Happy Dinner Making

since this was happening outside my "kitchen" window:

and this was going down inside:



i decided to seize the opportunity for this:



and this:



they were playing so well there was even time for this:

3:15 and dinner's ready, the dishes are done, i even spray painted a coat on some chairs i'm working on. i can totally handle a 3rd kid! well, here comes finn crying...spoke too soon...

Nursery?

little reminder...we have a 2 bedroom house. however, there are about to be 3 kids. here's our solution: the oddly large hallway closet without any bars or shelves.

before:

and drum roll please...



after:

the closet is exactly the size of the crib! jon filled holes, sanded it all down and painted it all blue with off-white trim. if we owned the house, i'd probably take the doors down and hang fabric, but, in reality, the doors will probably help with the noise of boys!

Why Not?

why not play in what's left of the snow in just your pajamas, crocs, and a snow hat?

Aftereffects

of halloween that is:









btw...70 degrees yesterday...snowing right now

Others Minded...or not

it's operation christmas child time. we got our shoe box, and set about teaching jack that there are children in the world who don't have "things" the way we do. he became very frustrated with the idea of buying toys for another child...here we go.



after MUCH explanation ("God loves a cheerful giver." 2 corinth 9:7), and lots of rules about not asking for anything for him ("honor one another above yourself." romans 12:10), we hit the coolest dollar store i think i've ever been in.

seriously though, i feel like the only lesson i'm teaching him right now is to not be selfish. with his brother...at school...with our shoe box child... putting others before your self is clearly not innately understood, it is learned.



jack really got into it in the dollar store though, and it was so fun to watch him fill the shoe box for a little boy with such joy and excitement! he was definitely on a shopping spree!



this morning before church, the boys filled their box. we had fun arranging all of the stuff, talking about who might get our box, and writing a little note to put in.

when it was all filled, jack prayed that he might also get the things that were in the box, and finn cryed the whole time for the set of cars that had gotten sealed up. looks like we'll keep working on it.


"do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."
philippians 2:3

Leaf Diving

The Boys Room

jack and finn share their room. in order to do this, finn had to start sleeping in the bunk beds at 17 months. while this presents its own problems (as you can probably imagine) it is so cute to listen to what goes on after the doors are closed at night.



i sewed these curtains and got the curtain rod for jack's room in our old house. note the pint sized club chair and ottoman. i think we may seperate the bunks into twins on either side of the window. i'll let ya know.



that's a garland made from the boys room fabrics as seen over at the nester. i don't know what's going on with those hanging down thingys. the bunk beds and bookcase are from the land of nod.



the curtains in the small windows above and in the closet below cost about $10 with fabric from walmart. spending as little as possible on this rental! this is the only room in the house we painted. it's the same color that jack had in his old room. sherwin williams blonde. awesome color anywhere in the house.



the boys have already done a number on the closet curtain...can you see it sagging? the armoire was in our living room once upon a time, but it goes so well in the cowboy room ;-)



my friend erin had this made when finn was born.



the train clock swings above the train table...another hobby lobby wonder @ $6!



i guess i could have fixed the curtain ties before i took a close-up of them...hmmm.

the boys were running around wildly the whole time i was trying to take these pics (can you spot finn?). they were stoked to see their room so picked up, heehee!

Goings On

watching the world series
enjoying the weather back in the upper 60's with no snow
starting christmas shopping
went to women's water polo practice today
feeling rowan move and move and move...
spent $5, played for an hour @ chuck-e-cheese's tonight for school fundraiser

A Super Hero and an Indian

every year we have the discussion...will they go trick or treating or not? while next year is still on the chopping block, this year we did a little. luckily my mom sends them costumes so we don't have to go there, and because we don't make a big deal about it the boys are pumped about whatever she sends! remember the cape though?



we headed out with one of our athletes jennifer, and hit up another athlete's (leah) apartment for out first stop.



next up was our church's fall fest (note pumpkin bowling above) where we met up with jack's best friend from school jacob and his little brother luke.

we finished the night by ringing the doorbell of jeff and nancy, our AIA coworkers, where the boys scored full sized hershey's bars! nice.

the problem is that so many people make their homes so scary and evil. while we were in jeff and nancy's neighborhood, jon took the boys to a few homes. when he got back he said he regretted taking them because of some of the creepy images the boys saw. jack is just really sensitive to what he sees, and the little stinker locks it all away in his memory where it stays forever. we prayed over the boys and God provided restful sleep with no scary dreams that night.

Snowmen

when the snow first fell, it was fluffy and light. now it's settled into the wet and sticky stuff.



"jack and daddy time" today was making a 6 foot snowman.



complete with cowboy hat of course. consider it his "costume."

it all ended with a good boyish romp in the snow.