Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!

Halloween is such a fun time of year. I love being able to dress up and feel like a kid again.

This past Wednesday we went to Tyler and Angie's ward party which was pretty fun. Angie also posted some pictures here. Carter was dressed as Charlie Brown and I was wearing my black cat ears.

Then on Friday for work I decided to wear my black cats ears for fun.  A couple of us coordiated and we all wore cat/tiger ears together.  We couldn't quite tell if the chiefs wer amused by our "costumes" but it seemed like they were.

Ashley came into town for Halloween weekend.  Friday night we went to an author interview and book signing at the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale (we also brought along Uncle Lincoln).  It was "interesting" to say the least.  The author being interviewed was a little (well, a lot) preachy with her leftist, I-thought-abou-boycotting-Arizona, I-heart-Obama ideals.  So we got out of there and finished up the evening with dinner at Charleston's where we all had soup and salad with those yummy croissants.

Ashley brought us costumes (AWESOME!) so we could dress up together for the Trunk-or-Treat party at my parents' church building.  She's got to go home before Halloween night *sad face* but at least we got some fun Halloween stuff in.

Ashley curled my hair for the occasion (cuz I'm kind of clutzy with a curling iron).  We both said it felt like high school again, giggling and doing each others' hair.

Wood Flooring - Part 3 and Painting!

The flooring was finished two weeks ago...Leland got it all done in four days!  Wednesday he started with his dad and got half the living room done.  Then on Thursday Leland and some cousins and brothers finished the living room.  Friday night the majority of the hall was done, but the tricky, angled portion of the hallway started becoming a patience-drainer, so Leland took a break and finished the hall and the laundry closet on Saturday morning with his dad.  Yay!  I love my new wood floors, they are so much cleaner than that nasty old carpet (I'm pretty sure it was original to the 10 year old house).  And Carter's feet aren't black anymore (Can you imagine how dirty carpet would have to be to leave the tops of his feet black from crawling? Yuck!)

The finished hallway - it looks so cool on the angle like that!

And then we finally picked a paint color (Well, I finally picked a paint color) after 4 different samples painted on the wall.  Here's the thing:

Color #1 was a nice creamy color with a smidge of yellow in it.  But in large quantities it would've look white or cream, not yellow like I wanted.

I picked Color #2 thinking it was a smidge more yellow than Sample #1 without being overpowering.  But it looked like a post-it on the wall.

So my mom and I stopped by Lowe's again last Saturday to pick out two samples since this one-at-a-time thing wasn't working out.  I kept looking at the paint chips and I couldn't figure out why Colors # 1 and 2 looked so different on my wall when the paint chips were so close.  So I got another 1/2 pint of Color #2 and a 1/2 pint sample of a third color that was more taupe and not really yellow at all, just to see what it looked like next to the green in my kitchen.  Apparently whoever mixed my first sample of Color #2 did it wrong.  When I got home I opened them both up and the paint in the containers looked so different!  I painted the two new samples on the wall and was able to decide on Color #2, Winter Wheat by Olympic.

Tuesday night Leland painted the kitchen all by himself, I was wrestling our little one and getting him fed and ready for bed.  And there's not a ton of room in the kitchen, it would've been crowded with us both painting in there together.

And last night (Thursday), my dad came over to help us start in on the living room.  The three of us worked for about an hour and a half and got most of the living room done.  I love this new paint color!  It's much better than that ugly light pink the previous owners had throughout almost the entire house.

He's a climber...

Look at him balancing his feet on the bar across the bottom of the high chair. Crazy kid!

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The Great Wood Flooring Project - Part 2

The project picked up on Thursday night where it had left off.  On Wednesday night, Leland and David (his dad) were able to get about half the living room done (like 8 feet of flooring).  Thursday night started with me running to get pizza and beverages for the worker bees that were coming over.  We had Trent, Mikey, Bryan, Tara (Bryan's girlfriend), Ryan (Bryan's friend), and Tyler with Little David and Jeremy.  We had lots of fun chatting and eating pizza from Hungry Howie's.  I was busy doing a little cleaning (because my house is always messy) and taking care of Carter and the other kids so I didn't get any pictures until they were almost finished for the night.


Leland and Tyler started clearing the carpet, padding, and tack strips in the hallway.

 

Here's some of the progress in the living room.

 

Ryan, Bryan, and Tara relaxing.

 

Just about to reach tonight's goal: Flooring into the mouth of the hallway. Yay!

 

Some more carpet removal.

 

Taken this morning, the finished living room.

 

The Great Wood Flooring Project - Part 1

One of the major projects we've been wanting to do in our new house is the flooring.  The carpet, which we believe is original to our ten year old home, is super gross and pulling away from the walls in some places.  We had it professionally cleaned right before we moved in because we were bringing home a new baby and the previous owners had owned two large dogs.  Six months later the stains were showing again and it looked worse than before.

Well we finally have the money to put in new laminate wood (thanks to Leland's employer deciding to cancel everyone's 401k).  We'd already decided on a stain color at Ikea so Leland went today and picked it up.  We had planned on getting the floors prepped over the next couple of days and starting in over the weekend, but my husband, ever the motivated (more like impatient) man decided he wanted to get started tonight.  And my father-in-law (the great man that he is) decided he'd come help Leland out.

So I whipped out my camera and began the arduous task (not really, but I have to be involved somehow) of documenting The Great Wood Flooring Project.

Leland and David begin the tile removal.  Not a fun job.

One of the tiles had been sealed in with Liquid Nail, which made the removal a little bit trickier.

The rest of the the living room before carpet removal.

Finishing up the tile removal, it only took them about 30 minutes to get it all out.

The TV area before.  The TV is covered because bits of tile were flying EVERYWHERE!

The men had to make a quick run the Home Depot for a few more supplies so I captured their progress.

Taken from the back door, you can see where they've removed some of the baseboards and pulled up a little carpet.

Carter was allowed back in after the tile stopped flying.  Then he was locked safely in his high chair.

And one more baby photo for good measure.

Laying the first line of wood.  YAY!

Here's some of tonight's progress but I'm sure they'll get even more done before they call it quits for the night.

What a great start to this project!  I can't wait to see it all done.  Yay for new floors!

That is so AJ!

I don't really have anything to add.  This picture says it all!

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Song of the Week - Huey Lewis

So I really like this song...blame it on my parents I guess, 'cause I love cheesey 80s music.  I had to post this song though, because I've heard it on my drive home everyday for a week and then twice today within a half hour.  It was like the universe was telling me I had to share the song with you.  So enjoy my cheesey 80s guilty pleasure.