Getting Out

We had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the day in Wyoming with Clint's family. The food was great and the kids had a fun time playing outside in the warmer weather. I forgot my camera though so the only Thanksgiving picture we have is of Mitchell with his turkey apple he made in preschool. He was very kind and let Caleb eat most of it.
Thanksgiving weekend we took a trip to the Gateway Discovery Museum. It was awesome. The kids can touch everything and they loved it. We will definitely be going back there again someday.

Here are Caleb and Mitchell as police officers.

Caleb loved playing in the water.

They have a great place to build with really big blocks. Mitchell loved the crane and Caleb loved dressing up as a builder.

Earlier in the month Grandpa helped Caleb and Mitchell build a snowman. It was great in it's glory. This is after a few days of melting. Their favorite part was when its head fell off.

More building progress--Walls and Trusses

We took a ride to go visit the property. We were excited to be greeted with trusses and walls! The pictures are showing different rooms in the house.


This is our kitchen.


This is the top of the stairs looking into the bed rooms.

This is the great/family room.

This the bonus room lookin east.

This is looking out the dormer window south.

This is looking at one of the bedrooms in the bonus room.

This is the other side of the bonus room facing west. (The window is wrong. It is going to be two windows in each bedroom.

This is the cold storage room.

This is the basement roller derby rink.

This is looking toward the bathroom, stairs, and bedrooms in the basement.

Basement bedroom

This is the kids bedroom.

This is the garage entry ways. The kids are in the pantry doorway.

Here is a better picture of the doorway into the pantry.

And last, but not least, an outdated picture of the house. As of today, we have the caps on the trusses and sheeting on the roof in the bonus room. Let the fun begin!

All I want for Christmas. . .

Dear Santa,

Mitchell, Caleb and I went to the stores to get some ideas for Christmas. We thought it would be a good idea if we took some pictures so Santa would know what to find. I thought it would be fun to post some of the (poor quality because of cell phone) pictures.

Mitchell is writing the following list:

1. AT-ST

2. Flashlight (really he wants one that goes on your head)

3. Millennium Falcon Lego Set

There were a lot more things on his list, like transformers, X-wing, construx, books, lego indiana jones for wii, and so on, but I didn't take the time to take pictures of everything. He was writing his list and while I was demonstrating how to write a list, he started copying what I had written. I guess it's easier to spell when you can copy than having to think about it. It was pretty funny. Now he's going through the toy books and saying things like: "Nope, don't want any of those" and "Wait a second, that is awesome" and my favorite "Mom, do we have (Fill in the blank) in the storage unit, I really miss that". Becca and I joked last night how Christmas will come again once we start unloading the toys and stuff from the unit again.

Caleb was a little more busy and less specific. He wanted to push buttons on any toy that had them. He did slow down to pick up and pose for a few things. This was his list:

1. Lego TIE Fighter

2. A Cars fishing pole

3. A Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger.

He wanted Thomas stuff today and a flashlight to go on your head as well. He is really funny about Christmas. He is learning that he gets toys and candy. I think Mitchell may have something to do with that. We'll see what we can do to help him learn a little about the real reason. . .

It's been fun with Caleb because he can see the neigbor's Christmas lights. One night, they were a little late in turning on the lights and Caleb talked Grandma into calling them up to turn on their "Critt-mass Wites". There is a nightly check to ensure the neighbor's lights are on, and of course they have updated their timer to ensure that the little boy won't be disappointed.

Scary frights and building sites

We have had a fun Halloween! It started with fun pumpkins that the kids drew and then carved.


Mitchell was a bat and Caleb was a ghost. They loved going around and getting candy.



Mitchell wanted a scary pumpkin.



Caleb wanted a skull with a coy smile. I thought it looked a little like Jack the Pumkin King

A few days prior to Halloween and today, it snowed. The kids love the snow!

The weekend in between gave us 60's so we went to the Zoo and found some turtles.

They loved the play part of the zoo more than the rest. It was a fun trip.

Nice weather brought us a lot of progress on our house. Caleb is dancing on the floor.

Mitchell and Caleb almost gave their parents an aneurysm as they would show us where the stairs should be (look for a hole right behind the boys).

