an early start

we usually wait until the day after thanksgiving to put up the tree and decorate the house but we couldn't wait. early in the afternoon on thanksgiving we decided to get a headstart on christmas. this was definitely ok with kaleigh! the kids helped val put the ornaments on. i supervised in between cleaning the house. 

connor actually wanted to help this year...val watched him very carefully

kaleigh is a pro! remember these are the decorations she picked out--teal, hot pink, and lime green. :)

here's the chief of tree decorating. looking good!

more home improvement

so here's what our house is looking like with it's new paint color--sand pebble. the trim is going to be swiss coffee...that's tomorrow's job.

in progress

so the big, ugly, pointless box was removed. primer is covering the spot where it was.

the ledge below the windows is gone and new windows are in! notice the paint colors...that's the next project for us!

home makeover

we decided to do some improvements to the house. we wanted to get rid of the ledge under the kids bedroom windows and the boxy thing above the garage. val thought since someone was already going to do the work near the windows, we might as well get them replaced with some new ones. sure, why not! :)

here's the before picures of the garage and front of the house--

after pictures will come tomorrow. i think it looks way different...in a good way!

costumes

here's the costume pictures. connor is crazy about scooby-doo! this was the costume we bought for him last year that he didn't wear because he slept through most of halloween night. we saved it since it was really big last year...a year later it barely fit. he was sporting a mean wedgie but that didn't stop him. :)

kaleigh chose to be a witch this year. she got to wear her costume to school for the halloween parade. i didn't notice until she told that the wire came out of her witch's hat but she didn't care.

happy halloween

pumpkin carving was done on wednesday night. 4 big pumpkins carved, each one unique. 

kaleigh wanted to make hers all on her own and she did.

the culcasi's came over for halloween night. we ate dinner before going trick-or-treating. 

jack-o-lantern cheeseburgers...

mummy pizzas made be the kids

our pumpkins all lit up at night. from left to right: mine (says boo), connor's, val's, and then kaleigh's.

this year connor was actually glad to put on his costume and he didn't sleep through the trick-or-treating like last year. we had a lot of fun and the kids got a lot of candy!