The house on April 14

No cedar shingles on the siding yet, but much of the shingling on the roof is done. The porch is taking shape - it's a beautiful feature of the house and I'm looking forward to spending lots of time on it.


Our chimney is on the interior of the house. The little bit that is visible from the outside is being covered with the stone from our property.


From the back


The Rumford firebox


I'll work on getting a better picture of the porch, but here's what I have for now.

Easter 2010

We spent Easter in Ohio with the Millers. As always, our time there was great. Exhausting, but great.

Corban is obsessed with basketball lately (much like his dad many years ago). Time to not only play basketball, but to do it in his favorite basketball clothes in the hot weather was a special bonus.


Lauren thought the idea of Easter was pretty nice. She opened up the egg, it was full of candy and Mommy didn't take it away. What's not to like about that? She thoroughly enjoyed eating all of the candy of this egg. Just sat and ate candy. The Easter basket was mine when I was a baby, by the way.


Annie and her cousin Ethan were looking pretty spiffy in their new Easter clothes


Both Jack and I went to school at Ashland University. We got married in Ashland and lived there for the first year of our marriage. Since moving away in 2000, we really haven't spent any time there. My in-laws were kind enough to watch the kids so that Jack and I could get away for 24 hours. We stayed at a B&B in Ashland. It was neat to see how much the campus has changed. There are many new buildings that weren't there when we were students. But, more importantly, it was sooooooooo nice to be away from parenting! It was my first night away from Lauren. Don't worry, I did just fine. (So did she.) That little trip will carry me through the valleys of parenting for a long time. Thank you, Jim and Nettie!


Silly kids. Getting together with cousins always brings out the silly.

Lauren at 14 months

Lauren is a funny girl. This age is so fun! Lauren's personality is developing - our little 10-lb peanut is a bully, of all things! If Annie or any other similarly smallish child crosses Lauren's will, she pushes them. It's true. She knows what she wants and she's not going to let anyone stand in the way. sigh.

On a happier note, Lauren sole method of transportation is her feet. She still walks like a drunken sailor, unsteady and falling often. But, she gets back up and cruises again. This mobility makes her happy. She's happy to tour around destroying our house. I spend much of my day following her around and cleaning up. The older three also know very well Lauren's favorite spots in the house as her siblings are often called upon to help in the clean up. Lauren loves her brothers and sister and they make her laugh. What a blessing to grow up with 3 older siblings. There is always something going on.

I keep Annie's hair accessories in the bathroom drawer. It's one of Lauren's favorite spots. She pulls all the stuff out of the drawer. But, she also puts all the headbands over her head. She does it everyday - multiple times - and I think it's funny every time.


It's been so nice to be outside lately! And so nice that Lauren can walk and explore for herself. She tolerates the swing for a while, then she's ready to move on to other things.


Despite her small frame, Lauren has a huge belly. Lauren's cousin Emma is checking out the belly.


We traveled to Ohio for Easter. 14-month old toddlers don't always appreciate 9-hour van trips. Lauren did OK. We just kept feeding her.


Another picture with the headbands... oh, and necklaces. She puts those on, too. And she thinks she's pretty fancy when she does that.

The house on April 7

Although the blog has been silent, progress on the house has clicked along steadily for the past month. All the windows are in. All of the interior framing is done (well...except for "little things here and there"). Plumbing and electric are going in. The porch is being built. And we're starting to get the roof shingles on.



View into the girls' bedroom


The porch! The porch! Rocking chairs, anyone?


We hope to frequently have lots of kids hanging around the house


The back and side. I'm really looking forward to the screened-in porch on the back. You can also see the fireplace chimney poking up out of the roof.


The kitchen windows (the sink will be under them) and the dining room slider which will eventually lead out to a deck. Aren't they pretty windows and doors? I keep saying that most women in Williamstown would probably be appalled at the number of decisions that are being made unilaterally on this house (meaning they are being made by Jack). The windows were one of those decisions. So far, I think he's done great. Better than great.

Fairy party

Since Annie has been enamored with her friend Talia's Tinkerbell costume, I asked my sister-in-law Lisa if she would be willing to make Annie a Tinkerbell costume for her birthday. Here is the result! I love it. More importantly, Annie loves it. With the new costume, the (loose) theme for Annie's 4th birthday party was fairies.

Tinkerbell


Annie is holding one of the "fairy wands" I made for each of the girls. It was so sweet to watching them dance and twirl around their ribbons when they arrived for the party.


All of the little fairies/ballerinas

March update

March has flown by. I have grand aspirations of detailed blog posts complete with lots of pictures which give just the right kind of summary of our month. We had lots of visitors - Jack's parents for a week, mine for a visit at the end of the month and sandwiched in between those visits was a visit from my sister-in-law, Becky, who descended upon our humble abode with a friend of hers and 4 young children under the age of 4 1/2 (yes, that made 8 kids in our house). All of our guests were very welcome and all of our visits were great. Some were just louder than others.

In this month we also celebrated Annie's 4th birthday. With all of those visitors, her birthday went on and on and on.... pictures (hopefully) to follow. And Jack and I celebrated our 11th anniversary.

We also filled out our 2010 census. It was just the two of us when we filled completed the 2000 census. With the birth of our fourth child, I needed to go into the bonus space on this census form. I guess you could also say its been a busy decade.

Its rather late at night and I should be getting to sleep. If my ambitious plans to document the month fall through because I fall asleep, I will at least share one of my favorite pictures from the month. Corban is almost 7, but he still loves his blankey and monkey. He takes them to bed with him every night and brings them downstairs with him every morning. On the mornings of my mom's visit, Corban spent a few minutes snuggling on her lap as he woke up and got ready to face the new day. I think Granma was very happy to sit a moment with the Corban boy. Very special.