New Home

As many of you know we are currently in the middle of major renovation projects at our home. If you know me well, you know that I'm pulling my hair out about all the dirt and dust building up in my house as we speak. So, we moved the kids and I to my parents home and have been there over 3 weeks. (We originally thought this would take 4-7 days to complete. Oh were we wrong)

Parts of our farmhouse are over 100 years old so when we decide to renovate a room you never know what you are going to encounter or what suprises you will find. In our livingroom we took down the 1960's panel ceiling to discover a cracked an crumbling plaster ceiling which we had to take down only to discover beautiful wood beams throughout the room so we cleaned them up and it will eventually add character to the room. (this "project" added 5 days to our originally time crunch)

We also decided to replace the carpet in the livingroom and up the stairs since it was destroyed during the demo of our ceiling and our drywallers did a doosey on it as well. When we tore out the carpet on the steps we discovered finished steps that we decided to strip down, sand and stain. Little did we know that getting 40+ years of glue and varnish off those steps would take 100 years. (this "project" added, like I said, 100 years to the time crunch)

So as if all that wasn't enough for these "do it yourselfers" we decided to add hardwood flooring in the livingroom and refinish our kitchen floor since the clear coat topping was not hard enough when we originally did the floor. This was one of our dumbest decisions. (this "project" took two day but brought tears to both Arlan and I's eyes while we were sanding the floors at 3am in the morning.) The sanders weren't working for us and every time we ran it, it put more scratches in the floor that we couldn't get out. The only thing that semi-worked was sitting on the sander. Finally after about 12 hours of sitting on that darn sander we gave up, got out the little hand sander and spent the remaining 8 hours doing it on our hands and knees till it got smooth.

I must say I think we got in over our heads a bit this time but thanks to my dad and the Beiler clan we were able to get the project done and hopefully move back home by the end of the week.

Be sure to check in for the final results!!

Basketball

My nephew Brady had a basketball game the other night and Arlan and I decided to take the kids to see the game. His team did a great job and made a good effort at winning. It's hard to believe that someday Trey and Breanne will be involved in a "team" sport. Now days there's not much "teamwork" involved in their play.

Trey was very excited about going to the game. I think he wanted to be one of the players because by halftime he was so antsy and when Arlan took him out in the hallway he just ran back and forth like the players on the court. And during the game I'd see him eyeing up the ball as if he's saying to himself, 'if it comes closer, I'm grabbin' it!!!

Here's that crazy stuff I talked about!

This is Trey's best bud and cousin Parker at the game!

Winter Wonderful!

How wonderful for the snow to start falling this morning. Every evening Trey prays for supper and he always adds something at the end about "thank you for the snow". His prayer was finally answered.

Breanne insisted on NOT wearing gloves which of course, bit her in the butt when they went numb. She spent the rest of her time out there eating clumps of snow. As long as it wasn't yellow I didn't stop her!

The kids built their first real snowman this evening. Trey was definately in to it more than Bre. I think he's really proud of his little frosty the snowman.

Christmas Morn'

Christmas morning was so relaxing for our family. We had no gatherings to attend so we spent the whole day playing with our new toys and eating all our favoite foods.

Trey and Breanne really got into opening gifts this year and tearing up all the wrapping paper. They even got gifts for each other. Faith church offers a "Santas Workshop" for children only to shop for siblings and parents without the parents or other siblings knowing what they purchased. It was a fun thing to get suprise gifts from them.

Bre got this rocking horse from my parents. It neighs and wags its tail and she just loves it. She's added it to her "pet" collection. I imagine it won't be long before she wants a real one.

Trey got this giant size dump truck for loading up hay bales and grain. He loves it and it gives him hours of fun as he plays farm.

Hospital Christmas

It has been a rough week for us especially with Christmas just hours away. Trey got sick with the stomach virus last Thursday and unfortunately it got so bad that he got severly dehydrated and couldn't keep even the slightest drop of water down. By the second day of getting sick he started getting very weary, and unresponsive so the doctors admitted him to the hospital. Within 36 hours he was much better but it was heartbreaking seeing him in so much pain and discomfort.

We are happy to have him home just in time for Christmas and he is doing much better!

Everyone have a healthy and happy Christmas holiday!!

The Big 2!

It's amazing how the time flies. My little girl just turned the big kid 2!

Breanne it completely and totally smitten with kittens right now so it was only proper that I go overboard with a Hello Kitty theme this year! She also knows one color and it is PINK! So all the food, ice cream and drinks were...........Pink! (Those of you who know me, know I am not a best friend to the color pink but you'll do anything for your kids.)

Breanne's aunt LaLa (Arlans baby sister) got her a toy, pet kitten with a carry cage and all; and she absolutely loves this thing. She's been toting it around everywhere. She even took it to the doctors office today and showed it off to everyone.

Anyway, Bre is growing up in so many ways. In her talk and in her actions. It's sad to see my baby not a baby anymore but I look forward, with much anticipation, to each day of this next year. She is precious to us in so many ways and miss her as a 1 year old but love her as a 2 year old.

Come On Ring Those Bells!

Trey had his first experience performing in a Christmas program. He joined the hand bell choir and he did a really good job. When the director holds up a paper that's the same color as their bell they ring away. Trey knows all his colors really well so he got the hang of it really fast. The only challenge was getting him to stand there after each song. When the clapping started he thought he was done and put his bell down and took off each time. Oh well it makes a good memory anyway.