Wood stove and seedlings

I'm still figuring out how to upload pictures so that they show up where I want them and it's apparent to me now that it's the opposite of how I did it this time. So the pictures are in reverse order- you're all intelligent people and I'm sure you can make sense of it.


We started planting cold hardy seeds inside last week - broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, and onions. As you can see they sprouted pretty quickly and are now looking very green. I love showing the girls that what they planted is actually going to turn into something they can eat. We've picked a spot for our garden and have purchased lots of seeds. We also bought 100 strawberry plants and are planning on getting several fruit trees and berry bushes. Just waiting for warmer weather!

Speaking of warmer weather, we got our chimney and are now using our woodstove! Uncle Jason came over and helped Jon install it and I love how cozy it feels (not to mention how nice it'll be to have a smaller power bill). We got a heat resistant gate that goes all the way around it to keep little hands from getting burned.

Hope and Uncle Jason watching Daddy make a big hole in the ceiling!

So, this should have been the first picture but whatever. The whole install didn't take nearly as long as I though it would, less than a day. Now all we have to do is enjoy the warmth until spring comes!

Christmas and Rock City

So I haven't quite got the whole adding pictures thing down yet. I can't figure out how to move them where I want them once they are on the page. Christmas actually happened first but the Rock City pictures are before those so we'll go backwards.
We went to Rock City tonight to see the Enchanted Garden of Lights. I think about how great it is to be able to do things like that with the kids and hope we continue it throughout the years so they can keep the memories. It reminded me of when I was younger and my parents took us to NYC to see The Nutcracker and The Rockettes. Instead of the funnel cake and hot chocolate that Rock City had, we'd get a hot pretzel from a street vendor and thought it was the greatest thing. I have a much greater appreciation for things like that now that I'm a mom. When you're a kid the crowds, lines, and costs don't matter to you- you don't even think about them until it's your turn to do it. Of course, we don't mind waiting in lines when it's something memorable for our kids and you come to realize that your parents felt the same way about you.
It was pretty cold out but we bundled everyone in layers and scarves etc. I thought Vance would sleep since it was his usual bedtime but he was wide awake for the whole two hours we were there just staring. Usually he'll talk and play but he was like a statue, just turned his head every now and then. I wondered what was gong through his mind ;). They had a fake polar bear in a cave with a snoring noise. Hope liked it so much she didn't want to move- it wasn't real but she sure thought it was. We had to lure her away by telling her we were going to look for more bears. When we stopped for our hot chocolate Hope grabbed her cup as if it was a half emtpy one that I would've given her at home and dumped it all over herself- I had a moment of terror thinking she had burned herself but apparently she had so many layers on she didn't even feel it. Soon after that we wanted to take a family picture in front of a lighted penguin display but the girls refused to participate so Jon and I took our picture with Vance which you see below. Then Hope decided she did want a picture but she wanted to stand with the penguins and you just can't do that considering to get to them you'd have to navigate the rocks and crevices (and you're not allowed). Try telling a 3 year old "No". No matter how many ways you explain it she just kept screaming, loudly, "I wanna a picture!!!". Eventually she gave up and had a good cry and we could all move along to the musician who had just finished his set while she was having her breakdown. They were decorating cookies for $3 inside and G wanted to do one- we asked her if she had $3 and she got rather angry upon our exit form the building. Then the girls had a fight about who Daddy would hold and he eventually just put G on his shoulders and held Hope in his arms, see below. Good workout I suppose! All in all, everyone had a good time and We're looking forward to going back to one of our favorite places in the spring.

Granny came up to spend Christmas with us and brought all kinds of goodies that make it special with her. I had to work so it was great to have her there with the kids and Jon. The two of them got everything ready and I was able to get home a couple of hours early to climb in bed with my family. I was too excited to sleep so I mostly just layed there until Hope and Vance woke up. I told Hope Santa came and she promptly woke up G to tell her and they flew out of bed. They did not like the Giordano tradition of brushing your teeth before opening presents which is really just a way to give Granny time to start the coffee and Daddy time to get the camera ready :). I couldn't find our camera until the mayhem ended so Granny has most of the pictures but we did get some cute ones.

Gwenevere tore through her presents the fastest and Hope kept stopping to open her brother's gifts. Vance had a blast with all the commotion, paper, and presents. Once we were done with presents Granny spent the day cooking for us and I took a nap. The kids played happily all day. We had a delicious dinner and Granny headed home. A very satisfying day indeed. We hope you all had a wonderful day with your families as well!! We miss all of the friends and family we did not get to see and want you to know we think about you all very often!!

Yule

Yesterday we had our little Yule celebration for Winter Solstice. We decorate an evergreen tree with edible ornaments for the animals to eat to help them thru the winter. We used dried oranges to symbolize the sun (for that is ultimately what we are celebrating) and we covered pine cones with peanut butter and dipped them in bird seed. This has been a very messy task in the past but this year I got smart and put the peanut butter in a bag and piped it onto the cone. Made it very easy and looked really pretty.

Hope wasn't really into decorating and just wanted to throw seed to the birds but Gwenevere enjoyed hanging things on the tree. We chose that tree because it's the only one in our huge yard that is an evergreen with branches low enough for the kids to reach- it worked out well. I'm excited about using the same tree every year and watching it grow! We are all looking forward to longer days and getting ready for a brand new garden and a bountiful harvest in the coming year. Happy Holidays!

Missouri

Jon's mom recently moved to Missouri and since she's been out here to visit us several times we thought it was our turn. I think we were both dreading a nine hour drive with three kids- one being a baby. Surprisingly the drive out there wasn't too bad. We left early in the morning and were officially on the road by 7am. Unfortuantely because I had to keep turning around and getting things for the kids I eventually got really nauseous and ended up buying some dramamine. That knocked me out for a majority of the ride. Vance took a good 3 hour nap around that time and GW fell asleep for awhile too. The girls watched movies most of the way and of course, Jon drove.

