busy summer....

This is what we have been up to all summer. It seems to have been a cram and jam summer trying to get everything done around here. We have done a ton of stuff to our house. We cut a door in downstairs; making a nice walk-out basement, put up a cedar fence, poured a pad for the dog run along with a large nice stamped patio, finished our basement and put in a wood burning fireplace which included getting firewood. (whoo) There were bumps in the road along the way to make things more difficult, it seems things always work out that way. For example right after we got the drywall and paint done in the basement...it flooded. Luckily the water stayed low enough not to damage anything and that was the week before we had the flooring put in. I did not get any pictures since I was home alone on restrictive duty with the pregnancy....I was kind of freaking out trying to get buckets of water and hall them out. Jake was an hour or more away at work and so my wonderful father-in-law came to the rescue helping to suck all the water out with a big shop vac. (pictures was the last thing on my mind) A few days later the patio, stairs and drain got finished so hopefully we shouldn't flood like that ever again. I can't take much credit for any of the work, since being pregnant put a halt to most of the hard labor done around here for me. Jake did most of it and then hired to have help for some when he was too busy at work to get stuff done around here. Anyway, from the pictures you can tell there are still odd and ends to finish to perfect the job but it is so close, I was anxious to take some pics and post. Peyton loved being outside and helping daddy work. Tim and Mara came out for the Rodeo and we had a blast! Grandma and Buggsy made a big dutch-oven breakfast one morning that was delish and the kids had a blast playing in the dirt. We made it out to Grandpa Doug and Grandma Debbie's for a few days too. Peyton loved being outside and he loved the horses and the dogs. Peyton also had fun teasing his grandpa and imitating the way grandpa eats otter pops... he kept us all laughing the whole trip! He was so funny and such a good boy even for the whole drive. He fell on the sidewalk the day before we left and got a nice big raspberry under his eye... ouch :( Jake built some really nice gates for dad and Deb and helped work on their corrals while we were there. We had fun just hanging out and visiting. Peyton was a handsome little ring bearer in Jake's cousins wedding and he was so cute and did such a good job! We also managed to hit some parades and festivities for the holidays and spent a lot of the summer with just our little family. We also got some camping in, some of which was just "us" and some with friends. It was really busy around here, but made for a great summer! I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to spend it with. Here are a few pictures from our summer...