Gotta love those family days...

During the Kuitert family Christmas celebration we took a trip out to our up and coming homestead. Here's a couple of pics of my brother Thys and his wife Kate with us, the top one from last summer and the bottom one from yesterday...Check out the progress, only foundations in the summer to built homes now! March 15th is coming quickly, so pray we make our deadline.

We are moving along. We have two more houses up.

Melekalikimaka! (a Hawaiian Merry Christmas to you)

Just a little Merriest of Merry wishes for your Christmas to you and yours!

We're up in Kennewick, WA right now at Will's sister's 5000 sq. foot home.

It's the coolest winter log cabinish retreat home ever.

So we've got 10 of us squishing in for the weekend

to celebrate the birth of our Lord together

and enjoy some puzzle time and

good laughs together.

Enjoy your Christmas celebration wherever you are!

We are grateful for the gift of our loved ones this season!

-Will and Krystal

beyond all beauty

How could it be that an entire year has past? Wasn't it just last night I took her by the hand to say, "I do"? What a joy it is to married to my wife. What a joy to see such a beauty every day...to dance through life with her.

She has brought me a better sense of balance, a greater desire for compassion and challenged me in new ways (trying to learn to like Extreme Home Makeover-"MOVE THAT BUS!").

You are my love, my wife!

...this pic is one from our engagement last May 2005! No we didn't have a remake, just an instant replay.:)

Happy Thanksgiving 2006!!

The 3 happy Kuitert (well not all 3 Kuitert's anymore) families at Thys & Kate's house for Thanksgiving day. We spent the happy holiday at Kate's parents house and then the rest of the weekend with Will's parents in Olympia, WA.

We even got to have a gingerbread house-making party after Thanksgiving dinner! It was just a big fat fun day!

I am grateful on this Thanksgiving Day that Gonzaga beat North Carolina!!!

GO DUKE!!!

Who needs Adam Morrison? Gonzaga showed life without the 'stache ain't so bad with another signature win in the NIT Season Tip-Off. So, who are these Zags who stunned No. 2 UNC on Wednesday? (from espn.com)

THEN...
And NOW.
My how the landscape of our lives change. We have been informed that our completion date has been moved up to March 15th. We pray we make it!

a few more shots of the man of the hour (see previous post for explanation)...

"is it naptime yet? i think i've been here since like 6am"

"now, if i could only remember how Krystal taught me how to measure"

just hangin with the boys...

"i only wish i had a new hammer, so i didn't have to jakey-rig this one,
my birthday is coming up, hmmm"

The Volunteer of a Lifetime...

The hours he has alraedy dedicated are COUNTLESS.
Jacob Henry Kuitert has most definitely earned the great honor
of the "Irwin Volunteer of the Year" award.
just hangin out in a foundation...

tossin the string...
nail 'em dano...

check out this nailbox...

 

Ready for the Roofers!

The front porch, can't you just picture us swinging on the patio swing? I can. I can even smell the grass growing around our trek deck and the bunting birds chirping as they flutter above us, as we drink our sweet tea and reminisce of "the good old building days". Not quite sure about the latter, but we sure will enjoy it when we get there.

See that trusty roofer? That's my great dad. He's the one that finished this sheeting job today.
The roof is now officially sheeted and ready for the roofers to arrive and do their drill.

All in a day's work...

In the morning...
By the afternoon...

Precious Noah Evans...

Will and I are just loving being on the "adopt an auntie & uncle" program for little bitty Noah. He's just precious, I'm sure you'll agree...

Auntie Krystal
The big boys and Olive

Mama and boy










My 1st Halloween

The trusty men or man...

I was instructed last night at church by Paul Glazner to get some pics of the trusty builders in my life on our blog. So here goes a tribute to Pa Glazner and his dedicated hours in the Irwin neighborhood-building project...

Check it out!!

Herein lies the Irwin abode. And no, the puddles don't come with the deal. Those will hopefully be dried out in about 7 months, if we're looking at the Oregon weather report.
This is me...trying to hide behind the neighbor's house because I hammered my thumb and I just wanted to cry by myself. I figure, it's my party and I can cry if I want to. Right?

