Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for, including our family (with a new baby on the way), our new church family, and our house going up fairly quickly.

Here is what I am not thankful for this Thanksgiving:


That should make for a fun drive to the Rumley house in Indiana later today!

How old are you?

If you ask Grace, "How old are you?" she'll hold up one finger. She's so smart!

Yum yum yum!

Grace got her very own double-decker chocolate cake to eat at her first birthday party.



Sweet chocolate face...



This is Grace's new favorite toy, from Grandma and Grandpa Liabenow. It talks and sings to her, and she tries all sorts of different ways to sit on it. SO cute!


In other news, we had our 21-week ultrasound last Thursday, and it's a....BABY! No, we didn't find out the gender. We like surprises. But we did find out that there's only one baby in there, and he/she is perfectly healthy. YAY!

On the home front, we're getting drywall today! YAY again! They'll start hanging it tomorrow, and it'll take up to three weeks to finish all the steps (hanging, mudding, sanding, etc.). Then it'll look more like a house on the inside! Hooray!

Next week is Thanksgiving. Can anyone believe it? This fall has gone by SO quickly! And now, the first snow has fallen. I can't say that I'm ready for the cold and the yucky driving conditions, but it is so beautiful outside. Praise the Lord for his beautiful creation!

-{lkr}

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Grace turns 1 today, at 9:25pm! She is pretty amazing, if I may say so. She had a great time at her party on Saturday (Lacey will post some pictures later), and she is loving her new toys, clothes, and dolls.

Our family website, which we rarely update anymore because this blog is easier, still has the counter rolling. It is fun to look at today:


Lacey and Grace are out at the house right now for a possible 3 HOURS waiting for inspectors to come and let us know how we did on the electrical rough-in. Hopefully we did just fine, and the inspector won't complain about anything. We will see...

--
Luke

Party time!

Tomorrow's the big party! Grace is almost ONE! (Her birthday's not technically until Monday, but we'll celebrate tomorrow.) We're excited to see both our families and some friends. It's been a while since we saw our families, especially Erin and Betsey. If they could only come to college in Grand Rapids, instead of Indiana...

Today we're going to visit Luke's friend Dan in the hospital, and then Luke will spend the rest of the evening with our good friend Rusty, trying to finish up our electrical rough-in at the house. Grace and I will be at the church, decorating for tomorrow.

I can't wait for the electrical to be done. Luke's been out at the house a lot of nights, and Grace and I have missed him a LOT these past three weeks. I think next week will be much better.

See you tomorrow!

-{lkr}

Two years!

We're coming up on our 2-year anniversary - December 20! In some ways I still feel like a newlywed, but then I realize...In those two years, we have gotten married, gotten pregnant, had a baby, lived in three apartments, gotten pregnant again, and partially built a house. WHEW! We never get bored, that's for sure!

Grace's first birthday is just one week away! I can't believe what a "big girl" she's become. She's walking and trying to talk, and she says "please" in sign language (she sorta changed the real sign into her own version, but it's good enough for us!). I'm weaning her now, and it's bittersweet for me. I'm getting my body back (until baby #2 arrives), but I also won't have my little girl needing me for sustenance anymore. My baby's growing up!

Can't wait to see everybody this weekend for the big birthday party!

-{lkr}

Grapes and suckers

My eyes are looking and feeling a bit better even today. YAY! Apparently those eye drops are doing their job!



Isn't Grace sweet? She LOVES eating grapes.



Here's her pretty little hand picking up some grapes. Her fingers are gaining more and more dexterity as she grows.



And I, the generous mommy that I am, gave Grace her very first sucker ever - a raspberry Tootsie Pop. She couldn't smile well around it, but she really did like it!


Oh, and as of yesterday, we are officially halfway through this pregnancy! WOW! Those 20 weeks went by quickly! Our new baby will be here in no time!

-{lkr}

My face looks like a Halloween costume.

I have pink-eye. It's gross. I think I caught it from Stacy (the bride from last week). Darn! I went to the doctor today at got eye drops for it, and he thinks it'll clear up within 72 hours. But I can't wear my contacts until then. I hate wearing glasses!

Thankfully, Grace hasn't caught it yet that I know of. I've been careful to wash my hands a lot since I noticed it yesterday.

On the home front, we have gutters now, and our well is being drilled today. We're having some issues with the kitchen cabinet budget, but hopefully those will be ordered tomorrow or early next week. Crazy! Only two more months (ish) to go!

Can't wait to see y'all next weekend!

-{lkr}

Congrats, Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins!

