New Roof

This is the first step in getting our house ready to sell. We knew when we bought this house that we would need to replace the roof, but since there was no rush, we of course waited until now (:

Nick, our builder friend, informed us that roofing materials are about to double in cost due to the rising oil prices...and he could do our roof quickly and give us a good deal. Sounded great to us!

Here's the before picture:
Nick and his brother started removing the old shingles the next morning, and by the end of the day they replaced the tar paper and had the lower level completely ready to re-roof.
The next day they did the same for the upper level, and then basically took another day and a half to put the new shingles on. They are really efficient workers!
The roof looks great and I think it really improves the look (and value) of our house.

Having a new roof makes our siding and trim look dirty & worn...and so it begins. Lots of little odds and ends to touch-up, but it feels good to have biggest improvement done and out of the way!

Rough Week...

I am so glad it's finally Friday! The kids have been sick since last weekend, so we've been stuck at home all week. I was tempted to let Ronan go to school because he was acting fine and had plenty of energy (surprise, surprise!), but he was coughing and had a stuffy nose so I kept him home. Griffin has been pretty miserable...teething, runny nose, coughing, and a fever off & on. He's been sleeping fine at night, but he hasn't been napping well for almost 2 weeks, which makes for really long days for me ): I'm exhausted and frustrated because I started getting sick yesterday and felt awful today. But, it's the weekend now and I have a lot of help from Josh. I'm just praying that everyone will feel better soon and that I will recover quickly!

You can tell that Griffin feels pretty lousy ):

Ronan has been very caring and gentle with Griffin this week (:

March Birthdays Begin

On Sunday, after the John Deere tractor ride, we went to Josh's parent's house to celebrate Dad & Jon's (brother-in-law) birthdays. We ate lunch together and spent the afternoon playing outside in the warmish sun.

Oh, Josh! He put Griffin's hair in pigtails to match cousin Macey (:

I took them out soon after, but his hair was kind of tweaked for the rest of the day (: Here is Griffin sitting in Grammie's garden box.
Cousin Ethan is getting more confident with his walking skills!
Ronan and Cousin Dylan had a lot of fun together! They really got the hang of this game...it was cute watching them figure it out together (:

Sweet picture of Great Grammie and Dylan

Amy and Jon enjoying the sun!
The Birthday Men
(photo borrowed from Amy's blog)
Jon is showing the card we gave him. Ronan wrote the R and O in his name all by himself (:

It was fun having all of the cousins together...it doesn't happen often enough. So we just had to get a group shot (:
Top: Ronan, Audrey, Dylan, and Lydia
Bottom: Griffin, Macey, and Ethan

When it's nice outside the older kids pretty much know that they will get to go to "Grammie's park"...just down the street. So, we ended the day with some play time at the park. The toddlers loved the sand and had fun discovering the twisty slide. I didn't have my camera out, but Amy put some cute pictures on her blog if you want to check them out (:

John Deere Ride

Last May our church had a silent auction fund raiser for the Youth Mexico trip and Josh bid on a tractor ride with Pastor Steve (for Ronan) and won. We finally redeemed it on Sunday (: Ronan was a little nervous and kept saying that he wanted his Daddy to ride with him, but once we got there he was willing to ride with Pastor Steve. He was so excited! He got to steer the tractor and even make the bucket go up & down. It was a fun experience for him.

After driving around for awhile, Steve asked Josh if he wanted to take a turn. He did...and of course Griffin wanted to ride too (: Our boys LOVE being with Daddy!

Noisy Days

Every morning this past week we have been awakened at 7:30 to the sound of dump trucks and backhoes on our street. Our kids are typically awake by then, but sometimes they sleep in...not this week. I guess EWEB is putting in a new water main that runs all the way down Mahlon (where our new house is). It has nothing to do with our new construction, the water main was just really old and needed to be replaced.

This is the view from our bedroom window.

Where Honeysuckle Ln and Mahlon Ave meet.

I can't keep my curious kids away from construction activity. They love watching the trucks!

Heating System

A little update on the house:

The HVAC system was installed at the end of February.

The jacuzzi tub is in and the house is now connected to water....I wish I could go in it now!

Our fireplace arrived last Thursday and we will be getting our exterior doors in a few days. Josh is working on the trim for the windows and we hired someone to finish the siding for us (big sigh of relief!). Things are coming together...one day at a time.

Wedding Day

On Saturday, we went to Tyler and Brittany's wedding (friends from church) . It was a really nice wedding and we enjoyed getting to spend time with our close friends and family. Our friend, McKenzie (brother of the groom), wrote some beautiful music for the ceremony and another friend, Sandy, sang during the communion. They are both extremely talented! Our kids had fun in the childcare, Ronan even wanted to stay in there during the reception.

The happy couple

Josh and I with one of our boys (:

Nicole (6 months pregnant!) & Sandy and Kenton & Katrina

Our sweet niece, Macey, with her cute little pigtails (:

Griffin cuddling with Uncle Aaron

Becca, Robin, and baby Luke

Amy (9 weeks pregnant) holding Griffin and Macey.

Ronan joined the single guys for the garter toss (: I don't think he really knew what was going on...but he looked so cute and grown up out there.

Our nephew, Tyler, caught the garter!

Josh was in charge of the sound system during the wedding & reception, but as the reception started winding down he was able to play with the kids and relax a little before helping clean up (: He was a busy guy! But he is so good at making time for our boys, and they have so much fun together! Here they are doing one of their favorite things...

Flying High!

By the time we got home we were all exhausted! Ronan and Griffin were both in bed by 7:45, so we watched a movie and still got to bed somewhat early (: