Happy Birthday, Sierra!

The day was November 8th many years ago when I went to the hospital to give birth to my last child. I had many mixed emotions that day. I already have 3 very active little ones and I wasn't sure I could handle a 4th just now so I was a little scared. I was also told that I couldn't have any more children and that depressed me because I had always wanted 8 kids. I had to have my children c-section so I was nervous about the surgery. But above all, I was excited to meet this new little person who had been inside me for 9 months. We didn't know if we were having a boy or girl, although I "knew" we were having another little girl.

We had lots of complications with her birth and almost lost her, but she fought hard and before long she was breathing and crying like a newborn should. She was much smaller than my other children and we found out she was 3 1/2 weeks early. Within a week we were both able to go home and meet the rest of the family.

Sierra completed our family. Where 3 kids seemed difficult, 4 was the perfect number. Even numbers are just better I guess. Sierra not only evened out our family, but she also brought a peaceful spirit with her. At a very young age she seemed to know when Mom was stressed and needed her calming influence. She could barely walk and talk, but she knew Mom needed her. She would grab my finger and pull me to the rocking chair and say, "rocky, mommy, rocky". I would sit and rock her for as long as it took for me to calm down and regain my sanity.

Sierra was good for everyone. She was very observant and learned so many things simply because she watched others. She observed when her siblings would do things to get in trouble and she would avoid that behavior. The kids liked to play school and since she was the youngest she was always the student. Consequently she learned a lot and was reading before she every started school.

She learned she could do anything she set her mind to. She learned to play several instruments and to sing beautifully. She is a wonderful artist too. She has taught herself home skills such as cooking, sewing, quilting and even handy work around the house. She is an amazing mother and home schools her children. Her oldest is in 7th grade and the youngest just starting kindergarten this year.

I am so grateful Sierra chose to come to our family. She has blessed my life so much. Happy Birthday, Sierra!!!

Love,
MoM

The Latest on the House

We left off with the floor joists having been completed. We put the deck on and started on the walls.
Notice the cool blueprint table that Dad made for Douhet!

Most of the walls weren't too hard to set up except the ones with the great big beams on top.
Griffyn is a BIG helper, but doesn't like the noise!

More beams! These beams will be exposed underneath the catwalk. They will be beautifully finished when we are done.

Douhet hard at work. It is amazing how he knows just what to do to make everything come out right.

Here you can see the second floor going up. This looks down from the entertainment area into what will be the kitchen. Kylee is in the kitchen doorway.

It looks pretty massive with the walls all closed up. This is the front of the house.

These are called scissor trusses. I'm so glad they put them on the second floor so we didn't have to hoist them up by hand! It was hard enough putting them into place by hand. It was pretty scary sometimes.


We lifted each one into position and secured it in place. It was especially tricky over the open areas like the living room and the entry way.

Kylee is using the nail gun to help secure the trusses in place.

Now we are putting the sheeting on the roof. The first two sheets weren't too hard. We hired someone else to do the really high ones.

This is the second floor from the existing house spanning the entire new addition.

Working on the roof was pretty scary. We prayed everyday for safety!

The cute little dormer is going to be Griffyn's room. We are calling it GriffynDorm!!!

These trusses we had to lift up by hand. It is a 16 x 27 covered deck out the back of the house. We are so grateful for the help we received putting those up. Everyone was amazing!

Here Douhet and Season are putting sheeting on the wrap around porch roof.

That is Brother Miller up on the roof working on the sheeting. Bishop Glenn is on the ladder putting the sheeting on the end of the outside extension.

More work on the outside extension.

We are just about ready to have the roofers start on the shingles.

The roofers started roofing the front of the house on Tuesday. I haven't been home early enough to get a picture so I'll have to post that this weekend. It is just about closed in for the winter!!!

Maybe our busiest ever July!

July is only 10 days old and already we've done more in one week than I think we have done for a year. July 4^th started off with the annual flag raising ceremony that Steve was able to participate in. He loves to be a part of that and never tires of honoring his country and the men and women who have fought to protect our freedoms.




Doesn't he look handsome in his uniform?

