Last of the House Projects for Awhile . . .

We just finished the last of our house projects for this year. It's something we've been looking forward to since we moved into the house last year. We put up a patio cover on our back cement slab. It took us 3 days to complete it. We also had the outside of the house painted which really updates the look of the place.
Here's the before picture:

Here are a couple in progress pictures:


And the final picture:

We finished just in time too. We had our first big rain storm last night and this morning. And we're happy to say there are no leaks! Here are the kids enjoying the patio cover with the rain this morning:

Josh did most of the work himself. I assisted with holding beams and painted all the wood. The children also enjoyed "Helping" by handing items up to Josh on the ladder and measuring out the pieces too. Gideon loved playing with the tape measure:

Gideon did not like the the noise of the saw!

We plan to take a break from the projects at least until the New Year.

Birthdays and House Projects

I've been very bad about blogging lately, mostly because of all the house projects we've been doing. We just finished putting new carpet in our house. Because we were putting new carpet in, I finally finished painting our master bedroom ceiling and walls and the hallway/stairwell walls. Then Josh replaced our old sliding patio door with a single french door. It seems once we get started on house projects, we keep going for awhile.
Here's the empty space after Josh removed our old patio slider:

and the new door:

One of my painting helpers:


So besides projects, what has been happening? Eliyana's school had a drug emphasis week and one day they had a special visit by the local DEA. Some DEA Agents visited with a drug dog and also a special helicopter landing on the elementary school field. Caleb's preschool was also participating in the events, so I came along with Gideon also. They boys were especially impressed with the helicopter.

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The children had a good time trick or treating for Halloween. We weren't intending to go trick or treating this year since our church had a Reformation Day potluck, but that was also the day Josh decided to try installing our new patio door and it wasn't finished by the time the Potluck started meaning we couldn't leave the house. So while he finished up the door, I took the children around the neighborhood. Good thing we have lots of dressup clothes and costumes at home! They had a fun time.



Gideon turned 2 years old last week. It's hard to believe our little baby is 2. He is talking a lot more and with that has come more personality and expression - good and bad. We had 3 neighbors over for cake to celebrate his birthday.


A picture from Gideon's first week: