November 2010

In November we FINALLY finished painting our house. We worked on it all summer and it just took that long to get it completed. Kannon really spurred that on. I don't like to paint. I spent over a month painting the garage, a bit at a time. He went out with a spray gun and finished the major parts of the house in a few hours!

Before - I love the Anne of Green Gables deal, but I was ready for something different.

I researched color schemes from the 1920's - our house was built in 1919 - and these were the ones I picked for our house. I felt like the were still a bit modern, too. What do you think?
I took a walking field trip with Benjamin's class to the the Museum. It was a super chilly day, the wind was cold enough to hurt my ears. I led the whole group (2 first grade classes, teachers and parents) to the Museum. We did a quick 1-hour tour. The kids didn't enjoy it as much as they do when they can explore on their own. This was my group.
Taylor, Ben, Skyler and Kale

Some more fun scouting adventures. We built wooden coin banks. It's interesting, the things I learn as we go along. What works, what I can do better next time.

We also began another remodel project. We are turning a portion of our back porch into a second bathroom. Hallelujah! I can't wait til the day when I don't have to worry about getting kicked off the toilet because someone else needs to go. Or when I can lock the door during a shower. We will be taking this project a bit slower than others because we've already run out of money for it!

before

We've walled off this wall of windows. The ones on the right side are in on this picture. We are doing small ones that are just at the top. The bottom half is walled. This day was chilly and the house got pretty cold.

Today (Dec 7th ) we've got the walls up, a closet built, all the electrical run, and a sliding door installed. Next is the plumbing and floor. We have already purchase the supplies to get that far. We should be able to get the tub in, too. We bought an old claw foot tub about 4 years ago, with the plan of using it for a 2nd bathroom. We will finally get to use it, and get it off our deck!

Sarah playing school.

Thanksgiving weekend was so much fun. I had really looked forward to spending time with my family. All of my brothers and sisters were able to come. We were only missing one sister-in-law. We ate, played games, visited, ate, put together a puzzle, worked, ate, chased children, built fires, and did I mention ate? I really love my family. I'm so glad that we are more than just family, but friends, too. And that we aren't too far away from each other, that we can at least get together about once a year.

Nathan with baby Natalie and Benjamin - playing football. Well, we really just tossed the ball around a bit.

Joshua and Natalie. They enjoyed playing in the tub more than once.

Joshua would often lay down on the blanket with his new cousin, Evan. He just loves babies. He wants to love and touch them all the time. He's really very gentle with them. Creating the puzzle. We picked this one out and then stressed about it for a bit. It was one of those photomosaics. But, really we were able to get it done in about 6 hours. Levi, David and Susan.

We took a quick trip out to the flats to shoot some guns. It was very cold. We couldn't shoot too long before our fingers got really cold. Kannon, Janet, David or Nathan, Levi and Stephen.

It started spitting on us, too. Some hail, a little rain, lots of wind.

Ben got to shoot his little 22 and cousin Tyler tried it, too, for his first time.

Ben and Kannon Kannon had a rough time over Thanksgiving. He got something in his eye on Tuesday. It didn't bother him until he was sleeping that night. He worked on Wednesday, but by Thursday he could barely open his eye and both eyes were really sensitive to light. He wore his sunglasses all weekend. We went from thinking something was in it, to thinking it was scratched, and back to having something in there. So, finally by Saturday he decided to go to the ER to get it checked out. They basically did a little surgery - cutting out the tiny piece of something that was in his cornea. He felt so much better by that evening. I wish he could have enjoyed it all a bit more.