Merry (brown) Christmas

Joel had to be on-call over Christmas. He started on Friday (his birthday) and will be done on Tuesday. Since he wasn't able to leave our house this year, we did things a little differently. Christmas Eve: Eli had a case of my favorite childhood illness... the one where you don't feel well right before it's time to go to church (he must not know that his mother mastered that one). Noah and I went to church, and then we opened a few presents at home.
Christmas Day: We hosted my family. Jen's sister, Rachel, had a Christmas baby, and with all of the EARLY morning baby excitement and Christmas fun, Katelynn ended up getting sick in the evening. It was probably a good thing they didn't have to travel.

I had this great idea that all of the kids could lay on our bedroom floor to watch a movie and fall asleep, so the adults could open gifts. HA! Some of them watched the movie, and in the end, only Noah ended up sleeping in our room....in our bed. We had a good time, and luckily, Joel didn't have to work. More Christmas celebrating to come!

Tae Kwon Do

Noah earned the first stripe on his white belt tonight!

Truax Christmas at the Lake

Noah...in the last 24 hours

going to bed after spending two nights at Grandma and Grandpa's: "I'd sleep a lot better if I was in Grandma's blue room".

when I asked him to stop jumping on his bed: "Well, then where can I do flips?"

coming home from school today: "I really don't need to go to that school; I already know everything".

Noah: "When are we going to move?" Mom: "If we do ever move, we'd probably move back to Iowa by Grandma Cathy." Noah: "Good, then we'd be close to both Grandmas." (Apparently 1 hr in the car is the same as 7.)

looking at Batman legos on the internet: N: "I really want these" Mom: "Those are REALLY expensive because they don't make them anymore." N: "That's why I'm getting them for Christmas!!" (I kind of remember my other child stating that Santa doesn't need money.)

7 year old revenge

Proactively, I put up the tree while the boys were at Grandma and Grandpa's, so they could come home and decorate. I guess I should have ran that by Eli first because he later informed me that he wanted to take the branches out of the box and put them in piles. After a 30 minute crying/screaming fit, he realized that I in fact was not going to take the tree down and start over, so he decided to start decorating.

Mom: "Eli, you should spread out the ornaments because it looks better if they aren't all in one spot.

Eli: (in a very snotty voice which I have no idea where he gets) "I CAN put THEM wherever I WANT".

I may take the ornaments down, so we can start over.

Thanksgiving Day at Our House

We were blessed to have Grandma, Don, and the Kinney's at our house for a few days. We have a lot to be thankful for!

I'm pretty sure this was not in the forecast,

but I know a couple of kiddos who were thrilled!

Halloween Goes On...

Who says Halloween has to end in October? Nothing like 75% off costumes to keep the Halloween spirit alive. Luigi is who Noah decided he wanted to be when he woke up on October 31st. Unfortunately he promised he would stick with his blue Power Ranger costume when he bought it in August. But he did get his Luigi after all...probably won't fit in another year, regrettably. But still the fun continues...

Smarter than Dad

Here is what I get for challenging my 7-year old to spell the word sarcophagus at breakfast...and I had no idea how to spell it myself when asked. I found this on my office door after he got back from school this afternoon:

Happy Halloween

We continued our tradition of pumpkin pizza and trick or treating at Craig and Jen's.

Austin, Tyden, Noah, Eli, and Katelynn

Eli couldn't finish eating because his loose tooth was bugging him. Since Aunt Jennifer wasn't here, Uncle Bryant (Jen's brother-in-law) was on tooth pulling duty.

MEA in Iowa

cobber homecoming

We were missing a few girls this year due to little things like Disney World trips, 10 year anniversary celebrations, and very sick kids, but Amber and I had fun anyway!A 25 minute 5k?? I'll take it, but I'm pretty sure things were a little "off" at the finish line.

busy week

We hosted an early Halloween party on Saturday. Noah has been a little obsessed with the day. He and I had fun shopping for decorations, searching for recipes, and organizing games.

Tuesday I went with Eli's class to an art museum. That afternoon, he had to run a mile for gym, and parents were invited to watch. I actually ran with him. His time was 10:09 which was over two minutes faster than his practice time.

Today I went with Noah's class to the pumpkin patch. His favorite thing was the hay bale maze. My favorite thing was watching him interact with his friends.

Papa's Pumpkin Patch

We had a fun weekend visit with the Kinney's. Due to the spring flooding, Papa's Pumpkin Patch was at the speedway. Some of the "pumpkin patch feel" got lost in the move, and the unseasonable heat didn't help. However, the kids loved playing in the hay, and they always have a great time with their cousins!

today

Maybe it was because I got a break this weekend

(thanks Mom and Dad)

Maybe it was the boys being ready for school 10 minutes early

Maybe it was the morning outdoor run

Maybe it was the perfect weather

Maybe it was making a supper that everyone ate

(and even prompted Eli to tell me that I'm a good cook)

Maybe it was my husband bringing me a yummy coffee drink

Whatever it was,

I LOVED TODAY!

Fall Festival

fun friday

lunch at Spicy Pie

FINALLY! The conclusion (see post from June)

Finally the deck is complete--it was quite a process...first, I (Joel) went back and put another screw in each board on every joist where the builders had only put one screw to start with...something like 300 screws when I was done. That was my first clue as to why the bid was 1/2 the cost of the other persons bid. Second, the stairs were just sitting on the ground with nothing underneath (Mike Holmes says NEVER let wood touch earth), so Don and I jacked up the staircase with a car jack from the Honda enough to get underneath the bottom step (about 6 inches). We spent about 2 hours digging out 6 inches of hard clay (no nice Iowa loam up in these parts) around the bottom of the stairs with a small spade and hand trowels due to the stairs being so close to the ground. Then we filled the base in with sand, concrete pads, and some landscaping tiles. Also added some stabilization to the stairs as the middle stringer wasn't touching anything, a new kickplate (the bottom one was cut at an really, really bad angle and horribly done, clue #2), and a couple more things. Next Don, Mom, and myself spent Sunday staining the deck. With the first coat. Last night and today, I finished putting on a second coat of stain and finished the bottom of the stairs with river rock. Huge thanks to Mom and Don for staying with us and putting in the hard work...couldn't have done the digging by myself, that is for sure. So here is the before and after pictures...hope everyone can tell the difference...

BEFORE

AFTER

Moral of the story is that going with the obscenely lower bid and a little extra work on my part (and others) saved us over $3000. And my lovely wife has a complete, south facing deck to relish the last few days of warmth and evening sun. Oh yeah, and the satisfaction of having a piece of myself in the work...like my back, hamstrings, shoulders, and several other things that I left in the backyard...

What's Cookin' Wednesday

Chocolate Lasagna

Thanks to my new obsession, pinterest.com, I found this great weekly schedule. I was going to wait until next summer to do it with the boys, but Joel mentioned last night that it would be good for Noah and me during the school year. Have I ever mentioned how smart my husband is? Plus now I know that he actually listens when I talk (sometimes). Here is the schedule (I'm hoping that if I blog about it, I'll be better about sticking to it): Make Something Monday (art project), Time To Read Tuesday (go to the library), What's Cookin' Wednesday (Noah actually picked our recipe off the internet yesterday), Thankful Thursday (write notes, volunteer, do something nice), Somewhere Fun Friday.