House Building Sept 26 - 30

September 27, 2011 - Stairs built, arches built in door ways

September 29, 2011 - Back garage door is on and they've started shingling! Tub shows up and plumber is cutting holes for pipes and setting up venting tubing.

September 30, 2011 - HVAC guys in to cut the floor vents, plumber getting my laundry room pipes set up, front door hearth set in place and front door made off limits. Still shingling...almost have the front done. Kitchen arch finished after the wall was extended to fit my kitchen cabinet plans.

Our First Morton Pumpkin Fest

Today we went to our first ever Morton Pumpkin Fest with my friend Emily and her kiddos.

Addie and Madeline had so much fun riding on the motorcycles together.

Then we had to try some pumpkin ice cream.

Emily and I loved all the displays made out of pumpkins...someday I'll have to enter this competition.

A couple days later our whole family came back to watch the parade.  People start lining up their lawn chairs on the parade route a week before hand...it's hilarious to see as you drive down Jefferson the week of the Pumpkin Fest.

The parade is amazing and lasted over 1 1/2 hours!!!  The kids got loads of candy to share with mom and dad of course.  Can't wait until next year when we can just walk up to the parade route from our new house!!!

Family Day at the CAT Tech Center

After the Pumpkinfest parade, we made our way up to Mossville to the 50 year celebration of the CAT Tech Center.  They had loads of family activities and open house so we could finally see where daddy works all day long.  We got to see inside the tech center, tour the virtual reality lab, and play with all the fun carnival stuff on the quad.

There were no picture taking allowed inside the Tech center itself but we did manage to take one of Kevin's desk...looks like he just moved in...but he's been back in the US for 6 months...we need to make him some pictures to hang up.

Outside they had loads of kid's games and activities.  Harrison loved blowing up balloons and letting them pop.

Addison got her face painted.

They had lots of equipment out to look at.  Here is a really old Caterpillar tractor.

Here is one of the newest CAT vehicles...CAT got out of the over the road engine business, but now they have a venture with another company to actually make a whole truck.  This is one of the new CAT dump trucks.

We got our family picture taken on the CAT D11 (I think that's what it is).  We just got the snap shot so I took a picture of our picture to show it to you.

We tried for another family picture, but I think we just had too much excitement for the day which ended with a big breakdown by little Harry.  All in all it was a wonderful day and we are so glad Daddy got to show us around where he works.

House Building - September 19 - 23

September 20, 2011 - Almost done sheeting...

September 21, 2011 - building the roof over the breakfast nook and papering the roof

September 22, 2011 - We have windows!!!

September 23, 2011 - Sliding glass door and breakfast nook windows installed.

Fun at the Apple Orchard

Today the kids and I went went up to Partridge Point Orchard with my friend Amity.  It's literally 1 mile north of our house.  

We had so much fun picking Gala, Braeburn, and Golden Delicious apples.

We picked a 1/2 bushel full of apples and bought some locally collected honey.

Our wonderful bounty that I am going to make up into applesauce, apple crisp and loads of fresh apples to nibble on.

My Little Nest Maker

House Building - September 13 - 16

September 13, 2011 - Walls are all sheeted and Ty-Vec is on.

September 14, 2011 - Setting the trusses on the house with the "small" crane.

September 15, 2011 - Front gables have been set up

September 16, 2011 - Roof is getting sheeted

House Building - September 6 - 12

September 6, 2011 - We have floors!

September 9, 2011 - It's raining, but walls are going up.

September 12, 2011- The garage walls are framed and they start supporting the interior walls to get ready for the trusses and sheeting the outside walls.

(in my kitchen facing back towards my pantry in the corner)

(our tiered stairway)

(from the back)

(the framed in 3 stall garage)

Addie Starts Preschool in America!!!

Today Addison started preschool....in America!!!! She has missed being in school for a long time and after a long and wonderful spring/summer she's ready to get back in the groove (mommy is too).

For now while we are living in Metamora, Addison is attending Metamora Community Preschool. School starts at 8:15AM...which is a huge shocker for me since UK preschool starts at 9:15, but we are up and going earlier now days with Daddy going to work at 6:30 in the morning instead of 8AM like we'd been used to for the past few years.

They have fun little work stations set up all over their room with words pointing out things all over the place. We did get to visit back in the spring along with about 20 minutes of visiting during registration just a couple of weeks ago. She was pretty excited to go, but then we got a little nervous when it was time for mommy to leave, but after about 15 minutes she got to playing at the card making center and she was okay.

Just outside they have a little playground area that they get to play for about 15 minutes at the end of class time until we pick them up at 11AM.