Flake Fun

 The weather is cold...period.  We poured the garage footers on the holiday.  We had picked that day because the temps seemed high enough.  The temp steadily dropped until the day we poured, the low was 18.  So we had to cover the whole thing with blankets.  It looks good though.  We are hoping to pour the stem walls next week if we can get everything ready. 

Other than that,  we have hunkered down and tried to stay warm. 

I did get antsy and we started a few seeds in the greenhouse.  Mostly pumpkins since the kids saved all of the seeds from their jack-o-lanterns so we have 100+!   They are delighted to see their little sprouts.

The other day James came up to me and said, "Can I take something apart?"  So we went to the thrift store and he has been unscrewing things all day.  He loves to tinker. 

We also did a beef over the weekend so we are stocked in the beef department.  The kids were troopers and packaged 90% of the hamburger meat. 

Hope that everyone is having a great week!  Love you all. 

Flake Fun

 We survived the holidays and had quite a bit of fun.  This year we ventured out to the live nativity and it was great.  There were some goats and a donkey and bonfires to sit by while you watched the performance.  It might become a tradition.  

We spent Christmas in Scottsdale swimming and having fun.  Both brothers-in-law had to work the day before and the day after Christmas so we were accommodating them. 

The "homemade" tree with popcorn and paper chain decorations.

We went to the Mesa temple lights.  Yes, the kids are wearing shorts.

The week before Christmas we took the kids to Out of Africa, an outdoor wildlife park.  I thought it would be like a zoo but I was wrong.  We went on a safari and fed a giraffe when he poked his head through the bus windows.  We watched a tiger play with his trainers. We spent 5 minutes petting a 17 foot python. We listened to the lions talking back and forth.  It was incredible. 

Scott had most of last week off so we rented a huge backhoe and tackled the culvert and garage footers.  Scott worked from sun up to sun down and got some amazing things done.  

What we started with

After 4 hours of hauling boulders

Pushing the boulders deep into the mud

Where we are now

The garage footers

This corner had to be filled in to be level so we can attach the garage to the house

Even though it was only about 40 degrees, steam was coming off of Scott's back!  It looked like he was on fire. 

All done and almost ready to pour

Hope that you all have a good week and a great start to the new year.