2013 fall retreat

I've mentioned Terry's Fall Retreat a couple times but haven't gotten around to doing a post. I wasn't able to be there due to being previously engaged with a baby. But since the box maze was only the previous week, I was all too happy that Terry's folks took the older kids off my hands for an overnight stay. It was just what I needed. I was able to make a trip up to Camp Judson to visit Terry for a couple hours. 

Looks like Seth and David are explaining a game on Saturday morning. Might have been "Infection," otherwise known as Zombies :P

The group from Wyoming brought their homemade game of Ga Ga Ball. From what I've gathered, it's like a contained version of dodgeball. Everyone has to be inside those walls...

...and attempt to throw the ball at people's legs to knock them out. Terry said the game was hugely popular and made him quite sore.

Here's the Overflow shirt, modeled by Steven.

Since my brother is back in town, he's been helping out with youth group and the young marrieds Sunday school class. The group was passing water along the line to illustrate the theme of Overflow.

I am present in this photo although you can't see me. I included this one because it's the only one I could find with Terry present! They were putting Mary on all the empty pizza boxes.

And here's the whole group!

This is the video Terry made for church.

new bedroom progress

October and November have been very busy months for Terry - he had the box maze and the fall retreat. But that didn't stop him from getting some work done on Noah and Samuel's new bedroom. He would say that his dad encouraged him when they were talking about how it wouldn't take much. 

So, work began on the new bedroom the first weekend of October during the huge freak blizzard, when he completed the framing and demo of the wet bar. The next couple weeks were devoted to wiring, hanging insulation and drywall and installing the door and closet. The week of the box maze the project, understandably, sat for a while. But once the fall retreat was over and Terry helped a friend texture his entire upstairs, he felt motivated again. Plus, another friend from church who had also been texturing volunteered to come help Terry get started on the taping. And here are Jason and Terry getting started. We were so grateful for the help that night. It was wonderful.

Over the next week Terry put a second and third coat of mud down on the seams. This is the third. He's in there prepping the room for texturing.

Then he scraped the stupid popcorn texture off the ceiling. It was necessary because 1) it's ugly, and 2) it needed re-textured after the new flat seams were added.

This last Monday I helped Terry texture. I didn't do much. It was fun to see him do it after all his descriptions of feeling like a Ghostbuster last time he did it. The spraying didn't take much time. It was the prep work of taping off everything we didn't want textured that took several hours. Poor guy.

The easiest part was just pulling that scraper across the blobs to knock them down. Oddly satisfying to me. 

I took over for the next part. It's about time I did something to contribute and I went a little crazy. I don't know what came over me but I'm just so sick and tired of this project and my house in transition and a mess. I primed everything on Tuesday. Painted the rest yesterday. Today I finished all second coats of paint that needed it and the touch ups.

Tuesday: Priming

Another reason I moved so fast was I was quite ready for some color down there. Noah really wanted orange so that's what we did. Just the one wall so as to not overwhelmed your eyeballs. I really, really love it. It's called Osage Orange by Sherwin Williams. And actually, Noah was super duper helpful. He rolled everything he could reach while I cut in. Then I went back over his work.

Here's a shot of the gray to the outside of the room. Plus you can see the bi-fold closet door and another one inside the room and as well as the bedroom door.

Boom baby! I had to paint all the old gray on the upper walls again since it didn't quite match up. And of course I had to prime and paint the dark wood wainscoting. Plus those doors all had to be primed and painted twice with semigloss.

Here's the other side of the room. I love love love it! Tomorrow is trim day. Hopefully this weekend we will move those boys in. And I will be a happy mama. And we will take a well deserved break.

Halloween 2013

Since Terry did the box maze for Halloween last year, we had never had the chance to trick or treat in our own neighborhood. So this year was our first time doing it in this house! 

I had nothing for Samuel so he got to use Noah's hand-me-down a turtle costume, many many times too big for him.

Evie wanted to be a ninja princess. I had no idea how I was going to pull that one off. But when I was rummaging in the back of the kids' closet I just happened to find a ninja costume that a Gburg friend gave us! I just added a (somewhat lame) princess crown and Evie's wish was realized. She was so excited, never complained and colored it herself.

I felt like Noah needed a change from his teenage mutant ninja turtle costume. So we borrowed a muscley Spiderman costume from his friend Jack 

Look at that huge turtle shell!

SO CUTE!

They were so excited.

Off they go! All they ended up doing was up and down our street and they had plenty of candy. 

first bottle

When the box maze was nearly done, I was eager to get out of the house on my own. Terry watched all four kids and gave Ezra his first bottle. He drained it. Ezra that is, not Terry.

He hadn't taken a bottle since he was a newborn so I was concerned that he would strongly protest. Not even close. He just gave Terry a funny look and carried on. Our little helper baby.

we finally got his stand up piano toy out of storage. it's such a great toy.

flying a kite

The Sunday after the box maze was finally over (can you hear in those italics how long that week was?), Terry wanted to do something nice for the kids. Evie had been asking to fly a kite for so long and we had never gotten around to it. So Terry unpacked this cheapo kite someone had given us some time ago and went out there after lunch on Sunday before he even changed out of his church clothes.  

our neighbor's huge house addition is finally done. they had just put sod down.

Evie had quite the time chasing the kite and trying to grab it, because as you can see, our back yard isn't quite the right place for high flying. And the kite was super cheap.

Noah had a good time, but it was more Evie's thing.

Terry drove them over to West Middle School because there's a huge field on that hill top and it's always windy. They had no problems there!

Making it look so easy and cool. Of course, Terry got it up there for them.

 It was a lovely day.

Snap came along too.

family picnic

I found some old photos on Terry's phone from when my sister was here back in September. I had completely forgot about the family picnic we had that Sunday after church. I had left by the time the kids were playing afterwards. That's alright though. I have near nightmares about my kids playing by the water in this park. And for good reason.

Samuel found some lovely trash to make float down the little stream at Canyon Lake.

This makes me so nervous! I envision Samuel falling in and getting sucked through the culvert. Ah! But Terry was right there. 

 Terry had to keep an eye on these two. Grace is wearing an old shirt of Evie's. About every time I see her, Grace is wearing something of Evie's. It makes me miss her being little so much! It still seems like she should be only three years old.

Two day apart cousins :) 

face painting

Terry helped with several Main Street Square family night events downtown this summer. Since it got late, I stayed home with Samuel and Ezra and Terry took Noah and Evie along to jump in bouncy castles, make bracelets, receive balloon animals and get their faces painted. Here's Evie's heart. Pretty little girl.

I was surprised that Noah allowed himself to be painted. He doesn't even like his hair to stand up.

Noah's mowing photos

Apparently this last summer while he mowed, Terry allowed Noah while take photos in order to keep him and the rest of the kids busy. I found hundreds of photos when I synced up our old camera. 

There were many, many photos just like this one. 

Noah must have let Evie take an occasional turn. Why he makes this face in photos all the time, I do not know. 

Silly little girl. Makes me miss summer already.

Grace was being babysat this particular day. She's also a good sit-in puppy when Snap can't be found. Oh wait... 

I like this. 

Fast forward a month and it's the same thing all over again. Noah taking photos while daddy mows. Evie is "painting" with water. 

She is such a goof. 

Samuel imitates Evie the most. Or he's just going for his nose... 

 Gah.

A nice contemplative spot for a serious boy. 

I like this. It's the view from our back yard - National Guard land. It's nice not having neighbors back there.