This is for you Marnee!

Our tree is nothing fancy this year but my good friend Marnee has been upset with me because I do not have a picture of it on our blog. It is just plain red and silver but I would love ideas or suggestions for any of you decorators out there. I finally get to have a tree I get to decorate while the kids have their own little tree for all of their beautiful ornaments they make.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

We are getting so much snow today. We already have about 8 inches and it is still coming down. We are expecting to get another 4-8 inches today. It's so fun. I love it. We will be going sledding this afternoon at a hill near our house.

Thanksgiving in Texas

This year in we were luck enough to have my entire family together at Mark's house in Texas. It is so amazing when we can actually get all 23 of us together since we live all over this country. The kids just have a blast. There are all so close in age and just love to play together (for the most part.) Alyssa, Megan and Daniela are the best of friends. We drove to Texas. We left at 9:00 AM on Friday morning and arrived at 10:00 AM on Saturday morning. It was a long drive. Mark took a short stop at rest stop to get a couple hours of shut eye but he drove through the night for the most part. On the way home we were too tired and stopped in Albuquerque and spend the night. While we were there, my brother Mark had everything so organized. Everybody was listed on a spread sheet of when we clean, when we cook and where we sleep. While we were there we played lots of games, watched football and put together a few puzzles. The weather was warm and the kids went in the jacuzzi. The really brave ones jumped in the pool a little bit but the pool water was in the 50's the first day. BRRR!!!

Pumpkin Carving

The night before Halloween each of the kids carved their pumpkins. Ian was very disgusted by the guts and we all had to laugh a little. Poor Ian!

Halloween Costumes

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Alyssa was a cowgirl, Megan was a cheerleader, Colin was Anakin Skywalker and Ian was a firefighter. Ian was going to be Spiderman but when he went upstairs to get his costume on he came down with this old costume of Colin's. Whatever! He had a good time so that is all that matters. We only had four sets of trick-or-treaters at our house. I can't wait until there are more houses around. For dinner I bought everyone a bread bowl from Great Harvest and I made soup to go in them. They were so yummy and they made them to look like pumpkins. It made for a fun dinner. Everyone enjoyed them. It will probable be the start of a Halloween tradition.

BATMAN!

This picture makes me laugh. It is so cute I had to share it. Ian has been walking around for a long time with this mask on pretending he is Batman. We probably should have used this for Halloween but it just came from the dress up drawer.

S'MORES

We were finally able to use our fire pit after waiting days for the morter to set. I did not think the kids were going to make it because they were so excited. We roasted hot dogs for dinner and then s'mores for dessert. Everything turned out really yummy and was a great time.

Megan's 8th Birthday Party!

Although Megan's birthday is not until November 1st, we had her birthday party a week early. Mark and I took 17 girls and boys to see High School Musical 3 on opening weekend. They had a party room at the theater so we stayed there and had cake. I can't believe how quickly time goes. Megan is almost 8 (going on 16). Megan is a very sweet girl and way beyond her years. Here is some pictures from the fun event. Even though Mark dreaded having to go see the movie, I think he really enjoyed it. It was really cute and recommended. You probably need to have kids to have an excuse to go see it though.

Last Weekend's Project

It seems like every weekend we have a some project we are working on. It also seems like they never get quite done but our time is up and it is time to move onto the next project for whatever reason. Last weekend Mark built a fire pit in our backyard and it looks amazing. We are so excited to roast marshmallows and make s'mores but we need to wait until next weekend so the mortar can dry.

Now, here's the problem. The bricks are all stacked and I do not like the topper we bought to go on top. Mark stood this way for about 10 minutes trying to decide what to do. I think he was hoping I would change my mind but no such luck. We took all the toppers back to the store and ended up with something that matched the brick and the ending product looks amazing. He is so handy. I can't believe all the things Mark can figure out how to do.


The pictures really do not do it justice. Next we will be putting a flagstone patio around the fire pit. It will connect with our cement patio to make it a little bigger. I guess that is next weekend's project.

OUR FIRST SNOW!!!

What a fun surprise! We woke up to snow!! The kids cannot walk around our yard yet because the grass is too new. Where there is not grass it is mud. Good thing for our big deck. The deck had about 4 inches of snow on it and it was not melting like it was on the ground. It must be colder up there. Enjoy these pictures of the kids playing in the snow for the first time this season. Although most of the mountains are covered with clouds, you can kind of see why we wanted this big deck. The view of the mountains is amazing. This is very early in the season to receive this much snow.

Our new house!

Hello everyone! I have been wanting to build this blog for a long time and I am finally getting started. It will be a work in progress as I learn everything I can do with it. As most of you know this past year has been extremely busy for us. We have been building our new home. Mark has done about 70 percent of the work and it is still a work in progress. Hopefully, it will be completed by the time we retire and we are ready for a smaller house. We moved out of our other house in June and into this one in July. My parents were lucky enough to have 6 more people for about 5 weeks. It was very helpful and we are very grateful we had a place to stay. Fortunately, we were able to move our cats into the house before us. We are very pleased with the overall outcome of our house. As amateurs we managed to do the plans by ourselves and Mark did the plumbing, electrical, finish carpentry, hardwood, paint, landscaping, tile, glass blocking in the shower and window of the master bath and much, much more. I know there are things I am forgetting. We did not see him for about 6 months. Now we have the luxury of seeing him as he still finishes some of the final touches. Don't worry. The next additions to our blog will be pictures of the family. I know they are more exciting.