Did someone yell TIMBER??

Fodor Timbers have been at the property the last few days, clearing the area for the house, and also taking a few other trees worth money in exchange for their clearing. I finally got to go out there this morning and see for myself. It's SO awesome!! I love seeing all the space for the house but still having woods around us. It is a little thin on the neighbors house side, even without them touching that area, but I think it will be better once things get green.















They will burn the brush and stumps this week and then should be about done after they move their pile of timbers out. We thought we could get right into having excavating come, since we have cash that we will be using first before we start drawing from the construction loan. But it doesn't work that way. We can't spend any money right now, until we actually close on the construction loan. Once it's closed, then when we go to make draws from it, the bank will actually draw from the cash first, for us. So we still need to bring the cash to closing, like you would for buying a regular house. Soooo we wait now, till closing. Our Loan Officer is setting the date for May 22, and will get it done sooner if it goes quicker. The time all depends on the Appraiser, in finding the value of what the house will be on our property. I'm hoping the process of approval and finding comps will go fast! Having to wait to break ground put us back another 3-4 weeks. Oh well, it's all coming together now anyhow. And it will be worth the wait!

-Blogged from my IPhone

Frost Laws are off!

Okay the moment we've been waiting for.. Frost Laws are off! Don't know what that means, you can read more HERE.. but basically its during the spring time where there are weight restrictions on the roads as they thaw from the winter. And the logger didn't want to deal with that, so we decided to wait until they have been cleared. Now I'm just waiting for the logger to call me, any day now! Hopefully he gets out there and clears this week or next.

We are almost done with all the bids too. Mainly waiting for the excavating, foundation and concrete work, and drywall installer. I'm planning to make a call to the credit union tomorrow and get an appt or things rolling with them. Just to make sure we have everything squared on our end other than the few bids we need back.

As far as things I have picked out for the house, well you're just gonna have to wait and see as it goes in. ;) I will definitely post pics and links of all that I can as we go along! So if you want to follow along on our build, its probably best to subscribe by email! I'll put the link on the right. :)
G'night!

So it starts

So shortly after getting our accepted counter-offer on our house, we started to also pursue the building plans. We ordered the blueprints (wow, pricey!), made LOTS of appointments with General Contractors to talk our plans over and start to get some estimates/bids. But also keeping in the back of our mind that we know a couple people that have been their own General Contractor and was able to save a lot of money. 20-30% to be more precise. But we thought we would see where the numbers would come in.. Well the bids we are getting are about $50k more than our budget cap on what we wanted to see. So after talking to one couple, D + O, we definitely got the bug to do our own General Contracting. We are meeting tonight with the other couple K + M to walk thru their 2 year old house in the same area as ours. He was also kind enough to share his budget spreadsheet of all his sub-contractors and the several bids that he got from the area. This has been very helpful in seeing how it all came together.
We met with Chelsea Lumber twice this week, turned in a copy of prints to get a bid for materials list on the lumber and for the windows. I also have a hardwood flooring picked out that I will get an estimate on. I'm looking forward to seeing all the numbers come together and see what ticket price we can get on this project.

Out with the old, In with the new.. Brand New!

We've got an accepted counter-offer on our current house! Wahoo! Now we just wait, as we get thru the inspections and appraisal. Just counting down, 34 days till closing day, and then we will be ready to start the build on our new house. I'm SO excited to document this building process, and to be able to look back on it years from now and see it all come together.

Take 24.. and ACTION!

I seriously think I've restarted on writing in my blog maybe 23 times. I used to love writing in this. Have met some great blogging friends in past years. (And have actually met some of them in person now too!) I just love the record of events, thoughts and family things I have written in this. I really should make an attempt to do better. Maybe put the app on my front page of my iPhone will help.. I'm not even really sure there are any readers anymore... I mean, is there even a blog reader that keeps all the updates together for you still?
Anyways, it would be nice to have for our family. Just even a run down of what we did, pics, events, just our daily life. The boys could look back on it and see a typical day in their childhood.
So here's my 24th attempt at starting over. Cheers!

