home safe and sound!

We made it to the end of July and had the Westendorf family reunion. Hailey was on vacation with my sister and fiance, so she missed it. It was very hot and sticky, but we had a nice time with everyone. Annaliese is always up for a picture with a great smile.

Before I knew it, the kids were back to school. Starting school in the middle of August makes for a short summer. Hailey is in 5th grade, Jackson is 3rd grade and Annaliese is 1st grade. They all love their teachers. It's nice to have a regular schedule again.

 

I hosted Michelle's bridal shower at our house, in spite of it being a construction zone. Elke was the co-host and she was a huge help with everything. We tried to dress it up as much as possible. The deck was done, so we had everything except the food outside. I had a huge picture of Michelle and Dustin in a frame and everyone signed the mat around it. I think that was her favorite part. It was a great success, I just wish the house would have been done before the shower. All in good time.

Later that day, we had Anderson's birthday part at the house. I figured I had it all ready so why not? This was a neat picture of Jackson giving Anderson a baseball he had bought for him. He had the whole family sign it ahead of time, very thoughtful. Anderson is 5 now!

The very next weekend, Elke and I headed to Minneapolis for Michelle's Bachelorette party weekend. We had a lot of fun. I wish I would have taken more pictures. This was the first night before everyone arrived. Another one of Michelle's friends took most of the pictures. We did everything from Lawn Bowling to the Twins game. A great weekend!

Finally, Anderson started his second year of preschool. He has met some new friends and really likes his class. Even though he turned five before the deadline for preschool, I just couldn't see him being ready for it.  So, three days a week for 2.5 hours, it's just me and the Pipe! 

That's the summer wrap up. Hopefully, I will be better about blogging, but we know how that goes. I need to make it part of my weekly schedule. Of course, we're in full swing with fall sports and that brings it's own challenges for my weekly schedule. For now though, I'm trying to just enjoy the chaos~

~ Misty