We followed up the flag raising ceremony with a fun trip to the Willamette Mission Stake Park to watch a Civil War Reenactment. We couldn't have anticipated our chance meeting of MyLiege and Sean on the freeway if we had planned it. Everyone was running a late and as it turned out we were all running on the same time. Sierra and Shonee arrived at the park within a few minutes of us. We remembered ear plugs this year and it made watching the reenactment all the better. After a nice picnic lunch and wandering around the camp sites for a while, (we ran into Ed Turpin at one of the tents), we headed to Sierra and Shonee's for a nice bar-b-que and fun afternoon. The kids, Shonee and Sean even braved the swimming pool although it was very cold. (Sorry, no pictures.)

Three days later we headed off to Youth Conference. MyLiege and Sean were also involved in their ward's youth conference and we were supposed to baby-sit their kids. Thankfully Sierra stepped in to save the day so Steve and I could do our part at our conference. We taught our youth about Temples and had them construct three temples. The first one was the Tabernacle in the wilderness.

The second temple was the Kirtland Temple.

The third temple was the Nauvoo Temple.

We also made cool handouts for the kids as a memento. This is one we made for us on a tile. We did the kids on blocks of wood with the strip down the side of the wood. They looked very cool.

We finished out the week with a very special event. Our little Madison Kendyl turned 8 on July 1^st and was officially baptized into the Church on July 9^th by her father. She was the only child being baptized so our family got to do the whole program. Uncle Shonee played the piano and Grandma Wilcox led the music. Auntie Sierra gave the opening prayer and Grandpa Wilcox gave the closing prayer. Antie MyLiege gave a beautiful talk on baptism and Uncle Douhet gave an awesome talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Great Grandpa Nielsen and Grandpa Wilcox were the witnesses. And all the cousins sang some songs.

Madison, of course, was the Princess for her special day.

We've begun at last!

On June 7 we offically began construction on the new part of the hosue. It was exciting to see the concrete pumper truck that was necessary becasue of the access to the back part of the house.

Here the concrete is being pumped into the forms of the foundation.

Douhet working hard putting up the side joists.

Dad taking the easy job of riding in the tractor moving dirt to get the grade around the foundation. it took a lot more dirt than we expected.

Douhet is securring the joists to the sill boards. These are pressure treated boards that won't transfer moisture from the concrete up into the joists which would rot them away.

Ibid.

Here is all the wood for the rest of the house except the roof trusses, porch and siding.

Here you see some of the roughed in drain plumbing and the lines for the feed water. You can also see the dimensions pretty well. The bump out is for the dining room and the indent is the entry way. Notice the little train tracks the kids have laid. (Stub ends from the joists.) Now all we need is a little train!

Stay tuned for future developments.

Threes

My mom always told me things come in threes.  It could be good things or bad things.  I like the good things better.  Last week I have my "three" bad things.  On Monday I had a flat tire when I got to Seminary.  One of my students noticed it when they were headed to school so he ran back in to let me know.  I called my sweetheart and he came and swapped cars with me so I could go to work and he took care of the tire.

Then a day or two I had my number 2 bad thing.  I had two hard drives in my computer.  I put my hard drive from my old computer into the "new" rebuilt computer I got several months ago.  I copied most everything over to the "new" hard drive and everything was good.  Unfortunately I continued to point to the old hard drive for my email files and my financial files.  Well a day or two after the flat tire my "old" hard drive died.  It didn't just get sick it actually died.  We couldn't not retrieve anything off of it.  I figured I could rebuild both my email addresses and my financial data and just move forward.  I talked to the guy who rebuilt my computer since he was the one who tried to retrieve data and he reminded me that my "new" hard drive was also very old and I might want to seriously consider a new hard drive.

Well, I decided I would look at a new computer the following week since I had some bonus money I could use.  I spent Saturday rebuilding my financial data and was just about done when my third bad thing happened.  My whole computer decided to quit working as well.  Since I live on my computer I decided I could wait until the following week to get a new computer.  I went upstairs to Douhet's and got online to find a good deal.  I checked with Douhet and Sean and both agreed I picked one that would work for me and was a decent price.  Frys had it in stock so Steve and I ran to the store to get there before it closed. 

We lucked out and got an additional $100 off so I also bought an external terrabyte hard drive for back up.  It has taken several days, but I think I am back up and running. 

Life is good again!