Early in the Morning

 

Early this morning Chris got up to see the eclipse of the moon.

Our Living Room, before the Holidays and Decorated for the Holidays.

This first year of decorating has been fun.  The new living room is bigger than the one at the apartment which makes it more fun.  It's especially nice that we no longer have to wedge the tree topper between the ceiling and the tree.

The living room when you walk in the front door, before. 

and after.

Across from the TV before, 

before,

and after.

Across from the piano.

and now.

Another before

after

and after.

Thanks for visiting;)

Halloween 2011

 This year Taylor wanted to be Flo, no a zombie, wait... Zombie Flo from Progressive!  The Progressive site actually provides templates so you can make your own Flo costume.  We printed out the tags, bought the apron and Chris stenciled it and then we bloodied it up.  A white polo, white pants, wig and hairband with appropriate gory makeup finish the whole thing off.  She's received a lot of great comments on her costume.

 

Lucas wanted to be a vampire.  I told him there wouldn't be any sissy, sparkly vampires in this house, so he went as Dracula.  I had made the cape a couple of years ago so all we needed to do was get a vest, a shirt and a little bling to finish off the costume.

Dee Dee wanted to be a zombie princess and then she wanted to be a doll, so we've done a couple of different versions for different events.

Olivia couldn't wait to try out the Cleopatra costume we got as a hand me down.  She looks great in it and gets a lot of oohs and ahhs over it.

And yes, that is some one's homework everyone is standing on.

Yikes! A big freaking hairy spider!

So after discovering this dude in my kitchen sink I'm thinking about just boarding the place up, putting out a for sale sign and cutting our losses.  I kid, mostly.

First Day of School!

This is the first year they are all in school all day long.  Taylor and Olivia are in 5th grade and Madeline and Lucas are in 1st grade.

A Funny

One of the exciting things about getting a new house is getting to choose the paint colors.  We still need to add another bedroom so for now Taylor and Olivia chose to paint their room bright yellow and blinding orange.  Luckily the room is in the basement so I don't think this combination will result in retinal damage. 

I've been dreading painting because the kids are so excited about getting to help out.  Since the floor in Taylor and Olivia's new room needs to be replaced I decided to start there.  I just knew they would get bored with the whole thing quickly and no longer want to help me.  But alas, those kids really love to paint.  Lucas did finally decide he didn't want to do it any more but the rest of them really hung in there. 

One of the new toys I bought for the new house was the Black & Decker paint stick.  Chris got to use it first, but then I went to town with it.

It worked really well and after about an hour this is what the room looked like.

Which is where the funny part enters into the equation:)

And the work begins.

So I hired 4 people to help me out with the house.  Sure they work cheap but they are expensive to feed and the whining...

 Under that nasty pad are some pretty nice hardwood floors.

And the work continues...