New Floor

We've lived in our house 2 1/2 years now. Ever since we moved in we knew we wanted to upgrade the kitchen vinyl floor to tile. We decided this summer that we would start looking for what we liked and have it done this fall. Well - I had to look over and over and over again. I searched tons of websites and visited at least 3 places in town more than once.

I really like the slate entry at my sisters house. But real slate is very uneven and tends to chip which I didn't want for my heavily used kitchen. So I finally decided on this - it's a porcelain tile made to look like slate. It's in tan and gray tones. In these pictures, without the light on, it looks more gray but in reality it's more tan with gray swirls.

Here's a picture with the lights on:

We really like it. We used 20 inch tile. It is supposed to make the room feel bigger. The guy who laid the tile told me that people in the east tend to be scared to use big tile. It's more common in the west.

Here is Piper playing with her stuffed rainbow trout. (Can you guess who got her that?) She is sitting on the old vinyl so you can compare.

The old floor was a "tile look alike" which I did like when we bought the house, but it was a very light color and it had a lot of texture. Dirt and dirty mop water would get caught in the grooves or low lying texture and dry there. It was really hard to get those grooves clean. This tile hides the dirt well and has the look of texture but is completely smooth. The old floor was easier on your feet and things weren't guaranteed to break if you drop them. The new floor is very hard and cold, I have to wear my slippers but will bring more value to the house when we sell it.

So there you have it!!

More Masks

My kids loved painting the Halloween masks and decorating the garden so much that I searched for some Christmas ones. The Christmas ones were more fun because they actually had black outlines on them so you didn't have to try to free hand your design. The Halloween ones were completly blank so the kids just made up their designs.

We painted these weeks ago but I haven't gotten a picture of them in the garden yet - They look fabulous. But I am tired of waiting.

We gave Dan the standing nutcracker that had the tiniest detail to paint. He really took his time and did a marvelous job. The kids are amazed at their Dad's handicrafts.

The kids each did the mask they are holding and I did the reindeer. If I ever get a picture of the garden I'll post it.

Special Visitors

We were treated to a very special visit from my cousin Amanda , husband Jon and her daughter Alissa. Alissa was born only 2 months after Piper. Since they live 5 hours from here and Alissa has NOT been a cooperative traveler, they have not made the trip up here for family gatherings yet. We were delighted that they came for Thanksgiving and made a brief stop at our house. Ainsley enjoyed showing Alissa all of the toys in the house. I think Alissa was quite thrilled at the abundance of new things that make noise, light up and wiggle.

Piper napped for the first part of the visit but when she awoke the two babies had a "love-hate" relationship. They kinda liked seeing other each other but at the same time a few tears were shed when they wanted to hold the same balloon:

And they wanted to climb on the same box:

We sure had fun watching them. And Alissa has the most beautiful thick baby hair. Life is definitely not fair. My poor girls got the short straw when it came to hair, but Amanda has beautiful thick hair and has passed it down to Alissa - although I'm not sure where the red comes from.

Thank you guys so much for stopping in - oh and we enjoyed seeing my Aunt Eileen and Uncle Chris too, they just moved to Maine from right here. We miss seeing them more often and running into A. Eileen at the grocery store.

Thanksgiving Birthday

We have a Thanksgiving Birthday at our house (this year it's actually the day after) and we did a little double celebrating on Thanksgiving Day. I have a feeling that will be happening more often than not.

We attended a small Thanksgiving at my parents house. That is: small in number of attendants not in choices of things to eat. It was just my brother's family, our family and my parents. Chase asked when everyone else would be arriving and I said, "Sorry Bud this is it." What was funny was that we had just all been together for my brother's birthday 4 days prior so Thanksgiving didn't feel very different.

After we stuffed ourselves we waited 30 minutes and then began a little birthday party for Piper. I made a cheesecake this year for a couple of reasons. 1. I asked for a springform pan last year for Christmas because I had never made a real cheesecake. SPH-1 obliged me but I had yet to use it. 2. With all the pies available I didn't expect anyone to want to eat birthday cake so I decided maybe a cheesecake would get eaten.

