And some kitchen photos to update you!

BEFORE...





AFTER...




AHHHH...

For the Faithful...

... readers who might actually be checking this dinosaur after all this time!

We are alive. We are well. We are undergoing a season of change like no other in the Dahl house, and learning that although it may be hard, it may stretch us, change isn't bad. Just uncomfortable.

For those who don't know, Jaker accepted a late-posted teaching job in his home town. It's a state away, and will be good. We have wonderful family there- the kids will grow up with grandparents in the same town, it is no further for the other grandparents... It's just change. And just as our addition/remodel is getting done. And just as the baby is only 5 weeks from being born. We will miss our church family more than anything. We've made Dear, Dear friends here over the past decade, and have grown to love our community... but it's our church and friends we will miss the most.

SO... I have started my first week of "single-momming-it" as Jake travels down for the week and will come back on weekends. We have hired out the finishing of the house... one guy is doing the siding and another the finishing work inside. A third gentleman from church graciously came today to put trim up out of the kindness of his heart! (See why it will be so hard to leave our friends here!?) The details are coming together. I have a goal of doing Kindergarten with Bella in the mornings (today we started when the boys got on the bus at 7:45 and were done by 9:15.), packing and cleaning with her until noon and then after lunch tackling the list of many little things that need doing- painting for the most part. We have (maybe foolishly) decided to have an impromptu open house this Saturday, which is our city-wide garage sale day. I hope to have a really good cleaning day on Friday! :)

The Lord has been good to us in so many ways. Today He provided a place for us to stay for Nov - March! (We are not planning on a quick house sale- though I trust He could do it- the market around here is TERRIBLE!) Not a small thing seeing as how the town we are headed to was one of the worst hit in the recent Minnesota floods!

That's about it. I better get my sleep tonight. I've got a Kindergartner who will need me at my best in the AM. Not to mention an active 34-week-gestational baby that is sapping me of the last of my energy for the day. Why is it they rev up as I putter down?

I'll leave you with a "First Day of School" photo of my babies...

Changes

The changes going on at "Doodles" would stagger you- I will update soon. For now I will post some much delayed house photos for those of you who are still checking after all this time!!

The kitchen, opened up and Italian looking to me! The cabinet installation should begin today!



The bedroom (excuse the unmade bed- there is a sleeping Bella somewhere in there!



And the master bath...



I guess that is all that made it to the post... I thought there were two more photos. Sorry! These will have to do for now! Catch up soon!

Mmmm... a contest!

This is worth posting!!! Wouldn't this be fun for our new bedroom as a huge thanks to Jake for all the hard work?! He would click his heels for joy! Best Buy is supplying the prize for this great contest!

It's a boy!

Or at least appears to be at this point.

We are all very excited- but searching for a name as we were more settled on girl's names than boy's. (At this point my husband would point out that I am pretty picky about names. )
Suggestions are welcome!

Back to painting with me.

If you are in need...

... of a chortle, head on over to http://www.antiquemommy.com and read her Mary Tyler Moore post from yesterday. Whoo... use the bathroom BEFORE hand though.

I've got nothing for you today folks. Surprised? HA!
I'm up to my elbows in ceiling paint, and ready to jump into Bahia Grass, Laurel, Tannin, and Summer Lake. Mmmm... I'll update you with painting photos when there are results to show off!

Tomorrow there will (Lord willing) be a baby gender announcement in the afternoon!

Back to regular blogging... well, no promises. One has to have priorities. This summer "Doodles" isn't in the top ten. :)

Thanks to the help of my wonderful friend Jen and fabulous SIL Jamie our room, soon to be Bella's room, was transformed into this girly wonder today:

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, ladies!

To catch you up...

Well, we've had a busy week thus far! I am generally pretty organized, but this week has brought me to my planner frequently to stay on top of all that is buzzing.

Noodle is spending this week at our local camp. I have no doubt he is having great fun. Because the camp is right here in town I have been tempted more than once to "drive by" and just see if I can catch a glimpse of him, but have resisted thus far. This is his third week at summer camp... He went two years ago to the camp I grew up going to and then last year spent a week at his current digs. This year brings a trip to BOTH as next week he and Doodle will spend a week together at LLBC. I am thrilled for them as camp brought about spiritual bounds in my life. I pray God will use it in a big way in my children's' lives as well.

Doodle and I woke early with aspirations of strawberry picking, only to find a well-timed e-mail from a good friend letting us know the patch was closed for ripening. All is well. We may try for tomorrow, but the Lord knows my plate for today is brimming and aside from Doodle's initial disappointment (that lasted .2 seconds until he launched himself in bed with Daddy to cuddle), I am grateful for the extra hours to prepare for this busy day and the next. Dood and I are headed to a small waterpark today with good friends, and then Jake and I are headed to "The King and I"( in which a dear friend has the role of Anna) tonight. The production is being held at a charming little theater that is in an old barn- one of our favorite places to see a show. It's bound to be a good one!

