One Sunday . . . In October

This is the Calamus on a windy October Sunday afternoon.

Here are some spectators.

Matthew

Grace

One Sunday in October we ventured out to a ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills. Matt & Grace were just 2 of 13 people that were baptized in the freezing water. What a wonderful day! They are the third generation (on Dave's side) to be baptized in this river. What an amazing heritage! I am so proud of them, they took the initiative, they understood what statement they were making on this day and they strive daily to live a life that is pleasing to God. I am so blessed to call them my children. Someday it will be Aaron's turn. If I do nothing else in this world I hope that I succeed in being an example to my children of Christ's love and mercy.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It is my favorite time of the year.

How about you?

We put up the Christmas tree this past weekend. We all had a great time, except for maybe Dave!! He does not care for straightening a real tree, I probably exasperate the issue by being his helper. ;) I'm not very good at holding the tree straight!! But we did it, & it only fell over twice. HeeHee

It is a beautiful tree, but I think this may be the last year we do a real one. Of course, I say that every year!! The kids love to decorate and each one has a definite opinion on where things should go--so does Mom! After we finished the tree, we had eggnog and watched one of our all time favorite holiday movies. Fancy a guess???? Here is a hint: "I'm in a store and I'm singing."

This week we also started reading the scripture of Advent. I found them at Focus on theFamily. Last night, we watched The Nativity. We are beginning new Christmas traditions in our household. How about you? Are you doing anything new this year?

As I said, this is my favorite time of the year & I can't really put words to why it is. It is something I feel deep inside of me every year at this time. I am in awe as I remember the greatest Gift and deepest Love that has ever been given. God sent His Son to earth as a babe. This year remember to celebrate the birthday of the King of Kings above all else. Merry Christmas!

A dinner party

Saturday evening we had several guests over for dinner. We weren't for sure who would actually arrive on that evening but we were pleasantly surprised to find Supergirl, a pumpkin, a mummy, several princesses, a cheerleader, Pippy Longstocking, a football player, a rockstar, James Bond, a baby Siberian tiger and their parents!

We enjoyed having friends in our home for the first meal we've shared with company since we have moved. I am emabarassed to say it has taken so long. But I am proud to say it won't be so long before our next dinner party. It was crazy with 25 people in our little home, but we made it work and we had a good time. Most everyone finished their evening with some trick-or-treating. Our kiddos went to a carnival and came home with all kinds of loot.

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I have no excuse! Talk soon.

After: The kitchen

Here it is, the most radically changed room in the house. You will need to see this post if you need a reminder of what the kitchen looked like before. Obviously, we are not finished yet. We need to finish trimming out the cabinets and painting.

We will be installing a copper hood above the stove top and we need to trim out around the microwave. I dream of another oven someday! I need to share with you that we were blessed with this stovetop/cabinet and wall oven/cabinet, copper hood and a refridgerator. A friend of my dad's decided to redo her kitchen and gave us all of this. And the butcher block that we are using for the island. The butcher block needs some trimming but I love. God has been so good to us. Below is the antique tile that we found. We hope to use it around the stove top and, if there is enough, above the countertop by the sink. It was made in Italy.

The walls are chocolate brown and the counter top is formica that looks like granite. I will update again when we have finished everything. Thanks for checking in. We painted the cabinets, moved cabinets, knocked out a pole, and put in new flooring. We also added the 'new' cabinets including the oven and stove top, and sink. We love our home. And obviously we still have things to do, but I will show you the finished project soon. I hope!

After: The dining room

Here is the dining room. I love that the dining room and living room are really the same room. We will have plenty of space to extend the table. I am working on incorporating new/old chairs. The chairs that we had when we lived out in the country are falling apart because of the dry heat from the wood stove.

As you can see we are still working on finding homes for things. I can't wait to use the window seat. I have dreams of pillows and cushions and blinds for the window! More pictures to come when the room is complete. Please click here to see the before pictures!

After: The living room

This is looking out the front window, which is original to the house. Don't you love our chair? Our couch should be here next week. It is a beautiful sectional! We are tired of fighting over the chair. heehee

The front door is original to the house as well. The house was built in 1937, I believe. Notice the register is missing. I am painting them.

This is one of the built-ins. There is a matching one on the opposite wall. The stairs lead up to the attic where the boys' room is. The door you see is to Gracie's room. Pictures of the bedrooms and bathroom will come later. They are not picture worthy yet!!

