Craziness!

It has been total chaos around here lately. I feel like I am totally neglecting my blog. We are still working on the house. We ended up needing to replace a main beam in the back of the house, so that held up the project for a few days. All of the siding that needed replaced has been fixed. We decided to add some trim to the rest of the windows on the house. (the previous owner who built the house cheaped out and only trimmed the front windows) We still need to caulk and paint. Hopefully it will be done in just a few more weeks. I can't wait for that to be done!

The kids have been very involved in lots of activities, and it is keeping us hopping. It feels like we live in the car sometimes just going from one activity to another. If it's not activities for the kids then it has been some form of church service keeping us busy. I'm not complaining! Our hearts and hands are full. Better full than empty!

A Birthday Girl's Dream Come True

My friend Christy arranged for our girls to have a couple of hours riding horses together at the place where her daughter, Miller, takes lessons. Miller's birthday was on the 14th, so the girls had a party together. They both love horses. I have never seen two girls so crazy about horses!

Lauren and Miller with their horses all saddled up!

The rest of the kids(most of them anyway) having a good time watching the girls.

Lauren breaking into a bit of a trot.

After we finished up the horseback riding we all went to Miller's house for pizza and cake. We had a really good time, and we are grateful to Christy for setting it up. Lauren is still thanking me. She said it was "the best day ever".

Steven the Man...Steven the Hard Workin Man

Yet again my hubby impresses me with his crazy handy work. It is finally time to fix all of that rotting siding on the house and put on some paint!! Woo-hooo! I have been unhappy with the color of the house for too long now. We got to work on Friday and started ripping off all of the rotted siding. We have some bad spots in the front of the house, on the side, and a little on the back. Once all of that is replaced we will paint. The house will be a nice warm gray with white trim and I will add black shutters for a nice decorative accent. I'm so excited!!

Here is Steven taking off the old siding.

More of him removing the damaged stuff.

Here is Logen giving daddy a hand.
He worked really hard and earned himself some money.

More of Logen helping dad. Notice the new front door!!

The finished product....except for the paint.

Here is what we are working on now. Steven completely tore the back porch off. There was a lot of damaged siding around it, and the porch itself needed a lot of work. In just a couple of years we want to add on to the house and add two bedrooms of of this side of the house. We figured we would get a little bit of a head start and just remove the porch and back door. Steven put up a wall there and will cover over it with the siding. The new back door will come off of the dining room and onto a deck across the back of the house....eventually.

More pictures to come.....!!