Trunk or Treat Time!

It's Halloween time again!  We enjoyed the trunk or treat at the church.  It was a 3 ward combined activity, but there weren't that many cars.  The kids had a great time and it's always nice to see everyone all dressed up!  I was going to dress up as Black Widow.  I ordered my costume, and told Jeff that if I was Black Widow he needed to be Thor.  I found him a Thor shirt and the hammer!  My costume got lost in the mail :(.  I had to hunt down something else last minute.  I ended up being Bat girl.  Not my goal, but still fun to dress up. 

Talmage decided that, in true teenager fashion, he would not dress up and he sat and passed out candy for us.  That meant that Jeff and I got to walk around with the kids together.  That was really nice.  Grant was a teenager (in a Captain America shirt), Sandra was a Camp Half-Blood Camper, Mhari and Lorna were Vampires and Clark was a dog.  Turned out to be a pretty easy costume year ;)

Candy ... the real reason to trick or treat ;)

Hello Loft!

Well, first it was time to say good-bye to Grandma and Grandpa.  It was a nice visit, but time to head back to Arizona.  Talmage tried to stow away.... I don't think he would have been too comfortable like that for too long though.  Silly boy!

The loft project has begun!  It is really going to happen!  So the general plan is to extend the floor that stops above the master bed all the way across the room to enclose the master.  We are adding a wall and door to the master and so the stairs won't be part of the master anymore.  The room is still huge, but now the extra square footage won't count as part of the master.  Our friend, Mike Baldwin is helping us get the project done.  If we didn't have his help I'm not sure we would have ever started.  It is nice to be able to hire someone who knows what we need and can do it for less money... even if it is done on his "spare" time. 

Here the front panel of the loft is getting removed and the banister is coming down!

The loft original size.  The carpet has already been removed.

Opening up the roof so we can tie the new beams to the rafters.

Boards going up!

It is very exciting.  Well, also messy, but it is nice to have a guest room we can move into while we tear apart things in our room.  I'm so excited to get this project going and have someone who can help us along the way!

Early Morning Seminary

Talmage is old enough to attend Seminary this year.  He has really enjoyed it, even though it's early and we are all a bit more tired than usual.  Jeff and I take turns dropping him off and picking him up.  One of the benefits of moving this last summer is that the church for seminary is just 5 min down the road.  It makes the early morning drive just a little less early :). 

One morning I went to pick up Talmage.  I parked by a truck.  Talmage came out a few min later and got in.... along with all of the other kids to their cars.  I waited while everyone pulled out.  The truck on my left decided it was time to drive and started pulling out (while I was still parked), but instead of pulling straight out she had turned the wheel too sharp and caught my car with her truck!  She stopped, I got her ins. information and I went home.  Oh the joys of the early morning life.  I'm glad the damage wasn't worse, but still no fun!  Now to deal with the ins and get Mr. Whiskers fixed! 

Crazy Kids

Our little town did a Halloween trunk or treat and festival.  It was fun to go and get a little bit of candy.  They had cute things for the kids to do, like paint a pumpkin, do a photo booth area etc.  They were also giving away hot dogs and popcorn.  It was probably more crazy than fun because they ran out of hotdogs and my little kids stood in line for a very long time to get one.  While they were in line I tried to get a fun picture of Sandra and Grant at the hay bales, but Grant decided to go silly instead of cute ;).  I guess that's the way life is sometimes!

Most of the Williams grandkids (just missing Aaron's family) ... definitely some crazy kids here!

We've been trying to figure out some stuff about the kitchen walls for the upcoming remodel (someday).  This crazy kid decided that to figure out if the wall was load bearing or not we needed to open up the wall and ceiling.  He tried to keep it clean by cutting the sheetrock, but it was still a mess.  It was good to really get a look up in there so we know what we are really dealing with.  It's always an adventure doing home remodel projects!

The hole was so big Grant went up to check it out...

Head first ;)

Big enough for even Jeff!

