Pinterest Challenge: Owl make you feel better

I had no idea that when the Bower Power blog & Young House Love blog challenged bloggers to a Fall Pinterest Challenge that the project I chose would end up being so perfect.

 I had a couple of things pinned in my DIY folder, the first of which was a mailbox post to be used for our address. I was really planning on making this my project. Tom and I got all the supplies, then ran out of steam. So it got put back on the shelf. We will be doing this in the future though, so stay tuned!

DIY Pinterest

The second idea I had was to make a tooth fairy pillow for my son. I really liked the Monster Tooth Pillow idea, so I ran out and got fabric for it.

DIY Pinterest

Then I saw some owl patterns and thought, hmm, maybe an owl tooth pillow would be better - a bit more gender friendly since I have 2 girls and only 1 boy. So I searched around until I found a pattern I liked (happened to be for a card) and printed it out.

DIY Pinterest

I cut out the template and looked at my fabric. I found some other fabric laying around at home that also went with the fabric I found at Joann's. 

Next I cut out the fabric using the template. This was not easy, so I have no pictures. I don't know how you are supposed to really cut out fabric using a template, so i just held the fabric up to the template and cut. Instead of appliqueing the owl to a pillow, I decided to see what would happen if I made it into a little pillow itself. Once I got the fabric cut, I put it in a plastic bag so i wouldn't loose the pieces. The only part that I wasn't sure about were the ears - but once I got everything sewn together (once again, no pictures of the sewing process - too excited!) the ears turned out fine. 

Turned out pretty cute if you ask me. I filled the owl up with rice and then to cover up where I sewed the owl shut, I hot glued the wings over the seams. Maybe not perfect, but it's perfect for my sweet little girl who ended up getting sick this morning. So when she asked if she could have it...

I agreed!

The Cement Trucks are coming!

Today we are getting the footers poured for our house. I thought the kids would remember more about the building process if they wrote down what they saw, so I gave each kiddo a book to draw (or write) what they saw today. 

They had fun, although Nikki got bored quickly and started drawing whatever she wanted on several pages.

Tommy also followed Kyle and Stephen around, doing his very best to help them prepare the footers for cement.  Stephen would trim the roots, and Tommy would gather them up and toss them out, as well as gather up any rocks that had fallen down in the trimming process. 

He was very proud of his job. 

The french drain and electrical drain (for our geothermal) got laid next. 

The girls got bored and went back inside. Tommy got bored too, so he started climbing dirt piles and sliding down. 

He tried to entice me to join him, but I wasn't brave enough. While he was having fun playing on the dirt, the Building Inspector came to inspect the footers. She said we needed to have the electrical inspector tell us how to install the ground rod and he would probably need a picture of it, but that the footers looked good, so she passed the first inspection. Yay! I called up the inspector, and he told Clint how he wanted the ground rod installed. 

Good thing we called, because the inspector wanted the long end along the rebar instead of the short end, so we got it fixed and looking all right. 

Finally, the first cement truck pulled up. Tommy was thrilled!

He was jumping up and down with excitement. Unfortunately, there was a little extra excitement as the truck pulled up - one of the workers had stopped for a potty break when the cement truck rolled past and bumped the port-a-john. The bump must have been pretty hard because it knocked his shoulder out of joint for a little bit, but he was able to pop it back in place.  Thankfully, after all that drama, nothing else happened and he's ok. 

We called the girls out to watch the cement truck start pouring the footer. 

I love how my girls love each other!

They started pouring along the upper garage side of the house. 

The cement here is a thicker consistency so it doesn't spread as far against the forms. 

It was neat being close enough to see the cement come out, but boy, those trucks are scary!

Clint hopped in his front end loader, and they added cement to his bucket to fill in some of the areas that were more difficult for the cement truck to reach. 

Once all the steps had been filled with the thicker cement, Clint had the driver thin out the cement and they were ready to pour the real footers.

They still filled up the bucket for one end of the footer, but it went surprisingly fast.  

Buddy had fun hanging out and watching all the action too. 

In about a half hours time, they had poured our master closet footer and part of the front of the house. 

 

We had to leave to finish painting our old house, so we didn't get to finish watching them pouring the cement.  It was a lot of fun seeing them start it though. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. 

Rebar is in the house!

The footers have been dug!

I went with my boys out early in the morning to check them out, since it was way to late and dark when we got home last night. 

I think our floor plan looks a little bit like a mashed up Texas - hopefully once it's built it won't feel as large as Texas! :)

 

Later in the day, Clint and Kyle came and finished digging the footers for the garage. 

Once the footer was finished, They began working on laying down the rebar and setting up forms for the steps in the footer. 

Tomorrow they are pouring concrete. Can't wait!

Chalky Blueprints and a Happy Birthday

Clint and Kyle finished digging out the basement Monday, but I was too busy to be able to stop by and see any of the work until Tuesday. They put down the chalk lines for where the wall will be poured. I made sure to run out early in the morning to get some great pictures with the sunrise. We're going to have an awesome view someday!

It was fun walking around in the early morning. I could hear the nearby cows mooing excitedly for their breakfast. They sounded really close, even though they aren't close at all. One of the perks of living on the hill with no trees - you can even hear whispers! Be careful what you say around here! :)

We talked with Builder Mike about more details of the house - like when the footers would be dug (Thursday if no rain - but there is rain in the forecast). We also got to talking about the front porch being poured concrete, and Clint suggested we might want to extend our basement underneath the concrete porch to create a storm shelter of sorts. 

In looking further into that idea, we realized it wouldn't really be much more concrete and would give us a shelter on the chance we ever get hit by another horrible tornado again. So we agreed to that change in plans. 

Tuesday also happened to be Tommy's 7th birthday. Can't believe how fast he is growing up!

We had a play date with his friends Evan and Natalie to celebrate. 

The girls had fun playing dress-up while the boys played legos. 

Tommy is really into Mario, so we had Mario-themed mini cupcakes

and then opened the present from his friends. 

We had Tommy's official celebration when Daddy got home Tuesday evening. 

Tommy couldn't wait to play with the Mario figure on top of the cake. 

Nikki started getting a fever, so we quickly moved onto presents so she could enjoy them too. 

Nikki got Tommy racing Mario and Luigi cars.

He had a Luigi car earlier this summer, but it broke, so he was SUPER excited to get another one PLUS a Mario car as well. 

Becky couldn't wait for Tommy to open the present she had gotten for him. 

Yoshi! She kept asking me all day long when it would be time for Tommy to open her present to him. I think she may have been wanting to play with it too? :)

Tommy also got a game for his DS and some Legos from his Grammie and Grandpa. 

Tommy ended his birthday day of fun watching Planet 51 with Daddy and Becky.  

Nikki and I rushed out the door after presents so I could take her to PM pediatrics and make certain her fever wasn't related to her burned toes on Saturday Night. Thankfully it's just a cold - but its good to make certain!

Hope the rain stays away so we can get some footers in this week! :)