January 30 - House is drying out inside

The fans are plugged in and the house is drying out for a couple of weeks. You can see a bit of the exterior color painted next to the window to the right of the front door.

Alex & his violin

Alexander is talking violin lessons from Faina Podolnaya in Ashland. Uncle Brent also plays the violin so he tried playing a few songs on Alex's violin. You should have seen the awe and respect in Alex's eyes. He was so proud of his Uncle Brent and just tickled to hear real songs out of his tiny violin.

My Three Silly Men

I love my three silly men! This is how they were delivered to their bedroom last night.

Our House Progress

Siding is almost finished and garage doors are arched. Painter has started caulking the seams outside. We are about to sheet rock the ceilings and then turn on the heaters to dry things out for a couple of weeks. The office beams are in and look awesome. Thanks cousin Chuck!

New Year's Eve

We had 21 people at our home New Year's Eve. What fun sharing our bucket list wishes, stories, games, yummy food and fire works.

Family Progressive Party

What a treat to have our annual progressive party with family. We started with hors d'oeuvres at Stacy & Alan's, then Brent, Rose, & my mom made homemade ravioli's at my folks home, and the dessert buffet was served at our house. What a night of feasting and fellowship. You can see the boys were completely exhausted by the end of the evening.

Christmas Day

We had a lovely time with family at my parents' home on Christmas day. The boys looked so handsome in their soldier costumes. And my mom had the prettiest tree ever.

Rustic Beams

My cousin, Chuck Potterf, has traveled from Bend, Oregon this week to create a rustic beam look in our home. This is his niche in the construction business. Most of the new beams are so wet that he will need to wait several weeks for them to dry before continuing with the project. The few he's done already look so good, we can hardly wait to see them all in place. We are using salvaged timbers from an old saw mill for the beams in Marcel's office and the fireplace mantel, but the mill did not have the sizes we needed for the rest of the house.