October: Conference, new bed, de-cluttering, travels, Halloween, and family

Here's how October went for us...


Conference weekend
General Conference took place at the beginning of the month, and was wonderful as usual.

We did our usual "song pool," and we did pretty well:

Rachel: 46.67%
Nathan:  40%

A friend of ours gave Hannah a toy laptop a few weeks ago, so when Hannah saw daddy on his computer taking notes she wanted to do the same thing. Hannah LOVES her daddy, and wants to do everything he does.  EVERYTHING!

I, on the other hand, decided to color with Hannah's "special" markers.

During conference weekend we finished a few projects around the house.  In September we bought a daybed for Hannah, but I didn't get it finished until conference weekend.  Nathan and Hannah took apart her crib/bed Saturday morning, with the supervision of Kronk of course.

Hannah has slept in that crib/bed for almost 4 years.  It was a bitter sweet moment taking it apart, but it was kind of funny as we remembered Kronk helped supervise when we initially set it up 4 years ago.

Since the daybed was disassembled when we got it, I couldn't really take some before shots.  So I took some snap shots of a few pieces so that I could show what the original color was (the stained yellow/white in the middle), and also so you could see the many of the tiny holes we needed to fill.  It took a while, but it was well worth it.

And this is the finished result!  It turned out beautifully, and Hannah LOVES her bed.

One of the most adorable things about Hannah's bed is how cute she looks in it.  She looks so little.

I also finished up-cycling a few end tables given to me by a neighbor.  We decided to use them as nightstands in our bedroom seeing that we didn't really have any.  Unfortunately, I think I deleted my before picture of the end table which is a bummer because the compare and contrast is so awesome. Here is what the end table looks like now (it was a a yucky brown color before).

We also finished our bedding in the master bedroom which makes the room feel more complete, furnished, and relaxing.  It took 6 months worth of budgeting, but we did it!

Here's the before shot.  This photo was back in April when we bought the new bed.

And here's the after shot.  Now, we just need a head and foot board.  Maybe next year.

Hershey

We finally went to Hershey.

We didn't go to Hershey Park (which has the roller coaster rides) because it's too pricey and also because Hannah would not have enjoyed that.  So we hung around the Chocolate Factory for a few hours and rode the "how Hershey chocolate is made" ride several times. Hannah enjoyed seeing the singing cows and getting free candy when we got off.

The last time we went on the ride we had to share a cart with another couple.  Hannah did not like that at all, and had a major melt down.

One of my favorite things about Hershey were the lights on the lampposts.

We also went to a local park that had the coolest swing ever!

Halloween

I hosted Hannah's co-op preschool Halloween party.  It was a little crazy, but the kids had fun learning, dressing up in their costumes, and getting their Halloween treats from their friends.

Hannah dressed up as Rainbow Brite again this year.  She still fit into the costume so we went with it (though the costume was snug).  I'm not sure what we are going to do next year.

Because football is such a huge part of life in Central PA (for PSU and local high schools), the city moved Halloween from Friday night, the 31st to Thursday night October 30h.  Even after living here for a few years, we are still surprised at how culturally different things are.  It didn't matter to Hannah though because she still excited to trick-or-treat, she still had a blast, and she needed no coaching on what to do.

Nathan and I went to our annual "grown up" Halloween party.  We decided to go as contestants from The Price is Right.  The costumes were so easy to make as I had everything on hand so it worked out really well, and it was a party favorite.

Family

At the end of the month we went and visited Nathan's family that lives in Virginia and it was a total blast.  We had so much fun, but Hannah I think had the most fun.  She loved all the attention, especially from Uncle D.

Miscellaneous

Hannah no longer takes naps seeing that her pre-school is in the afternoon.  It's been an adjustment for everyone, but I've started to find Hannah sleeping far more by herself now without the help of mommy putting her down for a nap (which pretty much never happened before), and sometimes no matter what we do she just doesn't wake up.

