280/365

Let the road trip begin! 

Today we traveled 600 miles across 3 states.

We ate lunch on the road and stopped once to go to the bathroom and once in Salina to meet Cindy and Tony for supper and then travel the last 100 miles to Bruning, Nebraska.

We spent right at 12 hours on the road (only about 10 of that drive time). 

The kids really did great!  I can't say that I would want to make a trip like that alone anytime soon but all together it went much better than I expected!

279/365

Today we were busy running around trying to get ready to head to Nebraska tomorrow.  The kids and I are heading up to see my grandparents.  Tyler is BEYOND EXCITED to be going up there so that he can ride a combine.  He has wanted to do this on every trip up there but we have never been there during harvest before.  He has not stopped talking about this trip since I told him we were going a few weeks ago. 

Jackson is so excited as well.  He is really looking forward to riding the combine as well as all the great bike riding that there is around the town of Bruning. 

Jaci is looking forward to seeing her Cindy and playing ball with Pompy (my grandpa).  Funny that she remembers doing that while we were there last time.

I will not have internet access while in Nebraska and I really won't want to take time away from family time to blog so I will not be blogging until next Monday. 

I will keep pictures and will write a blog post for every day but I just won't be able to post them until I get home.  Jacob has also promised to take pictures of the house progress.  They didn't get to digging the basement today because of some delays so they will be starting first thing in the morning.  I am sad that we will miss it but so excited to be making this trip.

Pray for my sanity tomorrow and Monday.  It is a 9.5 hour trip alone with 3 kids.  (Have I mentioned that Jaci gets carsick?)  Should be fun...LOL!

See you all next Monday!

278/365

 Today we have had another busy day.  Between working on the lot, school for the kids and preparing for our trip to Nebraska it is a bit crazy around here.

 Jacob is busy at work and then heads home long enough to change and head out to the lot to do some work.  He has been working out there from about 4:30-8:30.  Tonight Jackson said it reminded him of when we lived apart because I am home doing homework, cooking and giving the kids their baths without him.

 Thankfully Jacob comes home just in time to give everyone a goodnight kiss. 

Jacob can haul off a big load like this and it won't even look like he went through the area because the cactus is just so thick!

And now for a Before and After picture....

 This was how our lot looked last Wednesday morning.

 This is the exact same view of the lot today...7 days later.

This is a view from the garage/laundry room looking East at the house.  Right in the center of that area was where our big burn pile was yesterday.

Today we have a new burn pile where our parking pad will be.  This is looking NW.

I realize that looking at these pictures might get a bit old to some of you but I am now doing this for us to have a record of our building process.  I want to have this to look back on and see how much things have changed.

277/365

We are loving life right now! 

The weather is beautiful, we are moving along with our house and Jacob has somewhere to go and work in the evenings.  I'm sure it will eventually get old but right now it is all exciting and fun!

Every morning Jaci and Tyler are asking to go out to the lot and see Kevin (our builder).  We usually go... and of course when I pick Jackson up he wants to go out there...so we go again.  When Jacob gets off work he heads out there and we tag along for a little while.  The fun thing is that our lot is changing by the hour right now.  Today they were burning off the brush pile and the kids loved that!  Who am I kidding...Jacob and I are loving seeing it all too!

The kids love running around and me telling them where their rooms will go.  This is Jaci standing in her "room". 

This is looking from the kids side of the house towards the front of the lot.  They cleared off a lot of the under brush at the front today.  It really looks so much nicer. 

The kids even got to take a ride on the bobcat today. 

They loved that! 

Here is Jackson standing in his room. 

The cleared off view of the front of our lot.  Doesn't it look nice compared to what it looked like this time last week?

276/365

Technically this was taken today...although it was last night.  The boys slept great last night all huddled in the same bed together.  They loved their camp out.  Jaci also slept great at the hotel with Jacob's parents. 

Jacob's parents had to head out early.  After they left the kids and I headed to Abilene to get them all new shoes and get everyone a hair cut  (including myself). 

Jaci had such a big growth spurt over the summer and the only shoes that currently fit her are her crocs or her rain boots.  I have been putting size 9 shoes on her size 11 foot.  That's what happens when you just wear sandles and crocs all summer long! 

It was a busy afternoon with 3 very tired and grumpy kids.  Thankfully we got a lot done!

275/365

This morning the Homecoming festivities continued with a performance for all of the ex-students. Jackson has been so excited about this for weeks now.

I was once again reminded of why I love this town and school so much.

As an added bonus Jacob's parent's came into town today with Luke and they were all able to see the program.

After the program we went and looked around downtown, showed them our lot and then headed back to the house to cook lunch.  The kids all had a great time playing ball together and playing in their fort. 

Today they made a few more improvements with Luke's help. 

They played non stop all day!

Jacob's mom, Jaci and I also managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping downtown this afternoon.

It was a nice little girl's outing. 

Tonight we cooked steaks and after supper headed out to the new fire pit that the kids built.

We attempted to get a little fire going but just ended up creating a lot of smoke. 

Everyone took turns telling spooky stories and trying to scare each other.

(Can you tell how into the story Tyler is?) 

It was a lot of fun! 

And now I have 3 silly boys sleeping in 1 bed which we turned into a tent and a daughter who is happily spending the night at the hotel with her grandparents.  It is 12:05 and I don't foresee the boys calming down any time soon.  I am exhausted though and am finally about to head to bed.  It has been a long jam packed day!

274/365 9 Months of Blogging!

How is is already October?  I can't believe how fast this year is going by!

Normally I am so excited for Fall to come around so that I can pull out all of my fall decorations.  This year they are all in storage and I wouldn't have anywhere to put them even if I could get to them.  It makes me so sad to not have out all of the things I love but at least it is temporary.  Next year I will have more than enough room to decorate.  I do have the wonderful scent of Pumpkin Pie burning in my Scentsy warmer.  It at least makes the house smell wonderful even if it doesn't look good!

Today was Homecoming here.  We thought about going to the game but Jacob's parents are coming in tomorrow and we just have too much going on tonight.  The kids all went to bed late last night and were all super grumpy and tired so we put them in bed really early tonight so that hopefully they will be in a good mood tomorrow.  Jackson has a program tomorrow morning so we will have to get up and going early in the morning.

I am off to go fold my last load of laundry and head to bed.  It's been a LONG day with very grumpy kids!