Home improvements over last few months

Here are some pictures of some home improvement projects that have been going on in the Lincoln house the last few months. 

The first is the green house that Nate & his dad built.  I wasn't fully on board when Nate first told me the idea of using our old sliding glass doors and creating a green house.  But as always, it turned out great!  We still have some tweaking to do with temperature, but we hope next summer it will flourish.  The raised beds and automatic watering system are especially nice.

Another big project was tearing out the old nasty shower in our master bath and rebuilding it.  This has definitely been something I've wanted to do since we moved in, so we're super excited it's almost finished.  So here is the before picture. Pretty, huh? ;)

Here's its bare bones

Progress.....

And here's the almost finished product.  Nate worked his usual magic!!  There was a lot for Nate to learn as he worked on this one.  It was especialy hard to get the right slope in building the floor.  Also notice the new vanity counter and sink.  Woo hoo!

I'm sure the kids are excited to have their bathroom back to themselves :)

Now for the biggest undertaking this fall..... Goodbye carpet!  When we went to AZ, Nate flew home for 3 days and worked his lil' booty off to tear up the flooring and start laying down as much of the new hard wood as he could.  All this while working full-time.  He stayed up until about 3am each night and lived on Little Ceasars I think.

There was a lot of moving furniture and appliances back and forth.

After a week or two, he had finished the family room and most of the dining room.  Go Nate!!

We had the MDF as a kitchen floor for the last 3 months and we got pretty used to it.  But I have to say now that the wood is laid in there, it's way nicer to look at easier to clean :)

Hallway too.

After about 2 months we finally found a rug.  It was hard to find one that was super plush and looked decent.  Alas, Home Depot came through again...  We very much enjoy having somewhere soft to lay down and wrestle on once again.  The kids have fun each picking a flower to kneel on when we have our family prayers.

I'm so thankful for and amazed at my husband's ability to do all these things to improve our home.  He's saved us sooo much!  I'm looking forward to hopefully being done though so that we can play more on the weekends :)

Halloween 2011

Sibling bonding while carving pumpkins.  This year we actually tried baking the pumpkin seeds.  The kids seemed to love them, at least at first.  I guess we might make that a new tradition.

"Arrrg!"

Lexi- a vampire queen?? Her invention.  She looks pretty cool though, I think.

McKinley as  pretty princess (of course).  I couldn't decide which picture was cuter, so I posted them both :)

 

Our dressed- up crew

 

Pirate pals ( at out church's Halloween party)

Hands down....best costume EVER!!!  This is my friend's little girl & she made this costume.  Isn't it amazing?!  Ooompa- doompa- doompa-dee-doo

 

I kinda copped-out this Halloween & dressed as a mechanic.  I wiped some dirt from the tire rim on my face to complete the "costume".  I know, pretty lame.

The kiddos were happy to pass out some candy at our trunk-or-treat after their buckets were full.

Tyler's the cutest toothless Harry Potter I've ever seen :)

We went trick-or-treating with a few friends in this awesome neighborhood downtown.  All the houses in that area get sooo into it  (as you can see).

It was so much fun!  And maybe a little freaky at times.

Quick trip to Utah

 Labor day weekend, we were able to drive to Utah to be present for our newest niece's blessing.  Her name is AnnaLynn and she's such a little angel.  Here's her cute family.  She'll be well-protected with her 3 big brothers.

 Having fun with cousins

We had a lovely family picnic at a nearby park.  It was a gorgeous day and everyone had a grand time, especially when all the water guns, water bazookas & other water weapons were brought out.

Lovin' grandma & auntie Karen

Watch out, McKinley means business!!

 Relaxin' with daddy :)

 McKinley & Disney holding hands.

 Every time I looked, our Tyler was up in a tree

 Notice McKinley is dressed in a little less in this picture.  This is post- blowout :)

The mommas went shopping and look what we found...  cute lil' matching dresses on clearance (in all the right sizes).  We had fun playing dress up!

 That's Disney (11 mos.)- daughter of Nate's brother, then Anna Lynn (2 mos.- daughter of Nate's sister & of course our lil' Kinners (17 mos.)

 Love it!!

Sep/ Oct 2011

 This is a continuation of the Aug./ Sep. post.  Here's Ty on field day.  I think this was a skipping race.

Here's Ty's cute lil' 1st grade class, all painted up like warriors.

 More soccer.  It really was so gorgeous most of the days during soccer and very enjoyable to be outside.

Except maybe this day...  It was FREEZING!  Tyler, Lexi & Colton all snuggled together to keep warm :)

One Saturday while I was gone, Nate took the kids on a beautiful hike at Red Rock.

 From these pictures, you might think our kids actually like each other ;)

Lexi started participating in the basketball sports challenge after school. We really haven't worked much on basketball yet, but Nate & I both have hopes our kids will learn to love it :)  That's Lexi dribbling.

 Matching up opponents...