Merry Christmas!

Laminate and Gingerbread houses.

Jen and I are finished laying the the laminate. All 680 sq ft of it. It has turned out to be quite nice. I still need to finish putting down quarter-round but at least we have the house with less chaos for Christmas (even though it took until Christmas Eve). Here is a look at the backroom.


During home improvement, I have tried to keep in mind that it is the Christmas holiday which is extremely important to the kids. This past Monday night we made gingerbread houses. Honeymaid now makes gingerbread flavored graham crackers.







The finished products:

Stuck in the Bathroom

I was stuck in the bathroom most of the day...laying laminate and quarter round trim. I am glad that I wasn't stuck in the bathroom for any other reason.

I bought some Pergo Cherry laminate several years ago and we decided to lay down today. It is quite a change from the linoleum that I put down 6 years ago.




Lots more to do to the house to get it ready for showing. Once we are done, it is going to look great!

Funny thing happened yesterday. I received an email and BYU want me to interview for a position in Provo. Crazy things are happening!

Happy Halloween - Late

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Tree Fort

Here is the gang just after we got the floor put on and before the sides were installed.


Here is Jen showing how to get down.


View from our deck.


Here is where we are now with the fort. I installed a chalkboard and bucket/pulley system. I need to still finish the second story which can be seen in the photo (floor joists are in).

First Car Show

Yesterday was my first car show with 'Bonnie'. It was sponsored by the Illusive Skull, a Halloween store here in Morgantown.


The kids enjoyed the vantage point from the rear door of Bonnie.


There was a guy dressed-up from the Halloween store wandering around. He even had a hearse (not cool like mine, it was a newer one from the early 90's) that he was giving free rides in.



This is my first dash plaque from participating in the car show.

Pies, Planes and 1st Day of School

Yesterday Jen made my favorite dessert, lemon meringue pie to celebrate my return from North Dakota. It was Lovely!


Last week for FHE we went to the Morgantown Airport to tour the B-17G Sentimental Journey (Flying Fortress). It was very cool walking through the plane even though it never went on a bomb run, it only served on photo reconnaissance missions near the end of the war in the Pacific. It was awesome! Sam looks like he would have made a great side gunner.






The week before was the 1st day of school. It is hard to believe that this is the last year of having one at home. They are growing so fast, too fast.

It is Here!!!

My car arrived today at 7 AM. It has been a blast playing with and driving it today. The kids love it, especially the siren. It is going to be so much fun restoring it! The kids even did a 'dead' pose for the camera. Jen is now officially a 'hearse mama'.






Check out the engine and siren!

World Cup Fever

We have been loving the World Cup and haven't been able to get enough of soccer. We now play it everyday. Jen even made dreads.

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Grandparents, Spirit Week and Trumpets.

This past May my parents came to visit. The kids really enjoyed seeing there Grandparents.




Also in May, both schools that the kids go to had 'Spirit Week'. Becca and Sam had 'crazy hair' day and Mike had 'inside out' day. They had a lot of fun with it.






Dan has begun to practice his trumpet playing. I am impressed that he can make a sound considering it is almost as big as he is.

Go-Karting

Papa gave us a go-kart last summer that I finally got running tonight. It needed new batteries and an electronic control unit (the brain). We had it running earlier this summer but when I drove it down our street and around the corner I burnt out the brain as I was going down the hill and had to buy a new one. This part was backordered for 3 months. Everyone had a blast driving it and I didn't drive it down the hill :(

Thanks Papa!

Birthday and Bugs

These are pictures from Dan's last birthday. He loves the movie 'Cars' by Disney/Pixar so Jen made a racetrack cake for him with four of the movie characters on it.






This weekend we grilled porkchops for dinner and the weather was beautiful so we ate outside. Dan really wanted to catch a fly for a pet. We put out a bite of porkchop for bait and Dan sat there and waited to catch a fly for about 20 minutes. I was amazed at his diligence. There were several near catches but in the end he didn't get his pet.

France 2010 - Part I

This is an attempt to 'catch-up' on my blogging. Jen and I went to France this past spring and had some wonderful experiences. I did not think that I would fall in love with France but I did. We went from Paris to Versailles, Versailles to Amboise, Amboise to Bordeaux, Bordeaux to Paris. We stopped many places in between and had a great time. We really enjoyed Amboise.

These pictures are some of our Paris shots. This obviously is Jen and I by the Eiffel Tower at night shortly before it starting 'twinkling'.


Panoramic Shot from the Eiffel Tower observation deck.

We did quite a bit of walking through Paris as well as hopping around through the city via the metro. I wanted to make sure that Jen saw as much as we could because it most likely will be a couple of years before she comes back with me.


Outside of the Louvre.


By the Arc de Triomphe.


By the Seine River running through Paris.

Outside Notre Dame de Paris.

I plan on posting an entire blog post to the food that we ate because it was so wonderful. I will also post some non-food pics as well ;)