Painting

I've been busy painting the kids' rooms lately ridding the house of all that builder's flat white paint. I still have to go back and do some details like some racing stripes in Ryan's room, and maybe some more details in Hannah's, but here's what I have for now...

Hannah's Room...

Josh's Room...

and Ryan's Room...

Beth's Visit

Halloween Cookies

Catching Up...

Hmmm...it seems like I'm always trying to catch up on my blog...oh well, doesn't it make you treasure these entries even more? Ha ha!

Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween. Hannah dressed up as Princess Tiana from the Princess & the Frog, Ryan as a race car driver, and Josh as Buzz Lightyear. On the Friday before Halloween, Hannah's school had a Halloween Parade that families could attend, so I dressed up the boys and we drove over to school to surprise Hannah. The whole school paraded outside since it was nice out in their costumes. It was cute.

On Halloween, we went over to Jim and Rach's to see them and Lily and trick-or-treated with them for a little bit. After that we drove back home to go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. The kids were running from house to house, really into it all. Ryan did that for a little bit, but then retreated to the wagon for most of the night. They all got waaay too much candy, but had a great time.

We also went to Konow's Corn Maze this Fall for some pumpkin farm fun. It was a beautiful day, and the kids rode a cow train, hay ride, and more! They jumped in a bin full of corn kernels, climbed around a hay playground, and jumped their hearts out on the jumpy pillow. It was a great day topped off with a campfire in the evening.

Making Progress

Well, we've been in our house about a week and a half now and we are pretty much unpacked. Whew...that was a lot of work! We've been hanging curtains, pics, and organizing since then. Hannah is loving school, and the boys enjoy walking her out to the bus. They keep asking when they will get to ride the bus too. Last night the kids played in the backyard running through the sprinklers. Ryan of course enjoyed it the most, but Hannah came in a close second with Josh being an apprehensive third.

A Bunch of Firsts

So much has happened since I blogged last! We've moved out of our home of 10 years and into a new one that will be our family home for many years to come! Hannah has started Kindergarten, and she has lost her first tooth.

We've now been in our new house for a week and we have curtains up, most boxes unpacked, and some things hung on the walls.

The Monday after we moved, Hannah started Kindergarten! She loves riding the bus and she loves her teacher, Ms. McAvoy. She goes to PM Kindergarten everyday and the bus picks her up and drops her off at the end of driveway. It's so nice!

Yesterday at dinner, Hannah lost her first tooth in her hamburger! It had been wiggling for days and finally decided to come out. She's very excited to go to school on Monday and show everyone.

Bravin' it without A/C

Well, our air conditioner stopped working last Friday night after dinner. We came in after playing outside and it was 80 degrees inside-not happy! Luckily, we purchased a Home Warranty that covers us up until our house closes and our buyer for 13 months after that, so we got to use that for the repair. Unluckily, the vendors contracted through this service evidently don't do weekends. So, all weekend we tried to get creative doing things away from the house. We were pretty lucky in that it could've been hotter, but still-we're pretty wimpy.

Saturday Pat had planned for his parents to come over and watch the kids in the evening so he and I could go out for sushi. We couldn't ask them to come over to the hot box, so we drove the kids over to their house. We knew the kids wouldn't nap in the heat, so we just took a drive and stopped at the new house to check out its progress. Nothing much has changed since we're waiting on the hardwood flooring. Some baseboard was in and we saw an interior door too while we were peeking in. We dropped the kids off at Jim and Mary's and went to have dinner nearby at a place we've been before called Harrison's. I still need my sushi fix! :( It was fun to get out anyway and we were pretty tired from the heat.

On Sunday, we went to church in the morning, then home to the hotbox for a while, then out to Portillo's for an air conditioned dinner, then we surprised the kids by taking them to see "Shrek Forever After" at the cheap movie theater. The movie was cute. They did great again sitting through it (even w/o popcorn!). I did bring some suckers and candy for them. It was nice to sit in the cool for an hour and a half. After that, it had rained so it dropped from 80 degrees outside to about 67! It was actually cool in the house when we got home so we got to sleep well. Ah...

On Monday, the repairman finally came out. He did a lazy fix that only worked for about 15 minutes, then he had to come back out again later to replace the capacitor (no, not a flux capacitor!) while it was raining. Oh well, it's all cool now! Such excitement!