I gave Daniel several options of what kind of cheesecake and he picked Oreo. We actually used Mint Oreos and followed a recipe from kopykatrecipes.com where they post recipes that are supposed to be copies from restaurants. This was the Oreo cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. I learned that Cheesecakes take ALOT of time and attention but the end result was pretty yummy.

Piper liked her cake. She was quick to pick it up and take a few bites but then she found the paper plate. That kept her interest for a while as she looked it over and folded it and then she went back to the cake. At least cheesecakes are not quite as messy as regular cake and frosting.

Then she opened a few presents.

She was rather pleased with the end result:

She got some new boots for winter and to be stylish of course and a stroller to push around. She loves to drive things around the house like an upside down laundry basket.

She also got some adorable shoes with hard soles because since she's been walking she's only had one pair of shoes that fit and they are soft soled velvet dress shoes which are fine for around the house but when you take her out and she wants down like on a side walk or at the mall, those soft soles are not the best. So we are happy to have shoes!!

She also got a few other fun things but I didn't get pictures of those.

I don't have her official stats because she just had her appointment for her 12 month well check but she had a fever so she couldn't get her shots and they didn't do all the through measurements. Instead we used the appointment as another evaluation for her burned hands (more coming on that). So all I have is that she weighed 18 pounds at 12 months and 10 days which is actually more than I expected. Yay!

Cabin Pictures

OK - I admit I've been out of touch lately. It's not like me to go 3 weeks without a post but free time has been at a minimum with Dan out of town, Thanksgiving, Birthday, church calling, getting ready for Christmas, home improvements, sick kids, company etc....

So I don't have anything major to say in this post but I thought I would post a few cute pictures from our trip to the cabin in late October. We met Christine, Aaron and Elaine there as they passed through on the way to their new home in Washington. We took some walks, lit up the wood stove and enjoyed watching episodes of LOST on Dan's computer.

I thought this picture with Dan and Ainsley hiking was really precious.

Here are the boys having a pine needle fight. There were sooo many pine needles covering the deck outside of the cabin and the kids posed for some "fighting" pictures for Daniel. They also pushed all the pine needles off the deck into a giant pile for jumping in.

And here's cute little Elaine. Of course Piper wanted to touch her in the face and we had to referee but Elaine thought Piper was worth smiling for.

Sound of Music

We had the opportunity of a lifetime last night. The Salzburg Marionette Theatre from Salzburg, Austria is on a US tour premiering it's version of the Sound of Music. And yes, somehow little Lancaster scored such an awesome production but for only 4 days. Even though it cost a pretty penny - I thought it was worth it. My kids loved it and it's not like they are going to get this opportunity again. (I mean this was on a school night and only 12 minutes from our house. We didn't have to fight big city traffic or spend a ton of time in the car. This was local!) We were sad Daniel couldn't go with us but since he's in Denver for 9 days it just didn't work out. We're glad Mamaw could come in a pinch.

The best part was - The managing director of the Fulton is in our ward so I called him yesterday morning to see if there were still tickets available. He said yes and asked where would we like to sit? I said anywhere he thought the kids could see well. He said, "How about the second row?" He told me that they hadn't sold any tickets in the first or second rows because they didn't think you could see well from there, but after the Tuesday night show - they realized that you could see fine from the second row. So we sat deadcenter second row with no one in front of us. What a dream. It's probably the only time in their lives that the kids could see a show without sitting on their knees and leaning side to side to see around other people's heads. We were so close you could see the faces of each puppet. I realized how good our seats were when I had to take Ainsley to the bathroom during the show and from the back I noticed they could only see the figures of each puppet but not their faces. Ainlsey sat eyes glued to the stage the entire time, not fidgeting, or asking when it would be over etc....

