Progress

Saturday was spent working on the basement...pretty much the entire day. Dennis and I got lots done, all of the walls up, electrical done, pocket door in, and the insulation hung. Dennis got some help from Leah on one of the outlets.

She was proud to tell her brothers at dinner that she got an electricity lesson with daddy. She could tell them that black wires are hot and white are neutral. And, never touch any wires unless you are helping your daddy and he is sitting right there with you!!!

More Basement Remodeling

Since being back from our Christmas trip, the kids were really hoping to get some snow...they were not disappointed! We got about 3 inches last week and they had a blast playing in it. Since it has been so cold, there is still some snow on the ground, and the creek is frozen over with a light layer of snow on top of it, so it feels very much like winter. Not to worry, we are cozy and warm inside with the woodstove and I am very content! Winter is by far my most favorite season of all!

So we have started on the next big project here at our house (though there are others that have been started and not finished), but we are anxious to get the kids' bedroom re-arrangement finished. We are turning a corner of the basment into Eric's room. Eventually we will add a window along the left wall, but for now, we are just trying to get the room built and get him into it.

The kids' toys have all been shoved to one little tiny corner to make room for construction supplies. We will still keep a large rectangle down here for toys, ping-pong and a couch/tv.This is the space where the room will be. We will be insulating the concrete walls as well which will help with temperature control.
So far the studs along the walls are up and the bulkhead around the hvac duct is up and a closet is framed in. Dennis still has one free-standing wall to build and is putting in a pocket door. Then electrical wiring, insulation and drywall. Exciting!!!

December Camping Tour

Post #4

Probably my most favorite day of the whole trip was the day that we went to Sanibel Island. We brought our bikes along on this trip for this very reason...to bike around the Island and are so glad we did it! It was a peaceful, restful day filled with things our nuclear family unit loves to do together. We started out riding in the Ding Darling Nature Preserve. Elsa even got to go along with us for the whole day...she is doing very well learning to walk/run alongside my bike. There were tons of birds and other wildlife, but the highlight of the time here was seeing alligators, close up and in person! We probably biked about 4.5 miles, not a whole lot, but it was beautiful and we took our time and stopped to see lots of things along the way.

We ate lunch at a restaurant recommended by our friends Sara and Ryan, Cheeburger Cheeburger, in the little town on the island. It was good, and since the milkshakes were recommended, we got those too. The menu for the milkshakes included every flavor literally imaginable, probably 100flavors listed. Eric could read and decide for himself, and Leah already knew what she wanted without looking at the choices, but Bay wanted to know what his choices were. He could have sat there and read it himself, but it would have taken him an hour, so told him i was going to read it to him only ONE time and he would have to listen carefully and stop me when i got to one that sounded good. So, I read through the ENTIRE menu, all 100 of them, (all listed in alphabetical order). When I got to the last one...V for Vanilla and he still hadn't said which one he wanted, I said, "Bay, which flavor do you want?" he said, of course, "Vanilla!" We all got a good laugh out of that!

Lastly, we visited Bowman's Beach on the Island and had a fabulous impromptu time. It is amazing how the beaches are so different all along the gulf coast. The first one we visited was calm water, chilly water, wide flat beach, and tons of shells. Bowman's Beach was totally the opposite...the water was rough but much warmer, no shells and a much sharper drop-off at the surf line. Anyways, the kids had no bathing suits, but we took off our shoes and let them play in the waves. Bay got soaked all the way up to his hat. Elsa had a blast letting the waves chase her and then she would attack the foam. The sun was sinking in the sky as we were there, so the pictures captured our mood very well. It was a great end to a great day.

December Camping Tour

Post #3

Have you ever seen a banana tree? I had not, so when we went to visit a friend of my cousin, they had some growing at their house. Can you see the little bananas growing above the little purple flowers? Too bad they weren't yet ripe, that would have been neat to eat a FRESH banana!

Christmas Eve night, we spent some quality family time in the camper setting up our own tiny tree and tiny ornaments, listened to Christmas music from the ipod through the camper stereo, strung multi-color lights and hung the stockings on the bathroom door with care :) The kids were excited to say the least. It didn't matter to them that we only brought stockings with us (no other gifts), it was pure Christmas excitement.

Christmas morning proved to be special even 1000 miles from home. We read the story of Jesus' birth from Luke, ate leftover stale doughnuts, and the kids opened their stockings. Even after we got home and the kids opened their regular presents from Granni & Gramps and us, Bay's favorite gift was still the mini bowling set he got in his stocking! Go figure :)

Heather's cousin, Laura, was a magnificent hostess! She was up every morning with her husband, Kevin, cooking up something different for breakfast, fresh fruit out, fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee...we had such a good time visiting and catching up. Some time ago, our kids began calling her Aunt Laura because she has endeared herself to them so much like an aunt (even though she's my cousin). Needless to say, we felt very much at home with them and are so thankful for their hospitality.

