Christmas at our House

Reece and Nina came to visit last weekend and I managed to snap a few pictures of a clean house before they arrived. Needless to say, this house doesn't stay this clean for long. I had also just finished putting up the Christmas decorations. I just used the decorations that we had from our old house and didn't buy anything new except for some batery operated flameless candles for the windows that come with a remote. Our house is too tall to easily hang icicle lights on the outside, so I thought it would be nice to have candles in the windows.

Amazingly I found great spots for quite a few of the decorations. I really like how the house looks. There are just a few touches here and there which make the house feel Christmassy, but it's not too much. 

We also got a really great deal on a 9ft fresh cut Christmas Tree. The tree didn't have a tag on it and so I asked for a price and the guy gave us a lower price than a defective larger/bushier douglas fir tree that was 9.5 ft tall but missing the top! Prior to then, we were even considering going wtih that defective tree and seeing if we could maybe fabricate a top for it, because it was half the price of the other trees that size. I think the guy just wanted to make a sale, or he saw all of our kids and wanted to bless us. The only other thing I can think of is that our tree was on the skinny side and maybe skinny trees aren't popular. But that was the absoulute perfect tree for us as we really don't have much room in our living room for a tree. I'm thrilled with the tree, it smells so nice too! We haven't had a real Christmas tree in a long time, but we finally got rid of our artificial tree when we moved because it was probably barely 6ft tall and was worn, some branches were bent/broken, and would have looked like a dwarf in our new house.

So, here is the virtual tour of our house:

Foyer and stairs to second floor, what you see when you come in our front door.

 The rest of the stairway going to the second floor. I added a picture collage with some family photos. Most of them within the last year or so, some of them some oldies.

This is the doorway to the garage and is under the stairs. Directly accross from the picture, handpainted by my mother, is the doorway to the basement.

Looking back at the foyer from the back of the livingroom, you can see the stairs going up. There is also a coat closet off of the foyer to the right as you are coming in.

This is the hallway half-bath. You can see the door in the picture above. It is the doorway off of the small halway directly behind the lamp. It isn't decorated other than a small snowman tea candle holder on top of the toilet but I didn't take a picture of it.

 Our livingroom. We don't have a fireplace in this house, so I had to improvise on the stockings. Yay for 3M sticky tape and hooks! The stockings and tree skirt were handmade by my mother. I love the little gold bells that are sewn on and that each stocking is different. Seth has the stars, because he is the biggest Cowboys fan in the family, Caitlyn has the girly swirls, Charles has the circles, Ryan the squares etc.

A closeup of our tree. I know, from this angle, it isn't so straight...

Another picture of our livingroom taken from the kitchen instead of the diningroom. I actually really like the open floorplan. I love to be cooking in the kitchen and be able to watch the kids do their homework on the table or watch tv and play games in the livingroom. I feel that I can still be a part of teh action while cooking or cleaning up after the meal.

Here is the view of the diningroom and the hutch. A lot of gammy's china and dran's pottery are displayed. You can also see Amy's play kitchen on the right. She likes to cook and feed her dolls in the doll sized high chair while I'm cooking. Although lately she also wants to be part of the real action, and do some real stiring, pouring, licking, tasting, sampling...oh and helping. :-)

Here is probably my favorite room in the house. The kitchen! It is not huge, but has tall cupboards and fits all of my dishes and kitchen appliances as well as spices and baking supplies and cookbooks. I love the granite countertops (those came standard with the house) They are a bluish/green with silver specks. That is why I went with the bluish/green wall color instead of the standard beige that came in the rest of the house. I was hoping that the color would be darker and more of a blue/gray, but oh well. That's what I get for picking out a color on the computer monitor!!! I'm still happy and don't have any immediate plans to do any re-painting! Oh, the door to the pantry and the laundry room are off to the left of the kitchen.You can't see it from this angle.

Here's a picture of the master bedroom. It is accross the halway from the half-bathroom (directly behind the livingroom wall that has the TV on it)

 

These cute snowmen were the perfect color for the room, so I put them on my dresser.

 The master bathroom, or part of it. Built-in shower is to the left and toilet room and master closet on to the right of the tub.

 Now we are upstairs on the second floor. This is the first room that you come to and is Caitlyn's room. She is only here over the summer and every other weekend and hasn't done a whole lot of decorating yet.

 This is the boys' room and is at the front of the house. They have three single windows (which makes it a little tough to place the furniture, but we found something that worked. They have a snowman theme going on.

 Another angle of the boys' room. The closet door and the door open into the hallway. That is Caitlyn's room that you can see accross the hall. Amy's is actually directly accross from the boys' room but you can't see her doorway from this angle.

Here is Amy's room. I'm still working on painting it. I dont' know if you can see but there are two shades of blue on the walls!!! Grrr. Store gave us the right paint but mixed in medium base instead of light base. Huge mess! This will proabably be my project over the holidays. Finally finish Amy's room.

Amy's little tree. Set up on her dresser which is directly accross from her bed.

