Prepping for Foundation

Here's a quick update on construction:

Here are the workers marking the ground for foundation and digging holes for the footings.

They came back a few days later to set up the forms, and will return on Monday to pour the foundation!

11 months old!

Griffin turned 11 months last Friday. I can hardly believe it! His birthday is coming so fast! He is such a fun little guy. Here he is doing his favorite trick: "How big is Griffin?"

So Big!

Josh and Griffin were home together while I took Ronan to a birthday party, and when we came home Josh had taken a bunch of pictures of Griffin riding the 4-wheeler! He even managed to push the pedal a few times and moved forward a bit. I think he felt pretty proud of himself (:
Anytime Griffin sees us open the door he crawls as fast as he can to go out (: He loves being outside! We have been taking advantage of the dry fall days when we have them. He is starting to become interested in all of Ronan's toys, especially the trucks!

Griffin loves it when I brush his hair, so one day I handed the brush to him and he just brushed and brushed his hair for the longest time. I love the color of his hair (and Ronan's too), I wonder if it will stay the same color as he grows up...

Griffin officially took his very first step on Sunday night! I went to get him from the nursery after our small group and he was so excited to get to me. The nursery worker stood him up and as I got close to him he took a step and leaned to reach me. He hasn't taken any steps since then, but he can stand on his own for a really long time and squat to pick something up, then stand up again! He is getting so big! Almost one!!!

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated my dad's 55th birthday last night! It was a great party! The house was full of family and his closest friends. Mom prepared lots of yummy appetizers and Papa had two of his home brews on tap in his Pub: Jolly Roger IPA and ProfessR's Amber Ale! Several of Papa's students from LCC were there and it was neat to read cards from them and see what an impact he has had on their lives. This will be a very special year for him because he plans to retire from teaching after this school year! I'm excited for him and proud of all the hard work he has put in over the years! Here's to a great year....Happy Birthday, Papa!

Breaking Ground!

What an exciting day! We returned from spending time with friends this morning to find a dump truck and an excavator parked in front of our house! It was finally happening! Josh rode his bike home as fast as he could so that he could answer any questions and see them get started. We all stood on our deck as we watched the excavator cut into our backyard.

It was pretty amazing to watch! Ronan, of course, was hyped up by all the excitement. He could hardly contain himself, but he managed to stay on the deck and away from the construction site for the most part. Josh had to go back to work....so I took lots of pictures and video for him. I called a few people to let them know what was happening in case they wanted to stop by to see it. My friend Kelly came with her two boys, John and Eli, because John is really into "diggers" like Ronan. They were pretty cute watching the excavator together.

Then, Amy (Josh's sister) came over with her kids, Ethan and Macey, and later on, Katrina (my sister) came over with her son, Finley. It's always fun getting the November "cousins" together.

Here is Griffin, Ethan, and Macey playing on the floor together. On the couch below is Finley, Macey, Ethan, and Griffin. They were all born within 20 days of each other last November!

OK, back to the excavating (: We were so impressed with "Digger Dan", the excavator. He was really efficient and friendly, too! He asked Ronan if he wanted to ride in the truck with him....and Ronan said yes. I thought he would be too scared or nervous, but he wasn't.

Ronan sat in the cab for a few minutes and got to use some of the controls. That really made his day!

Above: Dan finishing the excavation.
Below: Spreading the gravel

Here is Finn and Griffin watching the big truck! Finn kept pointing to it and saying, "Oh!"

And here is our lot! This is all really happening now! I can hardly believe it!

I had to put this video in. This is what Griffin and I do in our spare time (:

Ronan's 1st Field Trip!

Today I got to go with Ronan on his very first field trip! It was so much fun! We went to Detering Orchard where the kids got to pick out a pumpkin and an apple. Ronan was soooo excited. It seemed like he was the most excited kid there (: He is so full of energy and life! Ronan looked for an apple that would fit in his pocket. Yummy! He ate it to the core. Here is Ronan with his teacher Miss McKenzie.

Sadie's class was there at the same time (yeah!) so they got to look for pumpkins together. They both searched for a long time!

Then Ronan, Zack, and Brooklyn found some mud to stomp in. I'm glad he was wearing his new froggy boots!

After they found their pumpkins we all went to the produce stand to try a sample of apple cider. There was a hay maze there, but instead of walking through the maze Ronan decided he would walk on the hay and jump over the maze. Like I said earlier...he is full of energy and does everything to the extreme. Hmmm, sounds like his daddy (:
And here's one last picture of Ronan and Sadie. They are such good buddies! I'm so glad they are going to the same school this year! It's been a lot of fun for them.

Sunday Afternoon

After lunch with my family last Sunday, Ronan and Papa played a little football in the front yard. It was a beautiful fall day. It was cool in the morning, but really warmed up as the day went on. Ronan has been really excited about playing football, especially after watching his first football game at Autzen Stadium last month, so this really was a treat for him...being outside and playing football with his Papa!



