Getting a Good Start

We've gotten an early start on home projects this year and Brian has already completed a big one in our back yard. I mentioned it briefly in the last post as a patio though I'm not sure that's exactly the right name for it. I am so excited about it because it REALLY cleans up our yard and basement walkout area, it's much safer for the kids, and it has a built in fire pit! Brian worked extremely hard on it for two weeks straight and he did an amazing job! I'm kicking myself for not having taken a picture of what it looked like before, especially the stairs going down to the basement. They look 10 times better now! The first night we used it was on Evie's birthday though I don't think she particularly enjoyed it much as she wasn't feeling very well, but she'll have all summer to enjoy it and we're all looking forward to getting a lot of use out of it. Thank you, Brian, for blessing our home and family in this way!

Not the best before pic. but you can kind of get an idea of what it was like before.

In addition to the fire pit, my sweet husband bought me a new bed spread this weekend. Mostly prompted by having a thick comforter that can only be dry cleaned and having a certain sweet child of our get sick on it, but Brian suggested it all on his own and I did not hesitate to comply. Now we have a set for summer and a set for winter... I am so incredibly spoiled & I love our new bed!

A Job Well Done

Last summer we rebuilt our front deck. When I say we, I mean that I was a supportive wife who brought out water and food, watched the kids, and helped with some of the painting while Brian did all the rest of it. Yes, he did nearly all the work! We had a friend who is a contractor come out one day and help us get it framed up but otherwise it was all Brian. We finished building the deck last summer but waited until this summer to do the rock columns. As of about a week ago our deck is complete! This was Brian's first time doing anything like this and I think it turned out quite beautifully. I couldn't have asked for anything nicer! We bought our patio furniture a few weeks ago and have been enjoying our new deck thouroughly. Many thanks to my hard working handy man!

Here are some before, during, and after pics:

This was the dinky hideous deck that was there when we bought the house.

Getting started with the framing.

Framing complete.

The final masterpiece complete with a porch swing!
Love it!!

The Surprise

As stated in the last post, Brian had been working on a surprise for the boys (& me) while we were out of town. Well, here it is:

He worked his tail end off to get the play set finished for the boys. This is a picture of them all thoroughly enjoying it not 5 minutes after we got home from our trip. They were very excited to say the least and I was completely and pleasantly surprised! What a great Papa our boys have!

A Bit of Catching Up

We've been busy this summer with all kinds of randomness so I haven't had much opportunity to post. In fact, I should probably be getting stuff done around the house right now instead of messing around on the computer because the kids and I are leaving tomorrow for a quick weekend trip and the house is a wreck... but oh well! Here are some photos capturing some of the things that have been keeping us busy lately. Hope you all are having a splendid summer!

We celebrated Mom Schultz's birthday this last week by traveling to Butte and having a delicious meal of grilled kabobs and various salads. It was a great time!

The grill master at work... Dad's kabobs were WONDERFUL!

Mom and Dad took us all to the the carnival and we all had a great time... especially Ben. He loved riding in these little cars!

Ricky mostly watched all the fun and wasn't quite sure what to think of everything. Here he is waving at Ben as he rides by on the cars.

"This place is a Mad House!"

Grandpa helped Ben on nearly all the rides... they had fun if you can't tell!

Ricky rode the Ferris Wheel also but refused to sit on the horse and didn't crack a smile the entire time. He didn't know what to think!

Brian has been working on building the kids a rather extensive play set. He has worked very hard on it and Ben likes to help. Here they are hard at work.

A little rest and time to visit.

Here's a great shot of the boys one afternoon after playing quite hard in the water, dirt, and heat. Still happy as clams but quite ready for naps. I sure love these boys!

What We've Been Up To

Here's a bullet list of what's going on for our family currently:

• Spent much of this week in Butte visiting Brian's Grandma who just had back surgery. She's doing marvelous and it was so fun for all of us to spend some time with her.
• Learned how to knit the other day from Brian's Grandma... FUN!!! I'm looking forward to my first project.
• Brian has been building a fence around our very large backyard. He's nearly done with it and we are all quite ready for the project to be completed. He's doing a great job!
• We become members of the church we've been attending here this weekend. It's very exciting for our family.
• We look forward to celebrating Ricky's 1st birthday next Saturday (May 28th).
• Still working on getting the house put together and organized... it's never ending!
• In addition to the fence, Brian has been working on getting the garage cleaned out. He and his dad are getting very anxious to start brewing again.

