Blogiversary

I’ve been blogging here for 10 years. (What?!) I have over 900 posts and over 56,000 page views, which means each post has been seen an average of 62 times. That’s crazy! I started this blog in 2007 when I found out I was pregnant with JT as a way to keep our story, and also to share life with family and friends we don’t see often. That was before the mass adoption of social media, and we weren’t posting these little moments anywhere else. I’m enjoying looking back at how our family has grown in ten years. (And now, my nine year old is standing here beside me, cracking up about the fact that I’m blogging about blogging.)

Finishing Flag Football

We finished a great season of flag football last weekend. Jim was so thrilled to be able to be the assistant coach, and JT grew a lot as a player. We learned that he is fast. At least, compared to most of the other kids. He learned how to take an angle and run down another player, which was really fun to watch. We even saw in one game how the other team avoided his side of the field! He also learned how to run with the ball, something he did really well. Another mom on the team got some photos of him and sent them to me. They are awesome!

Father & son

New mud room!

When we moved into our house, we made a list of things we wanted to change, as I’m sure most people do. The floors were on the list. We changed out the family room carpet as soon as possible, because it smelled like wet dog. But everything else has been on hold because our outside needed lots of attention. Now, with beautiful landscaping, a new fence, and a finished sport court, the weather turned and we are ready to work inside.

Winter flooring project number two is complete! Jim worked so hard on this project and it turned out just beautifully. The mud room/laundry/office nook had vinyl flooring, which is great for that space, but it was dated and had a seam in one spot that never looked all the way clean.

Poor Jim… this vinyl was glued down really well and took around 12 hours to tear out. Yuck.

He made a template for the floor with rolls of craft paper and lots of tape, and then Jim’s dad came over to help hold it still while he cut it out with a rotary cutter and my quilting ruler. Then came the tricky part… getting it all into our L-shaped room with cabinets everywhere. We called for reinforcements!

Then came gluing it down, and lots and lots of rolling out little humps and bumps. Think: finished at 1:15 AM. But doesn’t it look awesome?

Also, our washer/dryer were a wedding gift from Jim’s parents that have lasted 16 years and a few repairs… and are now needing more repairs than makes them worth keeping. So we ordered a new washer and dryer to put in with the new floor! I got a tip on upcoming sale prices from a friendly Home Depot worker so we were able to upgrade to a gas dryer and stainless finish. We installed them last night around midnight… another very late night.


But this morning, Jim replaced the last of the trim and we are back in business in possibly the most-used room in the house. I love it! Before/after pic below. What a difference. 

First Snow

There was a lot of excitement in our area this week as we had our first snow! It was quite a shock to wake up to a couple of inches on Thursday, November 2nd. (What?!) It snowed off and on all day and it was soooo pretty. Then on Sunday, we received snow again and it continued to snow all day long.

There’s just something about snow that makes for a very cozy house!

On Sunday, we spent some time at our park sledding in the slush. The kids were determined to make it work with the snow and grass combination!

Halloween

We had a wonderful time spending Halloween with our neighbors and friends again this year. Haley went to open gym at her gymnastics facility first, and then we met up with everyone for pizza at the Drew house. Then we went trick-or-treating with four families represented and lots of running around at dusk. After hitting maybe 12-15 houses, we transitioned to our church harvest carnival to wrap up the evening.

Our kids were twinning all night with the Drew kids – super fun and planned by all involved.

We made sure to swing by Grandpa Keene’s house on our way to the church harvest carnival too!

And then it turned fall…

We knew it had to happen eventually. Suddenly the beautiful weather turned cold and rainy. Fortunately Jim and I have these new matching jackets. 😉

Jim’s Grandma Hall came up to watch one of JT’s football games and his Uncle Steve and Aunt Susan came too. It was so fun to have Oregon family here to watch him!

The next weekend, it poured. Fortunately the screen tent that we bought for summer repurposes as a rain shelter. I am thrilled that it worked. It was so nice to have a dry spot to hang out and watch the game without being miserable. We might have to use it for baseball season too. Ha!

Crafting + Coding

Last Wednesday afternoon, it was rainy and the kids and I made a plan to do some coding and crafting. I have some micro:bits and an Adafruit Circuit Playground from trainings I have done, so we broke out the project page and a couple of Surfaces and went for it! We use the MakeCode program (free) for block-based coding.

JT decided to design a magic wand and Haley chose a flashing heart. The project plans showed us what materials we needed and what steps to take. First they did their crafting component.

Then they settled in to coding. This could have gone much faster, but they were both having a great time changing inputs and making customizations. Plus, JT was using a new device for his coding so he had some new options that we hadn’t used before.

Haley was working with a device she’d used before, so she wrote this block-based code all on her own, right away. It was fun to see how much she remembered!

The kids decided they each needed two devices: one for programming and the other for reference.

Done! JT took his project (and the devices) to school for his sharing on Friday. Haley just kept hers at home and sprinkled glitter all over the house for a few days. 🙂

Football Plays

This weekend JT had an awesome game. Actually, his whole team had an awesome game! JT ran almost the entire width of the field (they play side to side) for a touchdown, and that was just the start. He also made a flying leap to catch his opponent ball carrier right before the goal line. That play happened right in front of the family cheering section, so it was extra exciting! I don’t have pictures of these moments because I was busy enjoying the moment. 🙂

Staining the Sport Court

Ever since we had the sport court poured earlier this year, Jim has been so excited to get it stained and lined. He took the whole weekend to do all the steps and we were thankful for great weather so he could finish this up before the rain settles in.

Step 1: Pressure wash on Saturday.

Step 2: Stain green and grey on Sunday. JT helped and stuck with the project until the end. He worked really hard alongside Jim.

Step 3: Adding white lines on Monday. Again, JT helped as they got the templates in place.

It was all done by the time Jim and JT left for football practice on Monday. Doesn’t it look amazing?

I love how it blends with our green lawn and trees, and grey shop. It looks so much nicer and really compliments the whole backyard without being a focal point. AND when we play pig we’ll have a set of lines to work from. 🙂