House Update - Drywall has been hung!

They are making big progress on the house now!

The drywall was hung on the main level this week.  In just over a day, the framing was covered and it transformed into looking like an actual house! We did decide to have them drywall the lower level as well so they will start on that part next week.

Here is the master bedroom.

On Thursday they started finishing the drywall.

It's amazing to actually get a feel for what the flow of the house is.  For the most part we love every little bit of it.  But there are a few little things that we are kicking ourselves for not catching on the floor plan.  For example, they put the dryer hookups on the left and the washer on the right.  But with our front-load washer and dryer, the doors will open into each other rather than away.  Not a big deal, but one of those things that we wish we would have caught before it was too late.

 The shakes have been hung on the front of the house.  So far Derek and I have agreed on pretty much everything about this house.  But this is one decision we didn't necessarily agree on initially.  We couldn't decide if we wanted to do shakes in the peak of the house or just do siding on the whole front.  We both went back and forth on this one and finally decided to do it.  But the compromise is that we are going to have them painted the same color as the siding.  

This is not the final color of the house.  It will be a darker beige/taupe color.  The bottom that hasn't been covered yet will be done in stone.  And we'll have black accents such as black shutters on the kids's windows, a black front door and the dark roof.

The siding has been finished on the entire house now too.  It's ready to be painted and the stone is ready for installation.

The next decisions to be made are to finalize the interior paint colors, lighting and floor.  We've done some initial looking at paint colors and flooring, but haven't decided for sure yet.  We need to have those picked out in the next week!  This is where it gets difficult since Derek will be traveling for work part of next week.  Hopefully these decisions are as easy as the others have been!  

Catching Candy

What says summer more than a parade?!?  

With the dads busy, Jacki and I decided we should meet in Stuart and let the kids experience the fun of their first parade of the summer.  Emmett and Camden knew exactly how this process worked.  Ella and Kade weren't too sure in the beginning, but caught on quickly.

The cousins looked on with anticipation waiting for the first sign of the parade starting.

The noisy fire trucks started the parade.  Kade and Ella were a little skeptical of the sirens.

The kids quickly caught on to the fact that they got a lot more candy if they waved at the participants.

When the first handful of candy was chucked at the kids, Camden and Emmett scrambled to pick it up as quickly as possible.  What did Kade do?  Well, he picked it up and threw it back at the people marching in the parade.  After a quick explanation that we get to keep the candy, he soon figured out how it works!

We came home with two bags full of candy and two exhausted kids.  I would call the day a success!

Hitting the Links

A few weeks ago, we took advantage of the incredible weather and took a family outing to the golf course. We chose a quiet Friday night and the whole family tagged along.

The kids loved riding in the golf cart.  Kade just giggled every time we would take off.

Kade clearly doesn't understand the concept of the sport...yet.  As soon as we would pull up next to one of Daddy's balls, Kade would hop out of the cart and yell, "I get it!".  

Cam attempted to help Daddy keep score.  I really think it was just an excuse to draw pictures on the score card.

If Kade made it to the ball before Daddy, he would pick it up and bring it over to him with a very proud look on his face.

Kade took his turn putting the ball.  We need to work on his form.

It's a wonder Daddy was able to concentrate at all with these two "helpers".

Here's Cam taking her turn putting.  She has a little work to do on her form as well.

It was a great night to just soak up the beautiful scenery of River Valley Golf Course.

But of all the beautiful sights on the course - this one is my favorite!  Our new house peeking over the hill :)

We stayed out on the course until the sun went down.

We cannot wait until this is the view out our front door.  Only another month or so and we can call this place home!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a very special Father's Day celebration for a very special father!  We spoiled Daddy with presents in the morning.  

Camden and Kade helped him to open a little bag full of driving range tokens.  With a driving range in the backyard of our new house, we know these will get used.

And then he opened a new pair of shoes from the kids.  Camden managed to keep this gift a secret for the past few weeks which is really impressive for her.  She's usually not the best secret keeper.

We've started a tradition of making Daddy shirts to wear on Father's Day.  Camden's shirt says "My heart belongs to Daddy."

Kade's appropriately says "My dad is cooler than your dad".

After gift opening and Derek's special breakfast request, we spent some time soaking up the great day and playing outside.

The we headed into West Des Moines and did a little shopping at the mall and had sushi for dinner.

