Christmas Decorating

Well - it's that time of year again. Seems like we just put all of this stuff away.

We have been busy getting the house all decked out for the holidays again this year.

I thought I would post some of this year's decorations.

Every year - the weekend after Thanksgiving - we take the truck, buy a real tree, and haul it home. This year we decided to put it in a washtub and it really looks cool.

Darren worked several hours at putting all the lights on the house, potting shed, and garage. He even did the three dormers on the roof. The house looks gorgeous. It's fun to see it from miles away. It makes you realize how high on the hill it really is. We have the 2 deer out front and the wreath and 2 trees on the front porch.

New this year - we put an old, red bicycle in the flower bed and wrapped it with colored C7's. It is really fun.

The next project is to take some pictures of the kids for our annual Christmas photo card.

Busy November Weekend

This past weekend we went to Kansas City to do a little shopping and to watch a PBR event at Kemper arena. It was a beautiful day for November 1st.

Our first stop was Legend's mall. We always make sure and stop in to Cavender's Western Store - one of our favorites. We found a couple of t-shirts that we needed to buy. Then we walked around and found this turtle.

Trevor wanted to stop at the Build-A-Dino store so we qickly looked around in there. He found a couple of outfits for Rex and Beady Bear. We didn't have much time because we wanted to get to the event early in case a contestant didn't show up and Darren could possibly get in to compete.

We made it there with plenty of time to spare and at first we thought he was going to get to ride but then - 15 minutes late - the last few cowboys showed up and the event was full. We still had free tickets though and he was able to watch from behind the chutes - which is his favorite place to be. The kids and I had a great time. Since we didn't have time to eat at the mall before the event - they spent all my cash on $4 bottles of pop and $5 hot dogs.

Trevor found this loader in the parking lot after the event. Looks like he owns it - doesn't it?

October Birthdays

October was very busy at our house. We celebrated Trevor's 8th birthday and my birthday too. Trevor and I really did a good job of milking it for the whole month.

Every chance we had we went out for my birthday dinner.

For Trevor's birthday he had a friend overnight and we all went to The Pizza Machine. Then on Sunday we had a small party at our house with family and of course - ice cream cake. His actual birthday was on Monday this year so he took treats to school that day.

Overall we were both very happy with our birth-month festivities.

Sandblasting & Painting the House

Darren decided that it was the summer to sandblast and paint the house.

It was going to be a huge mess and I really didn't want to be home during the whole thing.

This all started around Labor Day weekend. He brought over the loader tractor, scaffold, tarps, etc. Covered all the windows with plastic and tape and started blasting the old paint away.

This took many hours and a few days to complete. After a busted out storm door and a little sand tracked into the house - the house was bare and the plastic and tape came off.

Next - the house needed to be primed. They had to cover all the windows, doors, bricks, and the deck again. After one side of the house was primed - they ran out of paint. Then more days went by. The next time they tried to prime - the pump wouldn't work. More days went by. They tried everything with the pump but couldn't get it to work. Days and days went by then finally they rented a different paint pump.

Finally after 93 gallons of paint, 26 tubes of caulk, and 6 weeks later - the house was finished. The paper came off, the tools and empty buckets were loaded up. The house looks like new. It's beautiful.

"After" pictures will be added soon!

4-Wheelin Day

After a very busy summer we finally made time for the four of us to go and ride our 4-wheelers.

With a few repairs, adjustments and a good wash job the 4-wheelers were ready to roll.

We loaded them up and took them to a spot along the Nishna Botna River by Red Oak, IA.

There are sandbars and lots of trails in the trees .

There were are few small hill climbs. Cory was a little intimidated by them but as the day went on she became more comfortable. There wasn't one thing that bothered Trevor. He even took his sister's 4-wheeler over some things for her after he took his own.

We couldn't have chosen a better day. It was 75 and sunny.
The leaves were starting to change colors. Why don't we make time to do things like that more often?