Liam "Where the peanut"

Yesterday after picking up Liam from preschool, he came home and wanted a snack. He took his snack of peanuts and raisins to the living room and sat of the floor to play . Lori Wegner, from the POG team, was sitting in the living room with him and I was in our bedroom putting things away. Pretty soon I heard Lori say "I think Liam put a peanut up his nose." I came into the room and Liam said with his hands in the air "where the peanut" and then he pointed to his nose.

I found a flash light and looked up his nose and found the peanut. It took a bit to find it because it was really high. Lori and I were trying to show Liam how to sneeze but he couldn't understand what we wanted, he would just throw his head forward like a sneeze. I sent Brian a text and told him about Liam and he came home shortly after that. Before Brian arrived, I tried getting the peanut out with tweezers but the snot around it was making it too slippery. When daddy arrived he also tried the tweezer but that was not going to work.

Only Brian would think of this. He taped a drinking straw to the end of our vacuum hose to suck out the peanut. It was a bit different but it sure did work. And of course I had to take a video of it. Hope you enjoy the video of the Liam and the Peanut.

{Disclaimer: Do not try this at home. Serious injury could occur to the nasal and sinus cavity if not done under the proper supervision of a Master Building in South Africa. If your child gets a peanut stuck in their nose please contact your local doctor and don't take our advice. But it did work and we didn't have any medical bills afterwards.}

Hosting Point of Grace Team

On Sunday Brian picked up a group of 6 from Point of Grace. All the team members are returning for their second, third or even the fourth time. So, its kinda like welcoming family back.

Because we don't have guest housing built yet we are hosting 2 two members in our home, 2 at the O'Tools house and 2 at some friend's house. Amber and I make lunch and deliver it to the property and everyone gather's at our home for supper, team devos and games in the evening.

The team arrived in Welkom Sunday night around 10pm and we had them working by 10AM Monday. By lunch time on Monday the team had already moved 280 cement blocks, that each weigh 32 pounds, to the property. After lunch, they jumped right into learning how to lay the blocks. By the end of the day, they had walls window high all the way around and the walls without windows were a bit higher.

This morning the team visited Dunamis Christian School and received a nice tour and then gave out backpacks and school supplies to children who needed them. The kindergarten and preschool classes sang songs and recited scripture for us. It was a wonderful morning and we were blessed by everything.

The rest of the day was spent building the house--yeah. The walls are almost roof high. You can clearly see the outline of all windows and doorways. The progress being made is awesome, encouraging, and exciting. Everything is now becoming a true reality. Trusses have been delivered for the roof and windows are ready to be picked up.

Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow and over the next two weeks.

Family Time!

Last weekend we took a little road trip and left Welkom for 2 days.

I read on-line that Fouriesburg, located in Eastern Free State, about 3 hrs from us was having a Spring Fair. I am always up for getting away and trying to find something fun to do. According to the information on their website it looked like it should be fun. The O'Tools and we left Saturday morning around 8AM. We stopped in Bethlehem and checked into our guest house and the O'Tools went on to check into their place located near Ficksburg.

We ended up getting to the Spring Fair before them and checked it out. My expectations are always too high. In typical, South African style, the advertisement was the best part of the event. Lets see if I can list all the things happening. There was a face painting tent, small craft tent, used book sale, homemade jams to buy and a snow cone tent {by far that was the highlight}. There was a Cherry farm located 20km away that was offering tractor ride tours of the farm. We met the O'Tools there and found out it cost R50 per person {or $6.10} and they wouldn't give the tour until there was a big enough group to go. So we just sat on the deck and enjoyed a chocolate milk shake. After that we drove into Ficksburg to check out that little town and found nothing of interest, so we stopped at a small grocery store and bought lunch to braii at the place where the O'Tools were staying.

The kids had a great afternoon of swimming and playing. Us adults enjoyed our time relaxation and the beautiful scenery. The Easter Free State is so much prettier then Welkom. They have beautiful mountains, lots of fruit trees, and overall just a pleasant atmosphere.

Sunday morning we went to Wimpy's for a yummy breakfast. Lindie was having eye problems, I think she might have seasonal allergies. But she was still very happy, just doesn't look the best.

After breakfast we drove through Golden Gate National Park, something we haven't done before and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The kids slept through most of it, so that was great.

We also found some nice camping sites that we might have to try out as a family get away or team outing. Brian wants to hike some of these mountains sometime soon.

We had a very nice weekend away and it was our way of celebrating Labor Day.

Ah Kids

I noticed its been a while since I'v posted pictures of Liam and Lindie. Well, Liam often makes it into the construction pictures. Lindie doesn't get in the pictures because she gets left in the car while I deliver lunch and take video of the progress...poor little girl.

Lindie is growing leaps and bounds, she is just so cute. For a while she has been pulling herself up and walking around the furniture. She loves letting go to balance for a few seconds and then falling down on her bum. She thinks this is great fun. She especially loves doing it in her bed because she likes the bounce. She is learning to sign 'Thank You', 'Please' & 'More'. If she forgets how to do it Liam is quick to take her hands and show her how.

Liam and Lindie really enjoy playing together, so far not many fights. Liam is very good at sharing his toys and making sure she has plenty of things to play with. For Christmas, Liam got a play tent with an attached tunnel...Lindie loves playing in the tunnel and Liam chases her through it. {you can watch them play in the video}

Liam is growing up and is a little boy these days. We have been 'seriously' potty training for more then a month now, as in no diaper during the day, even for naps. Somedays are great, one 1 or 2 accidents, other days are bad with many accidents. Friday was a super duper day with no accidents! We might be making progress!

