The Christmas Season Has Begun!

After a fun-filled Thanksgiving in Virginia (of which I have NO pictures, I know Mom...it is very disappointing!!) we came home last Saturday and got right to work on decorating our house for Christmas. We got the outside lights and indoor decorations done on Saturday and saved the tree and Christmas village for the next day.

 

 

These two took the whole "trimming the tree" business very seriously!

 

 

 

Abby was even patient enough to help Little Nolan hang his first few ornaments.

 

 

 

 

We were sure to hang all of the breakable ornaments out of Nolan's reach but so far he hasn't messed with the tree too much. Let's hope it stays that way for the rest of the holiday season.

 

Ahhhh...now time to enjoy the most wonderful time of the year!!!

As if Soccer couldn't get any better?!?!?

Landon loved his first season of soccer. And then to add to the joy they announced that each child would be receiving a trophy for participating. A TROPHY!!!! Landon was thrilled with this news. Unfortunately I had Stake Women's Conference on that same morning so I wasn't able to be there, but Jason was sure to capture all the excitement on camera!

 

This is Landon's head coach "Craig"...

 

 

Giving him a "high-five" for a great season!

 

 

Landon with his new bling!

 

 

The only sad part about this whole event was that Abby has been yearning for a trophy for years and was a tad bit jealous to see her younger brother earn one before she did. She promptly declared that she would be playing soccer in the spring. However since we only allow them one activity at a time, I think she will stick to gymnastics after all. Hopefully all that tumbling and flipping will someday result in her very own shiny trophy!

How many doors in your house?

So for about two weeks during the month of September I took on quite the "home improvement" project. We have been slowly undertaking a project around our home that we refer to as "Operation-get-rid-of-the-brassy-gold" (our home is only 5 years old but the brassy gold is just not our thing.) We have replaced almost all of the light fixtures original to the house but there was something bugging me about all the doorknobs in the house. They all looked like this...

I admit that this isn't horrible, but I really wanted a nicer color to complete our "Operation-get-rid-of-the-brassy-gold." We priced out the cost of replacing all 26 (yes 26!) doorknobs in our house and it was going to cost us almost $800 including the plates and hinges.

 

Then I thought "Why can't I spraypaint these like I did our patio furniture last summer?" So I read/watched a few tutorials and got started. The process included:

1. Removing every nail, plate, hinge, doorstopper and knob

2. Washing them clean then sanding them down so the paint would adhere better

3. Taking them to the garage to prime (2 coats)

4. Spray painting (3-4 coats)

Needless to say this job was extremely time consuming but I broke it out to just 2-3 doors per day and finished in just under two weeks.

And I completely LOVE the results...

 

The total cost of this project was about $50 (sand paper, primer and spraypaint) so the fact that I saved over $750 was well worth the effort. Plus let's be honest, we wouldn't have spent $800 to replace perfectly good doorknobs and hinges, but $50 was money well spent.

 

I did almost resort to buying a new handle for the front door...that is until I discovered that a front door handle starts at about $120 (priced at Lowes). So spray painting the front door alone saved us quite a bit of money!!

 

 

So far the knobs are holding up great and I am so happy with how this project turned out. Oh, and I'm also very happy to be DONE with it!!

Flip Flopper

Our little man is getting one step closer to being able to dress himself. He got this flip-flop on all by himself and was so proud of his accomplishment.

 

 

 

The Tooth is Gone!!

It turns out that Trick-or-Treating wasn't the only exciting thing to happen on Halloween. After months of wiggling this loose tooth, it finally decided to make it's disappearing act right before bedtime on Halloween night. To say Abby was excited would be a huge understatement. I think she is the last person in her 1st grade class to finally lose their first tooth and she was more than ready for it to happen (plus the visit from the tooth fairy was a good economic incentive for her.)

 

 

Her envelope read: "To the Tooth Fairy"

 

 

She had informed us a few weeks ago that a few kids in her class had received $10 for their first tooth. Jason and I were a bit shocked and explained that her tooth fairy was probably not going to be quite as generous. The tooth fairy did leave a generous amount for her first tooth ($2) which she was still thrilled with.

 

But I still want to know how to get that $10 tooth fairy to come to our house?!?!?

Time to Trick-or-Treat

Abby and Landon have been looking forward to Halloween for a really long time and it did not disappoint. We ended up going out for almost two hours and finished up with two buckets very full of candy. Landon got a bit lazy and wanted to be carried for part of it but Abby was a tropper and probably would have gone longer if there had been any more room in her bucket!

 

Our neighborhood was very generous, but at the few homes where they would give each child one piece of candy, both kids would still graciously say "Thank you" but then Landon would turn around and yell to us "They ONLY gave us ONE piece." Unfortunately this happened on multiple occasions. We tried to explain that one piece was still very generous, but I guess it was a hard concept for this four-year-old when other houses would give them or encourage them to take whole handfuls of candy. We'll have to work on that one!

 

Here's Abby with her load. (She got so many compliments about her halloween costume. It was actually my costume for three years in a row when I was about her age and it was still in excellent condition. Many of the moms at church and in our neighborhood LOVED it and talked about how much they used to love Rainbow Brite. Unfortunately none of the younger girls even knew who she was. I guess Rainbow Brite needs to make a comeback like Strawberry Shortcake and Cabbage Patch Kids!)

 

 

Landon was very pleased with his candy collection (and I liked the looks of that Reeses train...parent candy tax you know!!)

 

And here's the star of the show...Shark Boy! He was more than content riding around in his stroller all night when we gave him a candy bag to play with. He never did quite figure out to open it though!

 

We weren't even sure this night would happen with Hurricane Sandy looming, but we are very grateful to have been spared the brunt of the storm and we were glad that Mother Nature still made this night possible!

Frankenstorm Sandy

After much warning and hype about "Frankenstorm 2012," we were ready to hunker down and expect the worst for a few days. They cancelled school on Monday and by that afternoon the wind and rain really started to pick up. Hurricane Sandy made landfall just north of us in New Jersey on Monday night but we were fortunate enough to be spared from any damage.

 

Here's what our backyard looked like around 9 p.m. on Monday, October 29th...

 

 

 

 

 

We had some pretty good gusts throughout the night but fortunately we all slept pretty well despite the howling wind.

This is what our neighborhood looked like on Tuesday morning. A small swimming pool in the lot next door and an unfortunate trampoline that had bit the dust (we were fortunate that our trampoline, playset and patio table were all undamaged.)



By the time we woke up, the wind was barely a breeze and the rain had died down to just a trickle. We fortunately had no flooding in our area and never lost power. Our hearts go out to those who sustained much more damge than we did and especially to those who lost their lives. We sure are glad that Sandy is out of here now!!