A walk in the woods

It was beautiful out yesterday so Benners and I took advantage of it. We walked through the woods and spent several hours playing with sticks, puddles, rocks, rakes, leaves, and all that good stuff. He helped me rake up the banks and do some clean-up too.

The Taj Mahal Barn

Here it is, in all it's glory. :)

Misc photos

He is silly, I'll give him that! A few recent photos. In the first photo, B is wearing my fleece "turtle neck" on his head (guess who gave him that idea?). The bottom photo is taken in the parking lot at Target. B loved the big red cement "balls" and had to hug every one of them and try to pick them up.

Spring??!!

Benjamin has discovered puddles! He loves his boots and walking through the water to splash-- just ask Nana! She had to change his pants a couple of times today because he wouldn't stay dry. It finally warmed up enough to enjoy quite a bit of time outside today, so I wonder if Spring weather is actually on the way? It'll be nice to see more of the snow disappear!

Barn Update

This is a view from the back of the barn-- the open door is Jay's workshop. The shingles have been going up & are looking really nice!Matt & crew on the staging, working on fitting the shingles in:

This view is looking straight on at Jay's workshop. Our house & the lake are to the right...

Beautiful Barn

Here's the latest- the roof is done, the windows and trim just went up-- and this is just the outside!

Here we are in the upstairs room-- a really beautiful space. A view out the window facing the lake (and our houses):

The bottom floor is just as wonderful, with high ceilings and lots of space! We'll be able to fit both cars in the garage, with lots of room to spare. And the workshop/bike shop is really great space too. I'm excited that Jay will finally have a place to work and store all of his tools! And Phil can finally get his garage space back. :)

Helping in the kitchen

Benners recently got a step stool so he can be up at our height & he LOVES to help out in the kitchen- especially when Dada's making coffee. They have a morning ritual of grinding the beans (there's a 'coffee dance' that happens in our kitchen most mornings) and smelling the freshly ground coffee. He also likes to stir at the counter and play in the water at the sink. I've also noticed he loves to play with the mop, broom, and vacuum cleaner...-- wonder if this is indicative of his future cleaning skills??? I hope so! :)

At the coffee counter...

This is Ben's bear rug- he likes to wrestle & snuggle with it. He's recently taken to lying on it when it's on the floor & just chilling out, using the bear's head as a pillow.

What a boy loves to do...

This might be one of those photos that Benners will be upset about when he's 16, but I couldn't resist. He got a new potty and loves to sit on it... Just getting him ready. :)

His favorite position for watching "his shows". He cuddles up on the couch with his snack and drink of water-- it's one of his favorite things to do (especially on days where it's too cold to go outside and play!).
We did go shopping today, for a change of pace. I took him to the pet store too. He was very interested in the rats, ferrets, turtles and fish. The birds however, caught his attention more than anything else and he just stood to watch them flit around in their cages. A fun morning!

Snow, snow, and more snow

Ben loves to take 'his' stick and poke the snow and ice in the driveway. And there's lots of snow for him to play with, that's for sure. We got at least another foot yesterday and it snowed all day so we just got out late in the afternoon for a sled ride down the driveway.

His buggy doesn't go very easily in the snow, but he loves to sit in it at open & close the doors. Jay and I push him around to do some four-wheeling in the driveway...

Ben loves the big toys. If he sees the 4-wheeler, he HAS to sit on it. And if the key is in the 'on' position, he knows just which button to push to turn it on! It's scary how much they pick up at such a young age (and so quickly!).
Things in the Jewett household are going well. Jay is working 2-3 shifts at CMMC each week and a couple of shifts at the ambulance each month. He is headed up to Sugarloaf for an overnight tonight and will ski with Will and Tan tomorrow, who are up there for vacation.
Ben is a happy little guy for the most part. I think he's showing us some signs of just what the "Terrible Twos" are going to look like, so we're holding our breaths for that. He does not like to be re-directed from things he thinks he really wants, but he's also really good at finding things to entertain himself with. He's able to identify 10-15 body parts, can follow pretty simple two-step directions, and LOVES animals. The Dwyers gave him some animal magnets for Christmas and he just loves to rearrange them and take them from door to washing machine to a parent (in hopes of hearing the noise that particular animal makes)... Lots of fun.
I've started working as an OT on my temporary license, and hope to pass the exam the very first time (at the end of the month). I'm really enjoying the job and am there 2-3 days/week.
I think everyone around here is getting cabin fever and ready for Spring (is it really just a few weeks away?). I'm not sure we have any place to put more snow, should it fall...

