Bring on Christmas!

 We did something we never thought we would do....we had our tree up before Thanksgiving.
Gasp!
I know, we are crazy. But I don't regret it one bit. A large reason for us doing it so early was because Brian will be traveling the first 3 weekends in December, which sucks. So we took the opportunity to start Christmas a little early this year and try and get in some good quality family Holiday time. We did the tree and Brian did the lights outside as well.

Our front window is THE perfect place for a Christmas tree

I've also been doing Christmas shopping since I will be a single mama for awhile and it will be tough to get that done. I have just a few more things to get for the girls and then they are done, wahoo! If only I was so on top of our Christmas card this year...

More house pics!

We have been plugging right along on house projects. Some are bigger than others, some are more rewarding than others, and some are a pain in the arse and come with more problems and projects than originally thought. But that's alright, we are still over the moon with our house and grateful to be home owners.

So, our downstairs has a half bath and it needs a little TLC. It's not complete yet, we need a new mirror and floating shelves will be going up behind the toilet, but the fresh coat of paint and new electrical outlets made such an improvement.

Before/during

After!

It looks like two different paint colors but it's just the lighting. We went with harbor grey from Benjamin moore.

While I was painting, Brian was freshening up our outside and making it look amazing. Pressure washing makes such a big difference and since our house sat for 3 years without any TLC it needed a good bath.

So much moss

 And now she's all pretty and shiny!

It looked so good that Brian decided why stop there? The next day he did the back...

 The before pictures don't even show just how bad it was.

Working hard

I don't have a before picture of the pool house but it was pretty dirty

 And after...

So pretty!

The pool and hot tub. Whew, they are going to be a ton of work to get clean and up and running. We go back and forth between hiring someone to do all of it, and trying to do some of the cleaning ourselves. Before it can be drained, we have to scoop the 2 feet of disgusting debris off the bottom. Not just debris, oh no, that would be too easy. There are dead frogs and dead fish as well. How did the fish get there? Well, for most of the 3 years it sat, the cover was not on. In fact, they only put the cover on back in June. So the once beautiful pool began to turn into a pond, which brought the mosquitos. Obviously the neighbors were not thrilled so they called the county and the county brought out fish to eat the mosquitos. All this to say, our pool is in need of major work. We are hoping by this spring we can start on it and then have it up and running by summer. It will feel really good to get it done because it's definitely an eye sore right now.

The witch and her black cat

 I loved their choice of Halloween costumes this year, classics. I think I was a witch for a few years in a row when I was little, aside from Minnie Mouse it was my favorite.

The weekend before Halloween we went down to Albany. I had some work I needed to do and we used it as an excuse to do some festivities with family which is always a plus. Downtown Albany had trick or treating so we joined Jenny and the kids for some door to door candy collection.

 That evening we watched the Beaver game at the Tegner's and it was a perfect way to enjoy family time and football.

Bria loves her Grandpa Armstrong

 Funny story...when Brian found out that the Tegner's had a toilet that wasn't working he was determined to fix it. Since he has some experience in this field (Bria once flushed a princess down the toilet and it got stuck, which meant he had to take the toilet off and get it out) he was confident that it was a clog. Schuyler lended his expertise as well and before we knew it the toilet was in their driveway.

"Is this really how you're suppose to do it guys?"

 They found the clog (toothbrush) and got it out, then put the toilet back in it's resting place. It made for fun conversations that's for sure!

Zoey you are the cutest!

 Both girls had Halloween parties at their school and I was lucky enough to attend both (so was Reese!).

Reese with her besties, Moriah and Dallas

Reese may not be looking but it's all good. I LOVE her teacher, Mrs. Bernick, and Reese was so excited they were both black cats

 Finally the evening came and it was trick or treat time!

 The Inukai's came over and all 4 girls could not wait!

A little appetizers so candy wasn't the only consumption that evening :)

Let's go get some candy!

We were incredibly grateful the rain held off and we had a dry trick or treating experience!

This and that

 We made it about 6 weeks into school before we got hit with sickness. Bria definitely get hit the hardest and was out for a few days. She even missed picture day :(

 Fortunately it was mainly cold symptoms and not throwing up...I despise stomach bugs.

Excited about wearing her new dress to school :)

 We did one last pumpkin patch with friends to Baggenstos. It was INSANELY busy because we had the wettest October ever and this particular day it finally held off long enough for everyone to run to the pumpkin patch and get those mandatory pictures with their kids in a sea of orange pumpkins.

Hay ride to the sea of pumpkins

What's that bright thing in the sky?

 Brian was gone on business (per usual) so we did it just us girls. The next day we got out some of our Halloween décor, painted pumpkins, and made sugar cookies.

 We were really wishing Daddy could be home for some of this stuff. It's hard with him gone so much. And it looks like it won't be letting up anytime soon :(