Breaking Ground

I guess it's official! We're building a house! The crews showed up on Monday to get started. As of today, the footings are in! The kids ask daily to go up and "visit the property". Not a clue if we are on track for our December closing, but we're hoping!! Alan called this morning to inform me that the bathroom was put in (a.k.a. a port-o-potty).

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Our crew - breaking ground!

Footings are in!

A view looking West. That small little bump to the right of the sunrise we believe is Mt. Adams.

Beautiful Aerial Pictures

A good friend of ours owns an aerial photography business. On a recent flight, he took a gorgeous picture of our new property. It is below. By the way, if you or someone you know is in the market for any aerial photography, he does an amazing job! I'd love to forward you on his contact info (yes this is a plug for him - he's great!).

The two yellow circles you see in the far off distance (which really aren't as far as they look - are our church on the left and the kids' school on the right).

View of the property.

Another view of the property.

Met with Mr. Designer

We met with the architect last night to go over the plans of our new house (thank you to Uncle Kiki and Aunt Jody for watching the kiddos). We've got it laid out mostly to our liking. My laundry room is quite small - maybe that will make me spend less time in there. :) I guess I'm anticipating the years ahead of hours of teenage laundry. :) I didn't however want to give up the gathering space and the wall with the view. Soooo, I'll just have to make my sacrificies.

Here were a few of the second floor plans that we have been playing around with. He's making most of his adjustments from the first plan . You can click on the image below to pull up a larger version.

On to a new chapter in our life! We finally made the decision of building a new house. Trust me, lots of prayer went in to this decision. It's been something we've been discussing for about 5 years now! It was a friend of ours who showed interest in our property that kind of set this in motion. Since then, everything has fallen in to place, by the grace of God! We never had to list the our home and what is even more amazing is that we will be allowed to rent back and stay here until our home is complete! Tonight we enjoyed watching the fireworks from our new property. We had an amazing view of the fireworks from the river and also views of other area firework shows, including the ones at the stadium.

Here are some shots!!! Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July and had a chance to reflect on the many lives who have saved our freedoms!

Thanksgiving at Hood River

We had a fun Thanksgiving with Alan's family. Here are just a couple shots that we took along our travels. I will post more soon! You can also click on each picture to view the larger image.

Halloween Night

Playoff Game

Last Saturday, October 25th, marked Jordan's playoff game. It was a beautiful day for football. Even better, an awesome day for a playoff game to see who would go the Kennewick Grid Kids Superbowl. Last year, our team didn’t make it to the playoff game, this year was a different story all together. Jordan was excited and ready to play his biggest game yet. He had family and friends in attendance and was pumped to show off his skills. The first half was awesome. The Panthers prevented the Colts from getting on the board, up 7-0 at halftime. Previously, in the regular season the Colts beat the Panthers (5-2) 33-0. The Panthers came out playing well the second half with some hard hits. Jordan leveled the quarterback and caused the him to make a huge fumble. Even playing tough, the Panther's were unable to hold back the Colts and lost their playoff game 7-13.

The team was sad but are looking forward to next year to redeem themselves. Great season Panthers! You looked great this year and should hold your heads high. Jordan, you are one heck of a football machine. Next year will come soon; I’m sure you are already thinking about it.

--Dad

"The Machine"