A Year Ago

I thought it might be fun to look back a year and post a couple of photos of Benners back then. Hard to believe how much he's changed! Enjoy. :)

Comments

I've disabled the "comment" option on the blog, just in case anyone is looking for it. We'd started getting some random comments from people we don't know, and people we do know aren't leaving comments (some are emailing us directly instead, which is great!), so it seemed the best way to go. We still love to hear from everyone & keep track of who is keeping track of us! :) Hope y'all enjoy keeping tabs on the Jewetts. ~Katie

Chillin' in the Florida sun...

Gotta love the scrunched face- he was really concentrating on his project.

Ben and Grammie loved to play on the beach together.

At first I thought this was his "monkey" sign (one of his favorites), but I'm not so sure on more close inspection...

After a long morning at the beach and the pool, Benners gets a lift home in his wagon... and falls asleep!
We had a nice visit with Grammie and Grampie Phil in Kissimmee. It was a brief trip, just a few days, but it was so nice to get some sunshine and warmer weather. B did great on both flights and was a real trooper through the whole trip. We spent the whole time playing in the sand on the beach, swimming in the pool, playing in the driveway, and chasing Grammie's kitties!

Timber Frame finished

In the COLD

Okay with the snow already. Enough. Seriously. Good thing we like to bundle up and go outside (most of the time). Today is an exception- the wind chill makes it pretty miserable out there... it could easily be below zero. We don't have a thermometer anywhere, which is probably a good thing. The wind whipped snow and ice at our bedroom windows through the night, but amazingly we didn't lose power. And amazingly Ben slept through it (until 6:20am even!!! Woo-hoo!). He's had a few nights of not-so-good sleep, so it was nice that he managed to pull a full night, and a late morning even (for him)...

More barn raising

Day #3 of our barn going up & they're making some amazing progress already. It's really quite beautiful, and a lot of fun to watch it go up. We've had snow the past 2 days, after Matt & crew missed 2 days prior due to snow and sleet and general icky weather... They are troopers! The bottom of the structure will have a 2-car garage in the main part of the building, and a 12' X 26' workshop for Jay. We'll also have a second floor that will have a really amazing view over our tiny house and at the lake. It's going to be such an amazing structure, I have a feeling we'll want to live in the garage! :)

All Done!!!

I'm all done with my requirements for my degree as of today! I finished up my final fieldwork hours today (in a snowstorm with no power) and came home feeling like a different person. The plan is to get all my paperwork in for my Maine temp license and go back to work at the same place starting at the end of the month. I'll have to take my National Board Exam, which I imagine will happen in April. I'm not looking forward to the exam, but hope to start up a schedule of studying so I can be prepared. Wish me luck!!!
~Katie

Barn Raising Update

Matt (Morrill) and crew from Grand View Log & Timber Frames arrived yesterday with equipment and started the barn raising! Ben was a big help- hammering away at pegs and sitting in the corner, supervising the progress. It's pretty exciting to finally see it start to go up, and it's already looking like it'll be a beautiful building.

Jay's DR trip

There are lots of pictures from Jay's trip, and I imagine we'll add more, but here are 3 that seem to do a good job depicting Jay's journey in the DR. I'll have Jay write a post describing his adventure, but I wanted to get a few pictures up in the meantime. The site that Jay (called "Doctor Jay" during his time there) and the Yestermorrow group worked at was very remote and perched between a butcher shop and wilderness. They camped on the beach, had electricity from solar panels and running water from a cistern. The projects they produced were made using fabric and cement! I'll let Jay explain more. :)

Ben & Cat

Ben loves to pick up Chi- if only she were 15 years younger, she might appreciate the playmate too! She doesn't look pleased in this picture, but she does well to put up with it while I snap a photo.
Jay arrives home tomorrow night, which we're all looking forward to. It's been quite a journey these past 20 days, but we made it!

Winter in Maine

We've had a couple of nice days and Ben still loves to go outside and walk around in the driveway. He's discovered sticks and loves to poke them into the snow banks.
We're missing Daddy, but he seems to be doing well (busy!) and we're just 8 days away from having him home again... Grammie and Grampy Phil Simpson have arrived safely in Florida. We're happy that they're in warmer weather, but we miss them here too!

Bright and early!

Benjamin has enjoyed getting up around 5am the past few weeks, and this morning he decided 4:15 was a good time to start playing and singing in his crib. I decided to leave him be for a while, but by 4:45 he was ready for some company. YAWN! Needless to say, I napped when he did today and I'm hoping for a later awake time tomorrow. This photo was taken around 6am today--- he has a smile on his face! :) Such a boy. He's lucky he's so darn cute. So's his Dada.

... and he's off...

Jay is headed to the Dominican Republic for a couple of weeks. Here he is packing! (Yes, Ben IS watching TV in the background, but he can't help it- Jay bought him 'The Jungle Book' just before he left and he can't keep his eyes off it!) Jay will have a wonderful time--- and he'll be in WARM weather. Yay, Jay!