15 months

My sister-in-law, Jennie, took these pictures. She is extremely talented and is starting up her own photography business. Check out her blog: http://photographybyjenniferlee.blogspot.com/

Happy Mother's Day

Walking

I had to put a few pictures of Jaxon walking. He never did crawl. His crawl was the butt scoot. For those that saw it - it was hilarious.

Easter

Cousins Josh and Grace

Cousin Chase

Getting ready for the hunt at G & G Nakkers
He didn't care too much about the hunt - one egg was plenty for himCousin Ruby

Spring Fever

We spent last weekend in St. George and loved the 80 degree weather. It was a little depressing coming home to snow. I am definitely ready for some nice Spring weather.

Jax loved the pool--he could have been in the water all day. At first I thought it might be a little too cold for him, but he didn't seem to mind. He loves his little floaty.

A few weeks ago when the temperature jumped to sixty we decided to take full advantage and go to the zoo. I think Jaxon has been to the zoo at least ten times. His first trip was at two weeks.

Touchdown!

He has always hated being on his belly which is why he never did crawl. This is one of the few shots of him smiling while on his belly.

Jax and his cousin Camden on the rocket. This is by far Jaxon's favorite toy. He cruises around our house and loves taking others for a ride.

Londyn and Jax

Lately when he watches TV he rests his head on his arms - I think it is so cute.

"The Project"

The carpet for the basement finally came today so I figured it was time to give you all a recap of the project from Hades that we undertook this past summer. We were lucky enough to have a month to remodel the upstairs of our home prior to moving in. Thanks to the help of friends far more competent than myself, I learned a ton in the process. Special thanks to Woody for teaching me the ropes in electrical and plumbing...the house hasn't burned down or flooded...yet. :) Once we finished the upstairs, and after a few months break, it was time to tackle the basement (aka Project from Hades aka PFH). I am happy to say it is finally livable. Enjoy.

P.S. Word to the wise--wear a mask when painting with a sprayer.

Family Room

So this is the room I am most proud of. Here is a picture of what it looked like when we bought the house. Is that normal...to have your main water line running across the middle of the room? With craftsman Jeff's help, we threw in a Manabloc system and redid all the plumbing with pex...can't comprehend how people used to build houses with the old materials they used to use.

Though that doesn't seem like a lot of dirt, it was...trust me. I rented a 60 lb. jackhammer from Diamond Rental and went to town loosening the dirt that just as well had been concrete (dug a new footing for a new support beam first since the old one was sitting on dirt...real safe). After all the dirt was loosened up, I hopped in my pride and joy, the '84 4Runner (aka The Buckshot) pictured here:

and headed down to 4th South and 5th West to pick up some help for the day. Two full Saturdays and hundreds of 5 gallon buckets later, here is what it looked like.

Once we got it dug all the way back to the existing footing, we had to shoot rebar into the footing and then spray a new foundation wall in.

After we finished digging out the rest of the dirt, we sprayed the wall in and poured a new footing. We also poured a new porch cap, sidewalk and cut out big windows in the other rooms of the basement. From there, it was time to frame. Thanks to friends who actually knew what they were doing (Toby, Rasty, Miles and Tyler), the framing went rather quickly. Below is each room in a somewhat step by step process up through today.

Bathroom and Storage Room

Yeah...don't worry, there was a toilet in the middle of the room...and it was functional...creepy.

A little less weird than a toilet out in the open...unless that's your style...

Bedroom

I think the sweet cross-country ski finally found the garbage. Of course had to add as many closets as possible for a certain someone's crap... :)

Office

Love the small old prison windows...

Totally gratifying to see the final product. Not quite sure what we're going to do with ourselves on weekends now that we don't have this project to work on...more time with Tiff and Jax. :) Oh wait...still have a yard to worry about. If we're lucky, we should be able to enjoy it for at least a few months before we leave this fall. If you know someone that wants to rent a place, send them our way.