I'm sure there will be more craziness, and I'll be there to take a picture of it!

Media Progress

Jeff's parents came to town for Talmage's birthday and  they were able to help us make some progress on our house projects.  One of the projects is the Media Room.  We have this storage space above the back garage that we are converting to a media room.  It is right off of the loft and will make a nice addition to the house.  Jeff's dad is good with wiring and he was able to wire outlets, speaker wire, and lights.  Yay for one less thing for us to get done.

Then we were able to get insulation and blow it in under the floor.  It was messy and tedious, but already helped make the room less hot!  The boys were super helpful to get it all done!  

 Grant and Grandpa getting the machine ready for Jeff. 

Jeff was the insulation monster!

Things left to do:  ducting, bat insulation for the walls and ceiling, sheet rock, texture, paint, and carpet.  It will be a nice little room once it's all set!

4H fun!

We have continued doing lots of activities with 4H!  Here are some photos from the fashion and food projects :)

We made bags out of t-shirts.

Mhari, Bree, Lorna, and Clark

Talmage, Grant and Owen

For food we were working on garnishing.  We got to make fun little decorations and work on piping skills.  The kids really had a fun time with it!

Talmage and Mhari

Owen, Grant, Bree, and Sandra

Talmage piping

Mhari cutting

The kids paired up as teams to make something beautiful!

Bree and Grant

Mhari and Owen

Sandra and Abby

Lexie and Talmage

Here is the younger group practicing their speech.

The teams have been doing well and we are getting closer to the competition!!

Beautiful

I just love our evenings... and the sunsets! 

Seeing Talmage enjoy them is also wonderful!  Beautiful Texas!!

14 Years?!

It is hard to believe that our oldest baby is 14 years old!  Talmage is a great son and we really love him.  He has been a blessing to us for 14 fast years now!  We had a small family gathering with presents and cake.  The one thing Talmage really wanted to do was to play Mafia with the family.  We ended up having enough time that we got to play with Grandma, Nathan and Tiffany, Jeff and I, and all of our kids (who were old enough).  We had some good laughs!  It was a really fun night!

Present time!

  

  

One of Talmage's presents was pair of binoculars.  Grandma kind of picked on him about getting them to spy on people.  Talmage was pretty embarrassed I think.

It's a good thing they are just for bird watching ;)

 All of the present goodies!

Ready to blow out the candles! 

Talmage has changed so much this year!  He is almost as tall as me and his voice has gotten deep too!  He blends in with the adults sometimes.  I'm not sure that I'm ready for this stage, but that doesn't stop time from marching on. 
Talmage loves to learn and still loves animals!  He is a good older bother and loves to play games with Clark and Lorna.  He has found a great group of friends in our new ward and is really enjoying being here!  We love having Talmage in our family and embracing all of the joys of being a teenager!

Season Passes!

I took the kids to get their season passes from 6 Flags.  While we were there we decided to take advantage of having our food passes.  We ate hamburgers and turkey legs for lunch and got some cotton candy and pretzels for snacks.  It was kind of crazy with Fright Fest still going on, but it was still a fun few hours! 

Yummy Cotton Candy!

I love watching the kids experiment with it.... seeing their tongue melt it ;)

Texas Weather Fun

One of the fun things about living in Texas is that we never really know what the weather is going to do.  Now, yes, it can be annoying, but it keeps you on your toes that's for sure.  It seems like it takes forever for the seasons to really switch.  I'm never really sure if it's really done being hot so we never really pack away the summer clothes... or the swim suits ;).

Let's just say that this week was a nice warm one and the kids wanted to swim again.  Since the pool had been green too often recently, I was happy to have them swim and get use out of the beautiful blue water!  The water was still a bit chilly, but they still had fun!

Clark, Mhari, and Lorna

Even Talmage swam

Grant floated .... never got in

Sandra likes that game too.... silly kids!

Lorna having fun on the dolphin :)

Happy Fall!... Texas style!