Walk America 2007

Our morning started out with some rain - enough that I offered to let Brandon take the kids home, after the kids got to see the set-up at the starting line, and I'd finish the walk with my sister-in-law, K. Luckily, just before the walk started, the rain let up and the sun poked through the clouds. It was actually perfect walking weather!

THANK YOU to everyone who sponsored us! We raised over $1,400.00!! Everyone got a T-shirt (which you know IS the most important part of all this). We really had a blast and we're looking forward to doing this all again next year!


Here they are - our three little preemies!
Malorie 33wks
Melanie 33wks
Joseph 35wks



Here's Team FamiLee (minus Jason who had a BSA camp out)


A great day for a walk!



Jacob & Megan stopped for a water break



This is Malorie's NICU pal Abby. We knew Abby's parents before the girls were born - so it was kind of a weird coincidence that we'd both have preemies the same week. Abby was 24wks.


Joseph decided to wake up and catch the last 15 minutes of the walk!


The kids loved the jumping castles! After the great lunch that was provided, the kids jumped and jumped (and everything stayed down)!

Joseph Barry Lee

I can't believe it's been an entire year already! His birthday is still so vivid in my mind! We're so blessed to have this little man! He's a joy, he's a love, he's a mama's boy - what more could I ask for? Happy birthday (yesterday) my sweet baby!

Brand new and so helpless...



Now he's just one of our rough-n-tumble gang. What a difference a year makes!

(Playing w/ one of his birthday presents and getting lots of help!)


There aren't words to describe how very much our family loves this little boy!!

This and that...

We're still pluggin' along. The drywall is almost done (today is Tues) and we're still on schedule to paint on Saturday. Brandon and I were able to decide on a color of paint to use (the drywall crew also doubles as a painting crew) so they're all ready to go. We're painting throughout with a grayish/whitish/beigish color figuring it'll go with anything - and also double as a good primer color if/when we ever get around to painting rooms different colors in the future!

We're planning to go and choose flooring tomorrow or Thursday.
The security company comes Tuesday and finishes their job - all they did was wire the system last week (I was horribly disappointed) - they don't fire it all up until the painting is done so they can put the panels on the walls.

The weather has been nice lately and we've all enjoyed spending time out at the house playing. We took the kids on a walk the other day while we waited for the drywall crew to finish up and leave. Here are some pictures.

House Update

So kind of, this is like being on a roller coaster! There have been days when we've felt like this house was all just a big pipe dream and we'd never really actually LIVE in it - then days when we felt like we didn't have enough time to get ready to be in it b/c it was coming together so quickly. I think it was Wednesday of this week that I thought something along the lines of, "Hmmm, hope we're in it before school starts up again in September!" The drywallers (Is that an actual pronoun?) have been hanging rock all week. Today is Saturday - they started last Saturday. About mid-weekthough, even though they were clipping along rather smoothly, I just felt like there was still so far to go. Now, fast-forward to yesterday. Brandon and I picked the kids up at school and took them out to see the house. The crew doing the walls is really funny. It's an Unle (Chuck), his son (Charlie), and two of "Uncle's" nephews...(Brother and Brother). No, their names aren't actually "Brother" but that's what they call eachother and it's really kind of funny. "Hey Brother, you need to take a half inch off that board." "Brother, you look tired." We also heard reference to Chuck as "Uncle"..."Hey Uncle, aren't you going to open your birthday card?"...followed by a gruff "@#$@ No!" LOL

Ok, so I really am going somewhere with all of this. Yesterday they told us that they'd be done w/ walls, mud, tape, and PAINT by next Saturday! A week from today our walls will be DONE! Of course this is a happy moment! We're all beside ourselves with excitement...well, except for the fact that we haven't chosen colors for walls...not even a little bit. I think our goal today is to find a color that we could stand throughout the house and then paint over if/when the time comes. Naturally, Jacob wants to paint their room fire-engine red. Maddie begged to paint her own room - she wouldn't tell me a color, so that scared me more than the red did! LOL

Here are a few pictures. I'm going to have to go through a video again b/c it's harder to take pictures now that there are walls blocking my view! (That's a problem I don't so much mind having!)

Front door from bridge "before & after"



Standing in the kitchen, looking out toward the front door and living room.


Looking up toward the Master bedroom from the front door.


The whole (backside) of the house - the drainfield was finally filled so we can walk down there now!

One week left!

On the 19th, I will be turning in our Walk America donations! Wow, I can't believe it's already here!

I just wanted to post one more plug for the team! Over to the right is a link to our site - if you are interested in sponsoring us, we'd really appreciate it!

Thanks guys!

Happy Easter

Saturday was our big Easter party at Grandma's house. Every year my extended family gets together and does a big potluck picnic and egg hunt. This year we held it at the city park.


Joseph & Grandpa


6 of these kids are Lee's - can you find them?


Here's Jaynie (she's not in the Merry-Go-Round picture - so you can stop looking for her there)

Sunday we had a nice family dinner at home after church. Thanks to a conversation with some friends, I opted to break out the china (no pun intended)! I tried really hard not to cringe every time they clanked the crystal into the china - or clinch my teeth when they cut through their ham and dragged the knife across the plate OVER and OVER and OVER! It's just dishes, right? RIGHT! They had a great time. We broke out a couple of bottles of Sparkling Cider that we had left over from Valentine's Day - the kids were hysterical with it. Of course we endured several "Why is the Rum always gone" comments - and countless "toasts" - but it was worth it! I wish I could remember what Malorie said when she walked into the kitchen and saw the table - I'll update if I remember it...but don't hold your breath!

Here's our "quick, say Happy Easter" picture - and one of Jospeh since he didn't fit into the shot! lol

House News

The walls are going up! It's so amazing to walk through the house now and not be able to see through the walls anymore! Almost all of the ceilings are up - probably 75% of the walls are up - it's looking GREAT!

I took some pictures, but it's hard to really see the change. Obviously, you see the drywall, which is a change - but it's hard to see the whole, overall change. Oh, I'll shut up and just put the pics up for y'all to see for yourselves!

Brandon is installing the slider Monay. Security system goes in Tuesday. The insulation goes in to the attic Wednesday!