house siding

Here it is! The house project is complete (mostly, who's ever finished?). Below, is a picture of the house before we closed on it and finally there is a picture of the house with the siding finished, yes, we just barely finished before it snowed and technically we still need to close in the garage, but that should be a breeze compared to how far we've come.







This is from the end of the summer after we put in a lawn... a pretty big deal for the kids.

buddies and bugs

They were raking in the front lawn (I have grass!) and they naturally posed like this - it's funny how iconic it is. This summer Joachim's bug catching skills flourished. Grandma taught him how to sneak up behind grasshoppers and grab them by their hind legs (and then feed them to the chickens). It occupied him for great lengths of time. He didn't limit his bug catching to grasshoppers, he'd bring in every bug he'd catch and ask for a picture. I had every intention of printing the various bugs and presenting them to him as a book at the end of the summer, alas I deleted most of the pictures a month ago because I realized it just wasn't happening. Anyway, I'm sure there will be more once the weather turns again.

His life long buddy (of nearly five years) invited him to the zoo and it was a great day and a special experience coming from our small town.


I have to include this picture because Joachim is fascinated by Mouse Trap and every Rube Goldberg type thing. He can run around wielding sticks with the wildest of boys, but he much prefers the cause and effect of marble runs, gears and Mouse Trap. This is a tribute to the literal hours upon hours my dad has spent playing the game with him. I myself have not played it once, (and we keep it with my parents so I don't have to), but it's at the top of the list of things Joachim likes.

Godparents visit

In July we were thrilled to have dear friends from Colorado Springs visit, and it's our hope to see them in their home in PA this May. It was so nice looking through these summer pictures in the dead of January


My brother and sister-in-law invited the parish to their newly completed house for a house warming of sorts. Chris and Ben manned the grills and we dined on burgers from their field (well, after they took a detour through the butcher).


This jeep has been at there house as long as I've known them and it's never had a battery so it goes by kid power (or daddy power).