Things are getting better. Last week was a very hard week with house stuff, and there's still some stuff that needs to be straightened out. But "the straw that broke the contractor's back" has been taken care of, which is a good thing.

Our gutters and downspouts will be put up this Tuesday, November 1. (That's my mom's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!) And then the outside will be complete, for now. (Sidewalks, asphalt, and deck come later.) Sadly, the inside takes forever. Electrical is what Luke and our friend Rusty are working on now, and it will be done by November 12.

We are SO tired from helping with a wedding this week. Matt and Stacy Jenkins are married now - yay! I'm really excited for them. They're a very quality couple...They love the Lord and each other with all their hearts. It's always exciting to see a couple get married that you know will truly be committed to God and each other...Anyway, I was the personal bridal attendant, which translates into "gopher." It was a lot of running, but I felt very useful. And then Luke was the MC at the reception, and RISEN performed, too. All in all, I thought the wedding and reception went really well, despite some complications of the week. (The maid of honor/sister of the bride got a really bad infection this week called infantigo and her face was really red and swollen, and then Stacy, the bride, got pink eye. The maid of honor's swelling went away, and she was able to cover the redness with makeup. And Stacy's pink eye was pretty much gone by yesterday. And THEN, Stacy's dad was the one actually doing the ceremony, and he's very allergic to lilies. Well, the florist did not know this and accented all the floral arrangements on the stage with beautiful white lilies. The poor guy had to take some good allergy medication before the wedding so he wouldn't have nasty allergies while he was trying to say "For better or worse..." Anyway, it was crazy, but it all worked out.)

Whew, weddings are hard work. I always thought it would be fun to be a wedding planner, but after yesterday, I've changed my mind.

Update: Grace can walk across the room, and she has eight teeth. Her birthday party is in two weeks! Can't wait to see you then!

-{lkr}

I quit.

Don't be fooled...

It looks like it's ready for us to move in, but we still need to do most of the inside "stuff!" The siding is done, though, and gutters will be done next week.



The strip of non-sided area under the slider is where our future deck is going to be. We just need Karl to help us put the ledgerboard up, and then we'll work on the deck maybe next spring. Help us, Karl!

Grace is getting her eighth tooth in this week. Crazy. No wonder she's so ready to eat all of our food. She's been eating like crazy at breakfast! She nurses, and then eats a bowl of baby cereal, and then a whole waffle and a smoky link (sausage). Crazy, huh? And she's still thin like her daddy. I wish I could eat like that!

Siding and more

Consumers finally came out and set our very own power pole. Then they ran an underground power line from that pole to our home. After quite a wait, we have electricity!



The partially-sided front of the house, with our pretty prairie siding and white trim. Sorry about the truck in the way!



The partially-sided back of the house. All the siding should be done today!



A line of recessed lighting housings ("can lights") in our hallway - placed perfectly in the right places by Rusty and Luke.



More can lights in the living room.



Sweet Grace in her new room. It's not quite ready for her to move in yet!



Grace likes to crawl around in the sawdust.

Wrong door, grrr

Welp, the front door is pretty, but it's not exactly what we were expecting, so now I have to try to get it changed. What a pain! I can't imagine being a contractor for a living - what a headache! I swear I'm going to get an ulcer from building this house. I can't wait for it to be done. I hope January comes quickly!

On a happier note, The Siding Guys started today. Yep, that's really the name of their business. Creative, huh? Anyway, we have a pretty prairie-brown color of siding. I was going to link to it on the manufacturer's site, but their rendering doesn't look like the real color at all. SO, you can imagine a nice, somewhat-dark brown color. A shade darker than the stone clay color that everyone seems to have these days. OR you can just come see it soon. That'll work, too. Oh, and I'm sure we'll post a picture soon, probably when they have the front of the house done.

Today Grace caught a fly. She's like the karate kid! The little bugger was standing on the windowsill in the living room of the new house, and she was trying grab it. Well, she did. I was afraid she was going to eat it (mmm, protein), so I made her let go of it. Poor, disabled, little fly.

-{lkr}

Windows and doors

Grace and I under the pretty red leaves at our apartment. Isn't she sweet? (And I don't look very pregnant, do I?)



The view from the driveway of our home. We have windows and doors!



The rear view with all of our many windows.



Our beautiful, huge living room window that looks out on the pretty fall trees.



The setting fall sun casts a beautiful light on our house, and the tree in the back is beautiful, too!

Beautiful!

