Halloween

When it comes to Halloween we tend to be a pretty random family. Usually my kid's costumes are determined by what was on clearance after Halloween the year before, I wear whatever I have laying around, and Shad makes an elaborate costume in hopes of big reactions from all his friends. This year was pretty close to that. The only difference was that I had to help Shad with his costume and make a costume to match because we went to an adult costume party and he wanted to win the best costume prize.

Shad and I were Sampson and Delilah (Shad's idea), Haken was a tiger, and Jack was a bee.

The festivities actually started on the Thursday before Halloween. Haken was able to dress up for preschool that day and then at the end I met his class at the corn maze in Elwood and we found our way through together. Sadly I didn't get pictures of his class together in their costumes. I hope that his teacher did and gives us a copy.

Can't you just tell that Haken is thrilled to be standing by this scary man?

Next was Friday night. We went to a couples costume party at our friend's the Hardy's. We had quite the variety of costumes there. Here are pictures of the couples.

Sampson and Delilah

The Hardy's who threw the party (I think Caleb just had the party so he could show some skin..)

The Hardy's actually won for best costume when we voted, but since it was their house they took the next best.
The border patrol won.

This was my vote. I thought it was very cleaver. I definitely won't have thought of that myself...nor would Shad have worn it.

Most of the festivities were on the actual Halloween day. Our ward didn't do a trunk-or-treat this year due to stake conference and Halloween being on a Monday so Shad took Haken around to some houses to do some "real" trick-or-treating. I don't think he will ask daddy to take him again because he went to all of his friends houses and talked to each one for 10 minutes. Needless to say, Haken didn't get as much candy as he would have liked.

Getting ready to become a tiger. Haken held so still. He was so excited to get his face painted.

This is when I am really glad that I have a husband who is an artist. Sure makes it easier on me!

The finished product. Amazing.

Showing off his Tiger growl

Lovin' that leaf

His little stinger was my favorite part. It waddled back and forth when he crawled. So cute!

We also caught the end of 8th ward trunk-or-treat so we could have someone take our picture and so that Shad could show off his costume of course!

One room at a time...

We have lived in our house for 5 years already. I really can't believe it has been that long. When we moved in our house was a blank canvas with white walls and mocha trim. Since then we have gone room-by-room, as the budget allows, doing what we can to make it "ours."

Last May we decided it was time to finish our laundry/bathroom downstairs. It got kind of old having to run up 2 flights of stairs to get to the bathroom all the time. Especially with our guest room being downstairs. I always felt so bad for those that stayed with us.

It was supposed to be a super easy project (as all projects are) and cost around $1500. Instead it lasted 2 months and cost around $2300. We finished it hours before all of Shad's family came to visit during the 4th of July weekend. I'm surprised the paint was even dry!

This was definitely a learning experience for both of us. I learned that you have to be prepared to compromise, most anything can be found on youtube, and that you need to be really good at keeping your mouth shut while your husband works. Construction is hard on any marriage but especially when you do the work yourself. I have to admit, I seriously doubted Shad's abilities going into this, but I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. It's not perfect, but it is pretty close and he learned SO much during the whole process. He did the entire thing himself with the help of some expert advice from a few family members and friends (including all of the many borrowed tools). My husband is now an electrician, a plumber, a tiler, a painter, a framer, a sheet rocker, and a mudder/taper, just to name a few. This really was a great project for him to learn how to do so many things.

It was a difficult room to arrange since we had to work around the laundry. I insisted on having the washer and dryer in a closet because they are so ugly and I wanted it to feel more like a bathroom than a laundry room since I only use them once a week. It is tight (meaning the washer and dryer BARELY fit out the doors) but it works. It was also tight because Shad insisted on having a walk-in shower. However, the fact that he showers in it every morning made the fight over it legit. I think he has a love affair with that shower after all the work he put into it.

So without further adieu... the pictures that I have been promising for months...

Your first view of the bathroom from the door. You can't tell in the pictures but Shad textured ALL of the walls and did a dang good job! It also hid a lot of the learning mistakes along the way :)

The hallway to the shower/toilet/sink

The hallway from the other direction (the door in this picture leads to our crawl space.)

Laundry doors shut

Laundry doors open (still need a rod for my hanging laundry)

The entrance to Shad's shower (that's right, no door! It wraps around)

The huge shower head that Shad loves so much.

The slate tile floor in the shower. Shad fought very hard for this. It was an added expense, but I'm very glad we did it because it really adds a lot to the bathroom.

The vanity. We scored big on the solid surface countertop. It was a remnant that worked perfectly with our space. We had to have it offset for the plumbing. It only cost us $65 from a granite place here in town. We also found a light fixture to match the existing ones in our house. Turns out it was discontinued and we got the last one.

The toilet "nook."

Linen nook complete with interesting magazines for your reading pleasure.

These are the posters that I have hanging on the walls. I had to post them because they are one of my favorite parts of the bathroom. They are actual ads ripped out of a 1952 "Ladies Home Journal." I got them as a wedding present and saved them just for this purpose. I love them! You can't see all of the funny things they say, you will just have to take my word that they are hilarious! I can't believe people used to think this way about women! I'm still looking for more vintage knick-nacks to match.

