::september 2019::

This little man loves sports.  I have enjoyed watching him fall in love with playing football. 

He was in the homecoming parade and we turned up in all our Pendleton gear.  

Those two giant second grader were the best blockers in the league.  

Max was showing his Pendleton pride.  

Baby Otter watched.

Look at all that crazy candy they got at the parade.  

Lily and little Poppy remain best friends.  

Lily had a little barn karaoke party with all her  choir buddies.  

She turned 16 with her cutest little face.  

She looked gorgeous for homecoming.  

She and her best friends all looked gorgeous.  

The two single girls posed with Paige's sweet boyfriend.  

Josh and I remain devoted to Cross Fit.  We go at least 4 times a week.  I am not exactly ready to be an elite athlete but I am working hard.  

We organized all the girl in the family going to Cake Bake, which is a fancy cake shop in Indiana.  

I had a party for my grad school friends and Lily had some concerns about the cupcakes my friend brought.  

I have been a wondering soul, going to lots of different sites.   I was pretty happy to find this sunny little office.  

I won the Nursing Excellence Award for Community.  I was so surprised and blow away by the honor.  

They had Josh on Face Time and this is me smiling at him.  

Mr Max is turning into a grown man.  Look at that big stud.  

I picked Lily up and we rented some Pendleton bikes to go exploring on.  

Max was in the band for about four weeks.  It was a short term love story.  

Lily has been mastering the art of taking pics with a distant gaze.  

We had a little warm day and I took the kids creeking.  

We got ready for our girls plus Josh Disney trip.  

Lily and I worked at Lucas Oil for her to earn money for choir.  

She has been working there periodically to pay for her own choir trip.

This is her driving home.  

::back porch of the cottage::

Our little house was such a sweet ball of potential when we found her.   She had been for sale for months, in a market where everything sold in a week or less.   Our sweet baby was shown 46 times!  She was just waiting for us to come along and scoop her up. 

The back of the house had no exterior door.  The window on the right was into a laundry room and the window in the center was into a bedroom that has been converted from a one car garage.  The lower brick  has been added at some point.   It was showing its poor construction, and was a hot mess.  I asked our builder about saving it and painting it, but she said is had to go.  

This was after we added the kitchen window and door.  All the brick and siding was gone at this point.   This was the point that we figured out that the layout of the mudroom was going to make me give up the right side window.   I was sad to give up a window but we added a bunch more.  

Her she is all polished up and almost ready for siding.  Please note that the left corner of the back of the house and the right corner are not square with each other.   We figured out that they are off by about 9 inches.  I like to think of this as old house charm.  Our builder very carefully told us about six times, that if we want a house that has level and plum surfaces we need to tear our baby down.   She's so cute that she can't go into a landfill.  So wavy floors and mostly straight lines it is. 

Siding going up with doors and windows in place. 

Here she is when we moved in.  Fresh and clean and ready to be part of the family.  

The deck begins.  

When I first saw this I was stubbed by how large the deck in.   The house is 2,000 square feet.   Not a big place for six people.   This deck seemed insanely large, in comparison.  

Look at that baby Max.   

Josh did the very center of the deck first and them game back to start filling in the sides.  

I was still nervous that the deck looked crazy large compared to the house, but I figured it would come together.   

Josh was the real designer of this deck.  He had this thought in his mind of what it would look like and he did all the work 100% himself.   

We got a free hot tub from our friend and Josh worked on renovating it so we could decide inexpensively if we like having a hot tub. 

He wasn't even done with it before the boys had to jump in.  

We are frugal in everything not Disney.  Buying furniture for this deck made me want to vomit.   But we didn't come this far to turn back now.  The pergola's were still coming together but the furniture was in place.  

I was using my new umbrella to enjoy the hot tub.  

Max and Poppy thought the set up was on point.  

Let's look at that before picture one more time.

Here she is all done.   Hot tub area with clothes line for swim suits.  Recliner chair for relaxing.   Six person dining table in the center.  No center cover, cause I don't want to block the light into the kitchen.  Second cover on the left with grill and another seating area.