Christmas Tour

It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas!  Heather does a great job of decorating for Christmas, our house is full of the Christmas spirit!

 Close up of the mantel

 We got our tree from Costco again this year and once again, it looks great.

 Heather is also in charge of wrapping, even the gifts look great!

 Our Willow Tree nativity

 This year, we gave the front door some garland

 and that funny ledge above the bathroom gets "Noel" and two white poinsettias

 The fort in the basement got a little Christmas cheer!

 and this year, we hung the stockings in the basement!

 Plenty of splashes of Christmas red!

 Since we've been married, my parents have given us a snow globe each year for Christmas, they are on display across the ledge!

 It would be Christmas without some Christmas goodies!  Everyone can help out with this project

 Gingerbread houses!  G didn't want to get frosting on his fingers, so I helped out with placement

 Turned out pretty good!

 Heather and B frosting cookies!

 Looked pretty good...tasted even better!

 Two gingerbread houses!

 Some sprinkle work...done by the boys!

Basement Bathroom - mostly done

The guest bedroom in our basement was big, way bigger than we needed for a guest bedroom.  One thing the basement didn't have was a bathroom...so we came up with a plan to add a bathroom in the infamous "purple room".  The removed drywall is where the shower will go...

 ...still leaving plenty of room in the bedroom.

 Stubbing in a bathroom is a little more than I wanted to tackle, so I framed up the walls and then we hired a plumber to come in and break up the floor...

 ...and stub in a toilet, vanity and shower.  The boys were pretty amazed that when you break up the floor there is dirt under there!

 Starting to put the pieces back together, water lines are run and shower base is in!

 Time to add some drywall and tile!

 We went with this pinwheel mosaic tile for the floor that we found at Lowes, it gave a fun pattern and a splash of color

 For the shower, I used a classic white subway tile.  Easy to use and affordable!

 I didn't take pictures of putting up drywall, but the walls are up and textured and the tile is going up.

 About 500 subway tiles later...

 we are almost done

 We went with white grout in the shower, to me it gives a clean look.

 I'm not done with the drywall and trim in the hallway, but here is a look at the floor tile, we used dark grout for the floor

We found a shower door at Home Depot that is a slider with dark bronze hardware to tie in the mirror and dark floor grout.  Added some shelves for storage...

 I found this old school house door at our local Re-Store, I frosted the glass and added "BATH" vinyl letters

 The nearly finished bathroom...

 I still need to add trim, a transom above the door and finish the drywall in the hallway, but we now have a functioning bathroom in the basement!

Update - Summer to Fall

I took 2 and 1/2 weeks off to help us all adjust to being a family of 5.  We had lots of adventures during this time!  

Trigg and I set up a zip line for his Lego creations!

We set up an obstacle course in the backyard

We to storytime at the library...two of our favorite book characters, Piggy and Gerald!

For some practice with the hammer, I froze Lego men into ice blocks...

...and the boys had to hammer them out!

G is very fond of his little sister and they had plenty of "chats"!

Trigg is a great big brother and he got plenty of chat time with his sister too!

Of course, there was also lots of reading!

We also had a week of "science experiments"!  First off was the baking soda and vinegar volcano!

We also tested out reactions by putting gummy bears in various liquids.

Inspired by our library books, the boys turned into ninjas!

Blythe got in plenty of naps!

We also had dinosaurs roaming our house this summer, a green one...

and a blue one!

And it wouldn't be summer without a trip to watch the I-Cubs play baseball!

We had plenty of puddle jumping this summer...

...and even a small stream in our backyard!

We had Blythe's baptism this summer

Looking cute in her denim outfit!

She keeps growin!

Trigg wanted to celebrate his birthday with a camp out! He got a new headlamp for his birthday and camp pots and pans!

So we loaded up the Jeep and the boys and headed out to Jasper State Park for a night under the stars.  The gals joined us for the camp fire, hot dogs and s'mores but they didn't stay all night!

Garrett also changed his mind with the gals headed home, but that's ok...Trigg and I enjoyed the tent.

The temperature dropped down to 41 that night, but we were bundled up and stayed warm and cozy!

and we still smiling when the sun came up in the morning!

Heather did an awesome job for his "camping" party...including a camp fire cake with toasted marshmallows!

Garrett picked out a new snuggly for Trigg for his birthday...a new pup named "Barky"...I think it was a good pick!

Fall rolled around and we headed to the Center Grove apple orchard and pumpkin patch!

The corn pool was a big hit

The gals enjoying the corn pool!

Center Grove has a big bounce pillow...the boys loved it!

And the giant slide!

They even turned a combine into a slide!

We played outside a lot this fall, Blythe loves swinging on the swing!

Trigg rigged up a system to tow Barky on the skateboard behind his bike...very inventive

and this peanut keeps growing and getting bigger!

We are finishing up a bathroom remodel in the basement and I had plenty of help!

We also celebrated Uncle Chad's birthday...

...his 40th birthday!!!!

We played in the leaves...

...buried each other in the leaves...

...and had a leaf fight!

It wouldn't be fall without carving pumpkins!

Trigg did an awesome job of hollowing out...

and carving his own pumpkin this year...

the face was his own design, two big eyes, triangle nose, mouth with 2 big teeth and small circle ears!

The boys were robots this year...

...the made the gadgets for the front of their costumes!

We also had a "spooky" Halloween supper with mummy roll ups...

and ghostly strawberries!

Two cool kids riding an alligator!

Trigg wanted some practice using the drill, so we hooked together some scrape 2x4's, he's getting pretty good at it!

He got some MagnaTiles for his birthday, so we built him a light box, it turned out pretty good!

...and that was our fall!
More updates to come...