House Progress

We're in a bit of a holding pattern with the house. Last week we did our first round of picking out plumbing fixtures and windows and doors. But as far as actual building, we're waiting on several puzzle pieces to come together.

In the meantime, I get to obsess think more about my kitchen sink and faucet and just exactly what color shingles we should have and more. I'm actually happy to have time to think about those things. 

And, I know that when the pieces are all ready (like trusses, etc.) we'll be ready to move forward. :-) 

For now, we have some fun sand piles to play in.

Kansas Day festivities

It's become an annual tradition for us to attend the Kansas Day festivities at Kaufman Museum. Ben always has basketball games on the last Saturday of January so it's just something that the boys and I do together. This year the weather was perfect, which made the event that much more enjoyable.

First thing we did was complete a scavenger hunt around the inside of the museum. It was fun to work together, Noah did most of the reading, Levi was on the lookout for the next clue and I made sure to fill in the blanks correctly on our paper so we could get a prize (two free magic markers!!). :-)

The boys had a wonderful time at the drum station. 

 The man in orange was in charge. He led the kids in the circle in a call and response sort of activity. So, Levi would play a rhythm and then the whole group would play it back, and they simply went around the circle doing that.

 They had a blast - especially when the guy in charge showed them they could use the plastic pipes to hit their heads!

 Making clay creations was next and they each had a great time creating pizzas and snowmen.

 They tried out their shaving skills, too.

 It turns out they're both pretty good at shaving!

 And they enjoyed making good, long curls.

 We headed outside then to check out the old fashioned games, rope making, wagon rides and then went inside the old house for a couple more crafts. First up, making their very own Kansas postage stamp.

 And hats! Levi's is a cut out of the state of Kansas and Noah's is a sunflower.

 The one and only Jerry Toews had an old tractor out and running during the afternoon. Jerry's known locally for his passion and knowledge of old tractors and cars, as well as his love of music (he was my band teacher back in the day).

 Noah felt pretty important sitting up on the seat while the tractor engine was puttering. A small crowd gathered around the tractor each time Jerry fired it up - and Noah was happy to be a small part of it.

It was great to see friends, have fun with the boys and enjoy the warm sunshine on a January afternoon.

House Progress

They poured concrete this week! And hopefully there will be more concrete this next week. Concrete takes forever to cure, and then the weather is a factor too. But anyways, we've got a garage floor, a mudroom floor and a safe room/bathroom floor! And a very sandy driveway - sandcastle building may start at any moment.

I know...these photos aren't too exciting....but progress is progress....and that's good news.

Other decisions are starting to be made for the house. I spent a lot of time on Friday with colored pencils and scissors trying to get a better handle on the exterior of our house. 

 I traced the front of the house, made several copies and then colored different colors of trim and shingles. It was somewhat helpful and helped me see a few things more clearly. I did the same sort of thing with garage doors which was very helpful - the one I had been leaning towards looked awful! I've narrowed it down to three, so it's just a matter of sitting Ben down for a discussion to decide what the exterior will look like.

60 degree Sunday

It's January and it's sunny and 60 degrees outside! That's a wonderful, exciting and unusual event (although this is Kansas and the weather is forgetful and crazy most of the time). The past couple of weekends, the boys have wanted to play outside but the curiosity of Harold makes it difficult. So while the boys played basketball outside, I took Harold for a walk! Lucky me!! 

The cattle are terrified of humans on foot. Get in a tractor and they won't budge, try to walk near them and they RUN. They're just as crazy as the weather. 

 Harold and I walked out back through the pasture, down the dirt road and then back through the pasture. I like to walk the dirt road - it's my favorite, forever and ever.

 The pasture is about three hundred shades of brown in winter, but at least all the grasses and weeds have a variety of texture making it interesting to walk through.

 I looked down to see this little one glowing back up at me.

 Harold loves to go on walks. He stays busy the whole time and gets some good exercise, too.

 I love this road. It's quiet, with creeks and trees, fields and pastures.

 There are a handful of Cottonwood trees along this road and they are my favorites. They're huge and old and strikingly beautiful up against the super-blue sky.

 Hey, look! The cattle were anxiously awaiting our return!