And finally the kids' bathroom. Upstairs in between Amy and the boys' room. They have a double vanity and a separate door into the room with the bathtub and toilet. There is also a small linnen closet accross from the double vanity. Lots of doors in a small space and it does make it a little complicated occasionally, but most of the time we just leave the doors open.

 

I did not take any pictures of the basement. Yes, we have another whole floor of space that includes a built-in storage shed for lawn equipment, tools etc., large L shaped room for media-room, computers, and kids' play area, a fully finished 4th bathroom, several walk-in closets and a full sized bedroom. I'll try to remember to take some pictures of the basement. It is one of the main highlights of this house - even with it only being partially finished right now.

 

I hope you have a Blessed Christmas!!!!!

 

Soccer Team

Charles was on the Niceville PAL Soccer U-8 Boy's Dairy Queen team this year.

One happy soccer player!

 

He was one of the older players on his team and definitely one of the most enthusiastic players. He looked forward to each and every practice and game, and took on the role of team captain very well. As one of the team captains, he got to particpiate in the coin toss at the beginning of each game to determine who would get the ball first and shake the hands of the other team captains.  

Beginning of the game during the coin toss.

 

He was always out there helping his team mates and pointing out things that they should or shouldn't be doing. Charles was an excellent defender, he would charge the ball and kick it so far down field and often straight to another one of his team mates. He was also a great goalie and often played one or two quarters each game as goalie.

Charles playing goalie and making sure that his team mate kicks the ball out of there!

Charles telling his team that he's ready.

Ready for action!

Facepainting

On Saturday afternoon, from 3pm-6pm, I volunteered at Charles' school's Fall Festival to do face painting. At first they asked me what I charged, and then I told them that I would do it for free as long as they ordered the supplies for me and provided a couple volunteers to help keep brushes clean, collect tickets, etc. while I painted as many faces as I could. Thankfully they also found me another face painter who also brought a friend who was in town and could also paint faces. Wow, so amazingly we had a team of three skilled face painters! And although our line was never extreemly long, we never had any breaks lasting more than a few seconds. Let's just say that I was completely exhausted at the end. We filled up an entire baby wipe box of tickets, I would say that we easily painted over 100 faces. With each face being $3 - $5 in tickets, and the cost of the supplies only being $80, I would say that we helped the school make some money.

I painted Caitlyn's and Amy's faces.

Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles!!!

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and I got out the bubbles for the kids to play with out on our deck. At first only Charles and Amy were playing with them, but it didn't take long for Ryan to notice the bubbles floating down to the basement level and see them outside the basement windows. Sure enough, I heard the door open to the outside and Ryan came walking up the stairs to the deck and joined the fun. I was so impressed with all three of the kids. They each have greatly improved their bubble blowing skills. Even Amy had no problems blowing her own bubbles. Many many bubbles floated away over to the neighbor's house that is still being built. The construction workers were pounding away inside, and probably enjoyed seeing the streams of bubbles floating by as they worked.

All three kids playing together on our back deck. Yes, Charles is still in his soccer uniform because according to him it is comfy!

Charles showing his skills at making really big bubbles.

Ryan pointing out a large bubble that he just made!

Ryan blowing lots of smaller bubbles. Notice that he's not standing on the deck floor like everybody else. Typical Ryan, has to be different!

Amy blowing bubbles.

Amy carrying her approved for Amy bubble toys. If the containers are tipped, the bubble solution doesn't come out as with the bottles that you see in the background.

Trick or Treat Night

Well, we had a great time this year doing the Trunk-or-Treat kids' outreach at our church on Sunday. Our pastor decorated the back of his truck with an Angry Birds theme and wore a funny red angry birds hat. The game at that station was a bean bag toss. I unfortunately didn't get to see much of the event (had to just go by my friends' facebook albums who took pictures of the event). I spent the whole evening painting as many faces as possible. Seth and I didn't dress up this year. The kids were pretty disapointed, so I guess we may plan to dress up next year. I didn't buy a costume for Amy as she already had plenty of dress up clothes and figured this would be a perfect time for her to get more use out of them. She LOVED being a princess! She was cute, and bossy at the same time, hillarious! Everyone noticed her, she talked the whole time, mostly about candy and said things like "I GOT some MORE candy!!!!" with awe, enthusiasm, shock! And then she also announced to everyone that she said Thank you! And she would be the one marching out in front of the boys saying "Comon guys! Let's get some more candy!" Oh my goodness, there were numerous times when I couldn't help but laughing. Charles and Ryan were less thrilled with their costumes. They wanted to be transformers or power rangers etc. but none of those costumes were left by the time we made it to the store. I thought that the knight costumes were perfect, and they eventually agreed to wearing them. Oh well, it didn't keep them from having fun. And they took on their roles of protecting their little sister very seriously. They were her knights in shining armor, and pointed out cracks in the sidewalk, held her hand when going over tricky parts, shined the flashlight in front of where she was walking. She did very well and only fell one time (and made sure to tell the family all about it too! Ooops, well it was what was on her mind when she went for more candy. She couldn't help but explaining why she had tears on her eyes. I think she got a few more pieces of candy at that house!)

