Halloween? Really? Yes! Because I'm Awesome Like That

I decided to look through some of my pictures and rediscovered these from Halloween.

Such a wonderful day we had.

We spent the whole day playing and having fun and preparing for trick-or-treating that night. We carved pumpkins, made a spooky meal and got ready for the evening's festivities.

 

Here are some of our pumpkins. They turned out super fabulous this year. I have always wanted to try putting Christmas lights in my pumpkin. I cleaned the guts out of my pumpkin, got out Boyd's trusty drill and started drilling holes everywhere.

Then I stuck one Christmas light through each of the drilled holes. The effect was, in my humble opinion, simply marvelous.

Isaac was dressed like a skeleton this year. Words can't quite describe how adorable he was.

 

Just take a peek for yourself:

Sheer joy.

 

And a reminder note to self:

 

Halloween 2013, dog goes to kennel overnight. The barking at the doorbell got on everyone's nerves so bad we were ready to sell him.

 

Oh. And he HATES scary movies. He is worse than me.

 

Never. Again. Will. He. Be. Home. On. Halloween.

The Final Frontier.....A New Shed

Built exclusively by my amazing husband with help from yours truly.

This shed was a kit. We bought it from the Lifetime Store at the beginning of the summer with hopes of completing it before the snow began to fly.

There were four boxes in all, full of shed pieces. Instructions? Yes! A picture book. No words, just pictures. And those pictures required great thinking skills by all involved.

We started early on a chilly Wednesday morning thinking that for sure we would have the shed completed by early evening.  But when we couldn't figure out exactly how to lay the floor pieces...the very beginning of the shed, we got worried.

We called the customer service line, got some instructions and off we went. We were cruising along. However, these things take time and when it began to get dark Wednesday evening and we weren't done, we felt a little panicky. After all, there was a wild and wicked storm brewing.

Boyd made arrangements to take Thursday morning off so we could finish.

Thursday morning we were having problems with the roofline over the door. It just didn't fit right. My suggestion was to leave it and fix it after the storm was over. Boyd would have none of that.

He walked into the house and arranged for a couple more hours off of work and thought about our problem. He came outside with a solution. We had to unscrew some trusses and remove part of the roof and saw exactly what the problem was.

Once we fixed everything, the shed came together fast and almost perfect. I am so proud of both of us. And even more proud that I only said two naughty words to Boyd......

He didn't say any, which shows you what a better person than me he is.

Yet Another Home Improvement Project

In addition to putting a fence around our back yard, we decided to add some more driveway to the side of the house...an RV pad of sorts.

We offered all the grass on the side of the house to our neighbors IF they would come and get it themselves. Best idea ever. They cut it with a sod cutter and hauled it all over to their yard and we both got what we wanted.

Then we found an amazing company to pour our cement.

They prepped our back yard to pour a pad for our shed and also got the area on the side of the house ready...complete with a drain from the house and 4 inches of gravel.

The day finally came when they were ready to pour.

These guys literally wheelbarrowed the cement to the back corner of our yard, dumped it out and came back for more. It was grueling work.

Filling in our shed pad one wheelbarrow at a time.

Pouring the last of the side driveway.

The Paget brothers did such a great job. We love our driveway so much.

We went from one adult child living at home to three adult children, all with their own cars. We poured this extra cement just in the nick of time. There is room for everyone to park.

The only bad part is that it has tripled our snow shoveling this year. We have shoveled our brains out and are now running out of spots to put the snow.

We are so tempted to buy a snowblower, but then...it might never snow again.

A Little Reminiscing

We have waited a long time for a new fence.

The horrible wind storms a year ago made it necessary to consider this matter carefully.

I knew one thing:

I only wanted my brother, Jon, to do the fence for me.

He hesitantly agreed and began the arduous labor of preparing for the foundation of the fence.

He and a friend literally dug out BY HAND a one foot wide and 1-2 foot deep trench all the way around the side and back of our house.

He worked like a dog.

Finally the day came that we could pour cement.

The pump truck driver came first and began setting up his hose.

Then the cement truck came.

And finally, here is Jon, his friend, Trent, and my nephew, Paul setting the posts in the cement.

Jon made those posts PERFECTLY level.

It was a long, difficult process, but they got it done.

When there isn't 3 feet of snow in my backyard, I'll post a picure of the finished product.

It is spectacular and worth the wait.

In other news, I have loved going through my pictures in the fall and seeing green grass.

It gives me hope of spring coming....

Thanksgiving Day

This Thanksgiving we had the classic Thanksgiving dinner.

You know, turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, etc.

But I wanted a little something more this year. Some excitement.

So we bought tickets and went to a movie.

First time ever that I have gone to a movie on Thanksgiving Day!

We picked "Skyfall".

It was, hands down, our most favorite James Bond movie we have ever seen.

So if you find yourself bored and wanting some great entertainment, go see "Skyfall".

A Very Productive Naptime

One afternoon Kalie put Isaac down for a nap in my bedroom.

The portacrib wasn't too far from our bookcase.

While in my bedroom, Isaac took advantage of the close proximity of the books.

He zipped his way through the Chronicles of Narnia, plus many other classic titles.

Oblivious to anything going on upstairs, Kalie and I happily chatted away the time.

We did hear a few bumps here and there but suspected nothing.

Finally, Kalie decided she had better check on Isaac and here is what she found:

An exceedingly happy child progidy!