Nothing!

     Ok maybe nothing is a bit over stating but very little excitement has gone on this week. The kids had a short school week and are currently enjoying 'fall break'.

      Brock did get to go on a fun field trip with his fellow first graders to Hee Haw Farms where he played and got to bring home his own small pumpkin. 

This explains the corn I found in his shoes. (The photo is courtesy of my neighbor who helped chaperone.)

    Greg has been very busy at work all week. The original plan was for him to take the same days off with the kids and get our new sliding glass door installed in our bedroom but instead he's just had to do what he can after work and Saturday he'll hopefully get the door installed. After the doors in we'll need some kind of steps and then new siding will come next. Here's a before shot of the window that will soon be replaced with a door and the siding is already ripped off to make the install even easier. 

    The plan is to put "board and bat" siding in place of our old traditional siding and apparently that's what was originally on the house if this photo is any indication of the past look of the house. I'm excited for the change to our bedroom as well as to the over all look of our exterior but the siding may take awhile so I'm going to be as patient as I can. If only Greg had more hours in the day ;-)

Lights, fire and boys

     I purchased a total of four new light fixtures recently and this is the bathroom light.

     Our old light had broken glass, a light permanently burned out and it was hideous. This new light is great but maybe a little brighter than I anticipated. Let's just say I'm learning to deal with how I look under these bright lights. In addition to the new light install Greg also moved my bathroom outlet to a more functioning location. This has been a long time coming and I asked him why he's been holding out on me and apparently he thinks this is how he keeps me needing him around. How CUTE!

        Then Greg had a late night at work Monday so to lighten the dinner load I opted for roasting hot dogs over the fire. For some reason hot dogs over the fire taste so much better than your typical cooking methods.

And apparently the least amount of clothes is also conducive to better tasting hot dogs.

      And Charlie is always the best way to end my weekly posts.

Head bands and pigtails are the cutest!

McClane's Four!

      We had a birthday to celebrate this week.  McClane is four and FUN!

He loves his birthday balloons.

Spiderman doll and a stack of new t-shirts.

Happy and having fun at Trafalga Fun Center.

Carter and Charlie were having fun too.

And thanks to it being a slow night the boys got to ride on the Frog ride a dozen or more times.

Spiderman cake, YES!

He asked for helicopters so he got three.

The r/c helicopter was a hit.

And no birthday would be complete without the traditional birthday card and money from G & G Baker.

    And when you're four you get to visit the dentist for the first time to get your teeth cleaned/tickled. McClane was such a good boy.

The light is SO fascinating.

McClane unfortunately has two cavities so we get to go back to the "Dr. Dentist" sooner than later.

     Brock got to have his teeth cleaned/tickled too.

He was also a good boy.

       And here's some miscellaneous photos from the week.

I had a light fixture die a week or so ago and this is what I got to replace it and I LOVE IT!!!

Charlie got a new puffy coat and she's not too sure about it.

And this is how Charlie spends her first moments out of bed.

     Fun week! Now on to a spiritual feast for the weekend.

Video....maybe!

     I captured a moment with Charlie on video that I wanted to share but if you follow this blog at all you'll know posting video is not my strong suit but I've posted it to youtube in hopes that it will than post on here so here we go.

   I think it worked!!  Enjoy.  She's the cutest/naughtiest girl :-)
P.S.  Sorry it's not in full screen mode, I'm still learning to turn my phone sideways for videos.

Hard work

      The wood is all split and stacked and it was a huge project but everyone pitched in and helped and we got it done. We easily have a 3 to 4 year supply of wood!

The beginning.

Waiting for wood to stack.

This is in progress.  That back stack are logs that still have to be split!!  Who puts unsplit wood in a nice pile all the way in the back of the garden!? (Greg does!)

Brock helped....in the beginning.

McClane was very helpful controlling the lever.

This is where Charlie was happy and out of the way.

Such a cute boy.

DONE!!  Wood and more wood.

We picked all the pumpkins to get them out of our way in the garden and Charlie took special interest in this one.

Here's this years harvest of pumpkins. And what do you think of the "log pants" Kayli found in the wood pile?

All BOY!

      I'm so glad all that wood is split and stacked and if Greg even hints at getting more wood to split and stack I might have to pinch his upper thigh!

Campout, State Fair and tree fall

      So this week I have a few more photos than I did last week, starting with a photo of Isaac at the mom and son camp out last Saturday.

He loved his camping stick.

     Camping with just one kid and having the scoutmaster take care of all the meals was the best mini vacation I've ever had.

      Monday we decided to go to the State Fair for family night. It's the first time we've been to the state fair in several years and despite it being a little rainy it was a fun night. We spent most of our time checking out all the fun farm animals. I also attempted to buy all the kids a corndog at one of the corndog stands but they only took cash and when I saw that they were seven dollars apiece I was so thankful I did not have enough cash on me. (I never have that much cash on me! Seriously, where do they come up with these prices?!)

They both didn't know what to make of each other.

Kayli had to get a selfie with this cutie.

Momma and babies.  

   While we were walking by all the pig pens there were several empty pens and McClane came to the first empty pen and said, "It died."  He is so silly lately.

Tiny farm animals are the best.

She was at the perfect level for petting.

This baby was probably only a day or two old. So cute!

Got ya!

The kids got to check out the army tank.  The boys were in heaven.

Every boys dream!

       Then we had a couple of our "quakies" out front that needed to be cut down.  One was dead and the other one was on its way out. This is something we've been discussing all summer and Greg finally decided it was time to let them go. He also enjoys using our neighbors chainsaw any chance he gets.

Before

Trees are down.

Clean up in progress and the house is 'naked'.

     I'd post the videos but I'm still not sure how to do that. They both fell down without a hitch.

Now we get to spend our weekend cleaning up not only the two trees but all the wood in the garden that needs to be split and stacked. Thank goodness we have five boys who can turn into slave labor with the right kind of bribery.

What a mess!!

It may take longer than this weekend but hopefully we can put a dent in it.

Naps!

     I love nap time and Princess Charlie is a fantastic napper!  McClane doesn't nap but he's great at entertaining himself most of the time.  Some days I luck out and get a quick nap myself and other times I'm able to get chores done or better yet, read quietly by myself for a little bit.  Even Greg lucks out occasionally and gets a nap WITH Charlie, that's the best part about napping babies.

      This week hasn't been too exciting so that's the only photo I've taken all week.  I am going on a mom and son campout with Isaac tonight, which I'm really looking forward to.  And there's a chance we might take the kids to the State Fair this weekend but all will depend on Greg's work schedule.  He's still working a ton of over time so we'll have to see how his day is going but that's our tentative weekend plans for now.