I thought this cloud looked like the creepy dog thing from the Neverending Story movie. :P
We had a new family at church over for dinner. Their kiddos are SO sweet!
Look who is NOT screaming in the car! On August 29th she seemed to "turn a corner" so to speak and is actually pretty pleasant in the car now for the most part! Cue the hallelujah chorus. :)
Some sweet friends gave the girls this make your own makers kit! They loved it!
Picking plums at Noni's.
Bug had to create her own African organism for Science so she made a "Leaf-tailed Shrox".
We had our Awana Jog-A-Thon a couple weeks ago! Because we've had several successful years of it in a row we have a very healthy budget (I'm the treasurer so I know this firsthand, haha) I didn't let the girls ask family members for sponsorship.
Another reason for that was because they have won the last several years and I didn't want other kids to become discouraged and not try for first place.
It ended up being one of the coldest evenings we'd had at that point, but the kids did just fine. They always get hot because they are running.
The Cubbies started off with a bang.
And half of them promptly started tearing off in the wrong direction. Lol!
They regrouped and took a picture.
Boo ran the whole time! I think she had ten laps.
The Cubbies ran/walked/rolled on the ground, and went in about halfway through. Haha.
I bundled Lou and strapped her to me. She wasn't delighted to be trapped, but she did pretty well and lasted the whole thirty minutes. She was happy to be done and set free once we came in.
I'd say it was a successful evening...we had fun and raised some money for Awana! And maybe I'll let the girls win again next year. Haha.
When I saw the Kratt Brothers were coming to town I knew I had to get tickets! They were really expensive, but our girls LOVE Wild Kratts and I knew they would love the show too! I'm so glad I went for it because it's probably one of the neatest shows we've ever been to!
Noni kept the baby for us, and Daddy got off early so we could grab dinner before heading downtown. Daddy started skipping on the way in, and they all joined. So cute.
We grabbed a picture before heading to our seats.
The girls dance teacher had told me about a presale and texted me that morning (months before) to remind me about getting our tickets so I was able to get really good seats! We were only a few rows from the front!
My view...
Cheeser.
And Daddy's. :)
All the girls were excited, but Peaches was especially enthralled! She loves watching Wild Kratts and kept saying, "The Kratt Bro-thus are REALLY here Mommy?!" This was her face when they popped out onstage.
T and I were super impressed with their show! I really thought it was just going to be them up on stage showing us a few small animals and talking about Sciencey stuff, but instead it was like a real episode of their show and there were no live animals. Which makes sense since they are animal activists and wouldn't want to be caging animals for their show. It was so cute and they did an awesome job.
The miniature-izer!
Peaches kept asking me questions the week before, "Is Eva (Aviva) going to be there? Is Kokey going to be there? Is Jimmy going to be there? Are they going to act-a-bate?" And the answer to all those questions was YES! The other characters were all shown on screen (just like the real show), and they interacted with the audience and everything. I was impressed with their great costumes when they activated. Here is the preying mantis.
And a rattlesnake. He actually "slithered" around the stage!
Hermit crabs.
And Peaches favorite...cheetah powers!
Peanut's favorite was when they had a Creature Power Suit malfunction thanks to the bad guy Zach. We didn't get a picture, but it was pretty funny.
We were super impressed! They really did a great job. I am so glad we went! We had so much fun! I think this will go down as one of our best family memories ever! Thanks for watching the baby so we could go, Noni!
Boo got invited to a laser tag birthday party and Bug and Peanut were able to go as well. Daddy took a short time out from the house to be able to take them one Sunday afternoon.
Buggy tried a "fishtail" braid on me, and Boo gave me a backrub one night as a stall tactic before bed. Haha. ;)
Another tooth gone!
One day we ran into the city as soon as T got off work so we could pick up the 24 windows we'd ordered. It seemed like at every turn we were thwarted. There was traffic, an accident, and finally when we were only two blocks away and thinking we made it we got stopped by a train! Ugh! We finally got turned around (with the pickup and attached trailer) and took the long way around and made it.
The guy that owns the shop is Grandpa's friend and was so nice to load up our windows onto an A frame he let us borrow while we ran to Lowe's to get a bunch of boards. Then he and T got them on top of the boards, on the trailer, and got the whole load secured. We didn't leave his shop until 7:30! He texted later and asked if we made it home with the huge load. So nice!
This little girl is starting to be a bit of a troublemaker!
"Who me?"
We discovered her new favorite food...lasagna! She had three helpings of Noni's lasagna!
Setting the trusses went amazingly fast! I think it was mostly due to Grandpa's handy scaffolding invention. He built a pulley system on top of his scaffolding that made it super easy to move them. He stayed on top of it the whole time and T and I would spin him around, roll him down to the end, he would hook on to a truss, we would spin him back around and he would set it in place. T and I were on ladders on either end, and all three of us would nail it into place before heading back to get another one.
Boo took some pictures...
Panorama.
It was so nice to see them going up!
You can see we were racing the weather...it sprinkled on us a little, but thankfully the big rain missed us! Noni said it was pouring on them just 30 minutes away.
Peaches came up to play in "her room".
She was being so funny, but of course clammed up as soon as I started videoing!
We would have got done even quicker if I hadn't shot myself with a staple gun while nailing off some loose sheeting. :P Good grief. I was kind of teetering on top of the ladder and slipped a bit. Apparently the edge of the plywood was able to catch the safety and allow it to shoot and staple right into my thumb!
But God was definitely taking care of me even amidst my clumsiness because the staple split right around the bone and just went into either side of it. The top one only stuck in about 1/4 of an inch and the bottom 1/2 inch. I was able to just pull it out.
I was anticipating a lot more pain than I actually got. Yes it hurt, and was really sore for a few days, and then slightly sore for about two weeks (Grandpa suggested tea tree oil and it really helped!). But this was way better than slamming my thumb in the door...yes, I have also done that. :P
It also didn't get infected which seems slightly miraculous considering I really couldn't clean it out except for the entry point. And thankfully I had my tetanus shot just a couple years ago and didn't have to go get one. All in all I'd say it was about as good as you can get for a construction accident. :P
After it stopped dripping I was able to get back to work. It kept oozing for the rest of the day, but we were able to get them all set!
Sweet, beautiful roof! Haha!
Boo helped the guys get the trusses blocked.
Then Grandpa cut the tails and they got the subfascia put on.
Heights don't bother Grandpa at all! It's so nice to have him do these jobs because neither T or I are crazy about heights.
We spent the next week getting the roof sheeted. I was only able to help on Monday. Noni came and helped T on Tuesday while I went to worship team and did the dance shuffle.
T had taken Thursday and Friday off because he'd been anticipating setting the trusses. Since that was already done the guys got right to work building a roof section to join the two houses together, and then worked on getting everything papered and sealed.
And by Friday night they had us water tight!
Thank goodness because we woke up the next morning to snow! I am so thankful how God orchestrated everything. If our trusses hadn't been delivered early we wouldn't have been able to get them up and set a full week earlier than anticipated, and if T hadn't already had Thursday and Friday off and Grandpa scheduled to help we wouldn't have gotten the roof finished and papered before our three inches of snow. God was definitely looking out for us and our project. I love how He cares about the big and little things in our lives. :)