We have WALLS! And I'm not talking about Keven and Cary.

The weather was nice the rest of the week, and we came by today to see a huge change.

The kids played in their bedrooms.

Ross, Susan, Becca, and Mitchell are looking at where each of the rooms will be. (They are standing where the master bath will be.

This is the door from the garage.

And last but not least, a view from the front. This is the garage side, but it's easy to say that we are pleased with the progress. we hope to have the beginnings or all of a roof on next week. The weather is turning cold, so we better hurry!

The work is started!

We have DIRT!

The kids were very excited about watching a "digger" dig a hole in the ground. Mitchell loved playing around and on the dirt.



Caleb was excited to throw rocks into the hole. He didn't get to, but he tried.



We had to hold him back a few times from jumping in! Actually they were just posing, but sometimes it's hard to sit still when you are two.

Next, we had our foundation poured! Moving right a long!

We were happy to have grandma and grandpa home for a few days before they went off to Boston, but the kids are super excited to have grandma and grandpa back home for halloween. Mitchell and Caleb have their costumes and are just waiting for them to show them off.

Caleb is down by one of the footings of our new house. This is the corner of the garage.

Mitchell is standing in the front of the house by one of the window wells. They loved seeing and playing in the dirt.

Here is a shot of of the footprint. The left side is the garage. The room in the front of the picture will be our cold storage, or as my dad said, "our gun room". It should have enough room to put some stuff in it.

Here is a shot in the other direction with me and the boys.

We got a chance to go to Thanksgiving point with Dave and Darci's family. We had a couple of silly pictures and had a lot of fun!

Caleb got to drive the school bus.

We got to cheer on our favorite pig at the pig race.

Caleb loved the corn pit.

So did Mitchell.

We had races with some fast cars!

They really enjoy being "rule breakers" in timeout.

Becca, Cary and the kids went and picked out colors of everything for our house. To keep entertained, the kids spun around on the chair.

It's amazing as the boys get older how much they like each other. This used to be a rarity, but it's been much more consistant.

I hope you didn't mind the hodgepodge of pictures and brief descriptions. We found our lost camera and had to combine some pictures from my phone and our camera to make a post for us. It's turning into a fun experience for us and the kids watching things happen. I hope the weather will stay mild until we can get the exterior on. Hopefully we'll start seeing wood next week!

Let it Begin!

Let us now begin the countdown! We have some dirt, a mortgage, and a building permit! We are told that the house will be done around Valentine's day. We are very excited. We don't expect to be finished by Valentine's day, but we hope that will be the case!


Here is a picture of our ground breaking ceremony.




Here is a picture facing north looking at our lot. They are our new neighbors.




This is a picture of our exciting weeds. It facing west. Our back neighbors are on the other side of the canal. We will have little wooden play set left back there that we will hopefully be able to salvage. It looks like it's in good condition, but will need to be reassembled.





Here is our view out towards the south east. Our driveway will come right up to where the van is parked.


We'll keep an update of what is going on, but for now all we have is dirt. Monday or Tuesday, will will have a big hole in the ground. We are now praying for nice weather and fast subcontractors. Until then, we are enjoying life at the Clement home.

Mitchell turns 5!

Michell had a birthday and we celebrated per his request. To start off, he wanted a birthday cake that looked like an AT-AT. Becca passed the test and created one of the coolest cakes yet!


Mitchell is getting bigger. He's looking like a little Man in this picture. I'm grateful he finally got some flashlights so he can leave mine alone. We have already gone through a set of batteries.




Next on the list was a friend party with games and treats and favors and presents and lots and lots of FUN! The theme was an ARMY party. Keven and Cary let us use their back yard and his dreams came true. The weather threatened to rain, but it was a pleasant morning. The trampoline was the main attraction, but . .



The TANK pinata was the Biggest "hit". Hannah was the first to hit it and made sure it knew she was tough.

In the end, it was MOMMY who got the killing blow.



Afterwards, we descided that parties like that should only be for super special birthdays like 5. BTW Caleb has enjoyed all of Mitchell's presents as much as he has. And Mitchell has been very good at sharing his presents.