Let there be light

Quite honestly, it was a week full of delays and more delays for house progress.
But lighting went into the kitchen. (the picture with Justin in it was so much better than one just of lights.)

Boys got a new drum set...um, I mean, bricks were delivered. We took out a kitchen door to make room for more cabinets. It's a relatively small kitchen, so we had to get creative to make more space. These bricks will be added to the exterior of the house to fill that area that the doors used to be. (You can see the area behind the boys.)

 The fallen tree branch was finally chopped up. Jack sure loves a chainsaw. And Colin loves to stand a safe distance away, with safety goggles.

Grandma came over this weekend and helped us clear our yard (of leaves and acorns) and stocked us up with food again. We're just not going to tell her when our kitchen is done and see if she still brings us carloads of food every week. =) We love Grandma time and on this trip, the boys got into her bags and we found them dressed in her clothes!

 On Sunday, Matt & kids joined us for our first camping adventure in our backyard. I'd call it a success!

The 2 year olds got into the chocolate. And secretly kept eating it until we caught them. Justin & Ana.

The cousins had a blast playing together. I wouldn't be able to say this 1 year ago, but this trip was pretty much fight-free. I love seeing cousins all play together...warms my heart.

Jack says that "this is how history gets written, by the people who do the writing." So with that said, these two drank beers and relaxed all weekend. I did everything. I earned triple points this weekend. =) Okay, that didn't really happen, but I like the power to say whatever I want.

And well, the rest of our weekend was spent doing chores around the house. It's worth mentioning that we have not set up cable at the new house. Only 1 TV is set up (in our room) and it only has netflix on it. When we were moving out of the old house, we got into a bit of a TV-rut as we tried to busy the boys while we worked on packing and cleaning the old house. So Jack & I are thrilled to ween the boys from TV (or VT as Justin calls it), and love to see their imaginations run wild again.

 Jamie updates:

• I don't remember when work has been this busy. It's more exhausting than it needs to be, and I'm looking forward to things getting into a manageable pace again.
• I find myself complaining more than I'd like about the lack of progress on the house. But I'm reminded to be thankful for our family and friends who are truly keeping us afloat.

Jack updates:

• Managing our house remodel and working overtime at work. We are managing as a family, but it's busy around here.
• Jack is not a complainer. He maintains peace and gives us reality checks. He lights up like a 4 year old when he sees deer hang out in our backyard and he couldn't be happier just being in this house. 

C & J updates:

• Overall, they seemed unphased with our mid-renovation state. But they have not been sleeping well since we moved here. Most nights, at least 1 of them wakes up during the night - and we had a couple of nights where we thought they were getting sick. We pulled through, but the lack of sleep is getting to all of us.
• Justin is conversing more everyday. He likes to jump into conversations and speak his mind. When Colin asked for a donut, Justin replied, "no, too much sugar." Or when the dog barks, Justin tells me, "I'm scared. And then daddy holds me up high so the dog can't get me. I don't cry. but it's scary." And he still tells me, "Mama, you so pretty" almost every day when I leave for work. If you try to label him anything (i.e., smart, bossy, good listener, funny), he usually responds, "no i'm not. I'm justin elwell."
• Colin is a busy 4 year old. I overheard him telling Uncle Matt how dinosaurs were wiped out, he asks how the earth moves to make a new day and how the very first living thing got into the ocean. He is inquisitive and often asks why we do things and how things work. He often comes home with presents that he makes me at school (usually family pictures), and he loves to tell me about girls at school that he thinks are "so nice." 

I'm not sure if our life is any busier than an average family - but I do know that we are looking forward to things slowing down for us in the months to come. I suppose we are living up to our blog name - this is truly an elwell adventure.