19 years

Can you believe it's been 19 years since these two young whippersnappers got married?!

Last night before bed, we sat down and watched our Wedding video.  

We were so young, and we were so Blessed by having so many of our loved ones in one place at one time. It was like a wonderful Gift, being able to see all my Grandparents alive on video again.  My sister looks so young, and our cousins, Wow!  I look at the people they have become and it's amazing.  

I look at the people we have become, the family we have begun, and that's amazing too. 

Eric got me a gift of wooden panels, and though I was a little perplexed, he explained, these panels can become a raised garden.  Woohoo!  We can build it one or two planks deep now, and add on later. If we want to raise it up higher, it can become deeper  too.  That's going to be so nifty.  Obviously, it's too late to put in a garden this year, but hopefully by next summer, I'll be planting in my own garden! 

I got him a pack of DVDs with Ocean's 11,12, and 13.  I told him, "the thing at the place, I'll never forget it."  I won't ever forget our 'thing at the place' 19 years ago either.  <3

Selfie in the sun. 

Meanwhile, Eric's parents were kind and generous enough to watch all three yahoos while we escaped for a date night dinner.  

On a Tuesday - Madness! 

So we went to the Rathskeller downtown for German fare. 

I so wish I'd been able to take him to Germany this year. It's not financially wise, but since I've known him, he's wanted to go to Germany, and do a Luther tour, during the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation year.  But we can't be that financially irresponsible.  So we did German Dinner instead. 

Also, not too shabby. 

Mmm...schnitzels.  

I got my jagerschnitzel, all that mushroomy goodness on top, and Eric got the schnitzel cordon bleu.  Mmmm.....

These two kids don't look that different than on 19 years ago. 

Though, life has changed, down in the core, we really haven't.  

I still love him, he's still my closest friend, and vice versa.  

I see relationships changing around me, and I'm so Thankful for this one. 

It's hard work, don't get me wrong, it's taken us some effort to get through the hard times, but it's been Totally Worth It. 

Christmas Time

 We always like to wait until Thanksgiving is officially over before breaking out the Christmas Stuff.  It would be more advantageous if we (and by we I mean Eric) had gotten up on the roof the week before Thanksgiving when it was sunny and in the 50s.  Instead it was cold.  But Eric got up there over the weekend, and put up the lights.  

Eric loves blue lights. 

Me too. 

When I was growing up, and my parents were together, there was a house across the street that always had blue candles in their windows.  Now I'm older, I wonder if they might have been Jewish.  Doesn't matter, I see Blue Christmas lights and it gives me Peace.  It just makes me think that all is calm, and all is bright when I see a bunch of blue lights.   After my Mom moved to Carmel, one of our neighbors did this Christmas Tree that you had to walk up under to get to the front door.  I loved it, and so did Eric.  He thought it was pretty nifty. So he started making one for our house.   

Someday though, he wants to put lights on the pillars, and maybe be able to switch out gels for them to turn colors.  That could be Awesome too.  

He got the lights on the Disney tree.  So Purty. 

He got the lights up outside and on all the trees before he had to go back to work.  

That's pretty great progress!

After Eric decorated the Dawn Redwood, it immediately started turning red and dropping its needles.

This year, Jacob told us (no really, he told us) he wanted to put up the Angel. 

He's a little heavy and awkward, so we opted to let him put the Angel on the top of the tree, before we connected it to the top.  He was quite proud of himself. 

Then Daddy got to lift Jacob up to straighten the angel. <3

This is Jacob and I trying to get Daddy into the Christmas Spirit.  

This is Jacob doing a Daddy impression. 

Note, neither of us could keep a straight face. 

It wasn't even fully decorated yet, and this tree is my happy place.  

Sam couldn't wait to help put up the tinsel last night. He didn't even wait for the rest of us.

All the boys wanted to get cracking putting up ornaments.

Jacob hung up a bell, and kept laying on the floor to look up at the ringer. 

He loves to ring that bell.  At least it's metal, so it'll be hard for him to break. 

Sam was quite helpful at hanging ornaments this year. 

Silhouettes of sweetboys hanging ornaments. 

I'm happy to say that this year, no ornaments were harmed in the process of decorating this tree.

Last year, Jacob shattered three before we finished decorating the tree, and 2 more shortly thereafter. 

Chris was a great helper this year.  

I decorated the Disney Tree. 

I feel like it needs more Mickey ornaments. 

Can you ever have too many Mickey ornaments?  

Nope.  

I love our home at Christmas time.  

Silly Sunday

Last Sunday, we got Snow, a lot of Snow.  

They said we'd get 3-6 inches.  I think we got more like 8! 

But it sure was pretty.  

Even though it wasn't the first snow of the season, it was the first good snowman making snow.  

And it made the dog happy, all kinds of fun to watch it fall.  

It was the kind of snow to make a little dog bound and leap. 

And it was the kind of snow to finally build that snowman!  