So that is the bathroom in a nutshell. I hope you got a feel for what it would feel like to really walk through it. We still have the guest room to finish. I think we will have to wait a few years to recover from finishing the bathroom first.

Since moving in we have also worked hard on decorating other rooms, but not anything like we did in the bathroom. Painting is a much easier process than construction. I am adding pictures of the boys rooms that we have done in the last two years, requested by my sis-in-law Aubrey. 

Miracle of Miracles!

Back in August we went on a family vacation to North Carolina. Some of you may remember this post describing in detail all of the things that we lost on our vacation and then found....everything except for our video camera. 

Well.....after 2 months of sleepless nights and thinking over and over again about how I should have grabbed the camera on our way out the plane...our video camera has been found once again! This camera is one lucky camera to have been found twice in connection with this vacation. The first time we lost it in a crowded bathroom at Wilmington beach and then again on our flight home. 

Seriously every night I would lay awake thinking about this camera and wondering if there was anything more that I could do to find it. I thought surely if someone took it they would see the two years worth of video of my children and have the heart to turn it in. After filing a report there was nothing else I could do but sit and wait to see if someone found it. On a crazy whim one day, after two months of no news, I decided to call the Southwest baggage claim in Dallas and give them a bit more information on the camera. I talked to a sweet lady who read the report back to me that I had given (or supposedly given). Turns out that they had the report in their computer as a BLACK camera when clearly my camera is RED! They had it sitting in their warehouse the whole time! So, they went through the process of making sure it really was mine and then FEDEX'ed it to my house. MIRACLE! I'm glad the spirit was working on me through the whole two months to get me to call them again. Kinda wished it wouldn't have taken me that long to finally listen!

Needless to say all of the video will be transferred to our computer and onto DVD's ASAP and our name and phone number will be engraved into this camera. I'm not taking any chances next time.

Applesauce

This year I decided to try my hand at applesauce. My friend Janese offered me a whole bushel of apples, and of course I took them! We aren't real big applesauce eaters (except for Jack), but I do substitute applesauce for vegetable oil in recipes quite frequently and we do like to make fruit leather with applesauce and kool-aid, so I think that this applesauce will be well used. I'm not quite sure what apples they were, but I'm guessing Jonagold or gala (they were red). They were quite a bit tart so I had to add a little bit of sugar to sweeten them up. A bushel of apples gave me 15 jars (and a bit in the fridge). It wasn't as hard as I thought, mostly because I borrowed an apple peeler/corer/slicer. It made the process so much more manageable. 

Jack was quite the little helper. I think a lot of the apples ended up with bruises, but when you're making applesauce, it's all good!

OCD or Genius?

This is the last thing that Haken did before he went to bed tonight. He made sure that I knew he was going to play with it in the morning so that I wouldn't clean it up. It is "all of the cars in the whole world" lined up to get a carwash. Just when I thought he couldn't think of anything else to line up, he did.

About a year and a half ago he became obsessed with lining things up. He lined up crayons, scrabble tiles, silverware, playing cards, letter magnets, Rummikub tiles, cookie cutters, basically anything that I had a lot of. I thought he had gotten over this phase since he kind of stopped doing it for a while...I was wrong. It seems like whenever football season starts he starts it back up again. He is constantly having all of his little game pieces make an interactive football game on the floor. Most of the time it is on the rug in my front room that has stripes making it look like a football field. The Rummikub tiles are the football players (he diligently counts out 11 players for each team), the magnet letters are usually the band and color guard during the half time show, and the scrabble pieces are the people in the stands (sitting on the stands from the Rummikub game). He came up with this all by himself! One day I was canning applesauce and he played this, by himself, for a solid 2 hours!

Just about ready to start one of his football games (see all the "people" lined up in the stands behind him) 

 Setting up for half time

The football players riding on a semi-truck in a parade to the football game. 

 The rest of these pictures were taken a year and half ago...not much has changed except for now the objects he lines up represent actual people and not just things. I love how his imagination has just exploded!

Primary Program

Yesterday was the primary program in our ward. It was Haken's very first primary program. The night before he was coughing like crazy, coming down with a bit of a cold...again. I was a little worried as he was coughing the whole morning nonstop before church, however, after a bit of medicine and a lot of praying, he got through the program without too much coughing. I considered having him stay home, but I couldn't bare the thought of him missing his first program after he had worked so hard at memorizing his part the last two weeks. He said his part absolutely perfect without any help. I was so proud of him! His part was:

"My favorite person in the scriptures is Nephi because he obeyed and built a ship. He teaches me that I should obey too."

He got to write his own part about his favorite person and picked Nephi. He did so great and didn't seem too nervous. Maybe after standing up in front of everyone on Sunday he will now be brave enough to go and bare his testimony. He has been talking about it for probably a year or so and we have told him he had to go up on his own. We will see how brave he gets in the next few months. He isn't too much into singing in front of people anymore, but he sure does love to talk (just like his daddy!) He is such a good little boy and surprises me everyday. Love you Haken!