Home stretch

We are on the home stretch of the remodeling progress. It's supposed to be finished by Thanksgiving!!! We have drywall on and most of the taping done. I got all my paint colors picked out and I'm really excited to see them on the walls.



Beginning to cut the opening from our existing living room into the new addition.




The stairs




The basement...family room/media room




Our master




The new living room



The entertainment built-in that Joe made.




Living room





Shawn loves looking at himself in this little mirror and I caught him grinning at himself!!!



Snuggling with big brother in bed

baby fun

I am so excited I caught his smile on camera. He's been really smiling and even giggling a little especially at night!!





He likes to lay on the floor and look around. He kept kicking with his foot and making it jiggle. He really likes to look at himself in the little mirror...it's so cute.




This has been a thing lately. If I don't get in fast enough with the pacifier, he finds a substitute. Naughty but cute!!




I was attempting to get a picture of my beautiful salad: mostly spinach, romaine, steak, mini peppers, apples, cheese and a drizzled with a dressing of olive oil, balsamic, salt, pepper and basil.




yeah, found the thumb again!!!




Eric wanted to cook so we made these muffins. The recipe was actually for doughnuts but I realized that I don't have the proper cooking pan or mold for doughnuts. So we made them into muffins. It's a recipe from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfield; a cookbook that helps you sneak healthy ingredients in food kids will like. These muffins had pumpkin and sweet potato and were made 100% whole wheat. They were yummy and he was very proud of his accomplishment.

We are getting close!!!

I haven't posted any progress in a while....mostly because I'm a slacker but also because alot of the progress now it wiring, plumbing etc...stuff that is hard to take pictures of.
They should be starting on drywall tomorrow and siding next week. I'm having fun picking out tile and paint colors.

This last week, Joe did all the wiring; electric, surround sound, tv, ethernet and Fred did tons of insulating. Martha's boys, Paul and Hans have been coming over and helping Joe and Fred. They are such hard workers and did a great job!!!
It was very dusty but I got some pics of them all working






These rooms are all insulated now but this is our master bedroom partially done.



Shawn's room right off of our room.




What will be my office/scrapbook room!!!!




The living room or "Great room"




Our front door is where it belongs!!!



The house from the front.




Our jacuzzi tub!!!

Baby Shawn

My sleep deprived brain is going to try to write a post about the arrival of our precious little baby, tomorrow he'll be two weeks!!! It's so weird to me that I'd only be 4 days over due today and I totally expected to go over due but I'm so glad to not be still pregnant!!!
A couple of days before he was born I definitely started to feel some stuff happening but I know that can happen weeks before. I had been taking some good brisk walks and I wonder if that helped things move along. Tuesday night I kept waking up with contractions about every 20-30 minutes but I again figured just false labor. We were scheduled to close on our loan the next morning at 9 and by the time that rolled around I was having pretty regular contractions....I still wasn't convinced it was real labor although everyone else was!!!
So, I made the trek over our horrible bumpy road and into town to sign our papers!!! Right as we got up to leave the bank another contraction started so I just booked it out the door. Joe said they were all saying "bye Moriah" but I was already gone!! They were all women so they were really sympathetic. I guess I'm now a legend at the bank.
Maria was getting ready to ride with some fellow nurses to a paid conference in Billings and I told her I still wasn't sure if it was real (gosh, I guess I was really in denial) and so she headed out. About an hour later mom arrived and I was dilated to 5. So we call Maria and she ended up hitch hiking part of the way back!!!
The morning was crazy: we had nothing really ready, construction guys working outside, my birth supplies hadn't arrived yet, people hitch hiking, loan papers signing...it was crazy. Everyone sprang into action, they got the pool and bed set up in the living room. The crew practically vanished the instant we told them I was in labor...it was hilarious!! Everything became really calm and relaxing from that point...besides, well labor:-)
I allowed one picture of me in labor...the water felt so good and relaxing.


After about 7 or so hours of regular hard labor my water broke and I literally had him about 4 minutes later.



Maria made it about a half hour before the birth. We called my cousin April right before my water broke and although she hurried over, she missed it by a few minutes. I was sad that she missed it but really happy that she got to be here to see him. When Eric was born, she lived in California.



Eric's first look at his little brother.










The whole experience was so different than Eric's birth. It was way shorter and I had more energy during labor and the recovery has been so much faster. With Eric it was about 8 months until I felt like a normal person and I already feel almost back to normal after 2 weeks!!! All the things I stressed and worried about didn't happen.
I got the home birth I wanted and having my mom and sisters there was really comforting. Martha is a wonderful doula and really knows how to help a laboring mom relax. It was so nice to be able to just enjoy the baby afterwards and not have to go anywhere.

It still seems so surreal that we have a new little baby and it's amazing to me how much you can love someone.

Alot has happened....

So alot has happened on the house since I last posted, like I had a baby!!! I need to do a baby post but for now here is the construction progress. We are so excited that it is going so fast.



The beginning of our living room being framed





The living room windows...it's going to be full of light, lots of windows.





The upstairs floor



Where the stairs will be




The upstairs will be our new master suite and crib room.



It looks like a giant house is swallowing ours!!!





The view from our master bedroom window!!!

Framing

The basement being framed








The basement will have a family room, bathroom, two bedrooms and a mechanical room.




There's our front door!!!




Looking into Eric's old room





The upstairs being framed....our new living room!!!



Front view....the windows are huge!!!









Eric playing on the giant dirt pile in our yard....a wonderful sandbox!!!










Loves to ride with Daddy in the tractor and sit in it when it's parked.