Welcome 2014

There is so much to look forward to this year..

Virtual Baby shower for my sister Daniella who is expecting their first child, a baby girl, in May...

A vacation for Tony and I to Las Vegas at the end of March. A first for both of us. We even just bought tickets to see Elton John while we are there. Legendary!...

I'm planning to fly down to New Orleans in June to visit my sister/brother in law/and my new niece....

And then we have our Disney trip planned for July with my mother-in-law.

I'm especially excited to see what is in store for my new business venture as a Lemon Dropper with Young Living Essential Oils... more on that in another post!

Plus Quilt

This was my first attempt at a Plus quilt and I'm pretty happy with it! It was actually pretty quick to put together, being that it is baby size. ;)

Getting back to sewing!

Since having my third son Aaron in January, I've done some sewing here and there over the last 2-3 months. I've been wanting to "open up shop" again, but wasn't all that thrilled on doing baby bedding again. Yea I'll probably do some things by request or word of mouth. But not quite the volume that I have done. I was getting a little burnt out. It case you didn't know, it takes A LOT of time! ;)
So I've been looking at other things I can sew and sell, some small items, that might help my fabric hoarding addiction.
I've recently made myself a Sling Ring and have gotten a lot of compliments on it and requests!
















It's pretty easy to make so I've decided to get some supplies together, make an instruction sheet and whip some up!












When making my pamphlet, I also drew out these illustrations to show the different types of carry that you can do with a ring sling.




I'm loving this first style that I've picked out... Ombré! Everyone knows its a popular style right now. Why not have an ombré sling?!




So I've made my first one for sale yesterday, and have three more to make today that are sold. Still have two ombré left and will complete those, up until the ring choice. I'd like to let the buyer pick the ring choice, but we will see. I might just want to get them complete and ready to sell.
So here's the teal ombré I finished last night:








I also thought I'd change up my logo, colors and design a bit on my Facebook fan page. Just so you know, that's still me.








So if your interested, stop on over, message me, and let's talk!
www.facebook.com/shopfroggyleggs

Brothers

My oldest and my youngest...


The age span between these two is just over 7 years.


Lukas absolutely adores Aaron and is always talking to him and giving him kisses.


He loves being able to hold him in his lap.


It really makes my heart melt seeing him love on his baby brother.


❤

3 months old

I'm already falling behind on keeping up with blogging. At least I do have pictures during this past month!
Here is Aaron's 3 month old pic on the quilt I made him. :)


He's such a sweet heart. Always has a big grin on his face when you smile at him. I love the little bit of laughing that we are hearing too. And of course does the same thing as his brothers, gets the hiccups when he gets laughing too much, lol.


He's starting to bat at the hanging toys on his playmat. And being toys to his mouth. I still need to bring up more baby toys from the basement and get those cleaned for him to have more things to grab at.





He has way more rolls than his brothers did. Which I'm very thankful for, I've always wanted a chunky baby. What I don't like, is the redness and moisture that he seems to be having a problem with in his rolls. We've had problems with his neck rolls, under his arm pits, behind his knees, and in the thigh rolls. I've noticed that hydrocortisone cream seems to do the best at drying it up and clearing the red. But I hate the amount that I have used on his skin thus far. So I've been trying to also see how Coconut Oil does for it too. Especially in the thigh rolls, as there aren't much you want to use with cloth diapers. And coconut oil is okay to use with cloth diapers.
He has his appointment on Tuesday, so ill update with those stats then. And also will be asking about his redness in the rolls issue. Might have to get something for his neck, I'm a little afraid we might end up with a yeast issue there.
Other than that, he's a pretty happy baby. Absolutely LOVES to kick his legs when on the playmat and when I'm changing his diaper. He must love seeing all the colors on his wall of the wall quilt. :)