Trick or Treat 2009

Halloween was a busy day! After our morning Halloween party we napped and then headed over to our friends house for dinner and a quick

trick or treat down their street.

Then we headed over to our favorite street in town for some scary thrilling Halloween tricks and plenty of yummy and fun treats!

Charlie wanted to be a Space Train

And Tommy had fallen in love with a Knights Helmet at the Dollar Store, so hence his Knight costume

We had a GREAT Halloween, hope you did too!

Halloween Party 2009

We had a great time with all of our friends on Halloween!

Everyone had great costumes or
scary Halloween shirts on!

There were LOTS of treats


And some fun games like
Feed the Monster

And
Bobbing for Donuts


Thanks friends for helping to make our Halloween a blast!!

Carving Pumpkins

We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins

the boys helped scoop them out

and even told us what kind of faces they wanted their pumpkins to wear

Can you guess what Charlie's was doing?

We then watched the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
ate dirt (pudding, crushed oreos, and gummy worms)
and stayed up late anticipating the fun of the following day!!

Fall Fun and Brotherly Love

Charlie throwing leaves at Mommy

The boys having fun in the leaves

Mommy getting buried with leaves by Tommy

We have been playing in the leaves a lot lately...tis' the season!

Today while playing in the leaves, Daddy was dragging the leaves out to the front lawn on the tarp and Tommy thought it was pretty fun to stand on tarp so that Daddy could not move it. Jokingly I told Tommy that if he didn't get off the tarp that he would end up in the big pile of leaves out front and that the leaf vacuum truck would come and suck him up too. Tommy thought that was hilarious and laughed in his crazy little Tommy way! But sweet sensitive Charlie thought it was horrible and immediately had a very concerned look on his face and went and threw his arms around Tommy's neck telling us that he didn't want Tommy to get taken away by the leaf truck because "He is my brother and I love him!"

I just love those moments where the boys show their true love and adoration for each.

The Floors

These were our hardwood floors before

Notice that dark spot in front of the carpet? The black spot that would actually sweat when it was really humid out....yes, you read correctly, it would sweat.....gross!

We have lived with these floors in this condition for a long time. Waiting for the right moment, if there truly is such a thing, to undertake the project of refinishing them.
My Dad and Stepmom had the equipment needed to sand the floors as they just put flooring down in their new home, they offered it to us. We are blessed! We could not pass up the opportunity and so Trent jumped on it!

Trent sanding and then staining.
In a matter of hours we had a plan formulated. Refinishing floors is not an easy task, especially when you have a house full of small children!
We moved the furniture out to the back porch, to the kitchen, to the basement, literally to wherever it would fit! We had our exercise bike and tv in our kitchen. For those of you that have been to our home, you can only imagine how fun that was!!
In the end we ate out A LOT, we unexpectedly spent the night (from 4:30am to 1oam) in a hotel, a fun night at Nana's (thank you Nana!! You were MORE then gracious to host us!!), a week of complete upheaval, and A LOT of physical work and problem solving on my honey's part. And through the process...and boy was it a process I kept thinking to myself...I can deal with this upheaval and feeling of displacement as long as I am with my family. Because in all that we do, we do as a family! And after ALL that, this is what we were left with................

BEAUTIFUL hardwood floors
And a week of adventure together!

I love the color that we choose, I love how shiny they are, I love how clean and even they look, I love how they make our home look more finished, and most importantly I LOVE the man that painstakingly took these floors from drab to fabulous!!
And in the days since, he has worried and fretted over any glitches, any imperfections, any way that he could of made them better. But that is just his way.

I truly feel blessed to be married to a man that is so willing and eager to use his own hands and intellect to make our house more of a home for our family....not to mention save us a lot of money in the process!!

And I also feel blessed to have family that is also so willing to lend us a hand in whatever projects we undertake and in whatever life events come our way.

Thanks Honey for all your hard work!! You did an incredible job!!

Who you gonna call?.....Brandon!

When there is something strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call???

Brandon spent the morning building a proton pack with Trent for Halloween. What is a proton pack you ask? You know, the packs that the guys from the movie Ghost Busters wore to suck up their slimy ghost friends.

Brandon wanted to be a Ghost Buster, so here is what they came up with.....

Uncle Trent and Brandon

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Heaven on Earth

If you asked Charlie what his FAVORITE thing in the world is, he would answer TRAINS, TRAINS and MORE TRAINS!!!

So when we were invited to visit Mr. Dave, one of Trent's co-workers, at his train display at his home, Charlie was MORE then thrilled.
Can you say candy land for a train lover!!

Charlie was BESIDE himself with glee! And Mr. Dave, such a
kind man, even let Charlie play with some of the trains!!

It could not get any better then this!!

OR COULD IT????!!!

It COULD if the kind man, Mr. Dave, GAVE you a brand new,
LIONEL Coast Guard train set, never opened,
never played with, with tracks and control
crane car, boat, caboose etc etc

And since every trains needs a train table......
Daddy and the boys had to make one.....
that afternoon!!!

oh the fun!

THANK YOU MR. DAVE!!
YOU MADE A DREAM COME TRUE!!