Surging forward

I am going to try and rush through the photos I have left and explain what happened and where we are at now.  It might take a couple more posts though.  I am tired of living in the past!!  haha!

Here we are finally carefully cutting the hole at the end of the upstairs hallway so we can put the stairs in for the addition.  Thanks again to our trusty friend Rich for all his expertise and help.  Here is the hole getting started.

Here it is waiting for the stairs.  Just getting the opening prepped.

We're going to just slide it through and lift it up.

Making sure everything is level and secured properly

And there you have it!  All we need now is some drywall to finish it up.  Too bad we didn't think of that before we filled in that hole.  We could have lifted up the drywall through the stairwell opening in the garage.  Instead we had to carry each sheet in through the front door and up the stairs....that's a LOT of drywall.  I'm glad we had some handy hutterites to help us out.  Great workers and Super Nice Guys!!

We finished framing in the arch in the front entrance....I have to admit that this was Steve's vision, but I LOVE it!  It turned out so pretty when all was said and done.

 The bannister came out and new walls were built instead.

The heating and plumbing went up through the ceiling in the back hall....

...up through the boys bedroom next to the new stairs...

and walls were framed around it all to box it in.

The ceiling in the garage got a pretty layer of salmon spray foam.  This is to help keep the addition warm upstairs and also to seal it so no exhaust fumes get up there either.

Isn't it lovely? =)

 And here are the wonderful hutterite boys I was talking about.  They worked so fast, and they loved it when I baked treats for them each night.  They came back 4 or 5 times to help get all the drywall up that we had to do.  Here they're doing the front entrance.  They also did the whole addition upstairs....except for the bathroom with Drew did himself.  The garage ceiling was the hardest though - even with renting a lift it was nice to have a few extra hands.

I am loving having that bannister gone!

Next came all the mudding and taping upstairs, the ceilings get a coat of knockdown, all the walls get painted and all the outlets and light fixtures go in.  See you later!

A few quick jobs

Here's a look at a few of the quick jobs that came next.  The front entrance got insulated and the plastic was put up later that night.  Also our beautiful window was installed above the front door.  It lets in sooo much light...I love it!

Here's the view from outside....note the staircase leaning against the house.

The new stairs were installed in the front entrance.  Here are the up,

and the down.

Here are the garage doors being installed.  This guy was hilarious....he loved to chat.  He also loved to SING!  He had his headphones on and serenaded us all afternoon!  It was not good.

I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the doors when they were finished.  I guess I know what I need to do next.

Here is the fruit room emptied out and we're starting to rip out the shelving.

Down comes the drywall and insulation.

Here is the shell that was left until we moved the wiring and the the heating guys needed the space.

Next we moved on to demolishing the closets from both of the upstairs bedrooms at the end of the hall.  We needed the space for the stairs to go up into the addition.  This picture is looking at the closet in what used to be the master bedroom.

The framing all comes down.  You can see through into Marens room through what used to be the closet door for that room.

This is looking down the hall

That whole wall and doorway are no more.  All the prep work is now finished and we're almost ready to cut a big hole in the end of the house for the new stairs.  Carefully and properly of course!

We also got another load of gravel for the muddy driveway and the cement guys also needed some more so they could get the prep work done to pour the stairs in the garage down to the door that will be the new back entrance into the back hall.

Here they are getting ready.

They filled this in with a little more gravel and then came back and poured a few days later when they were in town doing another job.

That's probably enough for now.  I'll add some more later.  I'll try to hurry and catch up!

Momentum

I am going to try and keep the momentum going and jump right into Micah joining our family.

Micah is my Valentine!  Literally!  He was due on Valentines day and he was actually born on his due date. Again I had the epidural and it was as heavenly as ever.  Once again we struggled with names.  Surprisingly, we only ever had trouble with the boys.   The girls had their names picked out way in advance, but with the boys, we always waited to see what they looked like.

Micah was definitely a Micah!  Here is the 'before' shot.  I still had 2 months left to go, yikes!

Here we are 1 day old...isn't he precious?

This one always makes me laugh....what a classic Evy face!!

I told you he was my little valentine.

Here he is in his blessing outfit!  Gramma webster made the vest and Gramma Brinton made the blanket.

Micah was as good natured as a baby as Maren and Evy.  Always happy and smiley.  Very calm and relaxed.  He slept well, and a lot.  The kids were big enough to all be good helpers  The only sad thing was that I got thrush in the first few weeks of nursing him and it never really got better.  Nursing was sooo painful that I had to quit at 3 months and switch to bottles.  That was Hard!  I loved nursing my babies and I had a feeling he might be my last and I didn't want it to end.  The pain took over though and we made the switch.  He did just fine.

Here's a few more pics of our MicahBoy!  Sharlee and I went to visit Gramma and Grampa Webster  on the mission in Salt Lake.  I think this was in April.  Anyway, we finally got a picture of him having a bath in gramma's sink!

What a happy guy!  I love that grin!

Momma's little helper.  We were fixing and sewing some dresses for Mom.  I think Eden was finished her snack and was wanting to be let out.  She's so cute...even when she's upset!

Look at that face....and the dimple!

4 months old now and he's sitting up!  what a big boy!

Cool Dude!!!!

Micah has always been full of personality.  He keeps me laughing all day with funny faces, and he says the funniest things.  He is full of questions, and mischief!  He is always getting into something and wanting to see how much he can get away with.  I am learning a lot of patience now that I am a mother of 4.

As much as I may get frustrated sometimes...I love being a mom.  I wish I was better at it and made less mistakes...but I guess that is the point of families.  We are all learning together.  It will be fun to take a few trips down memory lane and record more of the fun memories of the kids in the early years.  

I think I'll start jumping back and forth between past and present from now on.  Try to keep track of all the fun things that happen everyday around our house, and mix in a little from our past adventures.