Packing and Upside down Pickup

It's been a crazy week.  Above is a picture of the Scratch Gravel Hills fire that was burning much of the week.  Luckily, not too close to us but 4 homes were lost and a lot of people were evacuated.  We are moving into the new house (yes, finally!) tomorrow so have been busy packing.  Jan was nice enough to come down for a few days and has been busy cleaning the new house in preparation for move-in.  We can't thank her enough!  Everything is done although we don't yet have cabinet doors/drawer fronts for our island.  After we installed the island cabinets we noticed the stain color didn't look quite right.  Turns out, it wasn't.  They stained them the wrong color, a reddish brown, when we had requested a chocolate-brown walnut stain.  We debated what to do but ultimately decided we would be annoyed if we didn't get it right.  However, we didn't want to wait 6 weeks for new cabinets (which would have delayed our move in).  So...a local cabinet company took them out, sanded them and restained the bases.  Those have been reinstalled so we could get the countertops installed.  They are getting us new doors/drawer fronts with the right stain color as well but those aren't ready yet.  So...we're close.  Counters are in, glass tile backsplash is in, lights are hung...but the cabinets will remain open for a few more days (hopefully only days).

CK also had a rough start to the week.  Tuesday he was trying to move the manlift onto a rented trailer and the weight shifted unexpectedly.  This lifted the back of the pickup (which the trailer was attached to) which disengaged the breaks.  That started the whole thing sliding downhill, the pickup then slid up the embankment  on the right side of the road and flipped over.  CK got to watch the whole thing while standing in the manlift (on the trailer) looking for a good place to jump (which, luckily, wasn't necessary).  Thankfully no one was injured but the pickup has been towed to a Missoula salvage yard and likely isn't coming back :(  Despite CK's hinting at his desire for a new pickup lately, even this was beyond what I thought he was capable of. ;)

So we are down a pickup for the time being but are making due.  The insurance adjuster was a bit skeptical when I told her "We flipped our pickup.  No, no one was driving it at the time."  The pictures above tell the story better than I can.  Of course, the backhoe has come in handier than we imagined.  Apparently it can be used to remove a trailer from a flipped over pickup truck (see below) and also to flip said pickup back over to save $$ on towing (my husband, always the resourceful one).

Reese's new bed and kitchen cabinets

Reese finally has a big girl bed and I think it's obvious by the pictures below that she likes it.  We decided to put the kids in the same room in the condo for the next month to get them used to what it will be like in the house when we move in (before the upstairs is done they'll be sharing a bedroom downstairs).

 Reese and Asher claiming their shared territory

 Our kitchen cabinets came in on Friday and CK has been busy installing them this weekend.  Here's the progress so far.  We chose our countertops this week (Caesarstone Nougat) and they're coming to template them on Thursday.  Getting closer...

We're going to need a bigger car

Since we've finally spilled the beans to friends, family and co-workers I figured it was time to officially announce on here that we are expecting Baby LaFond #3 in mid-November.  I thought you all might enjoy the following family portrait that Reese did in January, well before I got pregnant.  However, as highlighted in red below, Reese added our newest family member (or at least it looks that way now).  Apparently she knew something we didn't.  Or she wanted a puppy.  Either way.

Reese and Asher seem to understand that a new baby is coming.  Reese, of course, wants a sister and insists that Asher wants a brother.  Asher doesn't commit.  Asher likes to look in my belly button to see if he can see the baby.  I think 6-7 months is a long time for a toddler to wait so my guess is their interest will ebb and flow over the next few months.  At this point they're probably more excited about moving into the new house than anything else.  Last week, though, when we asked Reese what she's going to teach the new baby, she thought for awhile and then replied: "I'm going to teach the baby how to watch Nick, Jr."  Yes, parent of the year awards for both of us.