Roof!

Well, sheathing for the roof, anyway.

Trusses!

More trusses have gone up!

The crane has arrived

This morning, a friend of ours sent this picture to show that the crane has arrived and the trusses are starting to go up.

Birthday Blessings

Yesterday was my birthday. I had a few people ask me what I was planning to do on my day, and I was really just planning to live a fairly normal Tuesday. Here's what was on the docket:

9:00 - Pick up Josie and drop Josie and Eliana off at June's house for a playdate.

9:30 - Meet with June, Mel, and Connie to rehearse music for this weekend's Women's Retreat.

11:00 - Pick up Josie and Ellie and head home.

3:00 - Have Amber pick up Josie.

5:00 - Meet with a client for dinner.

7:00 - Mary Kay meeting

Here's what really happened:

6:35 - Phone call from Mom at 7:35 am, Texas time, which is when I was born. This is the most special phone call I get every year. Thanks, Mom, for being the first person I talk to on my birthday every year! I love you!

9:00 - Pick up Josie and drop off Josie and Eliana at June's house for a playdate.

9:30 - Practice music, and get surprised by Connie with a birthday cupcake and song!

11:00 - Pick up Josie and Ellie and head home.

2:00 - Dara comes to work in my office.

3:00 - Amber comes to pick up Josie and instead spends an hour and a half cleaning my house as a happy birthday to me! Thank you!!

5:00 - Meet with a client for dinner.

6:30 - About half a dozen people sang happy birthday to me as I set up for my guests at the MK Meeting.

6:45 - Julie, one of my guests, delivered cards from several friends, a gift from my inlaws, and birthday wishes of her own. Thank you, Julie!

6:50 - Robin gave me the most beautiful little bouquet of calla lilies and birthday wishes. Thank you, Robin!

7:00 - MK Meeting and pampering of my guests.

8:20 - I was called into our unit meeting for a few minutes, just in time for Leif and Eliana to arrive and present me with flowers, a card, a bouquet of beautiful flowers, sea salt caramels (my favorite!) and an amazing speech. Leif brought enough caramels to share with everyone as a way of saying "Thank you" to my Mary Kay family for giving me the affirmation, confidence, and goal setting abilities that he could not give me. He said I am more beautiful at 31 than I was at 25. Thank you, Leif, for being the most wonderful husband I could ask for! I am so happy to be married to you!

9:00 - At the close of the MK Meeting, I was brought to the front of the room where they sang Happy Birthday, and brought out cupcakes and even had me blow out the candle! I cannot tell you how blessed I am to have these women in my life. Thank you!!

10:30 - I came home to a clean house, family asleep, and full heart. Thank you to everyone who made my birthday so special! I truly feel blessed with the life God has given me and the people He has put in it! Thank you!

4 year check up

I sort of forgot Eliana's check up back when she turned 4 in July, so we had it today. I had been thinking she hadn't gained any weight this last year and was slightly concerned about that. Turns out my memory was faulty and she's actually gained 5 lbs this year. Hooray for growing kids!

Her stats are... 38 lbs (75th %) and 42 inches (85th %)

She had the option of shots today or next year, and she opted for next year. I don't blame her. :)

Update on the progress of the new house

Progress on the new house is going to slow down for a bit. The second floor excluding the bonus room is framed. The trusses will be delivered sometime toward the end of the month. I'm told that the bonus room will be framed at that time, too.

I requested a pretty simple change to the way the master bath was framed after realizing that rearranging things a bit would allow us to use the floorspace quite a bit more efficiently and to add in a counter/desk for doing makeup.

I ordered windows and patio doors on Friday. After a great deal of deliberation, I settled on vinyl windows from Amsco. I thought long and hard about buying fiberglass composite windows from Pella, but the performance rating wasn't that much better, Elizabeth didn't like the available colors as well, she didn't like how the windows worked as quite well, and they were nearly twice as expensive. However we did splurge for wood framed, aluminum clad patio doors instead of vinyl. I've heard that vinyl patio tend to warp eventually and not be as easy to open. In general, I'm extremely impressed by how energy efficient windows have become over the last few years. Because of government regulation and incentives, window makers have really stepped up the game. The even better news is that substantially better windows are coming soon because requirements just keep getting more stringent.

On Wednesday I ordered appliances. My employer is a supplier to Whirlpool, so we have access to a really good discount program that saved almost $1000 over buying locally with a contractor discount. Even though we don't need the appliances for a couple months, there were discount codes that were expiring, so we'll have to stash the huge boxes in our garage for a while.