We're getting excited about this home of ours...This picture is from yesterday evening (hence the darkness and the moon), and it's beautiful to us! The roof will be completely finished today, which we're excited about. And then we'll have windows and doors, heating and cooling, plumbing, and concrete (garage, sidewalks, porch) next week. Wow! Believe it or not, the house does have windows in the front (one under each gable), but they didn't cut the holes in the house wrap yet, so you can't really tell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HYO-SUN! Her birthday was yesterday, and we weren't able to make it down there for the dinner celebration. We will be going up north this weekend, though, for Kade's first birthday party. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KADE! I'm amazed that he's already a year old (or will be this Sunday). That means our baby girl is almost a year old! AUGH! In fact, she's eleven months old today. Time really flies.

-{lkr}

Crazy weekend

Here is the latest...


Grace in Daddy's tie. What a sweetheart!


Friday, September 30 - Our beautiful, somewhat framed home - front view


Friday, September 30 - Our ginormous living room window - what a view!


Friday, October 7 - Our almost completely framed home! Yay! Isn't the roof huge?! They still have to finish one gable and put another one over the other bedroom window.


Friday, October 7 - Back view of our home. They still have to cut another window hole on the far left side, basement level.


One of the beautiful horses at the Belchers' house. We got to spend Saturday evening and part of today with the Belchers, and it was SO good to catch up with them. And Luke got to play with the rockin' praise band in church. It was so loud I thought Grace might have hearing damage. I miss loud church music!

Please!

So we have been trying to teach Grace to say please by doing a little sign language motion with her hand until she is able to talk, because we saw it work with one of the kids at our church. She won't do it, not for a million dollars.

We have also been playing games with her by sticking our tongues out, which she imitates and laughs about. Last night we got the brilliant parenting idea to teach her that sticking her tongue out meant "please." She picked it up immediately!!! It was really, really funny to say "say please" and have her stick her tongue out.

So we are bad parents.

--
Luke

Updates and lots of pictures

Grace Elizabeth at 9 months old - what a beautiful girl!
(c) Terry Sturman Photography



Our house on Wednesday, with the main floor almost complete. Looks like our house has a cap on it!



Our basement - You can see the floor joists in the 9-ft ceiling, and the supporting poles.



The view from the front of the house just one day later, Thursday. Those framers are fast! They have a good portion of the exterior walls up already!



The view from the back of the house on Thursday. It's really going quickly!


Today our excavator should have backfilled the garage, and the framers will finish all of the exterior and interior walls. Then Monday they will set the roof trusses. Tuesday is sheeting, and then the rest of the week will be finishing touches, including setting the windows and doors. WOW! It feels like it's going so fast!

I've been on the phone a lot today, scheduling our upcoming subs: roofers, HVAC, plumbing...I'm trying to stay on top of things so that they'll go as quickly and smoothly as possible. I'm ready to live in this house! Let's get it done!

Change of topic: I felt the baby move this week! I'm only 15 weeks along, but I've read that it's normal to feel the baby earlier in your second (or third or fourth...) pregnancy. It's amazing! I'm getting excited to have this little one in our lives. God sure has blessed us.

Wood and a picnic

Top view of the walkout basement, standing at the back of the garage.


Back view of the basement

Our house has some wood on it now! The framers were supposed to start a few days ago, but they were delayed (due to scheduling conflicts and rain). But, they started today! We went out to the land, and they already had this much done! It's the walkout portion of the basement. It's really starting to look like a house! YAY!




After we went to the land, Luke took Grace and me out on a beautiful date. We packed a picnic (sandwiches of Vienna Bread, cheese, lettuce, and deli meat; cheese and crackers; apples; Caffeine Free Diet Coke; and the yummiest cinnamon-sugar cake donuts), and went out to the Fallasburg Park just north of Lowell. We laid out a quilt in the grass next to the river, in view of the historic covered bridge, surrounded by beautiful trees and blue skies. It was wonderful. And it was Grace's first picnic ever! She was SO cute and did so well! We even fed her bread and ham, and she ate with us. It got a little cold out there, but it was still gorgeous. I like my husband.

-{lkr}

Flatwork finally happened!

Slowly, oh so slowly, we are seeing progress on the house. Today our concrete was poured for the basement floor. Now it really looks like a house!

The bad news is that the lumber got dropped off too early (my mistake), and it's blocking pretty much the whole front of the house, so the framers are going to have to start without all the backfill done. I hope it all works out! Seems like there's always a problem to solve with general contracting. Sheesh. Not my dream job, but it'll get us a house anyway.

