My 3 daughters...

These are my 3 favorite girls in the world. Whitney has been a strength to my family since Brittney came along. It seems as if in some strange way Whitney was my first daughter... she and Brittney have so much in common, all the way down to a mole on their big toe ~ go figure. While I was pregnant with Sophie, Whitney was our support & life-line many times. I can remember calling her in the middle of the night due to contractions & she came over to sit with Brittney. When we moved to our farm while I was 9 months pregnant, she loaded her car with all my clothes (and that is a lot of clothes) to take them to the new house. Whit was one of the first visitors in the hospital to hold Sophie (there is a copy of that picture in a post from July of last year). When we have travelled back to Illinois for our home leave Whitney either meets us at the airport or at the house, and she has even been known to stock my house with the necessities - Diet Mountain Dew and Ramen Noodles :-)

Now that we are back in the UK I am missing Whitney a lot and the girls just keep asking when they will get to see her again. I guess I wanted to make this post so everyone can know just how wonderful Whitney is & how much we can't wait to see her. Oh I know, she should hop on a plane and come over here...shall we take a vote-

Love ya Whitney

Horseback Riding

Our farm back in Illinois is going through many changes ~ we are modifying the house to look like a British Barn conversion, and we plan on bringing horses back to the farm land. Since Kevin & I know so little about the taking care of horses, I have actually enrolled in a two year course that will certify me to board horses at the end. Boarding horses is not my entention, but it will give me the skill set to take care of our horses.

On Sundays Brittney, Sophie & Kevin take horse riding lessons (I take during the week). Here are some pictures of the girls riding English style of course :-)

Sweetwater Bend

While we are living in the UK we have decided to completely re-do our house back in America, to say that we have been influenced by the British countryside is an understatement. We have added a tower which will contain the spiral staircase that will take you to the loft in our new master bedroom. The new master replaces the original 2 car garage (which was torn down last year). A new garage will be added this summer; it will be 2 levels so that an exercise room can be added along with a hang out area for the girls. We will be taking the brick off the house & replacing it with stone. In addition the arches in the front will be taken out (I've always disliked them), two additional dormers will be added, and the roof line readjusted some. The roof on the tower will be covered with a copper look-a-like. Now, the funny thing... all of this started by me wanting a new kitchen. I guess the saying 'be careful what you ask for' has been taken to an extreme by us :-)The garage will be added to the side of the house here. Kevin has decided that we 'need' a four car garage. It will be built so the middle two garages will have one door but will jut out from the other two garage doors on either side (I'm told this is to add more architecture detail).
This is the view in the tower. It will have over 18 windows between the two levels and will house the spiral staircase. The staircase leads up to the loft in our master bedroom. The loft will be a library, reading area.
We have lots of views out over the countryside from up in the loft. The downstairs of the master will have a corner fireplace with a sitting area as well. I'm wondering if Kevin has designed it with the idea of never leaving the room...

The back of the house (before the garage is added to the side) will have stone instead of the siding, and a deck will be built at some point.


So far, the only thing that hasn't been added or accounted for yet is a motte and a dragon. What do you think will happen if I ask for those as well :-)