My mom happened to be coming yesterday anyway to help watch the kids while I was the "mystery reader" in Ainsley's class and while I attended each of the boys parent/teacher conferences. I was so glad she was here to help me with the kids and enjoy the show with us. We left the baby with a sitter of course. It was amazing how many strings were attached to each puppet ( at least 10). It's amazing how they don't get twisted or tangled and how life like each puppet moves. At the end of the show they lifted the top curtain and did one more number with us watching the puppeteers. INCRIDIBLE! There were 9 of them shoulder to shoulder, wrapping their arms around each other as they pass their strings around each other to move their puppet down the stage. I hope they all hold stock in deodorant companies - because they operate in VERY close proximity. I don't know how they maintain such control of their strings and remember the choreography of each puppet for the whole show. RAW TALENT!!

I realized that the kids had never seen "Sound of Music" and didn't know the story line. How could that be? I thought EVERYONE had seen it. Then I remembered that Daniel had told me how he hated that movie (I think with 5 sisters and probably one TV he had been forced to watch it too often growing up) so whenever it's been on TV during our years together, he won't let us watch it - or he chooses something else he thinks is better. That sounds a little nicer. Anyway, because it dealt with WWII and Nazis - Chase and MacGregor were easily sucked in and now we have a date Friday night to watch the movie (Daniel still won't be back so we don't have to torture him :) )

I am so glad the kids and I had this opportunity. I greatly appreciated the time and effort these puppeteers put into developing such an awesome talent. I love being able to expose my kids to the arts and hope they will develop a love of them and an appreciation of others cultivated talents.

Diva

A couple of weeks ago I asked Ainsley to go get ready for bed and when all was said and done this is what she looked like. She had the slippers, the purse, and the jewelry. I guess she likes to retire in style. I love that little girl!!

Keepin Em Up

Ainsley has a terrible time keeping her pants up. Her underwear and worse yet her crack always seem to be showing. I think this problem is two fold. First all the pants they make for little girls these days all seem to be low rise. Like 4 year olds need that! And second, the girl has no hips, no bum, nothing to keep pants up. Even with the adjustable waistbands they fall down. After trying on a cute pair of brown cords that wouldn't stay up I left the store thinking, What if made her a pair? Unlike Taffy and B - I don't make clothes, only blankets. People don't worry so much how a blanket fits.I did buy a pattern and waited for my mom to come help me. It was a lot more complicated with a lot more measuring and finishing raw edges etc... than I had expected. My mom was on the phone and distracted when I was cutting out the fabric. I didn't know that you had to flip the pattern over so you got two fronts and two backs. So I ended up with 4 fronts. We went back to the store and bought more fabric and I finished the first pair. They actually look pretty good and they don't fall down!! Yeah! I now am going to make a second pair of brown cords since I already have the fabric and embellish the cuffs or something to mix it up a bit.

Missing

We've had a lot of little things go missing this year, namely teeth. Mr. MacGregor lost 3 middle teeth all at the same time last April - seen here:

Those 3 have finally grown in and then over the last 3 months he's lost 3 more. I don't know how the kid can talk or eat without drooling all over him self. We call him "Gaptooth" now. Here's the current look except he's lost another since then and has another loose one.

MacGregor's new lower lateral incisors are growing up behind the central ones. It reminds me of myself with one big clump of front teeth. Daniel wants him to go see the orthodontist right away. Chase didn't go until he was older but his teeth had much better placement. Infact the Dr. said that he'll need treatment but might not need braces. Of all kids, I thought it would be MacGregor who didn't need braces. He's always had space between his teeth and I thought that meant he'd have enough room. I thought Chase's teeth would have super crowding but the Dr. said his crowding his very mild.

Chase lost 4 teeth in April as well (I've been meaning to post this for 6 months). He had to have all his baby canines removed with hope that the new ones will grow in quicker and they could begin orthodontic treatment. The Dr. said Chase's treatment plan is very long term, I guess he grows teeth really slowly. On a side note, Daniel said he treated a 9 year old girl yesterday that had already lost all her canines and premolars. I think they may have been grown all the way in already. Anyway - I had no idea what all that meant either until Dan said that she is WAY early. He said her "dental age" is at least 5 years ahead of her natural age. Wierd huh?

