Sunday, November 27, 2011

Halloween, A 9th Birthday, and the House

So the last few weeks have been busy. I am sad that my holiday weekend is almost over already! 4 weeks until Christmas vacation though. Here is a little update of what has been happening at our place! The Saturday before Halloween, we went to my mom's to carve pumpkins. In this picture, one is painted and that was a door prize at the gathering. The cat pumpkin was one I helped Laci with. The "Trick or Treat" pumpkin was Madison's and she got help from her dad on it.

These are the others that were done that day also. The cat with ears is Laci's second pumpkin. The skull is Madison's second pumpkin. They did a lot of these two pumpkins on their own and actually they turned out quite good. The cat in the back was Olivia's pumpkin.

For Halloween this year, the girls were all Crayola Crayons. I had gotten Laci and Olivia's last year after Halloween on clearance. Then we found one for Madi also. Madison didn't really like that I had them all "match", but I told her this would be the last time I had them do that!

Madison's 9th birthday was on November 8. It was a Tuesday this year and I had parent/teacher conferences at work. We took her to Build-a-Bear the Sunday before her birthday and then the Sunday after her birthday, the family came up for cake and ice cream. She got a lot of money this year. We let her spend some, but a lot of it went in her piggy bank.

Looking so grown up anymore. Where has the time gone?? Madison is also currently busy with parks and rec basketball. Practice is on Sundays and games are on Saturdays. We have one more practice tonight and a game Saturday. She is loving 3rd grade and is on student council this year. She is also in gymnastics once per week.

Also, the house continues to progress. The electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling were to the point that they could be inspected last Monday. Then insulation started. This is a view of the deck of the back of the house. The railing and steps need to be done yet, but it looks nice.

Insulation in one of the bedrooms. The insulation is foam insulation between the studs of the exterior walls. That is all done, so now drywall can begin. They will hopefully drywall the ceilings this coming week so that insulation can be blown into the attic.

The large garage doors were installed last week before Thanksgiving also. They need garage door openers attached and they are carriage house style doors, so there are some black hardware pieces that need to be placed on the front of them also.

Shakes are done on the peaks of the garage and the front of the house. Now a lot of the work in the interior. There are some exterior things that will have to wait until spring like the cement sidewalk to the front door and a slab of cement out the back garage door. Also, seeding the lawn and possibly the work on the front porch. The front porch pillars with be stone around the bottom and white at the top. Then a railing will be installed also. Moving along nicely and can't wait to be in and have our dog back!