And now....we're back inside....it's about time to get the boys back outside while the sun's still shining!

House Progress & More

Super cold weather and snow don't make for much house progress, but there's a tiny bit of progress to show and some other random stuff too! :-)

It's a good thing we all have mud boots around here because there is lots and lots of mud around our new house.

 The last update I gave about the house was that sand was being delivered....at the end of that work day the guys tarped most of the sand in preparation for the cold weather that was coming our way.

 They got the roof of the safe room/bathroom framed to hold concrete forms, too.

 Then the polar vortex reached us and it got downright gross outside. Snow and cold weather is what we woke up to on Sunday morning. That afternoon the boys actually spent some time outside - and for the first time I can remember I was genuinely worried about their safety because it was so cold.

(I took this photo through the screen door, it was too cold for me to open the door and take a proper photo.)

 

 This is how he looked at me when I asked him if was doing OK. He has no idea why I'm asking. He'd only been outside playing football for fifteen minutes in near zero degree weather.....hmmmmm....he's always surprising me.
But, they had a great time, and thankfully it was short lived and then they came inside to warm up.
I went for a walk on Sunday afternoon - got all bundled up, thought I'd go walk through the pasture - but only made it out to the cattle before I decided the wind was simply too cold for my face (the only part that wasn't protected from the wind) to handle.
The weather's changed, warmer rainy weather is here now so Levi and I put our boots on today and went to see what the house looked like. We found out that the safe room/bathroom has a concrete top and pipes for the toilet and shower!

 We found a few more pipes out in the sand, too.

 I still feel surprised by the concrete rectangle built up in the middle of our house, even standing in it feels exciting and odd, all at the same time.

 Harold loves to explore the new house with us. This crazy dog went up into the hayloft of the big red barn today and could not/would not come down. Maybe he and Otto (dog cousin) have more in common than we thought.  Although in all fairness, Otto has worked through his fear of stairs and it seems Harold has room for improvement.

 Mr. Levi instructed me not take his picture, but I surprised him and managed to get him in one photo.

 In other totally random, but still significant here on the farm, we had a tree taken down this week. It was a huge American Elm tree, but it was unfortunately sick and very close to our house. The saw dust from cutting it down is just about all that remains of it.

 My feet are skis, yet they look pretty small compared to this big tree trunk. I love the trees on this yard, and while we've been working to trim up and thin out as many as we can, it was sad to see this one go. It's shaded my basketball "court" my whole life and now it's just gone.

The weather looks more cooperative for this next week, so we're hopeful that we take a few more steps forward than we did this past week.

Christmas Wrapped Up

Our final Christmas gathering in the marathon of holiday gatherings was Sunday evening at my parents' house with my Epp family. We ate the traditional meal of sausage, ham, fried potatoes, zwiebach, cherry moos and Christmas goodies for dessert. 

 Prior to eating, we continued my grandparents' tradition of blessing each other during a mini candle lighting service (we have candles, special wooden candle holders and scripts thanks to my grandma :-)).

 Even the youngest in the family, Delaney, did a fine job participating and thankfully nothing but candles started on fire.

 After dinner, we gathered for the "program" and gifts. Traditionally, the kids all perform a musical piece, read or recite a poem or scripture prior to opening gifts.

 This year the young ones put on quite a performance. Addi and Cambry played piano while Ty, Rylee and Delaney played bells for "Jingle, Jingle Happy Bells".

 Then Levi led us in some Christmas songs on his keyboard (there are several pre-programmed in so he felt like he was really accompanying us).

 Then Noah played three piano songs for us that he learned during the month of December.

 Finally, Rylee taught us a new way to sing "Angel Band". It turned out to be quite a lovely (and long) program. :-)

 The kids had a gift exchange and then the adults had one too. It always works out well and there are usually some really good laughs in the process.
Finally, there was quite a bit of "house" talk as many people had questions about what our house would look like and what the floor plan is.

And after we went home, we sighed a sigh of relief that Christmas was over. We love Christmas and we absolutely love to see family and friends, but the marathon of gatherings was tiring for us and the boys. We look forward to celebrating Christmas in a new house next year.