Finished Look

These are the finished cabinets for our built-ins. The top picture is the cupboards in the 'office.' and the bottom picture is the linen cupboard & drawers upstairs. One of our contractors built the cabinet doors (and drawer fronts) himself to match the new interior doors. He did an absolutely beautiful job.

We hope to have a new front door installed in the next few weeks, so check back for more pics!

Purrzzz...

Our little Ella-Bella has become a real outdoor cat. She wants to be outside all the time and play at being wild, but she is always happy to come in for some food and some cuddles. She snuck into our room after I put Degen down for a nap, and I found them curled up together.

Over the Moon

As I was closing up the house before putting the kids to bed, I saw the full moon shining through Kyrie's window. I grabbed the camera and tried to capture the ethereal beauty of this autumn moon.

Family Campfire

Apple picking, the pumpkin patch, blue skies, sunshine and family! We ended our perfect day with dinner around a family campfire. Kyrie took many of these photos!

I love how the smoke from the fire gave these photos a dreamy haze.

We lingered around the campfire not wanting the day to end. Jess and I walked back to the house arm-in-arm, remembering the campfire days of our youth!

Pic of the Patch

We got these great family photos from our trip to the pumpkin patch! The fall colors were beautiful, and the kids were kinda cooperative! Thanks to Aunt Jess for the great pics!

Pumpkin Patch

After we picked apples, we headed to the pumpkin patch. The kids enjoyed looking for bugs & worms as much as they did looking for pumpkins.

Best friends! Jessica and I have been friends since we met at 4-H camp nearly 20 years ago.

An Apple a Day

We had a perfect fall day to head out to Lynd's Fruit Farm to pick apples!

We were so happy Aunt Jess was visiting and could come with us to pick apples!

Kyrie took her work seriously this year and spent much of her time climbing trees in search of the perefect apples.

Degen put in some good work this year, too. He even tried climbing trees like his big sister!

We picked about 40 pounds of apples and munched on plenty as we enjoyed the blue skies and sunshine in the orchard. 

10-2-2011

October 2nd was Kyrie's half birthday and "Yes Day!" A few years ago, we got a book called Yes Day  about a little boy who has a day where the answer to all his requests is 'yes.' Kyrie was immediately interested in this concept, and I told her that after she turned 5 we would let her have a Yes Day for her half birthdays.

Kyrie had a great Yes Day! She had ice cream for breakfast and as much candy as she wanted! That afternoon, Darren took both kids on a bike ride to play at the park. It was a beautiful, fall day and the kids enjoyed spending time with Darren and each other!

Now She Knows Her ABCs

To wrap up our study of the alphabet, Kyrie made an alphabet poster for our study space. She organized all the letters in the right order.

Then she matched alphabet stickers to the correct letters.

And, finally, added decorative stickers to each letter that illustrated the letters sound.

She did a great job! This poster now proudly hangs in our study space as a reminder and reference as we begin learning to read!