Halloween 2014

Pumpkins, pre-carving. 

This is most of the kiddos that started out together, it fell apart pretty quickly. 

Parker is an iPhone, Mimi is a Lollipop, and Yoda is a Transformer called Bumblebee. 

A cool pumpkin I saw. 

After trick-or-treating and trading goodies. 

 School Parade, it's always so tough to get a good photo.  Parker is right in the middle of the frame.
I heard Mimi saying, "I hope my mom makes it!"  Then she saw me and so happy!  

Hope you had a happy Halloween!

A little get-away

Greg has been super busy with work and stuff, when things calmed down, I was determined to get out of town!  (bonus* Greg had a free car rental, so we took advantage of that!)  The kiddos had a 1/2 day of school, so we took off on Friday afternoon and drove to Erie, PA.  Our dear friends have lived there for almost as long as we have lived here, and yet, we have not visited... seemed like a good time to go.  And while we were at it, we drove the rest of the way to Niagara Falls!  Greg and I busted out our brand-new passports and took off :) 

We just had to do lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, it seemed too funny.  I haven't been there since the 80's and Greg in the 90's. 

Off to the falls....

We decided to park and walk across to the Canadian side. 

 On the border. 

 The only thing we did was go behind the falls.  It was pretty fun. 

 One reason we didn't take the boat is, it was COLD!  It even snowed a little while we were there!  But the other reason is, Parker started saying his stomach was hurting. 

Yoda, "I got an eye-patch"

We started walking back across the bridge, the photo above is just seconds before Parker lost his dinner all over the walkway.  Sorry Canada! 

They lit us the Falls a little early, we were so worried we would miss it.  It was so beautiful! We drove home that night.  So worth the trip! 

Cookies

At church I told Greg, "If you fall asleep at church, you have to make cookies" 

Greg said, "what kind?" and then he fell asleep

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Later at home I asked Greg, "when's the last time you made cookies"

Greg, "I don't know, but it's been more then 15 years."

by the way, we've been married for over 15 years :)

 

Yoda, "Look!  I made Ohio!"

Mimi was in on the action too, she made Florida. 

Pumpkin time

Our neighbors invited us to tag-a-long to the pumpkin farm.  I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  The kiddos had a blast...

Yoda, "this is my FIRST time seeing REAL hay!"

Here are some videos of the windy day. 

Bathroom

Here's the update.  The plumber and the tile fitter did all the hard work.  We've still got a bit more to do, and when I say we, I mean me.  Greg would like to help, but he's busy; he finances the whole thing, and that's an important job.

I will post again when the room is complete, for now it's functional and that's good enough.

Just as a refresher here's where we started at day one

 Old floor (this one's for you, mom)  

I pulled up the floor, it took about 15 minutes, gross.  I also emptied out the bathrooms.  

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 Day two = tub and wall out. 

 

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 Day three = tub in and vanity out.  

At this point we still had a fully functional bathroom in our room, and this toilet still worked. 

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Here's a couple day-end photos of the tile work.  It's so lovely.  

 

 Extra protection RedGard paint. 

 See the little shampoo nooks?  And tile all the way to the ceiling?  So classy!

I did some wall repair and I added some trim around the room.  

I also painted (yes, it's blue, but a better blue!) 

 I also stained a new, smaller vanity.  

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 Here's today!

Sink, toilet, and working shower and tub.  The kiddos were so excited they brought in their light-up, Angry Birds toothbrushes to brush their teeth.  They might go back to our room for brushing until there's a mirror to stare at. 

I'll let you know when there's something new to report! 

This was the conversation at 2 am...

Greg to Yoda, "you're a good boy"
Yoda, "sometimes I'm not very good at listening"

he had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night but didn't make it. 

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At General Conference on Sunday Yoda saw something like this


"All the blues are womans"

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Here's a little video with Yoda pretty excited about the progress of our little bathroom reno.

And here's Mimi helping out, in a tiara no less...