We enjoyed spending time with Mom and Jim and did some really fun things with the kids. Jon's favorite part was squirrel hunting, he loved being able to just wander around the woods. My favorite part was fishing, I think that was GW's also. We caught lots of fish in the pond behind the house. Overall it was really nice to just take a break from the daily grind and visit with family.

The ride home was a little more stressful but we made it home ok. It always feels good to come home! We really missed our farm. I hate how it takes a week to catch up on cleaning etc. after getting home from vacation - most of our clothes are still in suitcases. I had to go back to work the day after we got back, that's my excuse!

Grandpa Jim, Grandma and the kids.

At Grandma's

The girls on the ride home.

Gwenevere fishing all by herself - such a big girl.

The catfish I caught!

Hiking

When we bought our ten acres we thought they ended at the woods behind our house. We were very pleasantly surprised when we studied the survey and discovered we own six acres of woods behind the house. Jon has ventured out there several times trying to clear a trail and look for good spots to go camping. I hadn't been out there mostly because Vance was a newborn and it was too hot during the summer. When the weather started getting cooler and the bugs started going away we were engrossed in projects inside the house. We still have a lot going on inside but Jon decided to take the day off with me today.


(This is the barn and the back of the house from the top of the hill at the back of the property just before the woods. Too bad we don't get enough snow for sleigh riding!)

We took our first family hike on our property this afternoon. It was a beautiful day for it. I discovered that the woods are quite hilly and fairly steep in some areas. Jon had Vance on his back in the Ergo and Hope was scared she was going to fall so she kept asking me to pick her up. There is a flatter area up towards the top of the woods where the girls enjoyed jumping over felled trees and branches. We'd love to be able to hike out there regularly and let the kids play out there when they're older but it needs a lot of work before then. I'm looking forward to clearing it out some more and marking a good trail through the easier terrain.
Overall, we had a great day today!














The girls in the woods.

Hiking

Pictures

Here are some pictures of the work we're doing to the house!
Above: Fireplace Demo

new laminate and old carpet

Hope and mojo in the den.

Workng on the kitchen.

The kitchen and foyer

Our house.

We've been working on putting new floors intot he whole house for about a month now. My request when we started was that we only do one room at a time so we wouldn't have to live in a huge mess while we're doing this. So far that's worked out pretty well. We still have a big mess and lots of things where they don't belong just to get them out of the way. The floors in our room are done, the girls room needs a few more squares (which we have but haven't put down yet;)
The lady that used to live here was a smoker. I'm pretty sure her husband was too. They lived here for close to 20 years. They also had dogs. The carpet had never been replaced. It is so filled with smoke and grime that it's sticky. The girls have brown spots on their knees from playing on it. If you walk around with just socks on they'll start to stick to stuff- so if there are little bits of anything (beads, legos, paper etc.) on the floor you'll end up with everything you step on sticking to your foot- and the sock will be dark brown by the end of the day. What I'm trying to say is that it's really gross and had to be replaced before my precious baby boy starts crawling and playing on the floor. The kitchen and bathrooms have linoleum flooring that the previous owners put down themselves. They just kinda rolled it out and didn't put and trim down in the bathrooms or hallway so it's peeling up at all the edges. The kitchen has a demi-diagonal wall in it and they angled the flooring to be straight with that line instead of the straight witht the house and it looks, well, not right. They get an A for effort.
We used our Obama stimulus check for first time homebuyers to get new laminate flooring. Let me just say that I am not a fan of laminate flooring. I don't like how it feels or looks for the most part. However, this is a double wide and we plan on building in the future so we didn't want to invest too much into new floors but just enough to make them liveable for about 10 years and then rentable after that. We also needed something durable that'll withstand all our kids can give. We are putting the laminate in every room except the kids rooms, bathrooms, and cooking area of the kitchen. The bathrooms and kitchen we'd like to get tile for. The kids rooms are getting carpet squares. Since I don't really like laminate, I had to paick it at least. I chose wide planks and I think the color is walnut, it's dark. As I said, this is a double wide and everyone knows that mobile homes have wood paneling for walls. Well, the paneling is a different color that the flooring so when you come over don't be alarmed- we know. My theory is that we'll be here for quite a while and there's no rush to paint the walls right now. We'll get them done slowly- when I have nothing else to do ;).

So far We've made it form our room through the hallway into the kitchen and the foyer and halfway through the den. That's where it gets fun. The previous owners also put in a gas fireplace. They used rock for the faux chimney and it was really nice looking. Nothing else in our house uses gas so we' would have to rent a giant propane tank just to use this inefficient fireplace that won't help heat the house at all. We have always wanted a woodstove as our sole source of heat. Jon started demo on the fireplace today. Our woodtove is at the store and ready to pick up! We have lots of prep work to do though. Once we get the fireplace completely gone we have to finish the floors including fireproofing under and behind where the woodstove will go- which is exactly where the fireplace was. We are going to use the rock that Jon took down to put over the fireproof wall/ floor. There was so much dust in the air while Jon was tearing out the rocks that when I took pictures you can see it floating in the air- blech. Most people know how wary I am about breathing anything in so I stayed far away. I couldn't convince the girls to though- they loved watching the rocks fall. There is now a thick layer of grit on everything that didn't get moved before he started- yay.
I am really loving the areas where the floor is already down. Even thoug it's laminate- it feels so much better than sticky carpet. It looks great too. Our room is already painted so it looks really nice in there. I am looking forward to being done and not having a heating bill this winter!