Christmas with Eve!

Grandma had all us kids over for a Christmas Eve dinner and we got to see baby Eve for the first time.  She was so sweet and so beautiful.  The girls love playing with her.

Eve Work

As you can see I have some holes to close up under the eve.  I've been lucky so far and haven't had any squirrels take up residents in our attic while this has been open.  It only took a couple of hours to do and it turned out pretty nice...now all I need to do is some sanding and it will be ready for some paint.

Siding Painted...Woohoo!

Well I was able to get the siding painted today, so I'm making progress.  I just have a few areas to touch up and then I'm on to painting the eve and putting up trim around the door and corners of the house.  I'm pleased with how it's looking so far.  I can live with this for a few years until we remodel the back.  It was nice and cool today and made painting pleasant and the girls had fun running around and swinging while I worked.  Mal painted some as you can see below and Stella our cat came around to see what was going on.

Mal loves to help me at whatever I'm doing.  Stella on the other hand just likes to watch.

Another Birthday!

Tara is sewing another towel with a name on it and that can mean only one thing...someone is having a birthday.  One of Avery's friends from church is turning 4 tomorrow and she gets her own personalized towel.

Tara loves to sew names on towels, and she does a really good job.  The kids seem to like seeing their name on the towels and it's something they can use every week.

Good job honey, perfect and the towel looks good too!

Oh pick me, pick me!

We found out last night that Mallory had been chosen to sing in this years Christmas production that the adult choir puts on at the Performing Arts Center and First Baptist Church.

Over the last couple of weeks they have been auditioning children for a solo part and she was told last night that they had picked her.  When she came in last night from choir practice she ran up to me and said "guess what daddy they picked me to sing on stage under a spotlight all by myself".  Steve (our choir director) told Tara that Mallory has a sweet voice and that they are excited about her singing the solo.   

We are so proud of her and think she will do a great job.  The choir will be singing at the Preforming Arts Center on the 4th and First Baptist Church on the 5th.  Any family that could come we would love to see you there, I know Mal would be thrilled.  The pictures you see above is some of Mallory's art that she did when she was 4.   She loves to draw and paint and thought we would share.  By the way only 7 more weeks until Christmas.                                  

Tooth Fairy Sighting

We were visited by the Tooth Fairy lastnight.  Mal lost another tooth yesterday; actually she practically pulled it out of her mouth.  Last Friday she bit into a ring pop and loosened it...she has been working on it ever since.  Last night while standing over the Bathroom sink she pulled it out and in her excitement lost her grip on it and it fell down the drain.  I was in the next room when I heard her scream and I ran in there to see what was wrong. She was crying saying " I lost my tooth down the drain", I told her everything was going to be alright and that I would get the tooth for her.  When I gave her the tooth I could see the dollar signs reappear in her eyes, and all was well again.  This morning she awoke and checked under her pillow in her tooth bag and what do you know two bucks!

Preping the siding for paint

Our latest project is making the back of the house look halfway decent since we tore off the back room that was in disrepair.  We are doing a temporary fix to the siding and trim, and plan on building some steps off the back door, nothing special just something to make do until we remodel the back of the house.  We will add in some landscaping along the back of the house to help with the rain runoff from the house...no gutters.  Hopefully that will help keep out dirt & mud that would be tracked into the house.  I hope to have this completed by Thanksgiving, we'll see...hunting season opens up this weekend and I plan on being down at the farm for a couple of weekends between now and then.  I might have to miss some football to accomplish this, but I can do it.  Plus I have my beautiful wife here to help me.

Our little Trick-or-Treaters

The girls had a great time trick-or-treating.  We went to Family Fun Night at church were they got to play games, bounce in the bounce house, and have their face painted.  After that we took them trick-or-treating on our street were they got there haul of candy, which wasn't too much.  They really enjoyed the haunted graveyard that the neighbors at the end of the street put on every year.  After we finished we came back to the house and passed out candy to some late arriving trick-or-treaters, the girls love giving candy away, they even gave some of their own away.  All in all it was a fun night and everyone had a great time...bring on Thanksgiving, I'm Hungry!

Our fixer upper, God help us!

This is the Green House, well was...we have made a few improvements since this picture.  The picture above was taken back in '05 around July 4th.  We moved from a 1920 sq. ft. track home (with no character) into this 1620 sq. ft. Bungalow that has great bones and huge trees.  I'll be frank with you, that's really why we bought the place...lots of trees and lots of yard, it wasn't for the house because it needs help...LOTS of Help!!!