Merry Christmas

Brad's parenting style

The girls were arguing about something. Brad's solution arm wrestle it out.

It worked. I think they forgot what the problem was. 

Thanksgiving hosted by the Wildings

I think this year was the first time I've ever hosted Thanksgiving dinner. We keep it small. There were 11 people total (so I made 4 dozen rolls...just to be safe); Us, Ryan and Tara (of course) and our friends the Porters and their two kids. All the food was good and the leftovers even better! I believe everyone enjoyed themselves.Brad had said we should just go out for dinner so it wouldn't be so much work for me but my complaint with that is there would be no leftovers. And seriously Thanksgiving leftovers are the bomb! If you're wondering, "Why yes, I had leftovers for breakfast the next morning following a successful morning of Black Friday shopping at Joann's."

Not that we didn't have enough pies and desserts to eat but I had to make this cute cookies for the kiddos.

The kid table....not sure how much eating actually happened but they had a whole lot of fun. 

  We have so much to be thankful for!

Halloween

This year our spooky dinner consisted of

Eye of Newt

 Witch fingers

 Mummies (Camille wrapped most of these herself.)

A bowl full of worms:

 Candy Corn Fruit cups, Franken-pudding, and Pumpkin drink

 and bones.

I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed their dinner. Next year I think we'll have our spooky dinner the night before Halloween so we're not in such a rush to get everyone in costume and out the door at a decent hour.

For the video action of dinner go here and here.

 

 Our royal family complete with our own "Merlin".

Princess Camille

 Wizard Em

 Princess Nattie J.

I had a fabulous dress that I borrowed from the neighbor but didn't get a good picture of it.

Pumpkins

For family night on Monday we carved our pumpkins. We did it in teams. Brad and Natalie, Camille and Me, Ryan and Tara, and the Missionaries (We had them over for dinner so we invited them to carve with us.) Emily was the rover and "helped" until it was time for bed.

 Brad and Natalie  carve a mummy. Which turned out spectacular!

 

Camille and I chose a witch.

Ryan and Tara went patriotic with the Statue of Liberty.

We told the Missionaries that they had to carve something scripture related. So they referenced Isaiah 40:31 and did a picture of an eagle.

 

 I thought all of them turned out great. Camille and Natalie were impressed with all of them and as the judges gave everyone a piece of candy as a prize.

 

Here's Millie pretending to be a Vampire.

Fall Leaves

This is from the first leaf raking of the season. Hopefully, tomorrow we'll do the last raking of the season.

I love that the girls "help" us with the leaves!

I love this one. These girls have so much fun together!

  

Yes, we use a pool to gather the leaves. It holds more than the wheel barrel and is easy to move. Plus, the girls like to "swim" in the leaves.

 It was a beautiful day.

On an unrelated note the other day I found Natalie showing Miss Em how to plank.  (Alright. I don't really know what they were doing but it looked like they were attempting to plank and I thought it was funny.)

Bathroom Facelift

We've been in our house here almost 2 years and I've had a list of things I'd like to change but just...haven't. (Brad has done some amazing things for me though: lighting, stairs, closets!)
 With the help of my SIL I decided to tackle the half-bath on the main floor (which lead to help from the husbands.) We were just going to take down the wallpaper and then throw up a coat or two of paint. Quick, easy, cheap (we already had some paint leftover from the previous home owner). It turned out not to be quick, easy or as cheap as I was hoping but long story short, it's done. (Well, all but hanging the toilet paper roll and towel rack.)

BEFORE:

I know you can't imagine why I'd want to take down this wallpaper. (Camille was sad that we were taking down the flowers but she agrees that the bathroom looks better now.)

 (That's the wallpaper steamer sitting on the sink. We picked it up for $4 at a garage sale...I LOVE it!)

After we'd taken down the wallpaper I'd mention how nice it would look to have a black vanity. Brad said I could paint what we had.

Vanity "Before" (well, during because I never remember to get a true before picture for anything!)

Primed and ready for black! 

We made our own chalk paint. (Supposedly good for painting furniture.) I learned how from these tutorials.  (I'd HIGHLY recommend straining the paint before using!)

• http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-i-make-chalk-paint.html
• 
  http://www.iheartnaptime.net/chalk-paint/

 
AFTER: (I know these pictures aren't great but the lights in the bathroom are just so bright!)

 

Much better right!?

Here's Cutie McCutie Pants "helping" me take pictures and clean up the mess.

There's more wallpaper removal in our future...

Want every 31 year old wants...

a mermaid cake.

 The girls were pretty pleased with how it turned out. It was a lot of fun to make.

 We went bowling with our friends the Bontornos

 Then home for cake, ice cream. and presents

Like Brad's Grandpa says, "Birthdays are good as long as you keep having them."

RAD

A couple weekends ago I ran the Color Me Rad 5K. I talked a few friends into doing it with me. We had a blast.

Our team name was Run Wild

The traffic and parking was a joke. My poor family totally missed seeing me run. (Which was okay with me but had poor Camillie in tears.) The 50 minute drive from our house ended up taking them 2 hours and 45 minutes. I had been done for a full hour by the time they arrived. They never even parked or got out of the car.

So, here I am doing some laps around the car while waiting to exit the parking lot. That way Camille could hold up her sign and cheer me on. It made her feel a little better about missing the whole thing.

We may have ended up moving a barrier so we could get out of the parking lot faster. (Seriously, it was so bad and I think my family was running out of patience.)

Labor Day Campimg

Camping at Lake Sacandaga

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their hot dogs.

Nothing like a dinner cooked on the fire.

Playing on the lake

Building a sand castle

Emmie enjoying the tube

Getting buried by Uncle Ryan

So much fun, so much sand in their suits. :)

Brad tubing with his girls

Right before this picture I was helping push them out to sea and managed to tip them over backwards and dunk my entire family. The girls were not pleased. Brad amazingly surfaced still holding everyone. Probably, one of the funniest things I've ever seen. (So wish I'd been recording when it happened.)

Stu pulling Ryan

 Getting a ride on the Renaulds' Hot Dog. The girls told me, "It was fun, SO fun."

Successful camping trip. I think we'll do it again next summer!