Insulation in the vaulted ceiling

Please note: If you have rooms with vaulted ceilings, they are not supposed to be 15-20 degrees different than the rest of the house. That's what we assumed for years. Come to find out, we had no insulation in our vaulted ceiling! We had to get some shingles and vents replaced on the roof because of windstorms and the roofer said we had no insulation in our vaulted ceiling! Just think about all the wasted money on heating and cooling bills! So, if you build a home make sure they put insulation where it is supposed to be.

They had to cut a hole in the outside wall of the west gable to install the insulation. Come to find out there was a hole cut out in the framework in the ceiling for a vent but it had been covered up by sheetrock.

There's the insulation! Yay!

And here's our nice new vent. Plus we were told by the insulators that outdoor vents like this are good for circulation too.

Yay! We're so glad we have insulation there now. We won't have to boil in the summer and freeze in the winter. We used those rooms as rarely as possible because of it. And Tamara hated to cook in the kitchen in those extreme temps.

Katie's Favorite Book

(Say cheese!)

We discovered a great book at the library that Katelynn just loves. She loves it so much we had to buy one for her. It's called Dimity Duck by Jane Yolen. It's a cute little story about a duck and her friend Frumity, a frog. Everytime we read it Katie gives the duck lots of kisses. There's a part in the story where Dimity and Frumity are playing hide and seek. Frumity hides underneath a lily pad and Dimity can't find him. The next page Frumity the frog leaps out and says: "Surprise!". This is Katelynn's favorite page. At this point she takes the book from me and just stares at the page for a while. Then at the end of the book Dimity goes to bed and Katelynn says: "Shhhhhhh", "Goodnight Dimity", and kisses her again. Great bed time story!

Knock knock joke

Picture this: (it's cute) Daddy and Katie are knocking on the kitchen table and Daddy says knock, knock; and then he says who's there? And Katie says: You!

Our train ride

Last Saturday we took a train ride with Chris' work. The company paid for all of the employees and their families. It was great! We had a great time! Highly recommend it. See our slide show.

4th of July

Cutie pies Katie and Livvie!

Us!

Tamara helping Katie with a popper.

Line up for poppers!

Chris helping Katie with a gun popper.

Katie found it easier to stomp on the snap-its rather than throw them.

Cool smoke!

Love those sparklers!

Watching the big fireworks!

Lunchtime at the park

We've been taking the kids to the park for the lunch program and here's where all the kids ended up on a hot day. They're in Melissa's van watching a movie, while all the mommies are sitting in the shade of a tree.

Here's another day - not as hot, but still too hot to play on the playground. So the kids had fun getting rides from Deedra and Tamara on Deedra's bicycle. Boy you gotta have muscles to tote that many kids around. Deedra handled it much better than I did. And I was only toting 2 at a time. Whew!