Eagle Ridge

Now that the weather is cooling down a bit we have been outside a lot - taking lots of walks. We were walking down our street and I was watching the girls run and chase the dogs, and I was thinking how much I love my new neighborhood. There is nothing around (except a few neighbors and deer). The girls and the dogs can just run with nothing to worry about. I just love it. So I decided to take the camera on one of our walks to show you our neighborhood.

Red Shoulder Lane - our street. Sierra is way down there chasing Daisy, while Zoe and Maddie are way behind. Everyone was having so much fun.

Our Neighbors. All three of them. Our house is the red one on the end. The tan house, the one closest in the picture is vacant. I believe it has been sold though. So we actually only have two neighbors. Which are both very nice.

Our Neighborhood. Acres and acres of empty lots. This will be a fun before picture before more houses are built.

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While I was at work today, Jake and the girls went on a ride to find deer. Just down the hill from us they came across a herd of about 40. Here are a few pictures of the deer.

Daddy Date

Jake and Sierra went on a day date last Saturday. Jake had been dying to take Sierra fishing, so off they went. They left in the morning, and went fishing for a while - didn't catch anything. Then they went out to lunch and made their way to the mall to get a hair cut from Megan. I think they both had a fun time. A nice change of pace. :)

Heat is Overrated

Look what we ordered! A semi load of wood! This picture does not do it justice. It is a TON of wood. This is roughly around 15 cords - we are thinking that we will go through about 2-3 cords a winter (although I am thinking more like 2). So, this wood will last us a LONG time- which is the whole point. We will be nice and toasty warm for the next 6-7 years. :) Good thing Jake got himself a new-to-him chainsaw. Jake and the chainsaw have a lot of work ahead of them!

Palasade Falls

We went on a nice little hike to a waterfall the other day. It was a short hike, and paved the whole way, but the girls loved it. Sierra was sure to let us know that there weren't any bears around. And both of the girls kept their eyes out for wild raspberries. We all had a very good time.

My Handy Hubby

You might have been asking yourself - "I wonder what Jake has been up to this summer?"- then this is the post for you. I have finally taken pictures of all of his projects and loaded them up ready to blog.

Jake made this cute little birdhouse as a gift for someone, but I sort of adopted it and have in on display in my house. I suppose Jake can have it back when he is ready to send it off.

I LOVE my new cabinets! We have really been needing cabinets in our laundry room. So we went out to Lowes and bought some ugly unfinished oak cabinets and a little paint. We came home and Jake went to work painting and sanding to make these beautiful antique looking cabinets. I really am in love with these cabinets.

This piece of work is one of our newest additions in our home. Our spare room is our computer/stamping room. We had a huge computer desk taking up one side of the room, and another stamping desk taking up the other side. It was sort of a waste of space. Jake has been reading up on making small spaces feel bigger and came up with this... A built in computer/stamping desk all in one. You can see the shelves are for my stamping supplies and the desk is for the computer. When I am ready to do some stamping, I just move the keyboard over and go to work. I really like the "L" shape while I am stamping. I have a lot more room than my old desk. It really opens up the room more and looks so snazy too. We are eventually going to put a bed in there and make it a guest room. Love it! Our brand new fence! Here is a picture of Jake digging holes the old school way - post hole digger. Jake gets all the credit on this one for sure. He dug and dug and dug, then pounded dirt and got all the posts in. Then after a few hours of work on Saturday and Sunday he had all the rails put up and ta-da!!! A new fence!

LOVE IT!!! It is actually a pretty big fenced in back yard. But I just took a picture of a small section of the fence. It turned out so nice. Now if it would just keep the deer out. Yeah right!

The Mantle. Jake just put this baby up yesterday. This is a bad picture.. sorry. Maybe I should have taken a close up so you can see the detail in the wood. Rough cut, circle sawn wood. Jake gave it a little beating, applied a little bit of the concauction, a little stain... a bit of sanding and we have a mantle. It really completes the little stove corner. The wood is such a nice dark color and looks right at home in our home.

The red bench. Jake was asked to make two benches to display in a Parade of Homes home that they just built. This one is not a typical Jake style, but it turned out so nice. It is such a cute bench. Perfect for an entry way.

The wood bench. We are currently using this one in our mud room. We have our shoes lined up on the bottom shelf. It is the perfect size for sitting down and taking off your shoes.

Here is a close up of the top. Very nice!

Well now you know what Jake has been up to this summer. He is getting quite good at finishing all the projects he has started. Lucky for me there is a long 'winter' list. I can't wait to have more goodies around the house.