This picture really dwarfs the size of the hutch. We have 10' ceilings in the entire house with the exception of the attic. As you can see things are not quite finished. I am still trying to figure out what to do with the walls. So, I was pretty exited when I stopped by The Inspired Room earlier this week. She is hosting a Fall Nesting Party this week, I am hoping for a chance to win one of the shopping sprees to HomeGoods. I am sure I could find something for my living room walls and even a throw pillow or two for my new sectional!! I am also trying to find something for the windows. I promise to post more pictures when the room is complete. Thanks for stopping by and if you are wondering what the before looked like please click here.

The 1st day of school

This was the first day of school. We walked. Matt was on a mission, excerting his independence, I think. Aaron was his crazy self. And Miss Grace was Miss Grace. They have done well these first two weeks. Homework has been hard for Gracie and mornings have been hard for Aaron. Matt is loving Middle School. He is even reading on his own!!!!
**I just read this post again. I made it sound like Matt needed help with reading. What I meant to say was that I don't have to ask him to read, he is choosing to read on his own. I think he has finally discovered the adventures that books can be. Yeah!!

Our trip to Gram's house

The week before school started the kids and I were in the Kansas City area visiting Gram, Jana and Carter. We also did some school shopping and Gram treated us to a fun time around town. I am still waiting for the pictures, so I can share them with you. Gram? This picture was taken at my cousin's house. She and my uncle put a lot of work into this place and it looks amazing! It has been years since the family has been together, my aunt from ND was also there. We had a great time!

Creek Time

We did spend some time at the creek this summer, cooling off and enjoying time with friends and good ol' watermelon slices. Yum!

Before: The kitchen

Besides the boys' room, the kitchen received the biggest change. We tore out some upper and lower cabinets that created a peninsula. You can see where they used to be in the first picture. They created a porch area in the back half of the kitchen. We reused the cabinets along the back wall. The kitchen is much more open now. It doesn't even look the same!

Before: Boys' Room

The boys possibly have the coolest room in the house. This is the attic before. It is the whole width of the house.

More Before Pictures

The hallway, Gracie's room, and our room. Can you guess which one is which? You can see what the colors were before we began painting.

The House: Before

These are pictures of our home before the remodel. This is the living/dining room and bathroom. Notice the floors in the living/dining area, we tried to refinish the floors, but after using every piece of sandpaper in our town, we did not even finish this one area. So, we chose to do carpet. And we are loving the finished rooms!

A break from the house

Some good friends finally came to visit us (after three years of begging!) We were so glad to have them here. We kept them very busy. Saturday morning the guys and kiddos went fishing. They had quite a bit of good luck with the bass! That afternoon we went to some friends' for some 4-wheeling, tubing, and swimming with some diving and rope swinging thrown in. The kids spent the entire time swinging from the rope and I think we were there five hours. Krista and I took two of the kids tubing and that was an experience! The nice little rapids sent me straight into a dead tree and then the kids and I got stuck once, but it was fun despite the cries of "I want off!" "I don't want to do this ever again!" "I don't like this!" And those were from my daughter, who had a death grip on my hand! All in all, it was a great day and we enjoyed the company of some great friends that we haven't seen in quite some time. We always love visitors, so please come see us.

This weekend also provided us with a much needed break from the house and now it is full speed ahead. Thanks, Jim and Nancy, for providing the lodging for our guests while we are in between homes!

Housework

We have been very busy around here. We are moving again!! Don't worry this is a good thing for our family, we have had a little retreat out here in the country and now it is time to move back to town. We are moving back into our home in the 'city.' I use the term loosely. It is actually a town of 1800 give or take a few. We have tried to sell our home there and have not had any luck. The Lord knew that we would need it and here we are preparing to move back in. This time we are making some changes before we move and I will soon be posting before and after pictures. I have an amazing husband who has been busy at work and at home. Today, it was too wet for the guys to work at the house they are building so they taped and mudded the attic, which will be the boys' room. Thanks, Joel, for all of your help today. We also did some rearranging of the kitchen. I am really excited. I have been busy painting and doing more painting and more painting. The kids have enjoyed playing with the neighborhood children. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to make these changes, I think it is the best thing for our family. I just wish we didn't have to actually 'move' again. This makes move number 15 in 14 years of marriage, you'd think we had it down to a science!