December 3

Merry Christmas 2011

December 1

The cabin is finally ours. It recorded yesterday. Here are some fun pictures I thought I'd share.
Mike is going up their tomorrow to start the roof. He ordered everything for it today and it will be delivered in the morning. He also has the phone and electric guys scheduled to be there sometime tomorrow too. The garage you see to the left, well, it will either be converted to a playroom and attached to the house or a complete separate cabin. We can't decide. It's a lot of space 20x28, about 560 s.f. of unused space.

This is the tarp that he put on a couple weeks ago when a storm came through. When we were still in escrow.
We haven't decided on window styles yet, but we had to make a decision on the exterior color( Mike picked green) when we ordered the roofing shingles. I think it will look great in all the pine trees.

This is the back. We(um..Mike) have lots of work to do. How fun!!

The best part.........the whole back of the property.........Isn't this the best?

This is a nice cleared, flat area.

I am about 3/4 of the way down to the property line. I turned around and was looking up to the cabin. It's there, really. :)

Exploring time.

We cannot wait until the snow comes.

Why is this the only picture I took of the inside??? I have no idea. But it really doesn't matter. It's changing. Don't worry there will be lots of before and after photos.

And the best photo of all. The best guy ever. Thank you Mikey for making it all happen. And for ALL the work I know your going to do. (He still can't believe the "Hey honey, let's buy a cabin today" statement. He still laughs about that.

November 28

Cabin Update:
We sign escrow papers at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.
We are so excited. We are going to take a drive up there after. The kids want to go again.
Now the work will begin. Mike is putting a new roof on and then remodeling the bathroom.
Thank goodness the cabin is small. It should be easy. I said, "Should Be". :)

November 27 Part 2

So guess what Mike's been doing? Shopping. He's feeling quite the jolly spirit.

I do love the yard though...

And Kylene decorated the top of the school shelves. Looks good. Kate loves nutcrackers. She has

a good size collection going.

November 27

Mike got up early this morning said, "I'm going to town. I'll be right back!".
So this is what he brought home. Breakfast for a crowd. Oh, wait. Just us.

12 dozen eggs
6 lbs. of bacon
6 lbs. of sausage
60 hash browns
4 gallons of milk

OK......maybe it will make a more than one mornings breakfast. But he was so cute bringing it in.

November 26

My first try at sewing a patchwork tree skirt. I am very proud. It's reversible.

Starting to look a lot like Christmas.

The tree is almost done. Good job guys!

Outside lights....

More.....

And more.....

Mike bought 2400 lights yesterday and went and bought another 3600 lights tonight. He even bought 2- 4 ft. lighted potted topiary tree's for the porch. I'm sure he'll be doing more. We've got to make a game plan for next year. How to put lights on the house without doing damage to the house. Anyways that's what we've been up to.

November 24

My cooking helper...

Our Christmas decorations going up in the yard

Smile boys!

Mike took some pictures tonight. I'll take more this weekend. It was wet and rainy tonight. We still have more decorations to put out.

We had such a fun day. Good food and decorating for Christmas. Keegan asked to go to town to see if others had put up Christmas lights. We drove to town, but it was a bummer. No lights. So we told the kids we'd go back this weekend and see if anyone had put up lights. Every holiday season we do a nightly Christmas light tour.

We hope our family, friends, and blog followers had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

November 22

We celebrated two birthdays. Happy Birthday Kurtis and Kassadie. Kurtis is now 10 and Kassadie is a big 8 year old. It was so fun. I love birthdays. But it's extra fun with two on one day!!

The cabin is still in the works. The well inspection came back today and everything was good.
So with the holiday they said we are looking to close escrow at the beginning of next week.

We hope that all goes well....... getting so excited for the snow to come.

November 15

Today we finally got the well inspected at the cabin. Everything went great. The well company called first, so Mike could meet them up there when they did the inspection. They did a complete inspection on it and turned a water sample in today. The water sample test takes two days. Then if everything is okay, we get to close escrow. When Mike was there he did lots of measuring. He gave me the window measurements so we can get new windows ordered. He's hoping escrow will close soon. He wants to get up there and put a new roof on before the snow starts. It's still really warm here, but we know that will change shortly. It's suppose to snow Friday.

November 12

I forgot to post my first quilt yesterday. So here it is. Not fancy, but done. I started quilting my next one last night. I had quite a time trying to pick a top quilting design. It will take a while to hand stitch it. I also started cutting patchwork squares for a tree skirt. I will hopefully have that done by Thanksgiving.

November 11

Sewing? Yep.