Griffin enjoyed watching on the sideline. He'll be out there soon enough!

Progress

Now that the trees are down and the side yard is cleared, we're on to building a fence. Josh started digging post holes a few weekends ago which was quite a process. The ground is really hard in that area and he had to cut into some roots that were left from the fir trees. So it was all very time consuming. Josh's dad helped out a lot with cutting boards, digging, and mixing cement.

All the posts are set on the sides of the house. The maple trees next to the house will be planted on the other side of the fence along our future street.

Over the past several months Josh has been gradually preparing our backyard where our new house will be. He first cut down our apple and pear trees and removed the raised garden boxes. And lately he has been transplanting shrubs into our front yard and around our deck. Two of our trees and a few shrubs went to loving homes (the Greens and Henrys), so it will be fun to watch them grow in their yards. This has all been a little sentimental for us because we put a lot of work into landscaping when we first moved here. I'm glad we were able to save our shrubs, and I am enjoying the new look of our front yard with the mature plants. We have had a lot of fun in our big backyard and we will definitely miss it! I'm excited about this opportunity, though, and in some ways it will be nice to have a smaller yard to maintain.

Here is a picture taken of our backyard from the deck last summer.

And this was taken yesterday from where the shed used to be. It is completely bare and ready for excavation....any day now!!

Dirt and Worms

I spent last evening digging in the dirt with Ronan. This is something he does on a regular basis, but I hardly ever join him. I don't know why. I guess I am usually holding Griffin or doing something inside the house and watching him out the window. But, last night Griffin went to bed early and Ronan was helping Josh work outside, so I decided to interact with Ronan so Josh could actually get some work done. I dug in the dirt and Ronan looked for worms to collect in his dump truck. We found a few worms and Ronan was so happy. We weren't even out there for that long, but I think he really enjoyed it. He said, "Mom, you're a good worker", which is a big compliment because that is what he always says to Josh....who really is a good worker (: Soon we will have a huge dirt pile in our yard once we excavate for our new house, so I am sure we will be digging for worms more often! Now that I think of it, I have such great memories of digging for night crawlers with my dad when we lived in Tenmile. We'll have to plan a fishing trip.... (:

The Big 3-0!

Josh turned 30 on Saturday and we had a great day spending time together and celebrating his special day! In the morning he opened his presents from me (and the boys), and then I took Josh to lunch at the Roadhouse Grill. Ronan went to Grammie and Grandpa's house to play with the Creager cousins (Audrey, Lydia, and Dylan) and Griffin got invited to the Chases house to play with Tyler, Sadie, and Cohen so Josh and I could have a relaxing lunch together. It was great! We had a really nice time talking and eating yummy food. The waitress brought Josh a huge ice cream sundae and asked if he wanted them to sing "Happy Birthday", but he said he just wanted the ice cream (:

Later that evening we had a party at Papa's Pizza with our friends and family. It was a lot of fun! I made a display board with pictures of Josh when he was little and Becca decorated the cake. (Thank you, Becca! You're awesome!)

Josh blew out ALL 30 of his candles! I knew he could do it (: He got some nice gifts and I think he really enjoyed getting to relax and just spend time with people.

This was the best family picture we got that night. Ronan is holding some of Josh's birthday money and it looks like Griffin is trying to grab some too!

And here are some pictures of Josh with his family.

Family Bike Ride

Even though this bike ride happened a few weeks ago I wanted to include it in my blog because it was such a memorable day!

All summer we talked about buying a new bike for me and upgrading to a nicer bike trailer that would work better for hauling two kids. Well, things kept coming up and we never got around to looking until the middle of September. So, on one of the last sunny weekends of "summer" we were prompted by a REI 20% off coupon to go shopping for bike gear. After going to a few places and riding around on a few bikes (I felt funny because I hadn't been on a bike for over 3 years), Josh decided on a new bike trailer from REI and found a nice used bike for me at a great price. I was so excited! We got a little helmet for Griffin and one for me (: He looked sooo cute in his helmet, but he didn't really like wearing it.
We were excited to go on a family bike ride, so we decided to ride to church the next morning. Ronan loved it and Griffin did pretty well. They ate snacks along the way and Ronan helped with Griffin's helmet which kept covering his eyes.
After church we rode to Josh's parent's house to have lunch and celebrate Grandpa Lermo's birthday. And after that we rode home. It was a long day and I felt tired from trying to keep up with Josh. I'm sure he felt like he was taking me on a leisure ride, but it was a pretty good workout for me (:

Photo Shoot

Last week we went to Hendrick's Park to take family pictures using some new lenses for our camera. The boys looked so cute in their matching outfits and they both cooperated nicely. These pictures were all taken by Josh, but the ones I took with him in it didn't turn out as well. I'm still getting used to the camera (: So, I'll have to post some pictures of Josh with Ronan and Griffin another time.