Monday, March 30, 2009

Home update...

News, news, news...it looks like our builder had good news and bad news today.  The good news is we won't be moving in over Easter weekend, but the bad news is the house won't be ready to close until April 15th!  That being said, we did see some forward progress today...they finished the sprinkler system and installed carpet!  

The picture below is from the living room, looking into the kitchen, and shows the new nook they put into the kitchen along with the carpet, which is actually grey (the picture looks kinda tan).  The rest of the week should be busy, so they can turn the house over next week for walk throughs and final updates.


(Living and Dining Rooms Getting Close to Completion)

Here's a picture that is a sneak peak at our dining room.  They did a great job on the floors and have them covered to make sure they look nice for our move in a couple weeks...


(Dining Room Including Trim)

Sunday, March 29, 2009

More Dance...

This is one of Emmalynn's recital dances.

Dance, Dance, Wherever you may be.....

This week was parent observation at dance. This means that Josh whined a whole lot about being at dance nearly every day this week-ha ha. Just kidding! I got to sit in and watch the girls' dance classes, and we got their recital costumes. Emmalynn's costumes were huge, but hopefully we will be able to fix them where she can at least dance in them one time. Graceanna's costume was so cute too-she's going to be adorable for her first recital.

Here is a picture of Grace's and some video of her in her dance class.



And her recital costume!







Emmalynn has a ton of video and pictures, so I will just include a little bit.


Here she is at hip hop. Doesn't she look so grown up?



And her hip hop costume.


Here she is at Tap, Ballet & Jazz, and in her Jazz costume. The ballet costume was missing a tutu-so we have to wait for those to come in.



Friday, March 27, 2009

Home update...

There are only a few more days until the home is turned over for an initial walk through, so we're down to carpet, blinds, landscaping, final grading, appliances, and some touch up paint!  It sounds like a lot, but they are making great progress.

Earlier in the week the A/C condensers/compressor units were installed, and one day later the fence was added:

(A/C Units)

The code that governs sprinkler installations state wide has been updated to help conserve water, and part of the update includes drip lines near the street.  Below the drip line for our house is snaked around near the curb:

(Sprinkler Drip Line)

Here's what the house looks like as of today...finally with the correct garage door!

(This Week's Progress)

Monday, March 23, 2009

Back to School!!

So Spring Break is over-boo-hoo. We really enjoyed the break. The weather was great over spring break. We did a lot of walking and took some trips to the park. We also decided that it was time for Josh to learn how to ride a bike. We aren't really outside a lot, and when we are, Josh would rather be running or playing with the soccer ball, so we haven't spent any time trying to get him riding it. I felt like such a slacker mom because we hadn't taught him yet. Well, Monday, I decided that he has to learn before he turns 9, so that is what we did last week.



After the first day, I determined that a 7 month pregnant mom isn't the best candidate to teach a big kid to learn to ride a bike, so dad helped once he got home.



Here are some pics of the ordeal. Actually, he did awesome and by Tues./Wed. he had gotten the hang of it. Then by Wed. Emmalynn decided that she needed to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels-so that is what we are working on now! We took off one of her training wheels first, and now they are both off.



And Grace, well she is a little daredevil on her scooter-especially going down hill!




Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Home update...

Our builder is slowly finishing up tasks this week in hopes of getting us closed the 1st week in April!  All of the rain slowed down the outside progress last week, but they were able to finish the tile (including the kitchen backsplash), installed counters, and we now have finished plumbing in the bathrooms. 

(Tile Backsplash and Counters)

(Bathroom Plumbing)

One of the nice things about following another build of the same floorplan is we've noticed a few things that we would like different (i.e. exterior paint, full brick 1st floor, etc.).  The kitchen has a built in hutch that was missing a wall, so they started framing up the missing wall to get this detail wrapped up. 

(Kitchen Tile and Corner Hutch Details)

Once the rain stopped this past weekend, they also started leveling the yard and got everything framed up for the sidewalk and drive.

(Exterior Progress)

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Emma and DSOD2 Petites Win Gold!

Our sweet Emmalynn had her first competition today, and dancing "Another Cha-Cha" her team won Gold!  It was their first of three competitions this year, and we're so proud of all the hard work she put into it!  We're also proud of Joshua and Graceanna being so supportive during all of the long practices!

(DSOD2 Petites at Starbound National Talent Competition)
Go Emma!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Home update...

The house is about a month from completion, and we've reached the point where progress is exceptionally slow.  Sure, a lot of work is going on, but it's not as dramatic since it's more detail oriented.  Over the past few days the tile was grouted, the bathroom counters went in, they re-bricked the little ledge in the front, and the house has been cleaned out for flooring.  

Since the progress is less noticeable this week, we put together a couple collages to show how things have progressed over the past two months since ground breaking!

(Ground Breaking to Framing)

(Painting, Stone, and Brick)

(Sheetrock, Painting, Cabinets, Counters, and Tile)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Grace's Swimming Again!

Today Gracie started swimming lessons again!  She was a little cautious at first, but after remembering how much fun it is (and candy is available after the lesson), everything went great!

(Grace wondering if she really has to swim)

This afternoon she also took Buddy Bear to dance lessons.  We're not sure how much Buddy liked tap and ballet, but hopefully it was more fun than staying at home ;-)
  
(Buddy's 1st Dance Class)

We're proud of our cute little swimmer and dancer!

Home update...

Visible progress is hard to spot this week, but today we were pleasantly surprised to see we now have a front door (minus the stain and hardware).




















Our builder has been painting and tiling this week, and things are still on track for an early April closing date! 


































Sunday, March 1, 2009

Emmalynn's Dress Rehearsal


On Saturday, we also had Emmalynn's Dress Rehearsal. Her first competition is next Sunday, so they just did a practice run on Saturday. Emmalynn was awesome-its amazing how far her dance team has come in the last few months!