Long time, no write!

My mom pointed out to me this weekend that I hadn't updated my blog in awhile. I guess, looking that it was around 4th of July, it has been awhile! I had just finally downloaded some pictures off my camera from July until now!

What have we been up too...well, I'll start with the kids.

Emily completed swim lessons in September. She can swim on her own so I'm happy with the result. She will go under by herself, but only occassionally.

Here is Emily posing at her last swim lesson and her going under to retrieve items off the bottom of the pool.

We drive by the swim lessons on the way to "school" and we wave and Emily keeps saying, "I miss you pool" Ok, whatever. Pool is closed now!

We did get in a trip to the NC Zoo at the end of Sept. that was fun. Noah wasn't as excited about the animals as we thought he would be, but it was a good trip and not too crowded. It was a little damp and drizzly, but cool so all in all, nice.

Emily took a weekend trip by herself the first weekend in Oct. to visit Grammy and Grandad. Daddy did great and Mommy did OK, and Emily loved it and did very well according to Grammy and Grandad.

Emily is now playing Soccer (She is #5). She is one of 4 girls on a co-ed team and has decided after 2 games that she doesn't like it. Go figure. She just wants to run and kick the ball and when the other people take it, she says, they won't give me the ball. Ummm, yeah, that's the game - go get it!

Noah likes Emily playing soccer because there is a playground there with a couple of slides that he loves going down and he runs around so we can chase him instead of watching Emily.

These were taken on 9-10 after Emily's first soccer game - at the carwash!

So, the other big news, in case you haven't heard is that we sold our house! YIPPEE! The down side is that we are in a 2 bedroom apartment with us, 2 kids, and 2 dogs! There is a park right next door so that helps and we stay busy (other than going to the carwash)...for example:

Going to visit Daddy's work where they have tractors!

And a pond for Daddy and Emily to go fishing...

(this one's for you Uncle Frank) Emily's first fish - (we did throw all of them back, even the one that died while Mike was trying to get the hook out of it!)

Noah and I and the dogs did a lot of walking around and throwing/catching sticks while Mike and Emily were fishing.

So, since we sold our house we decided to build. Here is our lot:

We finally got all the permits in place and they actually cleared it this weekend (pictures are on my phone and I haven't downloaded yet) and they were supposed to begin the foundation work yesterday - we didn't make it out to the lot.

We spend a lot of time over there letting the dogs run - the lot is 2.33 acres. Mike's current project and stay busy and get out of the apartment is cutting down some of the trees that we didn't pay extra to have cut down. We will save some of the wood for the fire pit he is going to have built.

We are no on the clock - 6 months to build! Let the game begin!

That's it for now. I'll try to be better about updating.

Take care and God Bless,

Gretchen, Mike, Emily, Noah, Nikki, and Elsie