Thanks for the Help!

Thanks for all of the help at the benefit.

You worked REALLY hard.

And we couldn't have done it without you!!

(Or your checkbooks!!)

Happy Birthday Nater Tater!!

Today is Nate's 4th birthday. Unfortunately he is sick and we are headed to the doctor at 1:00. I am guessing it is an ear infection on top of something else. He did get to celebrate over the weekend. On Saturday night we celebrated with the Owens' family. He made a haul as usual. Grandma Shirley scored with a very noisy and annoying chainsaw. He loves it! He had a Mickey Mouse themed party again and had a great time with everyone. He also got to celebrate with most of the Juilfs family on Sunday. We took a Mickey cake that he had helped me make but wouldn't let anyone cut it and cried the whole way to CR because we brought it with us. It was supposed to be his cake, no one else's!  He didn't get as many "fun" gifts but he got money deposited into a savings account for the future. Which is terrific and much aprreciated! I can't imagine how much college will cost when he gets there!! 

Owens Update

Hey everyone! Wow how time flies!! We have been busy, just like everyone else. Payton and Cael are loving the snow these days and are not thrilled that it may be melting this next week. They have a huge fort built at the farm in the 5 foot drifts. Nate is still his very naughty self. He turns the big 4 next week. We have his "Christmas" party tomorrow night with the Owens family. We can't say that we are having a birthday party. I don't know for sure why. He just hates it. Like he hates everything these days. Mike has been enjoying his time with us at night but he will be going to 2nd shift for a couple of weeks. It is supposed to only be for a couple of weeks but we will see. I am still at the school. Some days are very challenging to say the least. I have not been working at the VF lately. I will start getting a few hours starting in March. I quit working at Bath and Body early in December. Which was a blessing! It was way to stressful to try to keep track of where I was supposed to be when etc. Thank goodness Mike was able to keep the house going and keep up on homework with Payton!

Another update- the status of our house. Mike and I went to the bank last night. We did get our pre-approval but there are still some hoops that we have to jump through before we can finalize and get started. If you go to this website http://www.stratfordhomes.com/admin/images/Homes/Alston%20II.pdf

you will see a floor plan that is what we started with. We are going to add 4 foot to it and make it a 28x44 house. We will be adding a laundry room between the kitchen and the bathroom. On the other side we will just add more room to the living room/master bedroom/bathroom. We will be finishing the basement ourselves. Payton and Cael's rooms will be down there. We will also have a bathroom and a family room down there. It is very exciting to have this actually happening for us. It is long past due!! I will keep everyone posted on our progress and add pictures as things happen.