T

We hope Daddy knows just how special he is and how much we appreciate him.  These are two lucky little kids to have such a great Daddy!

We'd also like to wish a Happy Father's Day to the other special dads in our lives - our fathers and our brothers!

Meet the newest members of the Wilson family!

We have an addition to our family!  Well, actually, we have at least 7 additions to our family!  We found a family of kittens living under our deck!  We've spotted 4 orange kittens, 2 gray ones and a mama kitty.

They are living under our deck and they usually pounce in the backyard right outside of the master bedroom window.  So we spent a lot of time doing this.

And this.

And we also spend a lot of time making kitty sounds and talking about cats.  These are things that are not typical in our house.  You could say we've all gone a little "cat crazy".

These cats have kind of taken over our lives.  Camden insisted on holding a "kitty concert" for them one night.  She played her maraca and did a little song and dance.  Unfortunately they were too shy to watch the concert.

So, what did we do when we discovered there was a family of kittens living under our deck?  We harbored them, of course!  We have adopted this lovely kitty family and are taking care of them as long as we are living in this house.  

I bought some cat food and bowls and have been giving them food and water each day.

We check on them quite frequently, but they are shy little kittens.  We usually only see them from the window.  As soon as they spot us, they run under the deck.

Many times when we come home, they are napping under the swing on our deck.  They typically scatter as soon as they see us.  But mama kitty sat pretty while I snapped a few pictures.  She was obviously fed up with the camera because she let out a little hiss right after this.

But they sure appreciate the food and water!  It's gone almost immediately after we put it out.  

We asked Daddy if we could take the family of kittens with us to the new house when we move.  But unfortunately the answer we got was a big, fat no!  So I guess we'll enjoy being cat people for the next month or two while we are still in this house.

I wonder how this will work next week when Sunny comes to visit for the week...

Minnesota!

Last weekend we went up to the Minneapolis area to spend some time with Derek's family.  It's been a long time since we have all gotten together and it was so nice to see everyone again!

Aunt Darcy had picked up some scooters for the kids.  They were definitely a hit!

Neither one has mastered the scooter skills yet...but we will keep working on it.

We went to Burnsville on Saturday to a kids festival and the kids loved it!  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the best part of the event and that was the performance by Koo Koo Kanga Roo.   Derek's cousin Neil performed at the event and the kids had a blast singing along and dancing!  We had two very tired children when we left that afternoon!

Neil hooked the cousins up with matching Koo Koo Kanga Roo shirts!

We had such a relaxing and fun weekend.  We spent a lot of time just hanging out and catching up.

And we took advantage of having the whole family together and a beautiful scenery in Dan and Darcy's backyard and we took some family pictures.

The whole group all together!

Thanks for hosting us Dan and Darcy!  We had a great time - and hopefully it isn't another 2 years before we are all together again!

House Update - 4-6 weeks left!

The house is really coming along!  It's incredible to see how much it is changing every single day.  

The electrical is done.

The plumbing is done.

The windows are in.

The furnace and water heater are in.

The floor in the garage has been poured.

Next on the list is insulation and drywall and those should be started this week along with the siding.  As of right now we are 2 weeks ahead of schedule.  Our original timeline for completion was August 1st.  If we don't encounter any set backs between now now and the completion, the house could be done as early as July 15th.  Of course we are still telling ourselves August 1st so we aren't disappointed and we are trying to keep from getting our hopes up too much.

We have made most of the big decisions already and now we are working through the little details. In the last few weeks we have decided on granite, trim color and stone.  The next decisions to make are interior and exterior paint colors, light fixtures and flooring.

Talking through the electrical was probably one of the hardest decisions we have had to make.  We've had to make sure we have lights, outlets and cable/phone jacks everywhere we could possibly need them.  We needed to determine which lights needed to be on separate switches and which ones needed to be on 2-way and 3-way switches.  We also elected to have them do the wiring and install the lights in the lower level.  Initially our plan was to finish the basement ourselves after we moved in.  But it seems like we just keep electing to have more and more completed as the sub-contractors are there.  As of now, the basement has been framed, the HVAC completed and the electrical done.  We've gotten a bid on the drywall and are debating if we are going to have that done now too.  

This has been so much fun and we can hardly wait to see the finished product!  

Shades!