A Thanksgiving Feast and Festivities!

This has been a really fun Thanksgiving for us so far! Emma's had a few school activities to celebrate, she's come home from school telling me all about the Pilgrims and Indians, their boat the Mayflower, and the foods they ate. She's learning so much! She had 2 programs at school yesterday, a play during the day and a music program last night. The videos are too long so blogger isn't letting me download them. But here are a few pictures from Emma's Thanksgiving festivities!

After their play, the kids all enjoyed their own Thanksgiving Feast.

Emma was a pilgrim in the play!

Lili really enjoyed watching Emma during her music program. She kept calling out for "sissy" and trying to sing along with them, it was so sweet!

Papa and Mimi were able to come! We really missed having Nanny and PawPaw there. Emma came down to sit with us after her songs were over.

Two attmepts at a family picture. Neither me nor Emma were cooperating for this one.

And Emma looks deathly ill in the next one! Haha, oh well. Guess it'll have to do!

We hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Homecoming

Can you believe that 11 years ago Mike and I had our first date to Auburn's Homecoming? Time has certainly flown by. Every year we make a special trip to celebrate this special day in our lives.

We enjoyed a Sunday picnic in front of the stadium before we headed back home :)

Auburn built an awesome new Student Union last year. Below, we are in front of it (or some of it).

Met up with some good friends, Ellen and Frank Hamilton!

War Eagle!!!!

My Sweet Girls

My girls are just growing so fast! These are just a few pics I took the other day while we were playing on our patio. We are really enjoying the beautiful fall weather we've been having.

Emma is already 5 1/2 years old!

Lili is 20 mths!

Renovation: Stairwell

Remember how steep and narrow our staircases were b/c a wall went right down the center of them? Well, we've removed that wall and flipped the direction of the staircase. We actually had to rebuild the stairs to code, they were not deep enough as well as being too steep. Below is a picture of what the stairwell looked like.

The new stairwell landing will be right off the living area instead of the kitchen. We like this better and feel like it makes the floor plan function alot smoother. The "green" wall to the right will have about 2 -3 feet taken off the end where it meets the stairs to allow room to walk around the stairs and so that they do not land smack dab in the living room. There will be an entrance to the study right beside the stairs to the right as well. The opening on the left will be closed in.



In the pic below, these studs represent the new wall of the stairwell. It will be partially banistered to allow a more open space b/t the stairwell, study, and living area.The room you see through the studs will be the study.

Below: Going up the stairs, this ceiling will be taken back a couple of feet.

View of looking down stairwell, alot less narrow and steep.

Below: we will have a landing and hallway up stairs.

Below: the landing and hall will be a C shape to allow access to the bathroom and all four bedrooms.

I like that this window ended up being in the landing, i think it'll help keep the space more open .

Fall Festival at West Huntsville Baptist Church

Our church has a Fall Festival every year. We had a great turn-out and I think everyone had alot of fun. I know Emma did :)

This is Mallory, God brought her into my life a few years ago. She's been a blessing in my life.

Emma and her two buddies, Will and Micah. The three of them are inseperable.

Lili really really liked going down the slide with daddy.

Emma playing the ball toss.

Trick-or-Treat!

We had the joy of spending tonight with old and new friends. All of the kids had a ball trick-or-treating together. We had a Rainbow Fairy, a Lady Bug, a Ballerina, a Tiger, and Bob the Tomato!

Lili enjoyed walking up and down the sidewalks yelling out crazy and hilarious noises. She had alot of fun, I think she was the loudest kid on the street .

Emma and Maggie heading to get some goodies!

She was a cute tiger

I'm not sure whose steps these are, but their house was decorated so nice, I'm sure they wouldn't mind us using it as a backdrop!

Finally, Lili had to ride in the stroller, I think Daddy was getting a little tired of carrying her and keeping her out of the street :)

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

First Unexpected Expense

As we began to add on to the other side of the house, we noticed that alot of the wood on the roof had water damage. When the previous owner had the tin roof installed, their were several places where flashing was not installed, thus the water damage. Here are a few pictures to show you the extent of the damage.

Thankfully, the entire roof isn't damaged and the tin was reusable. Reroofing the house isn't necessarily on our list right now, we've got plenty of other things that need to be done. However, we will have to make some repairs on the roof in other places. But nothing too major.

This door we added, it will be an exit from our master bedroom to the porch.

We removed most of the plants from the front so you can get a better idea of what we're doing. We still have a few windows to replace.