Here the boys were told to pretend they were protecting Amy against a bad guy. Lol!

Since we did the Trunk or Treat on Sunday night, we weren't up for a huge night of trick or treating on Wednesday, so just opted to go down about three streets an one that had a cull de sac at the end. Just enough to put a few layers of candy at the bottom of the kids' pails, but did not fill them up as we have done in the past. I think we were out for maybe an hour. It was just the right amount of time, as all of the kids still had enough energy left to walk back to the house. We didn't go to any of the neighbors' houses this year, because there are only about four or five houses with families living in them and most of them with little kids were taking their kids to other neighborhoods. Next year should be different though. All in all, we had a great night! And Charles and Ryan even agreed that this was the best night of Trick or Treating that we've had so far. And I definitely think that it has a great part to do with the fact that they met several kids their age that they knew from school. The boys both take the bus home to their grandparents' house in the afternoon and so were trick or treating in the same neighborhood as the kids that ride their afternoon bus. One time Charles said out loud "Hi Joseph! So THIS is where you live!" Lol!

8 Years Old

Yes, Charles is 8 years old already. Can you believe it?

Since we just moved to a new town and Charles only started school a week before his birthday, we decided against inviting any friends to his party. Instead we might let him celebrate his half-birthday in February and have him invite a few boys for a game night/slumber party at our house. I think he'll have a blast doing that and he should have lots of new friends by then.

Part of Charles' birthday was the surprise trip to Legoland which we managed to keep a secret from the boys until we walked up to the park entrance. But we did get him a few presents, some books, legos, games, clothes. Seth's parents got him a couple new wii games, new batter pack & charging pads and a fun scrabble turbo slam game.

I'd say it was a success; he couldn't help but smile the whole time.

Both boys worked together putting the Captain America Lego Super Hero together. It took them about 30 minutes. I enjoyed sitting in the livingroom just watching them work on it together. They were a great team! Ryan would gather the pieces together for the next step, and then Charles would try to snap it in place. They only needed my help twice on some difficult snappings. I was very impressed with their teamwork and with their immagination as they immediately started playing with the toy after it was put together. I even let Ryan discover where I had hidden the Hulk version of the same toy that I intended to save for Ryan's birthday a month an a half later. Ryan put that one together all by himself and in less time! When he finished, he went down to show Charles, and then a few minutes later came back upstairs and quietly came up to me and gave me a hug! Aww, melted my heart. He was super happy that I had gotten him that toy.

Football

Ryan asked us if he could play football this year, and since he is finally old enough to play in the "baby boomer" league (5-6yr olds), we signed him up. Ryan is doing very well, he listens to the coach and does exactly what he is told. And he's enthusiastic when he plays. He doesn't like to be pushed down, so when he does, let's just say that it generally doesn't happen twice in a row! Our city has three baby boomer teams, Ryan is on the third one.

Each team is the Niceville Eagles, so Ryan's team is just called Niceville Eagles Three. Seth graduated from Niceville High School, so he's happy that Ryan's team shares the name and the colors of the high school. Ryan's first official game was a tie against Niceville Eagles Two. This last game was almost a tie, but the other team scored within seconds before they called the end of the game. They were much more organized than the week before, so the team is improving and doing well.

The team took too long on their warm up routine for the first game and didn't have time to have the players run through the Niceville banner at the beginning of the game, but for the second game they had enough time.

This picture makes me laugh when I look at it. I didn't realize it at first, but one of the players, Carter, is getting trampled. I think he was the same one in the game who when pushed down in a play looked like a bug on his back and waved his hands in the air for the coach to come over and pull him back up on his feet. He did that every time. Hilarious. Ryan is definitely having fun playing footbal, and we're having fun watching him.

New School Year

Charles and Ryan started school together for the first time. It was an exciting day for the whole family. Amy was also moving up to a new classroom at daycare. Ryan was super excited about Kindergarten and Charles was also excited about starting 3rd grade at a new school.

Here they are with silly grins.

The only thing that maybe could have made the day better was if it hadn't been raining that morning. I barely got any pictures the boys ran to the bus so fast. Notice Ryan's blurry foot, and Charles covering his head with his three ring zipper binder.

The bus comes at 7:40, so much later than the bus last year that came at 6:20. We are glad for the extra time in the morning and the boys are in such better moods and even have time to eat breakfast. Seth takes care of getting the boys to the bus in the mornings while I leave earlier with Amy and take her to daycare then head off to work. In the afternoons, the boys both take a different bus home to their grandparents' house. Seth then comes and gets the boys after work while I go get Amy. We usually are all together again around 6pm which is also when the boys sometimes have their ball practice. Seth also makes sure that the boys are ready for their practice. So far school is going great! Charles keeps bringing home good behavior stamps and although he has daily math homework he is able to do it on his own and in less than five minutes! Ryan is also doing very well and even was the first kid this year in his entire school to be awarded the exceptional student of the week award. Apparently they only chose one per week and not one per grade, so it was quite an honor. Charles even heard the announcement and said out loud, 'hey, that's my brother!'.