Hannah has continued enjoying playing with her dad.  They play hide-n-seek a lot.  She hasn't fully grasped the concept of the game because she hides in the same spot every time -- under the pillows, and then Nathan goes into another room and counts.  It's actually quite cute.

Lastly, I tried a few new hairdos this month on Hannah with her longer hair, but I only took a picture of one of the new dos.  As Hannah reminds me almost daily "Mommy, I'm growing up."  Indeed she is, and it's way too fast.

Do You Remember.........September?

September:  Relaxing.  Educational.  Busy.  And new (used) furniture.

Relaxing
With our anniversary this month, we decided to spend the weekend alone to celebrate it.  We arranged for Hannah to stay with some friends for 3 nights.  Bless that family!  They are such great friends.

So where did we go?  NO WHERE!  We actually stayed home and it was perfect.  We didn't have to pay for a hotel, or to dine out, etc.  I cleaned the house a few days prior so we could relax in a nice clean and quite home.  I didn't even have to cook dinner.  I had some spaghetti sauce in the freezer that I just pulled out and warmed up.  It was so nice not to have to stress about anything.  We got to sleep in, and go to bed whenever we wanted.  We had all the comforts of home all to ourselves and ended up saving several hundreds of dollars in the meantime.

We told no one where we were going so that way no one would bother us.  We even had to eat our meals in our family room because if we ate them in the dining room some of our friends would have noticed we were home.  Hiding out actually made it more fun.  (I have a friend who is a fun and playful gal, and if she knew we stayed home she would have come to our door and rang the doorbell just for fun.  That's why we wanted to keep this a secret.)

We also went to church all by ourselves to one of the units in our Stake.  For lunch that day we went to a friends house on their 100 acre property.  It was gorgeous and so nice to enjoy lunch without having to worry about a toddler.

Here's a view of their house (it's the one on the far right).

Their home has this gorgeous view from a creek (though it seems more like a river to me considering it's size).

We got a tour of the land while riding in a "rover."  When you have a piece of property that is 100 acres, you need something to rove around on.  Walking would take too long.

Here is the "home teaching" tree.  That's what they like to call it.  It's a tree stump, but there is another tree starting to grow out of the stump.  How awesome is that?!

The weather that day was perfect!  It was in the low-mid 70s.  But when we were out and about on the rover, we noticed some temperature gauges were a little off.  This is one of the thermometers.  The sun was directly hitting the gauge, and with the dark background absorbing all the warmth, it said the temperature was just under 110 degrees (when in actuality it was about 70 degrees).

Notice on the lower right of that photo there is a note that says "Thermometer #2 in a quarter mile" with an arrow?  If you head in the direction of the arrow you enter this beautiful alley/tunnel of trees.

Upon entering the "knox" (that's what the owners like to call it) you can feel the temperature drop by 10 degrees.  After a little while you find the second thermometer and this is what it read:

We thought the 50 degree discrepancy was funny.


Our last day of our stay-cation, Nathan and I ended up buying a daybed that was sold near by.

Structurally, the daybed is solid and of great quality, but it needed a face-lift.  So, I've been sanding, filling, sanding again, priming, painting, and more sanding to this bed.  For a while when you walked into the house all you could smell was spray paint.  I was hoping to have it done by the end of September, but I ran out of money for spray paint so I couldn't finish it.  I figured it was more important to eat so we spent the last of our money on food.  I'm hoping to have the bed done here in a few weeks.

Preschool
Other big events that happened this month was in relation to Hannah.  She started her co-op preschool again this year.  The group decided to buy little folders for the kids to put their work in each week.  I thought it would be fun for Hannah to decorate her folder with stickers.  I remember doing that as a kid just as the school year was starting.  She loved it and was so excited for her co-op to start again.

Hannah also started a "real" preschool with a legit teacher and classroom.  Now this is something she has been waiting for, as have I!  She was so excited her first day of school that every 10 minutes she kept asking me "when am I going to pre-school?"  So far, it has been a wonderful blessing for all of us.

