Last Christmas on North Stine and Let The Frames Begin...

Our Christmas was quiet and uneventful. I think everyone was thrilled with their gifts...
Santa brought Kate a portable DVD player. For Maggie it was the "BackPack" from Dora the Explorer and Dora Walkman CD player (yes, even a 2 year old has CDs). Santa brought Ethan a black Ipod Nano and all the necessary accessories. It was a pretty cool Christmas.

I received a beautiful pair of diamond earrings from my Santa (aka Mike)... the man has awesome taste in jewelry!

Now for the big news... they've started framing the new house on Starlight Dr. From here it should be just a few months to completion. We should be moving in by the beginning of April 2006!

This is the front of the house...
on the left you can see the house next door and on the right you can see the other house next door.

Another picture from the front, on the right is the garage, if you look closely you can see our livingroom window. The house next door is a single-story - this house will probably be done a few weeks before our house because our house is a two-story and those seem to be taking a bit longer.

The Big Day Is Almost Here...

No, not the move in date for the new house (don't I wish).

Doesn't it seem like December is flying by?

Last night we took the kids out to look at Christmas lights in different neighborhoods around town. Every year we go get burgers (and not from a chain fast food place, but from a good old-fashioned independantly owned burger joint) and eat in the car (the kids love this for some reason) and then drive around making sure to stop to buy cookies from "Dustin's Diner" a stand in a popular neighborhood that always puts up very elaborate Christmas decorations. Dustin's Diner sells cookies, cider, and hot chocolate with all the proceeds going to the local homeless shelter. Last year they raised 10,000.00

The kids are absolutely disgusted with Mike and I this year. Mike found out about one of his major Christmas presents a couple of weeks early when he and I arrived home and found the fishing pole from Cabela's leaned up against the front door. (I didn't expect it until the next day when I would be home to receive the package and hide it before he got in) Since then he has begged (when I seem to be in a receptive mood) to just "hold" the pole for a couple of minutes. On Friday he and Kate went Christmas shopping and he bought me a pair of earrings. Since the jeweler only had a 7 day return policy - Mike wanted to make sure I would like them before time ran out... so he showed them to me (I LOVE THEM!!!! They are GORGEOUS!!!).

Needless to say the kids don't understand this and are completely irate that we found out about our presents before Christmas. What they don't realize is that this sort of thing happens almost every year with at least 1 present, we just didn't go to great lengths to hide it this year because we overestimated their maturity. ;o)

A Firm Foundation and Construction Fairies...

The foundation was poured yesterday... if it weren't for the groups of construction helmet wearing, toolbelt adorned men roaming the new neighborhood I would be convinced that houses were built by Construction Fairies. I don't drive by ONE day... and this is what happens:

Let's see here... on the left there is our future living room, behind it is the kitchen, in the center there is where the front door and entryway will be, over in the far right corner is the family room and in front of it is the garage.

Just to give you a (very) rough idea.

Progress at last!

Yesterday morning there were still huge piles of dirt at the front of our lot, so imagine our sheer glee at driving by today and finding this:

The dip you see there is the entrance to our soon-to-be driveway.


Granted, these are not the most clear pictures... but see the debris above there right by the sidewalk? That is all that is left of 2 HUGE, HUGE, piles of dirt and stuff.

What is not clear in this picture is that the plumbing is all in and they have brought in the sand and have it all tamped down in preperation for the foundation to be poured.

I'll try to get more clear pictures tomorrow!

The Christmas Season Is Here...

Thanksgiving weekend we decorated the house...


and picked out our Christmas tree. This Christmas is a little bittersweet because it's our last Christmas in this house.

*** New House Update ***

Our plumbing is in and they are preparing to pour the foundation!!! I'll post pics soon.

In the meantime...