The boys went outside and built this guy during our naptime, so I didn't see it until we were leaving the house and got this pic.   We would've stayed inside all day, but we needed to get to church for the boys' First Communion class.   And we would've just chilled out enjoying a lazy sunday, but it was Jeremiah's Birthday Party!  So, we were the only silly ones venturing out into the snow. 

He loves Daniel Tiger, so we got him one that talks and does stuff. 

And we all got to sing to Jeremiah! 

When our family gets together to sing, the music is always so nice.  

This was as close as I got to a closeup of the almost Birthday boy.  

Can't believe he's 2!  His birthday was actually Monday, but you know, we've got to celebrate the good stuff all month long. :) 

My kids are goofy.  As goofy as their new dog Hazel.   And they all were being so silly at the party. 

We couldn't stay late though, it was a school night.  

Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby!

339/365

Eric's 40th Birthday was Friday the 5th!

The Birthday Pig brought our hero an Underarmour Captain America tshirt.  

Our hero wants to get running again.  

Eric worked from home, so that he could be home to receive his big present from his parents. 

The gift of plumbing! 

 Mom and Dad's gift to him (us!) was to send a plumber over to fix the shower drains in the bathrooms.  Eric knows a ton about building a house, and he is mostly self taught, but really, since we moved in, he hasn't had time to sit down and learn how to fix the drains, let alone to actually fix them.   It was the big obstacle to finally getting the bathrooms fixed.  And when the plumber arrived, Jacob was so intrigued, he just stood outside the window as they banged around in the ceiling under the shower.  Good thing that ceiling already had holes in it. ;) 

After the big boys went to school, we gave Daddy his gifts.   

Sam had a wonderful idea for a gift, he wanted to give him a painting.  So we made a snowman painting out of everyone's footprints.  

And there was coffee.  Lots of flavored fruity coffee, just like Daddy likes, and he's been needing more and more often lately. 

Then we took him to the Disney Store. 

I bet you wouldn't think that the Disney Store is the best place to go on your birthday. 

But on your birthday, the Disney Store, will give you a Happy Birthday pin!  

It just so happened, our friend Erin was working there when we arrived, she works there part time, and teaches music too.  She welcomed us in, gave us a hug, and got Eric a pin.  Too wonderful!  

Then Eric picked a special present for himself, he chose an extra large C-3PO mug, perfect for all the long days and nights he's been working on the horrible project. 

After our mad dash to the mall, we went up to The Journey.  We'd reserved a room, and taken over this fabulous chinese/american/sushi buffet.  Eric's idea of a good meal - all he can eat sushi!

This baby was covered in macaroni and cheese.  

We couldn't take him seriously. 

We couldn't take this boy seriously either. 

Mom decided he needed a Star Wars light saber and Darth Vader mask for his birthday too.  

Just like old times. 

And yet, perfect.  For we've decided that to celebrate both our 40th birthdays this year, we're going to go to Disney World with our family, just in time for our wedding anniversary.  So our big party will be later, but we partied perfectly for now with some family and close friends.

Sockin' up lockal color

280/365

There's an episode of I Love Lucy, where they were traveling, and she was up to no good, so she told Ricky, she was going to go out and 'Soak up some local color'.  Ricky repeated it, and he sounded like he said, "sockin' up lockal color".  My family uses the phrase 'sock up lockal color' to mean that we are up to no good in the neighborhood.  This was me yesterday.  Every boy in my house was up to no good, sockin' up lockal color.

Jacob found a hat.  

He gets very frustrated that he cannot put hats on his own head. 

He is very vocal in his frustration. 

But man, he's cute when he gets the hat on. 

Finally, a coat of Spirit Blue on the front door!  

Although I must say, it looks Purple to me.  

But that was the name of the game, I wanted something between blue (Butler bulldogs) and purple (Brownsburg bulldogs) and the paint chip was right where I thought it should be.  It's coming out a little more purple than the paint slip though. 

Jake and I went on a yarn mission.  For orange yarn. 

I hate driving to Avon.  JoAnn's has bunches of yarn and craft supplies, but I hate the crowds of driving around there.  So I checked Micheal's Tuesday, no dice.  So we tried to find orange yarn at Wal-mart.  SCORE!  They had multiple flavors of orange yarn, AND the other colors I needed.  Who'd have thought?!  But Jacob's favorite was clearly the orange.   He's such a good shopper. 

Eric didn't have anything to take for lunch in the morning.  And Jake and I didn't have plans, so I offered to kidnap him and take him to lunch.  We went to The Tamale Place.  If you have never been there, Go! If you've never had tamales that don't come in a jar, Go!  It's like little mexican grandmas in the back making tamales all day long, and when they are done, they are done.  And when they run out, then the store closes.  It's a good place to go for lunch!  In addition to my chicken verde which I can never seem to stray from, I ventured so far as to try a fish taco (I know, tacos at a tamale place, but it was Yummy!) and a pumpkin tamale for dessert (which was really good, and not as sweet as you'd think it would be).  I love this place!  Plus it was really nice to have lunch with Daddy, in the middle of the week.  We're crazy like that. 