Busy with church
Due to some growth out here in the church, they decided to split the units, and they created a new ward.  It has been a great, and very needed change.  Our unit had out grown the building (we didn't have enough classrooms for people to meet in).  As wonderful as this change is, it is also a lot of work.  In fact, that is an understatement.  I've been so busy these last few weeks with cleaning up records, visiting "new" ward members, and helping the ward get started from scratch.  Our new ward, geographically, is the blue section.  Yes -- it's pretty big!  Before the split, our unit was the majority of the blue, and pretty much the red section.

Well.  That's pretty much our September.  It has been spent with pre-school, traveling around and about, working on a daybed, and just trying to keep up with the pace of life.

Joyeux Anniversaire

Still giving me those girl moments after all these years.

Happy Anniversary Nathan

August -- pleasant with weather, but tempestuously busy

August this year was wonderful when it came to the weather.  We hardly ever turned on the AC.  We opened all the windows many days of the month and just let the cool summer breeze come through the house.  It was glorious, and I am enjoying the reduced electricity bill because of that.

But when it came to life -- it was CRAZY!

I was busy working on a few projects for the house.  I got three 8x10 inch picture frames from friends (for free!), spray painted them, bought glitter paper from JoAnns ($1 total for two sheets), used left over burlap from a project last year, and created these:

I also decided to paint some glass milk jugs.  There is a local dairy here that still uses glass jugs to put their milk in.  How cute is that?  Now I just need to find a pint size milk jug to make it more eye appealing.

Another project I worked on (that I had lying around the house) was re-painting a clock, and painting a clear glass block.

Here is a before picture of the clock:

And the after picture (with the painted glass block next to it):

Now I just need to find a small green plant to put behind the glass block, and a nice ribbon to outline the block too.  Maybe that will be September's project.


One of our good friends cat had some kittens last month, and so we went over to go play with them some.  Hannah was in absolute heaven.  She was so excited to play with the kittens, and I think she was happy that she could pet them without worrying they would scratch or hiss at her (like Kronk does.  He is still not a fan of Hannah).  They were so darling and cute.  And NO! We are not getting another cat.  After Kronk has passed this life, we are officially done with pets.

Speaking of Kronk, this is his new found enjoyment in the mornings.  He likes to go and lick the dew off the deck chairs.

I had a friend give me her old (but very nice) crib bumpers.  I got them all cleaned up and Hannah kept asking me what they were for.  I tried to explain, but she was still confused so I showed her some pictures online of what crib bumpers are used for.  Hannah immediately took off to her room, came running back with her baby doll, and did this:

First she put the baby in between the bumpers, which I thought was hilarious.  Talk about SIDS.

Then she had a better idea and placed her baby on top of the bumpers and put the blanket on the baby so it could take a nap.

Then, she put this little pillow underneath the baby's head to make it more comfortable.

Hannah takes very good care of her baby doll.

This was yet again a very busy month with our church callings.  Nathan traveled 3 of the 5 Sundays for his high council responsibilities (speaking and auditing).  I was busy as well with presidency meetings, help organizing visiting teaching interviews, cleaning peoples homes for service, cleaning up records, and getting information on the 14 new families that moved in during August.  Sigh.  This month, we put over 600 miles on our car alone for church callings. Like I said, it was a busy month.

Another thing that I managed to do in August was read 3 books (actually, I listened to the audiobook). I read the first three volumes of the Anne of Green Gables series, which is something that I have always wanted to do.  Mid-month I received some depressing news in our ward, and I just wanted to get distracted by something else so I decided to dive right in and read the books. My goal was to just read the first of the series, but I ended up reading three of the books.  Not only did I find them enjoyable, they also helped me get back in a more cheery mood.

Anne of Green Gables picture courtesy of blogs.slj.com