Our New House!!

9:03 ~ This is the one of the first pictures of the day that you can kind of tell what's happening. The floor was down in about 30 minutes we estimated. Clint got to the site about 7:00 but I stayed back with Drake to let him sleep in. By the time we made it to the site at 8:30, the floor was down and the stairs were being placed in the house to go to the basement.

9:17 ~ As you can see, a few outer walls are already up and more are being placed!

9:20 ~ They don't waste any time! Our builder wanted to get as much done today as possible due to the weather. You'll see the progress in a bit!

9:59 ~ This is one of the walls for the garage. I didn't get many pictures of them setting the front of the house because the semis and crane was in the way.

10:03 ~ I walked around the house to get a better view. A pretty good view of the walkout basement. The opening on the left is going to be sliding doors and the opening on the right is a double window.

10:36 ~ Drake was a big help...sort of! He thought this piece of wood needed to be cleaned up. He then proceeded to lick it and made an awful face. Every kid needs a splinter in his mouth, right!?

10:38 ~ Drake is holding on to the garden tub for the master bathroom! He LOVED walking in his new house! He thought it was especially neat to be able to walk from room to room "through" the walls (or what will become the walls)!

10:41 ~ Our builder, Gary looking out what will be one of the windows in the living room. What you couldn't tell from some of the pictures is that while the outer walls were going up, some of the interior walls were being placed as well. No time was wasted today!

11:54 ~ Clint took Drake and I home for a bit so I could fix lunch and get Drake ready for a nap. He went back while lunch was cooking and took a few pictures. This is from the 2nd floor looking down. The opening on the upper left is the walk in closet and the opening on the upper right is the master bathroom.

5:13 ~I finally made it back around 4:00 or so and A LOT of progress had been made! You can see the 2nd story! As you can see, it's snowing more and getting darker so these are some of the final pictures for the evening!

5:14 ~ An angled view of the garage

5:15 ~ A view from the back of the house. From what you can see, the very far left will be our master bedroom, then living room. The double sliding doors is the dining room followed by the kitchen. Lastly is the garage. Upstairs you can see the window for two of the three bedrooms and the small window is for a bath.

5:17 ~ Another view of the walk-out. Looks a little different from this morning, huh?!

5:17 ~ After the crane left, I took this picture of the front of the house.

5:17 ~ TaDa! That's how you put a house up (at least in my opinion!!)

Just for Fun

While trying to add a few pictures to my blog in attempts of updating it, I ran across these pictures saved on my computer. These are from my dad's wedding on August 9, 2008. Drake was only 2 1/2 weeks old. My how he has changed!

Our first family photograph other than the hospital!

This was actually taken at the rehersal supper the night before. Even though he weighed 9 lbs 2 oz and was a big baby, he looks so tiny here!

Sears Portraits

As some of you may know, we had to take Drake to the ENT on Nov. 12th to see about tubes (he did end up getting tubes on Dec 2nd, just to get another ear infection on Dec 28th, but that's another post!). Since Clint went with me, I decided I'd like to get quick family pictures taken. We had planned on doing it in the fall for outdoor pics, but the weather never cooperated. Anyways, our "quick" pictures turned into 3 hours, and that was only the beginning! The pictures turned out great, but when we went to order, the saleswoman failed to tell us some of the deals we could receive. So after walking out and feeling we paid way too much, I called my sister who had just went the week before and gotten a ton of pics for dirt cheap! I called the 800 Sears number to talk to a customer sales representative and they assured me that we could have gotten a better deal, so they would refund us some of our money. Long story short, that person apparently was "new" and didn't know all the details...we didn't get as much money back as we wanted, we ended up with a CD of photos that weren't portrait quality, etc. and we will more than likely NEVER go back! On the up side, we did get some good photos! Here are a few of my favorites!


I wanted some pictures to be "fall-ish"

Clint really liked this picture...I think it shows the ornery in Drake's eyes!

The photographer said "I like how you guys coordinate with the blue in dad's shirt, brown in mom's and stripes in baby's". I wanted to say, "Hmm...how ironic!"

I love this picture, my little boy looks all grown up! It reminds me of school pictures, so it also kind of makes me sad!

Another family picture...not too shabby I don't think!

Long Time...

With the start of 2010 comes new resolutions! I prefer to not do resolutions, simply because I never keep them! So, I'm trying to make a "goal" for myself instead. I would love to be that blogger who is always caught up, uses exciting new features, etc. but I realize that would never happen! So my goal for 2010 is this...to blog or not! I am going to try to become better at blogging to at least get something posted weekly. I know, I've said it before and it hasn't happened! The few times I have sat down to try to blog and add pictures, it messes up and makes me frustrated, so...I quit! So...if you happen to read this, please check back and see if I stick to my goal! I figure it's best to start out with small goals and work my way up!

Feeding the Deer = Super funny!

My sister and I took Elliot and Drake to Totten's Pumpkin patch today. Neither of us really needed any pumpkins, but we like to take the boys each year, if nothing else, for the pictures. Last year we went to a pumpkin patch in Hallsville, so this was the first year for both boys to be at Totten's. Drake thought Elliot feeding the deer was hilarious. I really wanted to capture his laugh and suddently remembered that my camera takes videos. I had never used it before, so I was very proud of myself for taking a spur of of the moment video today. Notice Drake's "old man" laugh as Elliot give the deer a bite of pumpkin!

Drake's One Year Pictures

For those of you that know me well...I LOVE pictures! I can't seem to get enough pictures, especially of Drake! Mary Dunaway, Photos2Remember, does a WONDERFUL job of helping me capture Drake, month by month! I've had Drake's pictures taken with Mary since before he was even born! She took my maternity pictures, and all of Drake's pictures there after. On Thursday, Mary ventured to the sticks of Shelbyville to capture Drake's one year pictures. As Mary knows, I put a lot of though into what I want his pictures to look like. I usually had a few ideas each month for her to "create"! Since this was the end of Drake's "baby" pictures, I wanted to do something extremely special but couldn't think of what. It wasn't until about two hours before we were suppose to meet that I had a great idea (at least I thought so!). Drake received a Case IH Petal Tractor for his first birthday from my dad, Papa Tom and Grandma Christi, along with a Case IH wagon from Clint's mom and dad, Grampy and Grammy! I couldn't think of any background that would be better for these pictures other than our own backyard! A few of the pictures we even directed toward Drake's Great-Grandpa and Grandma's house to include the Harvestore. I definitely think these pictures turned out wonderful and will please more than just myself! Thanks so much Mary for the wonderful work you've done in the past year. I will forever have the memories captured of Drake growing up, thanks to you. Words can not express my thanks! Below are a "few" of my favorites! I tried to pick...it was so hard!

Pointing out the bird poop on the cement!

My happy boy!

The old chicken coop behind Mama's house made for a neat scene. These fire truck overalls are what Drake wore to his 1st birthday party!

The very first pictures Mary took of Drake, she made a composite for me with his profile, hands, feet, ear, eye, nose and mouth. The point of this picture was to get part of his profile, but I love his baby blue eyes! This picture truly shows the innocence of a child!

And this one shows how ornery a little boy can be!

Just farmin'!

Showing off my tractor! "Crops are green, tractors are RED!"

Big stuff! Notice the Harvestore in the background!

Not only did he enjoy driving, he also enjoyed sitting in the wagon while I hauled him from corner to corner in our yard!

"You been farmin' long?"

Ah, Pals! Drake and Macy...forever friends!

Brmm, Brmm!

I can even drive one handed!

All dressed up and no where to go!