Little Girl Music

As Elizabeth mentioned, we sold our house yesterday. Hooray! Because the buyers have been kind enough to allow us to rent the house for a bit while our new house is being built, we invited the buyers to dinner so they'd have a chance to celebrate in their new house. They said it was a really thoughtful gesture and readily accepted.

While we were eating together, the conversation somehow turned to how their their 1.5 year old had managed to download Lady Gaga's Bad Romance on her father's phone. It turned out that all their kids really liked the music.

That reminded me of the anecdote Elizabeth told me from the recent trip to Texas. While her parents were driving around Dallas after picking Eliana up from the airport, El said she didn't like what was playing on the radio. She said they needed to listen to some little girl music. Mommom tried to let Ellie down by saying that they probably wouldn't find any little girl music on the radio. All the same, they started surfing stations. All of a sudden, Ellie started singing along to a song that she said was little girl music. After a bit, the grandparents realized that she was jamming to Lady Gaga.

So, this morning I wanted to see what Eliana would do if I played Bad Romanace for her. She told me it was little girl music and headed off to "ballet" around the living room, pirouetting and bowing with a supremely angelic countenance. What makes me laugh the hardest is that there's no distinguishable difference (to me) in the way she dances to Bach.

This Old House

... Is not ours any more!! As of this morning, we officially passed off ownership to a new family! We will still reside here for a while, but it's not ours! Hooray! It makes the new house all that much more exciting... !!

Planning her future...

This morning Eliana and I were having a conversation about moms. She told me that my mom is Mommom, and her mom is Elizabeth. I asked her if someday her kids were going to call me Mommom. From there we got into a little conversation about her future children, and it went something like this:

Me: Are you going to have kids someday, Eliana?

Elle: Uh huh.

Me: Are you going to have girls or boys?

Elle: I am going to have girls. 4 of them.

Me: Really? What are their names going to be?

Elle: Their names are Alice, Noelle, um... Joy, and... Bouncellor (bounce-el-lor). No, Bouncellor is the cat. Um... the last one's name is... Puppy Petter, because she likes to pet puppies.

For the sake of Puppy Petter, I really hope Eliana chooses to stop at 3 little girls. That last name is a doozie in either case!

Grotto Falls Hike

Back in June we hiked Grotto Falls as a family. This is one we do most every year, so I'll just share the pictures of our day.

We love living in Montana and being able to spend afternoons like this!! Sure, we're wearing coats in what is technically summer, but what are you going to do?

Alas, I fear summer may be over...

We pulled out the sweaters and wool socks this week. I suppose that's a sure sign that summer is nearing its end. Well, that and the snow on the mountains. =D But because I refuse to succumb to autumn just yet, here are a few pictures celebrating the summer that was!

What do you get when you mix a water hose and a slide?

Then add in a little crazy dancing?

A super fun day, that's what!! This was one of the ways Ellie and Josie spent their Tuesdays together while it was hot out. Fun stuff, huh?

Statue of Liberty...

FlickrDroid Upload, originally uploaded by elizabethwickland.

Eliana just came into the room like this. She has a tiny baking cup on her head (you can just barely see it in the picture) and her arm up. She refused to say anything, but smiled a big smile and nodded when I asked if she was the Statue of Liberty. Then she broke character and told the the following.

"You know, statues of liberty aren't real. They're just really big works of art."

Life is too fun to spend standing still!

... So come along and enjoy the fun life has to offer!!

More pictures by Ginny Emery of Wandering Albatross Photography. Or, as Eliana calls her, "The girl with the colorful hair who took my picture at the carousel whose name is Ginny!!"

Who is that masked girl??

I discovered this silly child in my cart at Walmart one day. I wonder who she is?

Traveler

Bridger Steel has a billboard along the interstate on our route home. I was driving a tired Eliana home last week when she piped up from the backseat and asked, "Dad do you know what shape a pyramid is?" And without waiting for an answer said, "A triangle!" Then she asked if we could go see the pyramids. That was the first time I can recall that she asked to go see something that she's only seen pictures of. At first I kicked into my normal pragmatic, easy-let-down mode and tried to tell her that the pyramids were a long way away and it would be really expensive to go there. She seemed to understand. But what I thought to myself is that it would be really neat to take the whole family to Egypt. Maybe someday.

Family

Back in March we had some family pictures taken by Ginny Emery of Wandering Albatross Photography. We recently received our photos and are very excited to think about using some to decorate our new home when it is finished! Here are some of our favorite family shots:

Thanks, Ginny! We love them!