It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.....

We are officially ready to celebrate the holiday season!

The COUNTDOWN has begun...

Zack made this at school & he cuts one off every morning.

This year my kids each got a little tree for their room to decorate.

Liberty's Tree


Zack & Tyler's Tree


And
"My" Tree



Zack & Tyler's favorite part is the train.
I do LOVE how cozy Christmas decorations make our house feel...
On the outside

AND

On the inside...

Family Room

Hall way

Living room

Living Room

Entry way

Kitchen Table

Now Let's just hope the month doesn't go by too FAST!

I know these 3
are going crazy with excitement & anticipation
WAITING for Christmas Day to come!!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a great Thanksgiving spending time with family & eating lots of yummy food!

Zack, Libby & Tyler
Ready to head to Grandma & Grandpa Steen's for the feast!

We also Celebrated Wyatt & Grandma's Birthday!

I didn't get too many pictures this year....my kids weren't enjoying them!!!
We did have a great day of food, fun & games
(Wow, that was one long game of phase 10! I'm not sure if Amy, Denette & John will dare play with me & Steve again!!)
I am most thankful for a wonderful family!!

Did I mention we are really excited for Christmas...as Shelly would say, "It looks like Christmas threw up in here!" AND at our house....
It does!!! We love it!!


My 3 little elf's are SO excited!


Which makes me SO excited!


Zack & Tyler


Sweet Liberty

We will post pictures of our decorations soon!!

Someone's excited for Christmas...

The Christmas train is out!

This will entertain him for hours....

Tyler still loves Lightning McQueen, but trains are his new obsession.
Next week,
we can officially start decorating for Christmas....I can't wait!!

Happy Veteran's Day

I'm so thankful for the sacrifices our soldiers & veterans have made for our country. We truly are blessed to have such brave men & women willing to sacrifice so much for our freedom. I'm also very thankful that "my" veteran made it back safe from Iraq!

Steve left to Ft. Lewis, Washington in February 2003 and
He returned from Iraq in May of 2004.

After 15 months of having him gone we were SO happy when he finally came home!!


Our neighbor & his boys put up flags all over our yard in honor of his service.

Zack was born while he was gone & was 8 months old when Steve got home.

We were so thankful for our families & all of their support!!

Our Family with Steve's parents Marilyn & Gary


Our family with my parents Shauna & Norm....I couldn't of made it without them!!!

Once he was home Libby wouldn't let him out of her sight!!
That was one of the hardest parts...seeing her miss her dad so much.


Happy Veteran's Day
We are still praying for the soldiers & their families that are still in harms way.

So my painting has continued...

The before of my kid's bathroom.
This is one of the only rooms we haven't painted since we moved in 5 years ago!! It really was quite scary looking in person....


You can't tell from the picture, but there was pink paint coming through on spots of the white walls. The people who painted before weren't very careful painters. I had to scrape a lot of pink paint off the light fixture too.
I was worried that it would take many coats of paint to cover up those black flowers & swirls...they were above the toilet too. I was also tired of the oak cabinets. We headed to Lowe's and the kids picked a blue color (not my favorite color, but I like how it turned out.)


After
I have to say I LOVE paint with primer!! It only took 2 coats of paint to cover the lovely black flowers!

Unfortunately, the cabinets took Many, Many coats of paint! They do look nice & bright now. Steve helped me add the silver hardware.


Now Zack wants me to paint white clouds on the walls....I don't think that will happen anytime soon! After this project, I was officially done painting. Then everyone got sick & I was home bound for a few days, so I decided to paint the cabinets in my bathroom too. I don't think I have the energy to do my kitchen cabinets now, but it all depends on the day!!

HaLLoWeeN 2009

This year....

We had a Vampira & her 2 bats!


and a dog!

What scary little bats...Zack & Tyler


They can even fly!

HALLOWEEN NIGHT...

Libby

Zack

Tyler


They don't look very excited for Halloween!


They went trick or treating for 2 hours!


Steve said that this little punk took two pieces of candy at EVERY house!
He didn't have room left in his bucket....


It was overflowing into the stroller!!


Zack has plenty of candy to last him for the next year!!


Libby LOVES those peanut butter cups!!


Tyler didn't think he had quite enough...
I caught him grabbing handfuls of candy from the bowl of candy we were passing out & he was adding it to his pile!!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!