Our Pinnacle Pad

Finally, I'm getting some pictures of the house on here. I took them when I had all four boys for the night. How come I can get my house cleaner with four???

This is the upstairs family room. The stairs in the back lead to the front door. There is a beautiful view of Pine Lake from the windows on the left. I couldn't seem to get all the boys out of the way!!

This the the kitchen - I was standing in the family room. It has a very open floor plan, which we really like.

This the the view from the kitchen to the dining room.
And this is the view from the kitchen to the family room. All the boys are lined up watching a movie...

This is Dane and Abel's bedroom.

And a view from the other side of the room.

This is the view from the corner of our bedroom. We have an entrance to the bathroom from our room, and there is one coming in from the hallway as well. The next picture is the view into our bedroom. We plan to get a new bedroom set in the winter, so if anyone is interesed in what we have, let us know. Hold on to your pants...only one person can have it. I don't want everyone calling me at once.

This is the upstairs bathroom.

A view from the kitchen down to the front door.

This is the trashed 2nd bedroom downstairs. It really is just boxes of my decorations, that I won't put up until we paint. I don't even know why I put a picture of it on here.

This is the office.

And this is our small storage room/laundry room/Reesie's room. I love, love, LOVE my new washer and dryer! It almost makes laundry time fun.

This is the family room downstairs. I'm actually standing in the middle of the room looking toward the stairs that go to the front door.

And here's the 2nd family room!

I'm really starting to get tired of all the white on the walls. I have made some decisions on colors, but we probably won't paint until after the holidays. I will post some pictures as we get each room done.

We are so enjoying this house - hope you liked the pictures!

Jorgensen's Pizzeria

The kids and I made homemade pizza the other night (Daddy's favorite). They really enjoyed helping me, and Abel loved being on the counter, as usual. And tasting all the toppings... Here he is after he licked the spoon from the dough...he takes after his mom!

Such concentration on Dane's face!

They worked together pretty well, but Abel didn't want his own pizza to top - he wanted to do the one that Dane was working on! Big surprise...

And here they are showing me their pepperoni!

All Done - Bon Appetit!

Abel Heinz...the stubborn German...

The last two nights, we have had an hour long battle with Abel. He wants his snack after dinner, but refuses to eat some fruit. He has always been so good about eating fruit, so this stubborn behavior came as a surprise (we have seen his stubborn behavior elsewhere...). Eric wasn't home for dinner tonight, and I so badly wanted to cave in. But after a few minutes, it becomes more than just eating the last few oranges....it's about who can hold out the longest. I wasn't going to let him win. He screamed, cried, stomped his feet, threw himself down....and then finally decided to eat the last orange after an hour. I then asked him if he wanted a snack, to which he replied, "NO". It was a very long hour. After the performance he gave, he deserved some to replenish his energy. But, he just went about playing like nothing had happened.

Stubborn German. But, oh so cute.

No deer...yet.

Eric has been hunting since Friday. He has seen a few deer, and one that he had a nice shot at but there was a house to close. I'm sure he will be out again this weekend, and maybe he'll have better luck! Not that I'm excited about cooking it...

Great Weekend.

My wonderful husband watched the kids this weekend while I had a chance to get away. I went up to Grand Rapids for a scrapbooking retreat with Nikki, Susan, and Kathy - among others. Nikki took the day off work Friday, and my Mom watched the kids. Our intention was to be at the hotel at lunchtime to start scrapbooking. But, we didn't arrive there until 5pm. We hit a scrapbook store in GR, and on our way back to the hotel, we kept finding stores to stop at. I didn't get anything for myself and neither did Nikki (the scrapbook store doesn't count) - we got lots of Christmas presents. It was great to be able to spend time in stores and look around. The rest of the weekend was great too. We had lots of fun, and we got a lot of pages done. Thanks Eric and Mom and Aunt Kay (she helped watch them Friday)!

Not so shy anymore.....

Today, after naps, we were outside playing in the driveway. Mark, who lives kitty corner from us, was out mowing his front yard. Dane and Abel just stood at the end of our driveway and waved to him every time he came by. After a few passes, he stopped his tractor and came over and talked to them. He was asking Dane about school, Halloween, what he was eating (some of Nana's trail mix). Then he asked Dane if he wanted to go for a tractor ride. Without missing a beat, Dane said yes and then climbed on his tractor, and then onto his knee. I was quite surprised because Dane has only met him one other time. I thought he would just do one pass and then be done, but Mark kept asking him if he wanted to get off and Dane said no. They ended up mowing the whole front yard, and then Dane came running back over to me very excited. It was so great to see him like that - and kind of sad because he doesn't need me as much.

Halloween

It was beautiful weather on Halloween, so Nikki and I decided to pack up the boys and their costumes, and head to Jackson to trick-or-treat in the old neighborhood. My brother, sister-in-law and their kids were there too, so all the cousins got to trick-or-treat together.

While we were waiting for dinner, we dressed up the kids and tried to get some pictures outside.

Here is Dane spreading his wings!

Below is a good picture of us. Abel didn't have his costume on yet, because he was fighting me all week when I tried to put it on him. I decided that I wasn't going to stuff him in it until I had to!
Does Batman pose like a supermodel?

Below is gunslinger Maddox.

And Maverick the Jedi.

Maddox actually took this picture of Nikki and I. Not bad!

And he took this one of his Mom too. I think she was trying to show him how she wanted him to pose.

Here is Dane with one of many of Nana's Halloween decorations. Look, it's Batman with a skull face! AHHHH!

After Abel saw everyone else in their costumes, he wanted to put his on. So, here is Robin!

It was starting to get dark, and almost time to go! This picture doesn't show off Avary's costume very well, but she was a very cute little butterfly.

And Cameron was Chief Tonto!

Avary and Maddox were ready for their ride through the woods to get to the neighborhood.

Here is Dane getting one last bike ride in before it was time to go.

Below are the kids after we got back. They all sat up at the counter and went through their candy bags.

Dane, Maverick, Cameron, Avary, Maddox, and Abel.

Now everyone was acting goofy after all the candy!

We had a great time, and all the kids slept good that night (parents too!).