Here are some before and after surgery pictures of Chase. He had the BEST surgeon! He's great with kids and even he provided post operative checks at home. I'll tell you what - I'm going back to him!!

All Dressed Up

Just wanted to show off our crew in their Halloween uniforms.

We'll start with Ainsley at school. All the classes marched in a parade around the parking lot and then we got to take pictures of the class.

We did Trunk or Treat at church on Tuesday and Trick or Treat around the neighborhood on Wednesday. Everyone got their turn in the make-up chair. Piper was fascinated by the kids getting their faces made up.

Here's our little lamby.

Isn't her tail cute?

Here's our little green monster being monstery! She definitely was an original. I'm glad she didn't mind since this was a recycled costume. I know every little girl wants to be a princess and there were a lot of them but this year Ainsley was unique, she was a monster and that's not too far off from the truth (just kidding but only a little).

MacGregor and Chase were soldiers since they recieved the whole get-up last year for Christmas. They asked if they could be something else and I said yeah if you can find all the stuff in the house. Soliders it was (I know I sound mean, but I am not going to go buy something new when we have workable costumes at home. I did buy them each a new candy sack cuz the boys had outgrown their plastic pumpkins and Ainsley wanted the "princess" pumpkin and since she couldn't have the gown, at least she got the pumpkin).

MacGregor insisted that he have some blood or a grusome scar on his face. We tried to remind him that he wasn't a boxer but I guess he wanted to be a battled soldier.

Chase decided that he would go uninjured.

If you haven't already guessed, the boys friend Vic spends alot of time at our house. So the boys asked if he could go trick or treating with us. He hadn't planned on going out and didn't have a costume so we improvised and found some of Daniels hockey gear in the basement. I think all involved were happy with the evening. I was happy Halloween 2007 was over, maybe now I can get a nap. But I am already wondering, what about next year .......

The Carving Experience

The kids were really excited to do pumpkins with their Dad this year since he was conspicuously absent last year. Ainsley began talking about going to the pumpkin patch at least a week before we had it scheduled. She talked about it every day. We decided to go Monday the 22nd for family home evening. The kids were so excited to carve their pumpkins that night but Daniel said they would rot by Halloween so we only carved 2 then. We did Piper's and an extra one we bought. We decided to use alliteration and carved Piper a Piggy Pumpkin. MacGregor gave us the cyclops idea and I think both of these turned out cute. Piggy Pumkin made it til Halloween night but Cyclops rotted. I think it's because cyclops was a white pumpkin and I think white and green pumpkins are much softer and rot much quicker.

We carved the rest of the pumpkins on the following Monday, Oct 29th. Ainsley's favorite thing is to squeeze the guts. She sat there squeezing and squeezing until she had orange guts and seeds up past her elbows. Each person drew their own design on a piece of paper first, even Ainsley. And then Daniel carved each pumpkin according to their design. (I carved my own but he wasn't thrilled with that - he doesn't trust any of us with sharp knives) We bought a pumpkin for Chase and Gregor's friend Vic too. He joined us for carving and we sang some family night songs for him. Chase was really disappointed that we didn't dry and bake the seeds this year but Halloween wears me out. There is so much involved. We did a trunk or treat at the church the night before. We did our pumpkin carving. We do make up and costumes and candy and crafts etc... And it didn't help that 4 out of the 5 nights before Halloween Daniel and I were up til 1 AM watching the first season of LOST. We only get it for one week from the Library and it is really hard to watch 24 episodes in one week. I think we'll just pay late fees for season two so we don't have to be so sleep deprived.

Here the kids are each sitting under their own pumpkin.

Here's the whole clan with lights on, on the porch, and with lights out. Dan carved the batman and I did the "cool" guy with sunglasses.