Family Pictures

Back on Easter we took some family pictures just with our little tripod.  This is how they turned out.

(They wanted to do a silly one...)

Deck progress

So, our deck has made some progress in the last 6 months.  The first two are of the initial clean-up.  (It was really, really cold outside!)

 Then came the fixing of the house, putting on soffit and fascia.  (I don't have a clue if those are spelled right.)

 The kids (mostly Isaac) were big helpers.

Then fast forward to now, and we are finally getting some of it taken apart.  Isaac was a huge help to Dad, taking boards to the pile. 

 Emily worked on digging up some weeds on the other side. 

 We now have a dirt pit where the deck was.  Plus we found all sorts of treasures under there. 

 This is the pile of wood that has come from this endeavor.  Anyone need some wood?

 

In the next few weeks we will be taking out the rest of the deck, tilling up the whole yard to prepare for planting grass in the fall.  It will be a big undertaking, but we will have help.  Brandon's parents are going to come out and help us while they are here.  (Thankfully)  I'm excited to have some progress!

Farewell to our deck

Well, a few months ago we had a loss in our family.  Well, I guess it's not really a loss if you didn't like it in the first place.  When we moved into this house we had this awesome deck in the backyard.  (If not noted, there is sarcasm dripping from that!)  We really didn't like the deck or covering and were planning on ripping it out and replacing it sometime in the future.  Apparently that future is now.  Due to a combination of rotten wood, poor workmanship, and a ton of snow and ice pack, the roof of our deck came down all by itself.  It was just the kids and I at home, and I was up in the bedroom with Jared and the kids were down in the living room.  At first I thought the kids had gotten into something and knocked it over, then I thought something big in the kitchen had fallen, then I thought is this thunder.  It was really loud and a little scary.  The kids didn't get too freaked out, but they were definitely scared by it.  Shoot, it shook me up a little bit.  The kids were coming up with all sorts of explanations.  The one that eventually stuck was that a giant robot stepped on the roof and made it fall.  It sure looked like it...

We were very blessed though.  No one was out there, not even the dog.  The only casualty was Brandon's grill.  And that may even be salvageable, we'll see.  Plus, now we don't have to figure out how to take the roof down!  Though we do have to figure out what to do with all the wood...

 Why yes, that is the grill.  It was the main fall breaker for the roof.

Oh the joys of home ownership!

We are not dead

Okay, I promise I have not forgotten about this blog, I think about it all the time...  I just never have time to post.  Spending time on the computer is not one of my luxuries anymore!  But I promise to update with pictures in the near future...  But we are doing well.  Brandon is still loving his job, and school is going well for him.  The kids are growing like crazy, Jared especially.  He has finally started to roll around to get toys etc.  Now we just need to work on crawling...
Life is good!

School Photo

Here is Isaac's school picture for kindergarten.  I think he looks handsome, but I am a little biased...

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Isaac decided to be a dragon/dinasour.  I made the tail and the hat, and put the spikes along the back of his shirt.  He liked how it turned out, so I consider it a success. 

 This was his parade at school.  Of course he forgot his tail in his classroom. 

 Emily wanted to be a princess of course.  So we found the dress, crown and wand.  I didn't really make any of it.  But at least I put it together for under $10. 

 I also put her hair in rag the night before, and this is how it turned out.  It was really cute and she loved it.  All day she kept tossing it around and saying, "My hair is curly!"  Another success.

 Jared was a penguin.  This is the same costume that Isaac wore on his second Halloween.  (Though Isaac was too tall for it, and his feet stuck out the bottom.)  But Jared was the cutest penguin you ever did see!  At least in my own, completely unbiased opinion. 

 For dinner that night we had jack-o-lantern pizza.

 And then Dad took the kids trick or treating around our nieghborhood while I staid at home to pass out candy.  It was a perfect night too, really warm weather.  Emily didn't even wear a coat and she was fine. 

It was a good Halloween, and now of course the kids have a ton of candy.  Emily would eat it all in one day if I let her.  Isaac would forget he had it, and will probably still have some come next summer.  It's so funny to see the difference between the two of them.  At least it gives me a stash of candy to eat as well.  They are more than willing to share with my luckily.  :)

Pumpkins

This year, all of our pumpkins came from our very own garden!  The kids had a blast doing pumpkins.  Isaac did most of the cleaning out by himself.  Dad helped him carve it out. 

 

 Emily decided she wanted to paint her pumpkin again this year.  Though when she saw Isaac having so much fun, she was sad she painted it.  (For like 5 min)

Jared just chilled in his highchair, enjoying life.

This was a gift from the Garners.  We ran out of orange pumpkins though, so we had to use a green one that was still trying to grow.  We got a lot of comments on this pumpkin though.  Everyone thought it was pretty cool. 

The kids had a great time doing pumpkins this year.