Fall Festival

 The church behind our house, where Preston and Liberty go to Mother's Day Out, was having a Fall Festival.  They had hot dogs, games that you won candy for playing, costume contest and a bouncy house.  They had a great time and looked OH SO CUTE!

Originally I wanted to get Liberty a skunk costume.  We call her 'Lil Stinker and that was going to be her party theme.  Well the costume didn't come in the mail in time.  So instead I looked for a Jesse costume so she would match Woody and Buzz but that didn't work out either.....maybe next year because the costumes were a little big but the boys personalities fit right in with what they had on.  A friend of mine gave us this little princess dress and Lib looked oh so sweet.

Trunk or Treat

Many churches offer what is called Trunk or Treat, as an alternative solution to trick or treating on Halloween.  It is safer than going house to house.  Church members dress up the trunks of their cars with a theme, line up all the cars in the church parking lot and hand out candy.  The church we attend was having one and we signed up.  They also were having a contest to win prizes for certain categories. Unfortunately it rained, so we each set up two chairs inside instead.

Our theme was pirates, but I focused more on the treasure part.  Thankfully we had leftovers from Hallister's pirate party. I put out two scrolls with verses Matthew 6:19 and Matthew 6:20,  "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  In our treasure chest along with "gold bars" I put our million dollar tracts.  (They look real, but on the back is the "million dollar question", Will you go to Heaven when you die? Here's a quick test......and it runs through the ten commandments and makes the person reading understand that if they disobey the commandments they are guilty and headed for Hell. But that is not God's will for us to go to Hell.  That is why He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross and commute our death sentence.)  It was interesting to see the kids get the money and think it is real and be excited, then their facial expressions changed to confusion and "Aww man."  I think it was a good representation of people looking for satisfaction with money or other material things.  They satisfy for a little while but then they dry up we fill empty again. Our preacher has talked on this a lot lately, you can't dabble in the world and God, you have to follow one or the other. The only thing that will truly satisfy is a relationship with Jesus Christ.  I was praying as the kids were taking the candy and tracts that they and their parents would understand.

It ended up I won the "Most Christian" category.   We got Rudolph antlers and a nose TO PUT ON OUR CAR!  So yes that is right people, come Christmas time we will be arriving Rudolph style in the burb.

It was a lot of fun and we will probably do it again next year!

Kitchen Remodel

(Yep, still catching up on posts.)

A friend of mine had the same brown cabinets in her kitchen that we do.  She told me she was painting them with chalk paint, because you don't have to use a primer.  After two months she finished.  I came over to see her nice, bright white kitchen cabinets and realized that is just what we needed as well.

Most of the painting projects have been done by Jonathan because I have been pregnant, but I knew this was one I wanted to take on all by myself.  After three weeks, many nap times and weekends later, our kitchen became white and bright.  It looked newer, like it was supposed to be that way this whole time.  I must say, I am pretty proud of how it turned out.

Enjoy the before and after pictures.

BEFORE

 

  

AFTER

 

 

Play Room: Take 1

In August I got tired of having toys in the kids rooms and in the living room.  They would go back and forth with the toys all day.

I decided we need ONE room to contain them.  We have friends that, when their kids were little, and they had a three bedroom house they moved all 3 kids into one room and the other room was the play room.  So.....I decided to try it!

We moved Liberty's crib into the boys room.  Since the boys have bunk beds, and our house was built in the 80's, her bed fit great because the rooms are huge.

We rearranged a few different ways and set up different "stations" in the play room.  Of course Preston mainly gravitates around the train table.  Liberty likes to play farm and "cook".  Hallister might play with the cars, but also with the "real" lego's in his room so Liberty wouldn't put them in her mouth.

It has worked nicely, but with me working 10 hours a week from home and consistently getting more work on top of that we knew I needed an office. Having to work on the computer in the living room was difficult, so we started to look at 4 bedroom houses.  We found some out in the country like we wanted but not in our price range.

We talked to our financial advisers and they said that in this economy it would be more wise to add on than to get a new house and increase our mortgage.  So.....we decided to enclose half the garage to create a play room, with the door to it coming from the living room.  That way Jonathan would still have half the garage for his tools that he uses to work on the cars.

We have started on the new play room and it is almost complete!  Jonathan has worked really hard on it for over three months.  We have bought supplies after each pay check and it will be ready just in time for us to host our first Thanksgiving.  Stay tuned for pictures of the Play Room: Take 2.