The Hundred Acre Wood

Happy Halloween

 from the Hundred-Acre Wood -

 or rather - the Williams' Home!

 

Look how Tigger admires his friend Pooh Bear,

and even more love is shared between Christopher Robin and his best friend, Piglet.

 

 Hope yours was as sugar-filled as ours.

 Happy Halloween!

Carpet, Carpet, Carpet!

Can't start this post without sharing this mishap one of the final LATE nights before carpet. We were cutting the wood for covering the support post in the basement, and I was supposed to "catch" the wood as it came out of the table saw. I missed.

It was terrifying. Let me give you an idea of the power that thing must have come with off the saw. It penetrated the 3/4 inch drywall AND the 1/4 plywood (this is a support wall). It did not come out on the other side (the exercise room), but it was certainly at head/eye height of our children. If it had happened while they were down there (which was pretty much always except for after bedtime) it could have been catastrophic. It also could have really done some serious damage to my or Ryan's thigh. All in all, we got it patched and painted before all the real fun began...

Saturday, October 20th

Ryan (aka He-Man) moved all our upstairs furniture off the carpet. We emptied all our closets, moved all our beds, took apart all the bed frames, moved all dressers, and basically moved out of our house.

Living room furniture-less

Master bedroom furniture-less

This is what our front hall/dining room looked like.

Awesome, eh? That is all our life on non-carpeted surfaces. I now know while everyone gets carpet before moving in or after moving out.

 

Monday, October 22nd

 

I took Collin to school, and my parents came and picked up Brennan. They did all kinds of fun things (playing at the hotel & McDonald's) while Ryan and I WORKED.

One of the worst areas of stain in the living room. Not a tear was shed to see this crap on the curb.

We washed all the baseboards, pulled all the carpet, pulled all the pad, yanked all the staples, and swept and vacuumed until we thought we drop. I also sprayed everything down with a bleach/water mixture. (Thank you to the Balls for their help!)

 

I had the bright idea (at 4pm?) to paint the hallway to the bedrooms while the carpet was removed so we wouldn't have to use drop clothes doing it another time. It looks great, but we were up until midnight painting, cleaning and prepping. Sigh.

 

Our wonderful neighbors (Thank you, Marshes!) let us use their home for nap times and nighttime. I was able to put the boys down there on Monday afternoon, Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon. Don't know how we could have gotten it all done otherwise.

 

Tuesday, October 23rd (THE BIG DAY!)

 

I "slept" (aka fretted) at the Marshes and at 8am the carpet-layers were calling to say they'd be at the house in 10 minutes. I drove the boys down the road, and they were pulling in just as we got there. Ryan was barely dressed (he'd thrown a mattress on the bare boards the night before), and they got right to work.



The boys were pretty interested in the work for an hour or so, but as they expired my parents showed up from their hotel and swept them away. It was wonderful! They loved time with Grandma and Grandpa (Chuck E Cheese, shoe shopping, Dunkin Donuts), and we loved watching our house transformed.

Like that pad? I particularly love the complementary red argyle and blue & brown pinstripes.



And by 3pm - we had a new house! We moved all our furniture back in (words can't express the exhaustion by this point...) and slept in our new home that night.



It is so soft and plush and cushy on your toes. It is warm and comforting. The house is so much more cozy. A new house, really.

 

And we have a play room (and theater! and exercise room! and guest room! and craft room!!!!) in the basement! Hooray!

 

Want to see pictures? You'll have to wait a little longer. I need to clean. :-) 

Fall

An update on our family seems an order...

 

Time Out for Mom!

I went away for the weekend and it was awesome and I only took one picture to prove it. Ha. This one is of our carload.

 

We went to St Louis Friday morning and got back late on Saturday night. We went to the art museum and the St Charles boutique shops. We attended the program on Friday night and all day Saturday. We stayed up late in the hotel and got up early to work out. Good times.

