What Is This Man Cave Thing?!

So apparently there has been a request to have a post that talks about nothing but B's Man Cave.  I can't imagine why anyone would be so interested in the thing, but alas, I will appease those who follow and read the blog with a post dedicated to nothing but B's man cave.  I have to be honest with you, since I am writing the post and not B, it's going to be short and sweet!

Although there have been posts about the man cave, I think that they have been sandwiched in with the house, so I am going to repost some of the pictures again.

Prepping the area for the future man cave!

The sides are going up!

Roof trusses and windows going in!

The siding going up.

Garage door installed!  Yea!

After living in the house for a month or so, we finally were able to get concrete poured in the shop.  It was a multiple day affair in getting the concrete poured since there was so much space to cover and a rationing at the concrete plant.  After the concrete set long enough, we finally moved everything from the house garage out to the shop.  So happy to have my car living in the garage!

Here are some pics of a very messy inside of B's shop.  He's amazing in trying to balance setting up his shop how he wants and so he can go back out and start working on his cars, and my never ending "honey-do" list.  This winter I will be great for him.  This winter the house will be good and he can't do any landscaping, so this winter we will have to do some update shots on his man cave!

B also put up some really cool lights over the two windows that face the house.  Our future plans are to have a little patio out between the windows as a nice place to sit and watch the kids as they play on the playground.  Here are some shots of the lights.

I have said this before, and I am going to say it again.  I am so happy that B and I were able to make this shop work so early in the process.  This was one of the main reasons why we moved to acreage, and I would have been so sad for B if we wouldn't have been able to do this so soon.  It has turned out amazing and even I like it! 

Last Day of School

After reading a ton of blogs, perusing Pinterest, and wanting to capture memories for myself and my kids, I have decided that I want to make sure that I get good pictures of the kids on their first and last days of school.

I want to find something at this house that I can use as my first and last day of school marker.  Considering we have been in the new house for all of 3 weeks and the end of school is upon us, the wall in our front porch became the only pretty place to take the kids last day of school picture.  So, I think this spot in the front porch and a spot out in front of or near a tree will be the places I get these memorable shots.

I can't believe that H is at the end of her first year in grade school.  Where did the time go?  How is it that she is old enough to be done with Kindergarten and making her way into 1st grade?!  She really flourished in school.  She has such an excitement to learn and grow, it amazes me. Her teacher said that she did an amazing job this year and truly grew as a little girl.  I love to see her come home and tell me about all the new exercises she learned to help her read.  It's a true joy to see the wheels turning in her head as she grows more confident in herself.

C has grown up significantly faster than his sister did.  He is almost 4.  He is only going to be at LL for two years instead of the 3 like his sister and I just don't think that I am ready to accept that my baby boy, my little man, my last child is one step closer to being in grade school.  The teachers at LL love him, and although they say they aren't supposed to have a favorite, C is every one's favorite.  He is such a charmer and such a well mannered little boy.  Not to mention when he smiles, that dimple shows and his blue eyes shine, how can you not be smitten with that?!

So, the first year of grade school and preschool have come to a close.  This last year was stock full of change for my little family.  There were quite a few bumps along this road, but I am so thankful for each and every one of them.

1st Year Down

C started at Little Lights last spring, right before summer.  This was his first full year of summer at Little Lights and then Preschool.  He did such an amazing job.  I am pretty sure he is a favorite at the school.  He is such a well mannered little boy, and how can you resist those blue eyes and dimple?!  I can't!

His end of year program and picnic was on May 22nd.  B and I got there and got front row seats!  A first for us in the 4 years that we have been going there!  Hey, silly I know, but I am proud of us for that - people get ruthless when it comes to the front row seats!

Here are some shots from his program.  He is such a character!

Nope, I have NO IDEA what he is giggling at.

 You know in this picture to the right that he is thinking how awesome that candlestick would be as a laser or sword!  Boys....

 Nope, don't know why or what would possess him to lift up his shirt, again...BOYS!

1st Night

What an amazing 1st night.  The kids slept great, B and I were so exhausted, but so thrilled at the same time.  We couldn't stop walking around the house looking at everything knowing that it was our house now, forever!

 The kids' rooms were so bare!  They were so happy to be in their new house though!

 

Moving Day

The day has finally arrived!  Over the last week or so, B and I have been cleaning, repacking, looking in every nook and cranny at my parents house to gather up our belongings.  Moving out was a couple week process that we would do after work and on the weekends, moving in was going to be a one, maybe two day shot where we just go all out and get it done.

Saturday morning, April 27th B and my dad left to go get the 28 ft Budget Rental truck while I left with Chris (and some donuts!) to go get Ryan.  We then headed over to the storage unit to wait for reinforcements!  We had a 10 ft by 20 ft storage unit.  This unit was also 14 ft tall in the back, and trust you me, B and I had that thing bursting at the seams!  He and my dad had stuff roped to the ceiling beams to hold it in place!

We are so appreciative of our family and friends who came out and helped us move in.  We seriously couldn't have done it without them.

Here's some pictures from the day!  YEA!!!  MOVING DAY!!!

Gathering up stuff at the parental units house!

 Our storage unit.  

 Yep, that is yellow rope that is attached to the beam that is preventing the couch from falling.

My brothers so enthused to help move so early on a Saturday!

(they are laying down in the truck bed)

My dad and Husband made fun of me for renting the biggest truck they had...I had the last laugh - we filled it completely and only had to make 1 trip!

Don't we look so excited!?

The almost empty storage unit....

Nice thing about having acreage with no landscaping yet?  You can drive the beast around to the back of the house where the double french doors are waiting!  So much easier this way!!!

Our friend help ran out with the storage unit, but we still had all of the stuff at my parents house to get over to the new house.  We wanted to take advantage of having the Budget Rental truck so we decided to keep pushing through and to get all the stuff from my parents house over to the new house on the same day.

Even though we had almost all of our belongings in storage, we still had a TON of stuff at my parents!  Ugh, it just kept coming!

We got almost everything over to the new house on Saturday.  There were still a lot of odds and ends that needed to be picked up from people's houses across the state, but we were so happy to just push through and get everything to the house that day.  Thanks to everyone who helped!