Roofs, windows and doors

We've walked through and made adjustments to some of the window and door sizes. I'm sure the framers were completely annoyed but they never showed it. Even when you have all the measurements, trying to visualize the dimensions and space is difficult. This was obvious when we looked at the actual space and saw some of the doors and windows were way too big. Fortunately, making them smaller isn't a big deal (unless you're the framer working in below freezing temperatures). These pics are from the 14th and show the beginnings of the roof:

You better watch out...

... because you may be eating chicken wings (as I was) when Santa shows up at your family Christmas party!!! This past Sunday, Santa arrived unexpectedly and sang some songs with the kids (Here's Shad working as his assistant for a rendition of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"):














Santa seemed quite convinced with Shad's and Harrison's assertions that their quality of behavior ought to assure their eligibility for gifts this season. They could probably introduce this photo as evidence if they needed to emotionally sway a jury:















Santa delivered gifts on behalf of the family. The boys got new toothbrushes that play music while you brush. I think they may have found these gifts emotionally satisfying. You be the judge:














Nic and Ryan produced and directed a retelling of the Christmas story starring all the kids:















With all of that, plus all the food, everyone had a good time.

Happy Birthday Shad!!

His birthday was actually on the 13th, but we've been so busy celebrating! Shaan and I can hardly believe that he's 8!!!!

On his birthday he (and Harrison) got checked out of school early for some fun with Dad. The Boys shared a rousing, celebratory meal at a local dining establishment. As it was Shad's birthday, I offered him a choice of ANYWHERE he would like to eat. Given such a fabulous opportunity and with a vast array of possibilities laid out before him (I was REALLY pushing Outback Steakhouse), his choice was (wait for it!.......................)
















Burger King!!

I forgot their cheeseburger preferences, but we ended up trading with each other so disaster was averted!!!

We ran into some issues later whilst Christmas shopping for Mom (details under wraps until after Dec. 25th) so it was on to The Gateway.

The kids had fun at the Children's Museum (at this point there would be some great pics had I not forgotten the camera in the car) and we saw Bee Movie.

Shad chose Gandolfo's in Centerville as the location for dinner with the rest of the fam. Here he is attempting to open a present with his feet as part of some obscure birthday ritual:





We hosted a birthday party for his friends on Friday. There was a pirate theme and I think there may have been some actual pirates invited after examining the party's aftermath. Fortunately, the pirate theme included copious amounts of rum, which I found helpful in taking the edge off. Note to DCFS and parents of party attendeess: The preceding was an attempt at humor. At no point was anything stronger than Diet Coke imbibed by the hosts at the afforementioned party. Additionally, party guests were limited to root beer, ginger ale and some kind of carbonated strawberry beverage.

Here's a photo of the scurvy dogs. Should any of these show up at your doorstep, ye be warned!!

It's official!

The house has walls! We didn't know that the framing had started so it was kind of a shock to see, but we were all genuinely excited with this latest development. Up to this point, I must admit that I've kind of maintained an emotional disconnect during the whole process, so I was surprised at my own level of excitement. These pics are from December 10:

Watching concrete dry...

The rest of the basement floor and the garage floor were poured on Nov. 30. It's really starting to look like a house is going in!

Shad inspecting the quality of the workmanship:

The basement's solid now:

The amazing garage floor:

Putting the dirt back in

Wow, these titles are clever. >=(

Anyway, the foundation's been backfilled so it doesn't look much different from the front, but there's no more empty space around the foundation. These pics are from Nov 22.

Laying the foundation

Here is the foundation being poured on Nov 8. Because of the huge mounds of dirt in the front, these shots were taken from the back and side of the lot.

The Banana Split Club

In Shad's and Harrison's karate class, they have an exclusive group known as the 'Banana Split Club'. In order to be accepted, one has to be able to do the splits all the way down to the floor. Here's Harrison's demonstration:

In addition to club admission and the residual benefits of extreme flexibility, new entrants are rewarded with a banana split from the Dairy Queen in Centerville.

And here are Harrison and Shad celebrating. Shad's still working on his splits so he should be joining his brother soon. We're so proud of our little karate masters!

Hard hats required

After a great deal of time, anguish, soul-searching and, of course, money, construction is finally underway on our new humble home in Woods Cross, Utah. We're all really excited now that things are moving along. We'll be posting new pictures so everyone can see how the construction is progressing. There will be pics from the northwest and southwest corners that we'll turn into a time-lapse slideshow eventually, plus we'll throw other ones in.

These were the first pictures we took on Novermber 4. It's hard to imagine that something so expensive starts out as a pile of dirt.

Author's note: My HTML skills have slowly faded, so we're going with a minimalist approach until it all comes back to me. I prefer to think of it as 'elegantly spartan'.