~Master Loggers~

12 rows of logs!!

Dave and John

Dave and his friend, John, had a long but very productive weekend at Wildwood!!! They worked their butts off and put 9 rows of logs up (plus did a bunch of field cuts) - AWESOME! It is really starting to look like a cabin now! Great job, guys!

~Blog name~

So, what's w/ the blog name, you may wonder?! Well, I had heard the phrase in a PINK song - I love PINK!!! But naming the blog the same came about from a conversation I had w/ Brenna. We were talking about her negative attitude that she can have at times...yes, we all know she gets this from me!! Yes, yes, I know this! I tend to look at the negative BEFORE I look at the positive and I have passed this on to my lovely daughter. Anyway, I picked her up from a playdate a few weeks ago and asked her how it went and she immediately went into the negative events of her day! I told her that there had to be some positive things that happened and that I would like to hear about those things. So, I went on to tell her that even when things aren't going great there is a ray of light somewhere in the situation and that we just have to look for that ray of light (the good stuff) even if it's just a tiny, little crack of sunlight - it may be the smallest, hard-to-notice, good thing but it is there. So, I decided to call the blog "Cracks of Sunlight"! And that's that!

~Progress~

1st floor "deck"

Dave & Dan working

Luc helps

3 rows of logs!

We were at Wildwood all weekend working in the house and we have 3 rows of logs up!! My sister's boyfriend, Dan, helped Dave on Sat. with the 1st row of logs. My sister and I took the kids to the beach and the kids had a great time as always.

On Sunday my dad helped Dave w/ the 2nd row of logs. The girls get pretty bored at the lot so I took them to the Wildwood swimming pool and then to the park while Dave and Dad worked on the cabin. Later we all had lunch together and then at 2pm Dad took the girls home to Plainfield while I stayed to help Dave w/ the 3rd row of logs. I left at 5:30pm to head home to the girls and Dave stayed a while longer to work and didn't get home until 9pm. Poor guy! It was a long weekend but everything went great. Dave can't wait to get back to work on the cabin next weekend!

~Morten Arboretum~

We met w/ the social worker on Thursday and it went great! The girls entertained as always! The social worker will complete the report for the re-adoption and that's it. Now we just wait for the new birth certificate to arrive.

After meeting w/ the social worker we had lunch at our favorite japanese restaurant - Nagano!! The girls love sushi!! After lunch we went to The Morten Arboretum and the girls had a great time! I've posted some pictures.

This weekend we'll be at Wildwood and Dave is hoping to get some logs up. I'll post pictures after the weekend.

~Re-Adoption~

We have finally started the process of re-adopting Aubree. We had our first court date last week and we meet w/ the social worker on Thursday. Re-adopting isn't mandatory in Illinois after an international adoption but if we don't do it she will never have an American birth certificate. Right now, all she has is her small, green Ukrainian birth certificate w/ a faded translation. Once the re-adoption is final she will receive a birth certificate issued by the State of Illinois listing Dave and I as her parents. We should receive her new birth certificate by X-mas!

Aubree was served with a summons by the Sheriff and then in court we were all sworn in and the judge asked the girls a few questions. We, also, went to the Sears Tower while we were downtown and we took a couple taxi rides so the girls had a fun day!

~Fun Weekend~

The girls went to a birthday party on Sat. - they had a blast! Live animals were brought in - snakes, ducks, rabbits, a toad, a tortoise, a salamander, a bird and an alligator. Brenna volunteered to hold an albino python around her neck - she loved it....I didn't! Aubree was happy holding the baby bunnies. There was, also, an inflatable water slide at the party so they had great fun on that, too!

Dave had a nice Father's Day - the girls made cards for him and we bought him a few gifts. My dad and sister came over for a cookout and now we are getting ready to watch a movie w/ the girls. We love lazy Sundays at home!

~Pictures~

This is our lot!

Girls digging for gold!:)

Stamped crawlspace

Rocks for driveway

Layer one of driveway

Log truck

Lumber truck

Our "house" on the lot

Our "house" tarped on the lot

I've finally downloaded pictures of our lot - things are really moving along! The log home package was delivered on two trucks this weekend so Dave was very busy! Once the wood was off the truck he had to sort out all the logs and wood and then cover it all with tarps to protect it. The doors and windows, also, came on the trucks so we took them to a storage unit to keep them out of the elements until we are ready for them. Our friend, Bob, helped Dave out on Sat. so it was good that Dave had help!

The carpenter is starting the first floor deck on Monday and he should be done by the end of the week so Dave will be able to start putting up the first floor logs this weekend!

I'll post more pictures soon!

~Can we build it?~

We've started construction on our log cabin at Lake Wildwood! I'll be posting pictures as we go along. We are super excited about it! I'm worried about Dave and all that he is taking on with working full time and building the cabin but if anyone can do it he can!

Lake Wildwood is a private, gated community w/ two lakes. One lake is 220 acres offering two beaches w/ playgrounds, a marina, boating, swimming, and fishing. The other lake is an 18 acre fishing lake. Lake Wildwood, also, has a lodge and a clubhouse w/ a pool, tennis and basketball courts, and a playground.

The girls love it there and we look forward to many great years at Lake Wildwood!