Liam has learned how to take off his shirt, so he is often shirtless. He can count 1-5 and is trying to get his fingers to show the right numbers. He has a wide vocabulary and is now putting many words together like "How are you" and "Happy Birthday Pops".

Liam and Lindie share a bedroom, during nap time they are so funny. They talk to each other for about 10-15 minutes and then finally fall asleep. Somedays it gets a little loud but most of the time they stay under control.

People warned us that having kids 15 months apart was going to be a lot of work. I have to say, we so enjoy having our kids spaced closely. They were both really good babies and are both good little kids who enjoy each others friendship. I am praying they remain good friends and loving siblings!

Being Flexible-that's what life is all about!

Ah, life has been Good, Hectic, Encouraging, Always Changing & Never Dull.

From August 4-17, we hosted a group of guys from ISU and thoroughly enjoyed getting back into the groove of having teams. All of the guys stayed with the O'Tools but we were involved daily with the team.

Brian organized all the daily projects and kept everyone busy at the property. I was mainly involved with helping Amber cook at their house. Everyday around 11Am, the kids and I would go to their house to make lunch for the group and then take it to the property. We made a lot of sandwiches! In the afternoons, I'd go back and help with supper preparations. Sometimes we would join the group for supper and other times just headed home. We never knew when the guys were going to stop working for the day-so supper needed to be ready anytime between 6-7:30pm. {This is one area where flexibility was important}

{24 tune-apple sandwiches}

{Lunch at the property}

Sometime the kids and I would visit the property 2 or 3 times a day to keep up with the progress being made. I need lots of pictures and video! On really busy work days {pouring cement} we provide mid morning and mid afternoon snacks and drinks. Liam loves visiting daddy and the guys at the property. It is a true highlight of his day. I often don't know what Brian will think of next for Liam to enjoy. Check out the latest video of Liam! Who would have thought? But it worked out just fine! Liam loves watching this video clip. Meredith also enjoyed her turn. By far, this isn't the craziest thing he has done-I do believe riding in the cement mixer still tops it all! {to view Liam riding in the cement mixer check this post out http://niehoffsa.blogspot.com/2010/06/unconventional-daddy.html}

Starting the 1st Children's House at The Village!

{The Guys from ISU}

After working two 12 hour days of shoveling cement, sand and stone into cement mixers, the guys from ISU jumped right in, on Wednesday, to start the foundation of the first children's house. These guys worked so hard and fast, that they dug the majority of the foundation in a day. Their goal was to dig and prepare the foundation by Friday, so the foundation could be poured on Monday. Ambitious goal and they achieved it.

{The guys digging the foundation for the children's house}

Thursday they finished digging the foundation, compacting the top stone, laying the plastic down and installing the steel for the foundation. Friday half of the guys made bricks with Louie and the other half formed up the foundation. By the afternoon everything was ready to go for Monday. {Exciting}

{Brian talking with a building inspector during the pour, all is A-O-K}

Around 6:30AM the guys started in shoveling and mixing cement again. This Monday, the weather was awesome-sunny, warm, and no wind. When I visited around 9AM, with a delivery of muffins, they were already 1/4 of the way done. The guys were working super fast. {of course they had a lot of experience from the week before}. When we delivered lunch around noon, the guys were more then 3/4 of the way done.

{lots of sand, stone and cement to shovel}

{the guys using the humongous screed}

They finished pouring of the foundation by 2pm and had everything cleaned up by 3:30pm. {Super exciting!} We now have 2 foundations completed and will soon be laying bricks and making houses!

{Brian power troweling the foundation}

Hard Working Team!

This past Monday, a group of 12 guys {Brian, Louie, Lenard, DJ, Brilliant, Ben & 6 guys from ISU team} tackled a huge job in weather that wasn't ideal. It hasn't rained here in about 2 months so the dust is thick when the wind blows. Monday morning we woke up to drastic change in temperature and strong winds making the property very difficult to tolerate. This didn't deter the guys from working very hard. At 6:15AM they all gathered to start pouring the foundation of our house!

On Friday they did everything they could to get all the preparations in place to make Monday go smoothly. The guys mixed all the cement by hand so we stored 3 cement mixers and a bobcat at our house over the weekend. Around 7:30 the cement started to be mixed and shortly after being poured into our foundation. After one load of cement 1 cement mixer broke down, that is another reason why they rented 3 mixers, so they could keep going even if 1 broke. Thankfully they were able to get it fixed quickly.

{they would mix the cement and than pour it into the

bob cat bucket and Brian would dump the cement where it was needed}

Amber and I tried to keep the guys well fed and hydrated throughout the day. We made many deliveries to the property of mid-morning snacks, lunch, afternoon snack and even planned on serving supper at the property if needed. The guys never stopped to eat, they took turns running over to get a sandwich, grab a muffin, drink and then right back to work.

The day was long and hard but all the guys worked together like a real team. Everyone knew what needed to be done, did their job, helped each other and stuck it out till the end.

{finished product}

The very next day the guys were already talking about getting the next foundation, the first children's house foundation, ready to pour before they leave. Wow, what a great group of guys.

Thanks for all your hard work, great attitudes and for being so fun!

{Good Friends}