Daddy Time

276/365

The weekends are when the boys get their Daddy fix, especially Jacob.  This weekend was different, because Jacob had to observe, while Daddy did some work around the house.  We got a wild hair and decided to paint the front door.  Finally filling in all the nail holes with wood glue and filing and stuff around the front door was what Eric did on Saturday, so that he wasn't able to paint the trim until Sunday.  He didn't actually get to put paint on the actual door until today!   Anyway, on Saturday, Jacob had to observe.  He wasn't very down with that though.

He just stood by the landing railing and Watched Daddy work.  

After Daddy was done, he made up for all lost time, by playing with a sweetboy, reading, and tackling, and raspberrying until they were both giggling madly.  I love this kind of productive day.

View Halloo

271/365

It was a lovely Monday outside, even though it felt extra rough all day, since we were up and out so late the day before.  I was relieved our plans were cancelled so Jake and I could just hang out at home. But here's a snapshot or two from my day, my view haloo.

This is the view off my front porch.  Leaves are beginning to change.  

Fall is here. 

What color do you think this is? 

Is it purple, is it blue?  

Well, sometime soon you'll have to come to our house and find out, because we decided to finally paint the front door.  The house trim has been au natural since we moved in, so we're finally going to do something about it.  We did dark green at the old house, so we wanted something different here.  We couldn't decide between purple for Brownsburg Bulldogs, or Blue for Butler Bulldogs.  So we're going to go for a little something in between.  :)  I'm pretty excited, it's going to look really snazzy!  

Mr. Egg Nostrils. 

Photobomb by Chris. 

But it seems like I can barely get anything done around here with these little goofi.  

And that's ok.  

So that's what's cooking in my neighborhood.  

Fall Apart, in my Backyard

265/365

This morning was a Beautiful one.  Actually, the whole day was gorgeous.  One of those beautiful early fall days, when it's nice and cool, not a cloud in the sky.  The sun is bright and shining.  

Just after the boys went off to school, I had to step outside and snap a couple pictures. 

I had not shot in manual in ages.  And although it was a little tricky with the sun in my view, but I wanted it there.

Beautiful light coming through the trees.  And steam coming off the pond behind our house.

Can you see the droplets of dew on the grass?  

Fall is here! 

If I was sacked out in my hammock, this would have been my view, as the trees start to change.

This would be my favorite, a look straight up at the base of our sycamore.  

Yes, Fall is Here! 

The Last Day in the woods

180/365

These were pictures I took on Friday morning, on our way to our last drop-off at Day Camp. 

The boys really enjoyed taking the walking "shortcut" much better than driving around.  

Jacob wasn't in the mood for a selfie.  

That's ok.  He did pretty well.  He didn't like that I spent the morning packing up and loading the car.  He would get mad every time I left the house. 

 Christopher received an award from Emily, his counselor, as D.C. All Star for his Joyous Enthusiasm when it came to ....Everything they did.  She said they loved how excited he got about Everything.  That didn't surprise me much.  All I could get out of them was "Day Camp was Awesome!"  Sam got an award too, he was voted "Cuddly Cutie" but his counselor Amy balled up his in his wet swim bag, and didn't present it very nicely.  I got a kick out of the fact that his counselors were named after people they knew.   And they were nice kids, but I didn't like that a. they lost Sam's hat (I mean, come on, he's 5, he's not going to take good care of it like Chris) but at least he didn't come home sunburned, and b. they kept putting paperwork in the bag with wet towels, and the wet towels were soaking their clothes, and c. they didn't make the kids put their clothes back on after they go to the pool!   I'm glad the kids had a great time and all.  But I didn't really feel all that was worth my money or my time.  I get 'VBS is Awesome' too and that's free and I don't have to drive nearly as far. I am sorry that my visit didn't go as well as it does for others at that camp.  Maybe we were just unlucky.  Maybe I just had expectations that were too high.  I don't know.  I decided not to stay for the Massive Camp Bonfire Friday night.  I drove home. 

 I missed my husband, home, dog, and bed.  Although, not necesarily in that order. ;)  This was the longest I'd been away from home since 2012!

What a Beautiful Surprise I arrived to when I got home!  Eric had glazed the countertops in the kitchen!

Eric said he was working on 2 surprise projects while we were gone.  Some things he wanted to work on when the kids weren't around.   He glazed the kitchen (which involved a hefty amount of counter cleanup no doubt!) and built us a Mudroom Boot Bench/locker thing, which I can't wait to use.  I didn't know the counter was going to get so shiny.  We can even see finger prints.  Man, I'm going to have to really keep that badboy clean.  

My first thought was Hey! Wow!  If he's going to do all this while we're gone in the evenings, well, then we need to leave for a week more often! Except for how exhausted, filthy, grumpy, and itchy (and a few other reject dwarves) we were, I don't know if I'll be up for running away with all three alone again for a while.  

This is our "boot bench" he built it himself.  It still needs another shelf he wants to get nailed in near the top, and some hooks for hanging backpack and whatnot on it.  But Zowie Wowie!  I think we're going to get a lot of use out of this.