Grace is such a sweetheart. Tonight Luke was doing a funny dance, and she burst into laughter! It was uncontrollable giggling...SO precious! We videotaped it, so if you ever want to see it, of course we'll show you!

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow for New Baby. It should be really routine. Grace will be with me, but Luke won't, because he has a real job now.

Yes, a real job! He started Monday as a true blue Steelcase employee! We're very proud of him. He's been there for over four years, and finally they've hired him. He'll be doing the same job, just with a salary and benefits instead of hourly pay. It's a HUGE blessing from the Lord. He's been good to us!

-{lkr}

Goose egg

Before


After

We just happened to take pictures of Grace today, before she whapped her head on the coffee table. Isn't she pretty? Yeah, then she hit her head, and ended up with a huge goose egg that was purple and blue. (Matched her outfit really nicely.) If you can't see it very well in the picture, it's a line above her left eye. (We didn't take the "after" picture until about 5 hours later, so it's not nearly as scary as when it first happened.)

On top of all that, the three of us have all come down with some sort of cold/sinus thing. Yuck!

-{lkr}

10 Months Old!

Guess who's 10 months old today!? That's right, it's our very own baby Grace. It's gone by SO very fast!

Also, she took a step by herself yesterday. True, if we weren't there with our hands out to catch her, she would've fallen on her nose. But she still did it! She's amazing! She's going to be a wonderful big sister.

-{lkr}

It's a basement!

The foundation walls are stripped, and now they look like real walls in our real basement! Yay! This one's a picture from the back walkout. The room with the door is a cold cellar-type space under our future porch.


And this one's of our beautiful future garage, where Luke will have a little extra space in the back for a workshop area.

We're SO excited for our future home. It's actually starting to look like a real house! Yesterday the underground plumbing was done. Today our wonderful, flexible excavator is backfilling our trenches. Tomorrow will be stone and tile (a drainage thing), and then on Thursday we'll get our concrete slabs (floors), so it'll really look like a house! YAY!

-{lkr}

Surprise!

Yep, that's right. Grace's shirt is true...She's going to be a big sister! Surprise! Baby Rumley is due March 23, which means we're just 12-1/2 weeks along. The Lord has blessed our family again. Praise Him!

On another note, I'm 23 years old today. When I think that I'll soon be the mother of two, I feel SO OLD! But Luke assures me that I'm still young. After all, he is 24. Old man!

Welp, more updates on the house to come this week, including underground plumbing, some excavation, stone and tile, and more!

We went to Celebration on the Grand on Friday night, and stayed for the fireworks. We got to see Emily and her roommates, which was nice. But here's my complaint for the day: smokers. I understand that some people are addicted to the nasty habit of inhaling tar and nicotine into their lungs, but they need to understand that it's really rude to smoke in a huge crowd. We sat down on the bridge to watch the show, and these 4 teenagers came and sat right by us and lit up their cigarettes. YUCK. Not to mention that Grace was with us - babies don't need to be inhaling their nasty smoke. And the one guy was blowing his smoke right into her stroller...Luke took Grace for a walk while I sat there and was mad...Anyway, if you smoke, try to be considerate of those of us who like healthy lungs.

Okay, let's end with a happy thought...Our pretty sister Erin is way cool, and she won her first volleyball game of the year this weekend. Go Erin!

-{lkr}

Construction update

Concrete walls were poured today, after an emergency morning meeting at the job site. I (Luke) was called at 6:50 this morning, which if you know me, is my favorite time of day (to be SLEEPING!).

The concrete crew wanted to meet at the land to discuss why the walkout basement was dug incorrectly, which caused the footings to be poured incorrectly as well. It all worked out though: the excavator came out and fixed the trench, and the concrete guys fixed the footings and poured the walls.

Here are the pictures of the progress (don't worry, the forms come off tomorrow):


View of the garage entrance


Side view of the concrete jungle and our neighbors' house


The walkout portion of the basement

Forms come off tomorrow; underground plumbing, waterproofing, and concrete slab coming soon; framing should start in the middle of the month. Woo-hoo!

Work is actually in progress!

We finally broke ground on our house! Here are some photos of the hole, and the footings that were poured yesterday.


It was a beautiful day when we arrived at the land! Most of our weeds are gone...woo-hoo!


The is the front porch (left) and footings to support the center beam (right).


A view from the back of what will become the walkout basement.

We are a little confused right now about how the final product is going to look / work, but we are trusting that the experts know what they are doing. We should have some concrete walls to look at next week, after the holiday. Have a good one,

--
Luke