December Camping Tour

Post #2

Christmas Eve at the beach

We spent Christmas Eve with Heather's cousin, Laura, at Bonita Beach in Bonita Springs. It truly was "bonita" (beautiful!). What a totally different feeling to be at the beach this time of year. Very foreign to me. I am used to much the opposite, in fact, normally I would choose to be snow skiing over being at the beach, but we had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect, not typical hot and muggy summer beach weather, but in the 70's and breezy. The water was quite chilly, but we all managed to actually swim in it (why come all the way to Florida and not swim in the Gulf?). The kids made sand castles, sand snowmen, collected more shells than we will take home, ate lunch at a beach cafe, and played in the water. An added bonus was that this beach is the home of the Gopher Tortoise Preserve, so we got to see lots of these tortoises throughout the park.
Heather and Laura....our dads are brothers

Eric found a live hermit crab in this shell

Our family

eric working on his sand castle

Bay and Leah looking at the gopher tortoise

December Camping Tour

Post #1

We are in the middle of our December Camping Trip and I finally have time to post some highlights of the trip. We left the week before Christmas and drove down to Florida...brought along the camper, bikes, car-top carrier...loaded to the hilt. Everyone is having a great time.

First stop was Faver-Dykes State Park near St. Augustine. We drove down to Daytona Beach after we settled in to visit with Dennis' step-dad, Sam. Took Elsa to a local d0g-park to let her run, and the kids to a playground to let them run! We love the abundance of the live oak trees with all of the spanish moss here...so pretty. We also drove on the beach for a bit, but couldn't get out to walk...no dogs allowed on the beach in Daytona.

The state park we found is a hidden gem I think. It is very small (only 30 sites) and extremely well maintained. It was well secluded and also gated at sunset, so we felt very safe. Here is the view of the marsh from the playground area. We were told to watch out for the local wildlife: armadillos, alligators, snakes and racoons. Never saw any, but heard many things in the brush at night. Not to worry...there is much to be seen further on in our trip!

Visited old St. Augustine and enjoyed the town very much. The kids enjoyed all of the cannons on the fort, Castillo de San Marcos. It was a really neat fort. We didn't do any tour, just ran through the fort at kid-speed! We also walked through the shops in the town and did the Holly Jolly Christmas Trolly to see the Christmas lights...the whole town and many of the bed & breakfasts go all out to decorate everything!

Here we are at the fort with the sun sinking in the background. We are used to the sun setting at about 4:30 pm this time of year at home, so we have enjoyed the full extra hour of daylight while down here. Same time zone, so we figure it must be because we are a bit further west, as well as much further south.

Look for the next post to be from Ft. Myers on the Gulf Coast. So far we've logged over 1500 miles on the truck!

Christmas Surprise for Leah & a dissappointment
"Kit"

I am so excited about my handmade Christmas present for Leah. One of the things that is so surprising to me about her is her lack of interest in baby dolls; but on the flip side, her extreme interest in animal dolls and how she treats them as if they are baby dolls. She dresses them up, feeds them bottles, and all of the things that little girls do with baby dolls, except she wants nothing to do with human babies! Anyways, in this interest, I found a cute pattern for a handmade baby doll here and the alterations to make it into a kitty (she loves kitty cats), plus outfits to go with it.

I've never sewn anything like this before, and was wondering how it would be to work with tiny garments and such. The whole thing took me just one afternoon, kitty and 2 outfits. It was very fun to do, and I sure hope she likes it!

"Kit" in her little pink dots pintucked dress


"Kit" in her birthday suit
Reversible jumper and shirt

the other side of reversible jumper

On another note, I also got a new foam cushion for Elsa's bed and sewed a nice fleece cover for it with a zipper so it could be removed and washed. The one she had previously was super thin, falling apart, and smelled horrible as well. I got her a nice 3" cushion for her to cuddle up on. I thought it turned out very nicely.

However she was very wary of it from the start, and wouldn't even get in her bed unless I physically put her in. So I thought it just smelled funny to her since it was new, and it would take her a little while to get used to it. Well, she had other plans. yesterday when we got home from church, she had ripped the fabric apart at the seams and chewed up the foam! I guess she was telling me that she really didn't like it after all! We got a good laugh out of it, and now she's sleeping on the floor of her crate with no cushion for the time being. She seems to like that just fine! So much for appreciation from the dog!!!