Thursday, November 5, 2009

Halloween 2009

Claire as a butterfly. She loved going trick-or-treating with Dad. The first door they went to Claire walked right inside the house when they opened the door (luckily it was a neighbor we knew). She quickly caught on that you just ring the door bell, say "Trick-or-Treat", get some candy, and then leave. After she went to bed we hid her candy from her hoping she would somehow forget about it. The first thing she said when she woke up was, "where is my blue pumpkin?".


Jane as a happy peanut.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

New pics of kids

Here are some more recent pictures of Jane:
Blessing dress pictures:




Binky addict?:


Monday, August 10, 2009

Jane Allen: Special Delivery


Jane Allen arrived two weeks early on August 8th at around 2:10 am in our upstairs bathroom with Jake stepping in to deliver her. Needless to say, her birth did not go as planned! My water broke Friday evening and I decided to stay home, rest a little, and then get my contractions going before going to the hospital.

The general rule of thumb on going to the hospital is when your contractions are around 5 minutes apart consistently for about an hour. So, we were waiting for my contractions to get in a good pattern and then we would drive the short distance to the hospital. By 2 am my contractions were intense, but were only around 6 minutes apart. All of a sudden I felt like I needed to push and could tell the baby was coming. Jake called 911 and they talked him through the process to help little Jane into the world. The 911 operator came to visit me at the hospital and said that Jake deserves an award because he was so calm and did such a great job (especially considering that a few weeks before I asked him if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord and he wasn't sure he was that interested!).

We are so blessed that Jane was in perfect health with no complications. Paramedics arrived less than 5 minutes after she was born and then we were rushed to the hospital. She weighed in at 5 lbs 14 ounces and 19 inches long. We are now "back" home and trying to adjust to life with our special little delivery.

Proud big sister Claire with mom and baby.

By the way, Jake's shirt is not wet from the delivery but from a wet towel someone put around his neck.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

We installed our concrete countertop in our kitchen a couple of months ago and I wanted to show everyone what it looks like. I started it in April and finally completed the project in June. Luckily it didn't take any longer because I don't know how much longer the tablecloth-covered plywood countertop would have lasted. Mandy was patching things up with duct tape on a daily basis.

I started by building a temporary table using cheap saw horses and 2x4's. Then I made a water-tight melamine mold on top of the table. Imagine a remesh and rebar grid suspended in the mold (I forgot to take a picture of it).

The next picture shows a couple of smaller molds. One for a small section in the kitchen and the other for the bathroom countertop.


After the mold was complete it was time to pour the cement. We borrowed a cement mixer from a farmer in our branch and got to work mixing about 16 80-lb bags of cement and additives. It took Mandy and I about 9 hours, with no breaks, to get the cement poured, vibrate all the bubbles out and screed the wet cement. I almost wet my underpants.
After about 10 days I took the mold apart, flipped the pieces over and started polishing the top surface using a wet grinder. I put on a few coats of sealant and then had some friends help me carry the three large pieces into the kitchen. The pieces weighed between 200 and 400 lbs so it took three guys to lift them.

I just hope the floor is strong enough to hold everything up.


I still need to finish the backsplash and trim and then we should be done with the kitchen.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Black Hills Trip over Memorial

We climbed only one route in the Black Hills, but when Jake started up the wall, Claire said, "I climb too" and immediately started free soloing. I spotted her as high as I could, but she threw a tantrum because she couldn't go all the way up to the top with dad. We need to move closer to some rocks and get this girl climbing (and us too!).
The family at Mt. Rushmore.



Chad & Brenna Kimber and Jake on our hike. Not the best picture, but the only one with all three.


Claire and her best friend Lydia. Sadly, Lydia has moved to Utah!


This is what Claire did when I asked her to smile (beautiful toothless grin!)

Friday, May 8, 2009

Easter Pics

This sums up how Claire felt about getting her picture taken in her Easter dress.



Yes, this was the best shot I could get!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Hill Billy Claire


A few Saturdays ago we had our first (and probably not last) trip to the emergency room with Claire. She was climbing up the back of a dining chair and then fell backwards and it hit her square in the mouth. She lost three teeth (her two front/top ones and one next to it). After visiting the pediatric dentist he informed me that because she lost them so early, her permanent teeth will not come in until she is 8 or 9 years old! She is fully recovered, but I think I will be in mourning for quite sometime...I guess at least she is on her way to becoming an excellent rock climber!