Movers and Shakers, Part 2: Digging It

Construction on our new home began the last week of August. We've been going out to the site every week to see the progress. From dirt hole to concrete basement to wood framing, it's been so exciting to see how fast it's coming along. We're anticipating an early December move-in. But we'll see how the [crazy Indiana] weather factors into things. So far I think we're on schedule. Keeping our fingers crossed! ;)

A big hole where our house will be

Starting the basement foundation

We've got basement walls

Poured the concrete in the basement and garage

We have floors

There go the walls (view of the front)

(View of the back)

Stay tuned for Part 3 as they make more progress on the house! And maybe say a little prayer to the weather gods so they ease up a bit on all the rain. :)

Movers and Shakers, Part 1: It's So Hard to Say Goodbye

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for the Stelsels, with no sign of letting up soon. Ever since our return from a peaceful vacation in Mexico, we've been busy worker bees, buzzing around the house and about town in preparation for a) closing on our house, b) moving to the apartment, and c) building the new house. Oh, and on top of this....I'm 6 months pregnant! It's all EXTREMELY exciting, but overwhelming.

We spent the last 2.5 weeks doing nothing but packing up the house. We got a really great head start on our own. Then my mom came down for a long weekend to lend her packing expertise. Between the three of us, we were able to pretty much finish all the packing a week before our scheduled move. And we still managed to get in quite a bit of football time, too. :) 

Chase is the best supervisor.

"Mom, you can fit more in this box."

Inspecting the plant shelf. "Yep, all clean, Mom!"

Gotta make sure we don't leave behind any of Chase's toys! 

"I'm packed up!" 

In the interim of moving to the apartment, we put "KEEP" stickers on all the things we wanted to make sure were left out at the apartment and not put in storage. David made sure Baby and Chase were included. :) 

We moved into our new apartment over the weekend with the help of Dave, Connie, Kirk, Laura....and six (yes, SIX) of our friends (do we have the best friends or what?!). We started the day at 7 a.m. with the Stelsels. Then our friends came over at 9 a.m. to help finish loading and head out to the new place for unloading. Dave, master packer that he is, manned the loading of the truck. And thank goodness. We probably would've had to make 2-3 trips had David and I tried to fit our stuff in by ourselves. By 11:00 or so, we had our 26 ft. truck and every single car loaded to maximum capacity and we took off. The unloading went much more quickly. I think we were done by about 12:30 or so — just in time for pizza, beer, and the Notre Dame game. We can't thank everyone enough for the blood, sweat, and tears they put in on our behalf. We are truly blessed to have such amazing friends (and family!!).

Vroom vroom, David. Vroom vroom.

All loaded up and ready to go, thanks to our moving crew!

Empty house! Happy to move on....

....but sad to say goodbye to our first home. So many good memories!

Guess we worked them too hard. Dave and Chase take a snooze before the Packer game.

September has been a total whirlwind. Lots of changes going on in our little family right now, with more on the way, and we're so grateful for the love and support of our family and friends.

Stay tuned for Part 2! :)

Labor Day in KY

Jamie, Shan and Braden came to Henderson for Labor Day, so I went down to spend the long weekend with the family. Had a really good visit. It was SO nice to see Jamie and Braden for an entire weekend as opposed to a day or so (as seems to happen every time they come to town because of conflicting schedules). We didn't do much on Friday. I arrived just after lunch time, and we spent the afternoon at the house with Jennifer and the boys. I love watching them all play together. Baby Stelsel (aka Bubba Lee for the time being) does not know what he's in for with those three boys. They're going to be great big cousins; teach him all kinds of things, I'm sure.

On Saturday, Mom, Jamie and I went shopping for....you guessed it....baby stuff! Okay, it was actually baby AND mommy stuff, so it was a win-win. :)  I got some maternity clothes for winter and Bubba Lee got some outfits. Not that he needs them! Jamie brought down all of Braden, Cooper and Jackson's clothes -- 6 trash bags filled to the top with clothes (and shoes) from 0-3 month to 2T!! I was so excited to go through them, but I was quickly overwhelmed by it all. So on Sunday afternoon Mom and I went through every bag and sorted them by size so we could store them in plastic bins. I think there were about 44 pairs of shoes, so that alone should give you an idea of how many clothes we were dealing with! Crazy. Needless to say, Bubba Lee's closet is full for the next three years. And I couldn't be more grateful to Jamie and Jennifer for the contributions.

The Smiths left on Sunday morning, after the Kings came over for breakfast. After going through the clothes, Mom and I joined Jennifer and two of her aunts at the movie theatre to see The Help. So good! We had all read the book, which I think makes a difference when you see the movie. We really liked it and it was a fun afternoon activity on a rainy day.