Bella has been thoroughly enjoying Summer School the past two weeks. She loves her teacher and has new little friends. The other day she dramatically pronounced that the last day of class she was going to come home and "just cry and cry." Ahh, the gift of emotion in even young girls. Lord, help me! :)

Our addition (the itty-bitty moving one) is growing quickly! We are at 23 weeks now and if I get the courage I'll update you with a belly photo (please use caution and sunglasses when viewing- It's a glaring white monstrosity!). Babycenter tells me the wee one is around 11 inches and just over a pound! I have been trying to stay as active as possible, but I feel like the weight is compounding daily despite my efforts. I worry not about the baby's healthy birth weight. Any guesses? :)

Our bedroom addition is going well, too. I haven't shared photos the past couple days as the work is more subtle. Jake is finishing the internal framing and prepping for drywall. We are expecting (and hoping for) both the electrician and heating/cooling man today, so if all goes well we could have a final inspection tomorrow or Monday and then insulation and drywall will begin! It's fun to walk through it and has been fun to pick tile, flooring, doors, lights, etc. throughout the past week.

There... I think you are updated on our kids and lives. We love you all and look forward to being with extended family- on both sides- soon!

Memories...

We had a great time together in a mini vacation to Six Flags.

Our Goon-children hamming it up:

Said children devouring a hot fudge funnelcake sundae in .2 seconds:

Mmmm. Warms a mommy's heart:

Ya think they got MY chompers or what!? Geesh. Daddy's appetite, Mommy's teeth.

Life is Good!

"Did you like the waterslide, Bella?"

It's coming!

While we had our mini-get-away a friend came to shingle for us! Here is a view from the back with the bump-out walls up (the transom window is framed in) and shingles on!

And here are the interior walls, which are also framed in! Jake is standing in the shower... on the other side of the wall to the left of him (as we see it in the picture) will be the toilet and across from him will be the sink. I'll try to get better photos of this all!

Promised photos

Sometimes this whole internet/digital camera stuff still amazes me. I was outside two minutes ago, took these photos, and now I will have them online to be viewed around the globe in moments. Can you imagine sitting down with even a brilliant man of our past, say, Benjamin Franklin, and explaining that whole process to him?

Here are the photos!

Photos from Sunday

Well, I'm a bit behind on posting the progress, but this is what things looked like on Sunday afternoon. If it weren't 10:30pm I would be out there with photos from today, because man does it look different now!

Dawson and I took off for a couple hours Sunday with Daddy's truck and a baggie of change. Now what little boy raids their piggy bank to buy leeches? Mine. That's who. We got a dozen leeches and headed to the local dam to fish for a couple hours. Here are my favorite shots of the day. Eat your heart out... I could gobble him (and his cute little fingers) right up!

I'll post new photos tomorrow. I assure you there is a big difference! :)

Weekend update

You know you live in a small town when your lumberyard delivery comes tooling down the road on a fork lift!

Two walls up! (This is taken from the back of the addition... the wall to the left with one window is the east wall (our bedroom) and the wall in the center with two windows will face the street.)

All walls are up! You can see the bump-out in the back where our bed will sit(walls will be built when the roof trusses are up), as well as the door to the backyard (Deck/hot tub of the distant future!)

Roof trusses are up! I will go out and take photos to post later today!

Tearing down the walls

See? I told you it wasn't pretty! :)

We had final measurements done for the roof trusses on Tuesday. Jake mentioned he would like to work towards putting trusses up this weekend. The lumber-yard guy said, "Oh. Well, the truss plant is only a block away but they usually want two-weeks to fill an order. They have been known to do favors, though, so I'll see what I can do."

The trusses came an hour ago. :)
God is so good

My dad is up "visiting-" with Jake at least- as they rip the side of the house off. I will share photos... Just as soon as I find the camera under all this dust! I think that old houses get their smell from the nasty blown in dust(insulation) that is in the walls. Our house smells like a grandma house or an antique shop, or a dusty ol' attic right now. Mmm... You're jealous, aren't ya? :)

I am content feeding the masses with a fridge that has never been fuller. I invited friends over to play, and ya know... It's been such a blessing to me. They are playing outside on bikes, doing treasure hunts and all around just doing exactly what kids should do on summer vacation. It's a beautiful breezy, sunny day and God is good.