But the honest truth? I really do need prayer...I told Will last week I was about ready to throw the towel in. This is the hardest "marathon" I've ever run and I just wasn't seeming to get my second wind. Keeping up with all of life and building my own house is a little bit much at times. So if you wouldn't mind throwing a few prayers up for perseverance to prevail in me and strength for my poor husband who probably gets a little worn down at times from my discouraged heart, that would be great.

Clap Offerings for God...

Got this funny little phrase of "clap offerings" for God from one of my favorite bible study teachers--Beth Moore, who does it anytime God does something good and just deserves some outward praise for it.
So anyway, the clap offering is in the camera department...you were probably all wondering how in one post our camera broke, and in the next, we had pictures again...
God has seen fit to use our amazingly gracious friends to not only donate to start a camera fund for us, but also to have one friend send her "oldie, but goodie" camera up from California for use on the jobsite to keep us rolling with photographing our house-venture. We have also been borrowing my parents, until we were able to drum up one for ourselves.
So--clap offerings to God and thanks to our loved ones for being willing to be used by God, to help provide for us. You guys rock this Irwin house!

Do you remember when there was nothing but dirt?

Or when it was just a foundation?

Or when it had all its walls? Can you believe that is our house. Tomorrow October 24th the trusses come to give it that halfway done skeleton look!!! I am really into the skeleton look (Donner party for dinner). If you get that joke please leave a comment. :)

Ahoy there little Noah...that is right a new little baby has entered the world...he came by boat.

(Pictured here with his music instructor and first mate)

The boat arrived at 7:11 PM. Cargo weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces. Captain Scott Evans was pleased with the voyage, but his wife stated "the ride was less than enjoyable." (Push...push...push...don't forget to breathe!) Though she is now resting comfortably with her precious freight.

Well, well, well, the house is on it's way. I am proud to say that I did basically everything completely on my own. With the slight exception of the five UVC seniors that came to help along with the three
or four Job Corp boys that did all the heavy lifting, or the ten to fifteen neighbors that built everything (hammering...nailing...and stuff)...other than that I did everything myself.

Comments...

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS on our posts!!

Will and I just love reading the little notes posted to us

by our loved ones.

When you get to the end of each of our posts,

you can click on the comments section

and leave us a word from the wise, love or humor.

We love hearing who is keeping up on our progress

and praying for us.

Thanks for your support!! -W & K

a few of the last pics...

Good and sad news today...the 2nd of our two digital cameras died. So we are without a camera to follow the rest of our home-building project until God sees fit to provide.
So the good news (interesting timing for the camera to die)...is that we actually started doing framing work of the exterior walls of our OWN home today!! Eli actually put me as the lead of the team working on it. Can you all believe it? I can't, from incompetent, clueless, just give me simple directions and I'll follow them, to the lead of the project. After I left Will said a volunteer that was working with my team even said I really knew what I was doing. I even used the nail gun the whole day! So it was a success of a day on the worksite and here are some faded-out pics (we think the lens is dying or something of the sort) to prove it...

Eli giving the team instructions for the day...

Me having my 2-hour (felt like it) course on how to properly angle the nail gun to make your "nail count". We don't want to waste a single one...

Me having to hand over the nail gun for another lesson...


Me getting a pep talk from Pa (Paul Glazner, who was told he could be my father from the way we looked alike)... He and Will pumped out some serious trusses today and 3 of the houses are fully trussed and 2 of them are ready for roofers to come take over. Yeah! Projected finish date from Umpqua CDC, MARCH 2007. Yikes, we'll see about that and just pray for God's perfect timing on it all.
P.S. Please pray for one of our families in the group, the project has taken a toll on their marriage and the husband is leaving the wife and their daughter, to do life and house-building on her own now. So sad. Don't we just all need Jesus so desperately? So, I'll be just filling you all in with written updates now since the camera is out of commission. Pray for God to provide there too, it's just one of our wants to help capture the moments of life, not needs, but we know God cares about every detail and wants us to bring them all to Him. Much Aloha, W & K 

Me & Katie Benton...

Just doing a little subflooring work on our next door neighbor's home on Saturday...