Tree Decorating!

We decided to get a Christmas tree and decorate even though we weren't going to be at our house for Christmas. I have such fond memories of decorating the Christmas tree when I was little so I guess I want to give my kids the same experience. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. Haley was especially excited when she got to put the star on. Also, we had quite the snowstorm (of course it was while scott was gon) and I was snowed in for a few days. The wind and drifts were the worse part and it all seemed to land in front of my house! Thanks to some wonderful neighbors we were able to get dug out! The kids didn't mind the snow though!

Thanksgiving!!

We had our very own Thanksgiving dinner this year! Although it was bitter-sweet to be away from family we enjoyed celebrating on our own. I cooked my very first Turkey (which didn't turn out too bad considering) and we had all the fixins. Needless to say we had a LOT of leftovers! Haley was very excited to eat turkey and Parker of course made a HUGE mess but it was a lot of fun. I am so thankful for my little family!

Halloween Pumpkins!

Here are some pics of the kids in their Halloween costumes - My two sweet pumpkins! Haley has been very into pumpkins lately and was so excited to be one! Parker looked especially cute with his on and his little waddle, I wish I would have got some video of him! Haley loved carving the pumpkin as well! Halloween was really fun - we played in the leaves during the day and then took the kids trick or treating to a few houses. Haley loved trick or treating and still talks about it :)

Family Pictures!

These are the best of our new family pics! They turned out great! Thanks to my friend Katrina who took them for us! She did a great job! Its quite a trick getting everyone to smile at the same time, but we got a few good ones ;)

 

(If you click on the collage you can see a bigger version of it - I couldnt get it any bigger on the post)

A visit from Grandma!

It's taken me a while to get this on here, but a couple weeks ago my mom came to visit for a week! It was so fun to have grandma stay with us for so long and the kids loved having her here! We all were very sad to see her leave, but are grateful that she was able to come out.

The kids did most of the entertaining for her ;) but we did go to a couple fun places. We went to Reimman Gardens - which is part of Iowa State - obviously it has lots a beautiful gardens but it also has a butterfly house (which the kids absolutely loved) and also a little kids area where they had a fossil dig and dinosaurs. There was also these chimes that you could step on and they would play, Haley enjoyed that a lot.

Near the end of the week Paul (Scott's brother) and his family came as well! (We dont get visitors a lot, but I guess when it rains it pours!) While they were here we visited the famous Boone Train. The kids really enjoyed it. Haley loved having all her cousins here as well. She always asks when Dane is coming again - and tries to convince me that Grandma is at the airport waiting for us to pick her up :)

Horseback Riding

A few weeks ago we took the horses and went for a very nice horse ride. We decided we better do this since Isabelle (our mare) was going back to Utah with Scott's brother - since she is half Scott's nephews. We went up to some trails about an hour north from us and it was a very pretty ride.


We rode for about 4 hours and the kids were champs. We thought we'd give them a break and stopped at a little stream on the way back and they thought that was pretty fun. I don't know what Parker liked more- riding the horses or splashing in the water! It was a good thing we were pretty close to the truck because they got very wet and muddy.



We all just love to ride so much (especially Parker and Haley) and were glad we were finally able to get out on a good ride. It was a good way to say good bye to Isabelle - we will definately miss her!

Kitchen Remodel....the cheap way!

So this has been our big project this summer. We refaced and painted our kitchen cabinets! It was quite the project and the first time I hated that we had so many cabinets! We also ended up getting new flooring because it was on clearance at Lowes (we have now banned ourselves from that store ;) I am so happy with how they turned out - it looks so much better than it did before! Although it still needs new countertops and backsplash I think it has at least been brought out of the 80's!

This is what we did: We first had to remove the wooden handle all the doors and drawers, and then put another board the same width as the rest of the door in its place. Then we bought some plywood sheets and cut them into 2 1/2 inch strips to frame out the doors and drawers. Then we painted them white and added knobs and handles for a finished look.

With boards, paint and supplies, knobs and handles the total was around $250. Not bad considering it looks like we got new cabinets! Oh, and we didnt come up with this ourselves I saw it on HGTV (I love that channel :)

Before Pictures: (I was a little late getting my before pics - we had already taken off the top doors, but you get the idea) I did find a pic that Haley had taken a while a go that shows the top with the doors on)

After pics:

And yes, I know that I need a black fridge - need to get some more moneys first ;)Most of all I am just grateful to have my kitchen back!