I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, but that's a bit of our lives right now. Here are some recent pics:

For Many Reasons

We love our new home for many reasons. One of them (as I'm sure we've mentioned before) is that we have our own yard and room to run and play. Since we moved here, we've discovered that Helena is rather windy, especially in the Spring and Fall. However, it's a bit drier up North where we live so we haven't gotten quite the snow and rain like everywhere else. There have been a few beautiful days so far this Spring and we've tried our best to take advantage of them. Earlier this week the boys and I had a picnic lunch on the front lawn. It was quite fun and made for easy floor clean-up... I love that! We look forward to lots of time outside this summer when the weather is nice, the wind is calm, and the calling for outdoor projects can't be ignored!

The Picnic:

"Quick! Maybe I can steal some of Brothers mac n' cheese while he's not looking."

A Little Update

For those of you wondering, we've moved into our new home and have begun the whole settling in process. Nearly all boxes are unpacked and we're in the middle of arranging and putting things away. It seems a little daunting at times but we've made a lot of progress and feel as though this house suites us very well. The kids are adjusting wonderfully and in recent days have enjoyed our acre of land to run, play, and dig. Ben has discovered the fun of pulling Cedric in a wagon and does it much of the time spent outside. Cedric does not yet like the feel of grass so is quite content sitting in the wagon as long as Ben is around to pull it! We have been thoroughly enjoying the amazing views from our house particularly at night when the landscaped lights of the city twinkle into our windows. We have a lot of work to do this summer with fencing, landscaping, and and building a deck, but we are looking forward to the tasks ahead of us and already feel "at home". I am continuously blown away by how utterly gracious and generous God is.

Looking off our front porch:

Looking off the back porch:

The boys at play:

A Boy After My Own Heart... er something

Yes, I love butter. So much so that it is used in nearly everything I make in my kitchen. As I once read (and completely agree with), "Butter makes all things glorious."

However, as much as I love it, I do not like to eat it plain. Well, today as my little helper and I were in the kitchen concocting something glorious, I discovered that he is one of those oddities that like to eat butter... plain 'ol butter. After a couple big bites and snapping a few photos I was thoroughly disgusted and had to put a halt to the madness.

Family Fun

Horse back rides from Papa.

"Ha, Ha, Ha! Look at me, Mom. This is so much fun!"

"Mmmmm... These are tastey little morsels!"

Papa and his boys snuggling after bath time.

Our Beautiful Boys

We took a few pics of the boys yesterday after we got home from church and they turned out awfully cute so I thought I would share with you. We got shots of each of them smiling but of course we couldn't catch them smiling at the same time! Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Giving Kisses

A Whirlwind

Just as the title of this post implies, it has been a whirlwind for our family this last week. To much has happened for me to go into detail about all of it, so I'm going to overload you with pictures instead...

But first, here is a quick summary of our week: Cedric was born and brought home, we found out that Brian passed his PE Exam, Cedric is diagnosed with medium level jaundice and is put into the hospital for a couple days, Ben gets spoiled by all of his grandparents (what's new, right?), Cedric gets to come home for good but didn't respond real well to treatment in the hospital so is being monitored carefully, we are overcoming nursing challenges, Brian buys a new bow (along with some new brewing supplies) as a result of his passed PE Exam, and we're finally trying to adjust to life with two children.

And now for the pics:

Here's Ben chilling in the chair Grandpa and Grandma G. gave him. He feels like a big boy with the cup holder and all.

Ben gets to hold his baby brother for the first time... Quite exciting!

Just plain cute.

Ben gets his first bike from Grandma Parker - Big Boy!!!

Papa gets Ben a real sandbox to put on our patio! Ben also gets spoiled by Grandpa and Grandma Schultz who came to stay with us for a week.

When only a few days old it was determined that Cedric had a medium level of jaundice so he had to be hooked up to this "bili blanket" virtually all the time.

We called him our little Glowworm!

After a day with the "bili blanket" Cedric was reevaluated and we found out that he was dehydrated and the jaundice was not getting better so the doctor decided to put him in the hospital. We were in the hospital for two nights and two days.

He loved his hot box!

Nice shades Buster!

Because he was dehydrated we had to get as much fluids in him as possible, so here I am supplementing with more milk after nursing.

Papa's new bow. Talk about exciting!

Cedric comes home and gets his first bath! (He did NOT like it.)

Today Cedric and Papa take a nap on the couch. Life is finally starting to look a little normal!