Have a great day... I'll share photos of our de-construction soon!

Our weekend in pictures

I was called off of work last night and we scooped up the opportunity for a family night. We started a campfire early enough to have hot dogs and s'mores for supper (nutritional information unavailable). We then had the kids all take baths as I ran out for a "surprise" and did a family movie night. Here are the boys thoroughly enjoying their dogs at the campfire:

(Yes, Noodle's hair is VERY shaggy. I am making an appointment with my hairdresser this week to have him "shaped up.")

And after a dry early spring, God has been blessing us with more rain than a builder cares for! Jake did finish the sheeting and got a majority of the floor trusses in place this weekend. He also started to put the floor sheeting on. The next step (unfortunately) is to cut into the house to finish the trusses.
The dust factor is on the rise, people!

And this last photo shows just how big and responsible our eldest is getting. He mowed the lawn for the first time yesterday and did a bang-up job! (We thought we'd break him in this year while half of the yard is dirt... His job will double next year!) For those of you alarmed at his lack of footwear- easy, easy. The mower is not on in this photo! I had him pull it out of the shed for a photo after his protective shoes and yes, even safety glasses were put away!

I will have one more photo of joy for you as soon as Doodle and Jaker return with their on-loan summer toy!

End of May photo update

Isn't she just cute? (It's juice, not coffee)


Doodle and Bella enjoying sprinkler time on a hot Spring day...


Noodle and I visited the Wilderness Walk on a third-grade class field trip. We had such a fun day together!

I'm just going to quote "Baby Center" on the baby's growth for the week...

Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. She's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom, and about 10 inches from head to heel. (For the first 20 weeks, we use measurements taken from the top of the baby's head to her bottom — known as the "crown to rump" measurement. After that, we use measurements from head to toe. This is because a baby's legs are curled up against her torso during the first half of pregnancy and are very hard to measure.)

I get to visit the doctor on Monday... I am supposed to (only) have gained 10 lbs. by this point... we shall see.

I spent the day at a friend's house getting ready for a moving sale. We got it pretty much organized and will be ready to open tomorrow morning. I am very much looking forward to an evening with my husband tomorrow night! :) (They have been rare lately due to his hard-working and my exhaustion by 9pm!)

Love to all our far away family. We miss you all. Bella was comiserating that she didn't even remember what her cousins look like anymore. We send hugs to one and all!

A fun day was had...

Well, the kick-off to summer is behind us (Yet Noodle and Jake have 7 1/2 days of school remaining). We had such a fun day! We got to enjoy a day of watching softball (me), climbing on the playground with friends (Bella), fishing from start to finish (Doodle), and fishing mixed with a horseback ride (Noodle). Jaker got to play in the softball tourney (and did mighty well if I do say so myself!) and they finished 3rd. We ended the day with a good ol' Memorial Day picnic and campfire with friends. The kids ran through the sprinkler as the adults sat around the fire. When the smores came out twas not such a relaxing fire as the marshmallow/ graham cracker/ chocolate assembly line was buzzing with demands!

Today is laundry, cleaning and at-home time. The two little ones are putting away clothes and doing chores as I contemplate my next move.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Progress!

Despite the much needed rain in the past couple of days, Jaker has been working hard. We have gone from two basement walls to four with most of the sheeting up. The next step is to caulk the seams and staple plastic to the walls.



We are looking forward to yet another day off tomorrow- the annual softball tournament and a cookout! I love summer. Even if it's only impending. :)

My sweet little zucchini

No, we are not having twins.

The baby has reached the small zucchini stage- about 9 oz. and 6 inches head to rump. Makes me wonder why the legs don't count, as they are the most invasive part of this little wonder. I feel him/her kicking a lot now, especially when I am in this chair or in bed at night.

I think we have reached a decision on names. If it's a girl it will be Kennedy (Tessa is our back up name) and should it be a boy I think we're going with Caden (or my preferred spelling, Caeden) much to Noodle's dislike. He likes Justin and can't understand why we don't just choose it and be done with the whole discussion. I remember being opinionated on the topic when my brother was born when I was in second grade, and even more so when we talked about names later with my mom... "should there have been another sibling." We'll see. We did a last minute change to "Doodle" after our long-planned name was taken by a friend less than a month before he was born.

The construction is going well. Jaker is working his heart out. I got what is left of our yard mowed yesterday- just in time for the rain! :)
Praise the Lord for the much-needed showers! :)
I'll leave you with a couple photos of the less-than-beautiful stage of construction we are in!

Noodle's Favorite Position

Spring soccer season is in full swing, and Noodle LOVES to play goalie. The boys are both enjoying the season despite the crazy Wisconsin weather!