The door that goes down to the creepy basement...

Dave going upstairs...hesitantly....

All of the kids' rooms have walk-in closets...BONUS!...

The Dining Room....this rooms needs the least amount of work. Just some paint and flooring and we are good to go. It already has new drywall and windows....

If we don't do an addition, this will be our master bedroom. It will have a bathroom and closet put in. It currently has a fireplace, but that will be torn out in order to make room for the bathroom. This room is connected to the dining room now but won't be for long! If we do the addition, this will be a toy/craft room. YaY Me!

This is the Family Room and it is huge! It doesn't look big in the pics for some reason??? But it is so much bigger than what we are used to now! This room basically needs paint and flooring and a leak fixed in the ceiling. We are on that project now! The fireplace and a few of the window panes need some attention as well.

This is the other part of the Family Room. It is an "L" shape. (Note the fireplace to the left of the picture.) This "area" will be used for toys and kids stuff. I am DYIN' to get some light paint on these walls and brighten this room up! SOOOO much potential!

The Kitchen...the scariest room of all! We knew that this room would be financially the biggest challenge! We have this room well under way and I will be posting soon on it's progress! We did debate on tying to save the cabinets, etc....but NAH....if we are going to do it, let's do it right!!! (this pic was taken while standing by the back door)

Another view of the Kitchen. I don't have pictures of the other side, but it is actually pretty spacious! You will see soon enough! ; )

This is a small, inconvenient Bathroom off of the kitchen. Yuck.

This is a big homemade "bar" type thing that is in the kitchen. Ugly.

My Favorite Blog....

Ok...I have to let ya'll know.... I soooo enjoy reading Mycharmingkids.net. It is absolutely my favorite blog to read and has been since about 6 months ago when I came upon it. (Thanks to Devin on that one!) God has worked some crazy amazing miracles in their life and Mckmama is an encouraging Christian Mom! I have sent many prayers up God's way for her little guy, Stellan!

So she is having a contest, and of course, I want to win it! She gives away some crazy cool stuff. Just to let you know, I have tied for 12th place on one of her contests! It doesn't sound THAT impressive, but I was proud of myself! So head on over and check out some good, clean, Christian fun at Mycharmingkids.net!!!

I can NOT figure this out!!!!

I have absolutely NO idea where Bryson got his GOOFYNESS from.
NONE.

Maybe from his Father?

The Vegetable of Trees

It's one of those things, when your kids are little and they say things wrong, and it's just too cute to correct. Now I will admit that most of the time, we do correct the children. I mean, I am married to a Journalist, with an English degree! I was also raised by my mom....aka Mrs. Reinier....the High School English Teacher. So needless to say, most of the time, we make sure they use correct grammar, etc. DUH?!?! Hopefully most intelligent parents do this!?!? But every now and then, the kids say something so cute and funny, it's hard to correct! That brings us to "The Vegetable of Trees".... In our area, we have a big event called "The Festival Of Trees". The girls have ALWAYS thought it was The VEGETABLE of Trees. I think last year was the first year they didn't call it that. BUT of course, Dave and I will know it as no other now.....

"The Festival of Trees" is a Christmas program where the area schools and businesses donate hundreds of decorated trees to put on "show" at our local Civic Center. Then the beautiful themed trees are put up for silent auction. There are also different things going on each night/day of the week. Everything from school choirs singing to Breakfast with Santa. It is usually fun to go and kick off the Holiday Season! We have gone every year since the kids were little. We usually see a lot of people we know and just enjoy the laid back atmosphere. The kids get SOOO excited about it every year. This year was no different. They were counting down until the evening that we went. They even gave up their School Skating Party to go to "The Vegetable of Trees"!


NONE of the kids were scared of Santa this year...that's a first! We usually have at least one cryin' off to the side!
(Nolan was terrified of Ronald McDonald though....Go Figure?!?!)

Check out Nolan eyeballin' the candy canes! Forget Santa...give me the candy!!! Which he did get and made a very sticky mess of!




Daddy and his girls. They have SOOO got him wrapped around their little fingers!

Bryson LOVED the train that was wrapped around a HUGE tree in the middle of the arena. He is a BIG train fan anyways, so this was where he spent most of the night! He couldn't get enough!!!

Me and Ash...watching the Westville High School Choir



We really enjoyed the evening and it made us look forward to Christmas time that much more! How we are truly blessed!

A Day Late and A Dollar Short...
I know, I know...I'm a little behind on this one.... I wanted to post the pics of my Halloweenie Kids so that I can remember what they were dressed as this year.... Not the best pics...but I need to slap them on here while I am thinking about it.....

Our 3 little guys....Bryson as Batman, Nolan as Chewbacca, and Nevin as Darth Vader...

Our Angel/Devil Duo....
Taelyn and Mariya

Ashton as Squanto
AND...
my nephew, Chance and Ashton as
Halloween Birthday Boys!

Happy 14th Birthday Chance!
Happy 10th Birthday Ashton!