Fortunately, despite my ineptness at photos, this one is on Facebook. It shows our whole group, sixteen in all. Like the buttons? The girl who got our group together and helped organize everything made them for us. They said "Peoria IL loves Time Out For Women." It was fun to be so unified. Hope I can do it again sometime. It was awesome.

Trains & Parades

Ever since the pumpkin festival, the boys have been obsessed with parades. Good ol Dad made this beauty one morning for the boys to play with. He strapped them together with a string.

Brennan is at the perfect age to obsess over anything he can say really well. (Keep reading for more about his tractor obsession.) He loves to say "choo choo," and it really is about the most adorable thing I've ever heard. He has so much enthusiasm when he says it. Cutest ever.

We cross a set of railroad tracks on the way to church, and he proudly announced "choo choo" as we crossed last week. How did he know!?

I love this age when the language explosion takes place. Brennan says about three new words per day, I estimate. Tonight he said plate for the first time. It is so exciting, and Collin cheers for him too. So fun.

Outside in the Fall
We've been enjoying the beautiful weather too. I feel like every day could be the last, so we've been outside constantly. I hate knowing it's going to end...

Anyway, I shot this beauty one afternoon in our sandbox. We had two families over rather impromptu. Each of us has a child born in 2008 and another born in 2010 (Brennan is only barely in 2011...).

And as long as I'm talking about impromptu play dates - We have the best neighborhood ever. There are so many kids the same age as mine, and so many stay-at-home moms too. I love going for walks and playing outside and having so many kids around for mine to play with. The other moms are super great too. We've made so many good friends. It is a great place to live.

Normal Children's Museum
We made our fall trek to the Children's Museum closest to us too (about 45 minutes away) last Friday.

As usual, I couldn't pull them away from the water table.

Brennan also LOVES to say the word tractor. Here he is driving one.

He also got super obsessed with this one. 

 I mean, really - He walked around with it for about 20 minutes.

 He wouldn't share it with other kids; he was quite possessive.

The whole time he was chanting, "tata, tata." Adorable. Luckily, his hunger button went off, and a friend coaxed him over to the tables to eat. I don't know how I would have gotten him to put it down otherwise...

Speaking of "hunger buttons," this little one can pack it away. He eats and eats and eats. This picture doesn't really fit here, but Ryan captured it one morning at breakfast.

What do you think of our Cheerio monster? I'm thinking it would make a great Halloween costume, lol.

Here's my eating machine at his next favorite thing: art work. He is the best color-er there every was, and let me tell you: He can paint too. Pardon the blurry picture, but he was going to town. My own little Picasso. Look at that smile.

Ryan & Lindsey's Bday
We also celebrated our birthdays - 31 years. Yikes. We did our usual bonfire with friends, cheesecake yumminess to share, out to dinner together sans kids, and another dinner with children. Somehow I have zero picture documentation of all the events. Oops. Must be my 31-year-old brain getting worn out...

Christ Apple Orchard
The morning of Ryan's bday, we headed to the apple orchard. Our usual orchard outlawed apple picking this year (shame on you, Tanner's), so we found this new gem.

Oh my goodness - such a wonderful place with WAY less commercialism. We plan on making it our new usual.

 

We had a great time picking a peck of apples. Look at this gargantuan one in Collin's hands.

We also picked three pumpkins out of the patch and got some of the best cider I've ever tasted. I love the Midwest.

Basement, Basement, Basement

 

And last but not least - We've been breathing basement. Every time the kids are in bed or occupied (ie watching tv), we are slaving away in the basement. But we are on the home stretch! We've painted long into the night for weeks, and the exhaustion is showing. I nap almost every day, but poor Ry just keeps plugging away.

We have ordered and paid for our carpet (the last step except doors and moldings). Yippee!

The wood floor and kitchenette are also installed. We also got the surround sound in (listened to Pandora on the receiver this morning!) and the exercise room tv is mounted too. We are so close. Can't wait for carpet!!

And there's our update. Hope you are each enjoying Fall too!