Before and After

Wow, An exciting day here. We came back from breakfast (at Boulangerie du Monde- we were very excited to find a French pastry shop nearby) to see the unveiling of our dining room. What a great annivesary present. :)

Potty training

Aaron is the first kid I've potty trained using American methods. The others were trained around age two the African way... take off the diaper and spend a week at home following them constantly. We had no carpeting, no upholstered furniture and no where to go. It was perfect. That doesn't work so well here. It's not just the carpeting and couches, it's the interruptions too. We never have a whole week at home, especially in the summer. Aaron has been showing interest though, telling me when he needs to be changed. So we got the potty chair out and are talking about where the potty goes... He's got the idea, but is still looking for a way around it. Today, he tried putting the potty in the chair- after it was in the diaper. Sorry, Aaron, it just doesn't work that way!

Breaking through

Tomorrow is our 14th anniversary, we'll be seeing a different view when we look through our kitchen starting tomorrow morning. We're headed out to breakfast, the hole should be cut by the time we get back. Here's the before picture. Also in the works for tomorrow is finishing the shed painting we started this weekend. I included a photo of the kids at work.

More construction

In the last few weeks we had the breaking down concrete in front of our garage replaced, had the hole cut into the basement part of the addition, and had the basement bathroom and upstairs closet and half wall framed. (These photos are for you, Dad. :)

Playing with friends

They also had fun playing school with our homeschooling friends in Minnesota, and drawing self portraits with the neighbor.

And more summer fun

Playing at the beach (Lake Michigan), and a timeline reenactment (they got to thresh and grind wheat). It's been quite a summer.

roof and shingles

Here's the view from the outside. Ron put his sweat equity into the construction by shingling with his friend and coworker, Jason. They did a great job.

On with construction

The next step was the roof. Harder to get a picture of this from our picture window. I did the best I could :)

More summer fun

We had our first family (well almost, Aaron stayed home with a babysitter) trip to Six Flags this year. Ron's gone individually with the older boys in the past. We really did have a blast.

My Toast!

We laughed so hard at these two. Aaron and cousin Anna are just three months apart. Both are 2 1/2 years old. It's worth watching.

Vacation

In the middle of all this, we took a vacation to Door County. We LOVED Door County. It had the peace and quiet of the Coast with the quaintness of New England and the kindness that the Midwest is known for. The cherries were awesome too.

Wood floors

Here's Ron helping Ryan, our Sawyer, planking the Maple tree that we had taken down two weeks ago. Ryan is taking it to the kiln where it will be dried and then made into wood flooring.

Back to building

Here's the next step... the basement walls were built the week before last. Followed by the trusses floor and walls.



Dad and I got to help raise the East wall. That was cool.

Visitors

We are feeling very loved. We spent the last few weeks with friends and family staying with us in our home in Wisconsin. 17 guests. 5 different states, 12 nights.
Our first guests were Isaiah's Godparents from Michigan, of whom I did not seem to snap any worthy photos. Our second guests were Jonah's God parents from New York.



Our third guests were Ella's Godmother and Aunt with her three kiddos, and my parents. They stayed with our children while we spent a weekend in Door County.

Our fourth guests were our dear friends from our Togo years. They left just today and I have not uploaded their photo yet. We are feeling so loved. So wonderful to see these dear people in our lives, so sad to see them go.