Sunday Visit

We went down to Canton to visit for the afternoon and to collect our son. He had a great time while he was staying at Grandma and Papa's house for the weekend, and he actually seemed happy to see us when we arrived. Later in the day, Nathan thought it would be fun to climb the tree in the front yard. I missed out on that action with the camera, but I did get Libby and Caleb in the tree. Here are the latest shots of Libby, Caleb, and Mandie.

Insanity Saturday

This weekend we worked on home projects. We decided a while back that we are sick of our "disgusting pink" (as Nathan calls it) bedroom and we finally got around to changing it today. I had actually purchased the paint with my birthday money back in January. Today we made the drastic change from "disgusting pink" to marina blue. Caleb went to spend the weekend with Grandma and Papa, and Libby stayed home to help us paint.

Here are the before pictures with most of the furniture moved out.

We had the primer tinted, so we started out with a nice cool blue against the pink walls. Libby had a great time experimenting with the paint.

And more blue! Libby painted all of this herself! She was the only family member to not make a major spill or slop while painting.

I painted myself, too. I wasn't paying attention to the drastically tipping container of paint that I was holding. Voila! I got a chilly surprise when I dumped paint all down the front of myself. Painted person. And, yes, since it soaked right through, the skin under my shirt matches the paint on the outside. Yikes!

Here's Millie sleeping on top of the box springs that we being stored in Caleb's room for the day.

Libby got bored of painting when we started the real painting over the primed coat. She experimented with the camera instead. She took a few bad ones of us. The one of Nathan missing his top half cracks me up! I guess that's her point of view when she's looking at Daddy.

And here's the finished product (starring Petunia) at 11 PM this evening. Thanks to Mom and Dad for keeping Caleb! If he had been home to help us, the floor would undoubtedly have been painted blue as well.

Weekend Wildness

The kids got us up early on Friday morning - AGAIN. Actually Caleb got up first while I was getting ready for work. He ran into our room and snuggled up to his Daddy in the bed. He will hold still for approximately 29 seconds before erupting into a little tornado of activity: rolling, climbing, jumping, bouncing, sliding off and climbing back on. His hushed whispers turn into loud talking, followed by screams of glee as he seemingly attempts to wake our neighbors also. Before long, a very disheveled Libby rises from her snarl of sheets and blankets and joins the ruckus in our bed. This time I grabbed the camera to document what happens several days out of the week, and usually long before we are supposed to get up for the day.


This is Millie making herself a little sleep cocoon in Caleb's bed. I found her like this when we got home from church today. She was so sleepy that she actually hung around long enough to take her picture before she sauntered off into Libby's room, presumably to find another cozy nest.


Here is Libby in her Daddy's shoes this afternoon. They are a bit big for her! She was laughing herself silly trying to walk in them. What a goose!



Today marked the end of our shoe drive for Buckner's Shoes for Orphan Souls at our church. Now we have to get all of the pairs of shoes, slippers, laces, and socks all banded together and packed up to take to the collection center in Broadview Heights. Some of these shoes from this year's local drives will be going to underprivileged kids in Greater Cleveland, but the majority of the shoes will be going to kids in orphanages in Latvia. We fell short of our goal of one hundred pairs, so we will be working harder to raise more shoes next year.


And here's a parting shot to freak you out for the week.This is Libby's very first time taking a picture with our camera. She did a great job, considering what she had to work with. In my defense, Libby took this photo while she was sitting on the floor, so my hips really aren't this wide :)