My next quilt project

Aww, he even brings chocolate!

So, they say if your into numbers and luck, today was your day. 11-11-11. Hmm.... okay? So for me it's just plain ol' Friday. But a fun one at that.

I know lots of people say they could never work with their spouse or the thought of being together 24/7 is just too much. I love Mike. I love being with him. EVERYDAY 24/7. Why?

#1 He's perfect and # 2 Well just look at today's pictures. Haha. (he let me take pictures :) ) He was helping me put the backing on a quilt top. We got it on the rack so I can start hand quilting it. We are really lucky to spend so much time together and to be with the kids. I have yet, after 25 plus years not found anything he can't do. And he even brings home a surprise box of chocolate for me.Yummy!

November 10

Today Kevin and Mike got all the Christmas yard decorations out. It was really warm today so they did some paint touch ups here and there. They are so adorable. I can't wait to put them out.
I am sitting here hand sewing the binding on my first quilt. It's not a perfect quilt..... but it sure is a lot better than I ever expected. I hand quilted the design on the top. Um, yeah...... that's the part that took all summer.Haha.
The Well Inspection on the cabin is tomorrow. I'm not sure if it's morning or afternoon. They are suppose to call Mike so he can meet them up there. So exciting.
More later.....maybe I'll have the quilt done and I can post pictures!

November 2

Awhile back Mike, Kylene and I were talking and joking around. Kylene said "Mom, you are so boring, you over plan everything". (Like I haven't heard that before..haha) She then proceeded to ask "Have you ever taken a risk on anything before?" (I think to myself ummm...I have 12 kids??? duh) And then my answer out loud was NO. I admit I plan, plan plan! It's what I do.
So this leads to my story.........
Last Friday Mike was looking at motor homes online. He said, "It really would be fun to get one". So I sat down after he left and was looking at them. Then I thought about always wanting a cabin in the mountains, where we could go and play in the snow. So I looked up an area I like and the first one that popped up was the one. So when Mike came home I showed it to him.
He called the realtor to get info. Then he took a drive up to take a look. He called me when he got there and said "I like it, it's really cute. A little work and it will be a fit for us." So he came home , we all packed up and took a drive up to see it.
All the kids thought it was great, the big girls couldn't believed how good the pine tree's smelled.
So we made an offer the next day.
They excepted and now today we are in escrow.
All we are waiting for is the well inspection and escrow can close.
It's a small cabin, the size this house use to be before we added on. 2 bed/ 1 bath and a loft (we now have 7 bed/2 bath and a loft here) and it has a huge garage we can convert to living space.
It sits on a little more than an acre.
Can't wait to get started on it, the area is so pretty. No neighbors close and beautiful tree's everywhere. And it's only about an hour away, close enough for fun day trips to the snow.
I hope all goes as planned , the kids will just love it.
So....how's that for a girl who doesn't take risks!

October 25

Last week was a busy one. Mike had a golf tournament on Monday, he had a great time at a course he had never been to. I got invited to a girls night out. Okay, it was the big girls and their friend. I had a great time haven't been to the movies....well a long time. (I even stayed out after dark!)Some dentist appointments and that brings us to Keegan's Birthday.

He's now 8 years old. Yay Keegan!

This is one of his favorite birthday presents, his very own kite. I love this picture.

The neighbor asked us if the kids would like an Air Hockey game and a Ping Pong table.

Wow, how nice was that! Their kids are grown and they were not being used anymore.

The kids got invited to a Harvest Festival Saturday night. They had so much fun.

Mike was so proud of his breakfast he made the kids this morning he was taking pictures as he went along. Cute huh?

October 5

The kitchen is almost done. Remember this is the before kitchen.And yes, I fed 14 people, 3-5 times a day from this small kitchen. :)

This is our new range.....oh I'm in love. The base is 5 feet across, has 6 extra large burners and a

24" griddle to fry on. And 2....count them 2 ovens. The hood is something of a.....well....let's just state the obvious, it's huge. 7 feet. Mike still needs to tile the back wall and install a pot filler for me.

I made the curtains and need to replace the the fabric on the picture bulletin board with matching fabric. The crown moulding hasn't been put up yet either.

We haven't put everything back in the cabinets yet, but the 3 stacks of paper plates made it. Haha.

Remember when I posted about our new refrigerator and you thought to yourself "Gee, that's huge, how will that ever look right?" Well next to the stove......it fits just right!

All I have to say is "Thank you Mikey, your the best husband a girl could ever want!"

When I went shopping today, I got the kids this bowling game. It has an electronic score keeper just like the bowling alleys do. It is so much fun.