O Christmas tree...

On the hunt for the perfect tree...which took longer than usual this year, not sure why, there were tons of really nice trees, I was just being indecisive, {I have that problem from time to time!}

The kids in front of our tree.

Thankful for the boys, they now do all of the dirty work!

We brought the tree in and decorated it while Lucy was sleeping, when she woke up and came downstairs she looked at the tree and said "hey!"  Like, what in the world is that?  We all had a good laugh at that.

Lights on the house, tree and village up...

and yes, even a few gifts under the tree, thanks to a crazy "Black Friday" I mean all night Thursday into the morning on Friday shopping adventure.  Oh the things we do to save a buck!  Actually, it was a good time spent with friends, and very productive too.

Our goal for this week is to finish emptying out the pole barn so we can get rid of the lovely dumpster turned lawn ornament in front of the house!

Jaydens first deer, and other firsts...

First and foremost, hunting season is upon us and we now have 3 hunters in the family.  Ryan took the boys hunting this past week on opening day and Jayden shot this nice 3 point buck.  The next day he got a button buck!  He loves being able to actually shoot something!

 Dylan shot his first deer with a bow this year as well. 

Another first is for Luisa, she has stayed dry for 2 days now!  She is really getting the hang of this potty training thing, it makes her momma very happy, and she is enjoying the candy.  Found out she loves Tootsie Rolls, she picks them over all the other candy, every single time.  Anaya loves to help Luisa, and she takes her in with her when she has to go, just to show her how it's done, too funny!

I was able to park my vehicle in the garage for the first time!  This was a momentous event, one of my favorite things about this house is that we finally have a garage, and now it is cleaned out enough that I can park in it!  We were giddy with excitement last night as we were taking the groceries in and could hear the rain and wind out side!

We also were able to hang clothes in the closets for the first time since we moved in.  Ryan finished up all of the kids closets this week and it is so wonderful to not have the huge mess of clothes on the floor.  Ours should be finished this coming week and we will be done living out of suitcases!  We still have to get closet doors, but, for now...

We are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving this week, we sure have a lot to be thankful for! 

a great week...

Remember this eye sore?

well, it is no more!!

 our horses are getting bigger and fuzzier!

 Painting the floor of the mudroom and putting up the bench.

So, I have been taking pictures on my new phone of all of the projects we have gotten done over this week,  I just sat down to blog about it, and I realized that the cord that came with my phone, doesn't work with my computer.  So,...hopefully I will figure that out soon, for now there are a few pictures to keep things interesting.  But, we made some great progress this week, including my mud room is done, my island has laminate, they replaced all but one of the windows we were replacing, finally got our dining room table put up and ate sitting down as a family for the first time in weeks!  Closets are starting to take shape, we fixed the siding on the house,  Ryan got more of the trim up and I 'frosted' the glass on the bathroom door{Yay for some privacy}...still no doorhandles on yet though, I am sure that will be done soon.  Getting back into a good school routine and settling in.  I took a break last night and watched a movie with the kids, feels like life is getting back to 'normal!'   So incredibly thankful for a nice warm house with all this windy rainy weather!     

pumpkin carving...

 Oh so many choices...look at them contemplate!

 Luisa walked up to one and grabbed it!  Plenty good...let's go!

 

 

 Eww!  Pumpkin guts!  I was shocked Anaya stuck her hand in it, but very soon, she was asking to wash her hands.

 Lucy was loving it...Anaya...{big shocker} not so much!  Yes, she got pumpkin guts in her hair, they were flinging it everywhere, seemingly non intentionally, however, one can never be sure, she was not impressed!

 Easton doing a happy dance because he likes the way his pumpkin looks!  That kid is too funny!

I was thinking pumpkin carving would not happen this year as I had not yet located any sharp knives..."they are in the barn somewhere..."  is the notorious answer for everything that we can't find.  But, my children would not let that happen, instead of looking in the barn for our knives, they went to the garage and found sharp objects.  Power tools gave new life to our pumpkin carving adventure!  They used a drywall saw and a sawzall and they had a blast!  I doubt we will ever use those puny little pumpkin carving knives again!

FINALLY!!

Back on the world wide web!  Oh my goodness, it has been a long time!  But, we finally figured out how to get internet.  We have been busy getting the house ready, we passed all of our final inspections and are moving things in.  We still have a ton of work left to do, things like trim, fixing the siding outside, replacing windows, my island needs the counter top on it...lots of little things, but...we have a fully functioning kitchen, lights, electricity and we are starting to get furniture in place.  We are so excited to start getting things back to 'normal' again!  Here are a few pictures of how we have been living...it ain't pretty, but it's getting better!

 My favorite part of the house...my new huge fridge!  I think I hear the angels singing when I open it up!!  And yes, it just eeked into that space...it's 2x the size of our old fridge, {which drove me nuts because we couldn't even hold enough milk for the week!}  We can fit all the milk and juice we want in this one!

 Thankfully the gaps were fixed before we got any of the cold weather!

 Doing home work!