Girly girls...

Whitney has been bugging me for the past few days to paint her toenails so we finally get around to doing it tonight. As she is sitting there getting her nails painted, Maren decides she wants in on the action and sits down right next to Whitney so she can be next. We're in for trouble now with two little girly girls here in our house (though they still like to wrestle with Daddy!)

Fall fun...

First of all I have to say that it is a lovely evening here at home. Jim is at work until midnight and the girls were in bed asleep by 7 tonight. An hour earlier than usual but they had a busy day and were getting to be mighty cranky. The peace and quiet is heavenly!

I love this season of the year as the leaves change color and a chill enters the air, there is something about autumn that just speaks to my soul. I don't know what it is but this has always been my favorite season of the year. Maybe it has something to do with the beautiful colors, the comfort foods we eat at this time of year, or the first chance to get cozy with our sweaters and hot cocoa. I feel as though I haven't really had a chance to enjoy this year with all that we've had going on. Maybe the girls and I will have to go for a little hike this week to see more of the beauty than what we see from the windows of the car. Speaking of the car, we seem to spend a lot more time in it now making the 20-30 minute roundtrip twice a day taking Whitney to and from school.

Here's a short rundown of some of our recent fall activities (besides the continuing remodeling which hopefully will be complete the 26th when the carpet is installed). Whitney finished up soccer just before Halloween. She quickly picked up on how to play the game with this being her first season and loved every minute of it. I think her most favorite things were scoring 2 goals, playing goalie, and getting a trophy at the end of the season. One night we sent Whitney to get dressed for her game and when it is almost time to leave we find her dressed only in undies and shinguards and Maren has her soccer jersey on so between the two of them they were close to being ready! Soccer season was quickly followed by the Halloween festivities. My YW at church were in charge of putting on the trunk or treat activity the Wednesday prior and then we joined some friends to trick or treat and go to a party on Halloween night. The girls also enjoyed cleaning and carving the jack-o-lantern. Whitney designed the face this year and carved it with a bit of help.

And lastly proof that they do get along every once in awhile!

Toddler antics...

It's amazing how Maren can so quickly go from this...

to this...

The joys of having a toddler!

Construction zone..

After a week or two of tearing out linoleum, carpet, tack strips, baseboards, and scraping up old adhesive, I finally got the floors all prepped and began laying tile two weeks ago. It's taken awhile to get all 340 ft. laid but it is FINALLY done. My parents flew in to spend five days with us during this time and we all enjoyed being spoiled during their visit and the great help they were with our house projects, taking care of the girls, and keeping up on the house. Unfortunately they had to endure our construction zone. Jim has been a big help when he is off in taking care of the girls and running Whitney to and from school so I can have some uninterrupted time to work. Unfortunately I'm not super speedy partly because I want it to be done well and it takes a bit to get the motivation to get going each day. Here's a few before/after shots (not the best but gives you an idea of how it looks):

The lack of motivation may have something to do with the additional fatigue and occasional nausea I feel from this:

We're excited for the little one that is due to arrive April 21st. Whitney is hoping for a brother but we'll have to wait and see! Maren just walks around and says "baby" all day.

We still have plenty to do with some painting, installing baseboards, kitchen cabinet staining, and getting somebody to install tcarpet. However the largest project by far is now complete! But for now I need to tackle the mess that this house has become after being neglected for past two weeks.

Disney on Ice....

A few weeks ago I took Whitney and we joined some friends for an evening at Disney on Ice. The show included segments on Cars, Lion King, Little Mermaid, and Tinkerbell with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy serving as hosts. The kids seemed to really enjoy the show though none of us were real familiar with the Tinkerbell story. We'll have to read up on that one! They put on a great show with some pretty amazing costumes and scenery. It was fun night out!

Speaking of ice, Jim has been spending a some time on the ice each week. He started to play in a adult ice hockey league with games a few times a week. The girls and I have only been able to go to two of them so far as they start at 9 or 10:15 at night. He's scored a few goals in the games he's played in so far but is mostly excited about being back playing after 9 years off.

Here's a funny picture I got of Maren the other day chilling in the recliner and eating some chocolate she had snuck out of the pantry. What an easy life she leads!

North Carolina, Part 2...

The following day was Sunday so we headed to church in the morning after dropping Jim at his class. Afterwards, I wasn't real keen on spending all afternoon in the hotel room with the girls so we had some lunch and then headed along the windy mountain roads to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Upon reaching the parkway, we followed it south to Mt. Mitchell State Park. The drive along the parkway and up the mountain were beautiful with excellent vistas of the mountains and the beginning of the fall colors.

We arrived near the top of Mt. Mitchell hoping to make the short hike up the last 100 or so feet to the summit but they were constructing a new observation deck at the summit so it was off-limits. So we almost reached the summit of the tallest US mountain east of the Mississippi but not quite.

That evening we enjoyed a great dinner outside along the banks of the Catawba River with the rest of Jim's classmates. The following morning we headed up the mountains to Linville Gorge to do some rock climbing before heading home. We spent a lot of time hiking trying to find specific climbs as the guidebook wasn't great but finally found some good routes just not what Jim was looking for. Whitney had a blast climbing but had difficulty coming down so instead hitched a ride down clipped in with Jim which she thought was great. The girls were both flithy from all their scrambling but had fun and we enjoyed getting some climbing in.

North Carolina Part 1...

Last weekend Jim had a wilderness medicine course out in western North Carolina. We were excited to head out there to the mountains as we hadn't visited that area yet. While Jim went to class each day the girls and I played. Unfortunately the first day it poured all day long and I began to seriously doubt my decision about coming along for the trip after being stuck in a hotel room all day with the girls. We did find a nearby ChicFilA with an indoor playground for lunch but were unable to find any other fun indoor activities in the area for kids. Luckily by the next day the rain had cleared and we had a great rest of the weekend. The next morning we headed out to a local apple orchard for a tractor tour of the orchard and then headed out to pick our own apples.

The girls had a blast running up and down the rows of apple trees. I think I've found my new favorite kind of apple: Honeycrisp. It is a relatively new type of apple, try one if you can find one.

After the apple orchard we met up with my buddy Tiffany that had driven up from Charlotte and headed out to Chimney Rock Park. It was a cool park with lots of fun rock formations to hike around using numerous sets of stairs with the highlight being going to the top of Chimney Rock. The girls both loved scrambling around on the rock.

The park is built up the side of the mountain so it provided great views of the mountains and nearby lake and river.

We also hiked out to a beautiful waterfall before heading home.