Thanksgiving and Washerball

The last few years, we've done Thanksgiving evening at Kevin and Alicia's home.  But, this year, Chuck, Alicia's mom, had some health issues and they were in Columbus much of the week.  Needless to say, hosting Thanksgiving would have been pretty difficult.  So, last minute, we decided to have Barbeque courtesy of Mark.  His brother Brad and sister-in-law Kim got him some goodies from his favorite BBQ joint in South Carolina a while back and he's been saving it.  Well, yesterday was apparently the time to break it out and we dined like the Pilgrim conquerors we are!  I kid.  We had a great meal though and personally, I enjoyed the BBQ more than I do traditional Thanksgiving food.

On top of the BBQ, the other non-tradition we partook in was hosting the meal at our home.  It was kind of fun.  Unfortunately for Kevin and Mike though, they missed the REAL fun.  They had just left and Elise had gone upstairs.  Kim and Sharon were up there and eventually, me and Mark made our way up.  Between Elise's room and Liam's future room, there's a small portion of wall that we put the newest addition to Elise's toy collection in front of.  Kim had an old toy washer and dryer from her childhood sitting in a storage room and we got it out a couple of weeks ago and cleaned it up.  Last night, I opened the lid to the washer and started shooting balls from the ball pit into the washer.  Then, Kim joined in.  Then, Mark joined in.  Sharon rebounded for us and Elise LOVED it.  We've dubbed the game: Washerball.  Here are some samples...

This was how we decided to clean up and put the balls back

Helper with the Guitar

I finally changed the strings on my guitar recently.  A while back, I was singing at church.  I grabbed my guitar off of its hanger on the wall to get ready to do.  I leaned it against the wall to go get Elise and then Kim could grab the guitar.  When I got to the kitchen I heard a crash.  I went back in the living room and it was on the floor.  I picked it up and headed to church.  But, once I went to get it back in tune and practice, I noticed the head was cracked in half and being pulled further apart by the tension on the strings!  It was a disaster.  I thought it was ruined.  

I took it to CA House music in Parkersburg and thankfully the guy was able to fix it.  He asked me what kind of strings he wanted me to put on it when he was done and I was specific.  I wanted Elixer brand strings and I was willing to pay for their extra cost.  But, he totally didn't put them on.  He did a great job fixing my guitar only to put crappy strings on.  I still used them though for a few months and they've been terrible.  So, I finally ordered new strings and went to install them. 

I got the old strings off and started putting the first string back on.  But, Elise wanted to push my hand away and put her binky in the hole.  Finally, I just laid it down for her to play with and she walked away.  So, I picked it back up and started putting the string on and she pushed it out of the way and put her binky in the hole.  So, I laid it down again and she started playing with it.  Then, she put her foot in and got it stuck and had a meltdown.  Fun times..

New Baby on the Way!

Well, we've got the announcement out, but I still figured I'd blog about it.  We're having another baby!  We're excited , of course, and ready to start some serious work on the room.  We have to wait until November 25th though.  That's when we should find out whether it's a boy or a girl.  Everyone has asked if we prefer one or the other, but we really don't.  Kim thinks it's going to be a boy, but I don't have any inkling one way or the other.  Last time, I knew we were having a girl.  I just had a feeling from the start.  I don't have that feeling this time, although I did dream we were having twins.  But, when we went for our first ultrasound, it only showed one.  Unless the other is super good at hiding, it's just one.  And we'll find out soon what it is.

Halloween 2013

This Halloween we had a little kitty with us.  She had a great time walking around the block..she even collected a little candy!  She's getting too big too quick.  Kim was able to wear her "Boo" shirt through yet another pregnancy.  I'm super proud of her for that accomplishment :) Notice that I sported my Jaguars shirt around the community.  If only they would make me proud to wear it...

Kim's Jack-O

My Jack-O

Myrtle Beach 2013

As with our last post, these are old, but blog worthy.  Some of these I'll leave uncaptioned just because there's so many.

 Mark, Me, Kevin before golfing at "Aberdeen Swamp" as I like to call it.  Actually, it was a beautiful course.  But, it was surrounded by a swamp which took me back to my mosquito infested memories of Florida :)

This was at the German restaurant we ate at one night.

We had our very own pool in front of the house and of course Elise goes everywhere except the pool

I don't know why, but this is definitely one of my favorite pictures.  Elise loved walking to the beach each day.

She's struttin'

Not sure how the planets aligned to get this picture with Elise posed really well..It just happened.

4th of July (Old Pics!)

It's been another few months since the blog has received any attention, but alas, here I am posting pictures again.  4th of July was a while back, but here are some pics.

Elise waving in the car

This was one side of the flag for the float..Mad props to some of the guys in the youth group for helping me get this beast built and painted!

Float in the parade

Fireworks!

Cute baby in the sun room

Family Pic

Strolling

This is why we typically don't put her in the stroller anymore...

 Red faced after some time in the sun