All in all, it was a great trip to Kentucky with tons of family time! Couldn't ask for anything better. :)



These are the bags full of baby clothes. When we were going through them, Braden kept saying, "This looks like the shirt I have at home." Smart boy.

This is the finished product after sorting through everything I wanted to keep.

Nonna and Bubba Lee at 22 weeks :)

 

Bubba Lee and EmmaJane meet for the first time....sort of. Pregnant sisters at 22 weeks and 32 weeks. How fun!

Tractor ride with Granddaddy

Da boys

Cooper and Braden snuggle up on Granddaddy

Braden's ready to golf.

The next Tiger in the making

Braden helps Nonna water her plants.

Watering plants is hard work. Time for a drink. hahaha

As you probably guessed, David and Chase held down the fort while I was away. I left the morning after we returned from Mexico, mind you, so Chase has been really thrown off for about a week. David snapped this shot on Friday afternoon (the day I left for KY). He had been waiting for me by the garage vent, probably thinking I would come home at 5:30 like always. When I didn't, he just crashed. So sweet.

David started packing up the house little by little while I was gone. This is our linen closet. Chase is either settling in for a nap or protesting the packing. I'm guessing the latter based on his depressed mood lately. He does not like the packing situation. Nonetheless, it's a super cute picture. :)

Viva la Mexico!

David and I had a great trip to Playa Mujeres last week. It was a long overdue vacation for both of us, and a perfect way to celebrate David's CFA, the baby, and the house.

Although, overall, our vacation was a big success, it didn't start out that way. I was near tears when we woke up at 6 a.m. to head to the airport only to find out (thanks to text alerts from Delta!) that our flight to Houston was cancelled. UGHHH. Say it isn't so?! Apparently, we can't go to Mexico without a hurricane interfering with our plans. Turns out our morning flight was coming from Newark, and it never made it out because of Hurricane Irene. So we forego showers, grab our bags and run out the door to make it to the airport as soon as possible. In doing so, we drop off Chase at Kirk's house (literally a "ring the doorbell, leave the dog at the door, and bolt" kind of drop-off).

We arrived at the airport early enough that we beat the other travelers (thank goodness!). The first Delta guy we tried to work with was not as helpful as I would have liked, and I was nearly in tears. Then a manager lady came out and she was able to book us on another airline. Thank goodness for her! With less than 5 minutes to spare, we were sitting on our new flight to Cancun via Atlanta.

After a long layover at ATL, we finally made it to our final destination.......just 6 hours later than we were scheduled to arrive. So we basically ended up losing the entire Saturday afternoon we had planned on spending at the beach, but we were happy to make it to Mexico (with our bags!!) at last.

After our delayed arrival, everything else went smoothly. Couldn't have been more perfect, really. The weather was great and the food was amazing (the best we've ever had at an all-inclusive). We spent every single day at the beach reading, napping, and dipping in the ocean. It was heavenly. As crazy as it sounds, it seems like David and I haven't seen each other much this year (because of him studying and as busy as we've been with work, and the house, and the baby, etc.). It just felt good to be a couple again with no distractions.

Now, of course, it's back to reality and we're in full swing busy mode again. So it goes, I guess. Here are some of our pictures from our week in Mexico. Enjoy!




View from our balcony at Excellence Playa Mujeres

The lazy river that went around the resort. We only ventured on it once because we enjoyed the beach so much, but it was quite refreshing.

Hubba hubba. David in our jacuzzi tub on the balcony.

Where we set up shop every day. Is that paradise or what?



Taking a dip in the ocean.

 

Doing what we both do best: reading!

No supermodel, but who cares! I loved showing off my big belly. :)

This deserves some explanation. So when was the last time you had Coke out of a glass bottle? Think about it. Think really hard. Bet you don't remember! But I bet you do remember how much better it tastes out of a glass bottle than out of a can or plastic bottle. Hence, the picture. David couldn't get enough of this stuff. All the sodas at the resort came in glass bottles and tasted just so much better than regular soda.





This pepper at the Mexican restaurant just about killed David. He ate almost half of one that was on his plate, and he immediately broke out in a sweat and his eyes teared up. Now, David likes spicy foods and, particularly, peppers. When he asked the waiter what it was and told him how hot it was, the waiter said, "No, it's not hot. Tastes bad, but not hot." So he brought out another one, on a special plate, for dessert while David was in the bathroom. Too funny. So once again, David went in for the kill thinking maybe it would be different. Nope. He ate the whole thing and soon lived to regret it. So now we have documentation. This is the pepper that David couldn't conquer.

22 weeks pregnant and loving it! Getting bigger by the day.



Casino night at the resort. We played Texas Hold 'Em most of the night. We both won some hands, but neither of us came out on top. Fortunately, it was play money, so we didn't lose anything but our pride.

Kickin David's butt at ping pong.

Yeah, he was surprised, too. Who knew I was such a ping pong aficionado.