All Hallows' Eve

When witches go riding,

and black cats are seen,

the moon laughs and whispers,

'tis Halloween.

The kids dressed up for free food at Moe's. Aren't they the cutest?

Batman (Noah) and Robin (Jackson)

Princess Sophia

Princess Sophia and Princess Bloom from Winx Club

Dinosaur

Happy Birthday, Tammy!

Happy Birthday, Tammy!

We love you!

Next Cruise, Booked

Tonight I booked our next cruise? Can you guess where we are going?

How about now?

We are going back to Alaska!

Our friends, Bruce and Dare, have been wanting to take a cruise to Alaska for a couple years now. We were thinking about going in 2015; however, with us using so much vacation when we go to Illinois for Christmas every other year that wouldn't work. We are going to Illinois for Christmas this year so that would mean in 2015 we would go to Illinois so it wouldn't work for us to take a cruise that year. Dare wants to go next year and has been trying to persuade us for months now to go with them. After thinking about the vacation issue we decided to give in and go next year. That means we need to save a lot of money between now and July 1st when the balance is due. 

The last trip to Alaska in 2006 was just a cruise so we have decided to add the land tour this time. We are doing a 3-night land tour before the cruise. We fly into Fairbanks on September 13th. We decided to fly in a day early since it takes so long to fly to Alaska. It's about a 16 hour trip and we figured we are going to be really tired when we get there since we will still be on Eastern time and have been traveling since 6:00 am. The 14th will be spent at our leisure. Not quite sure yet what we will be doing. The following morning we take a riverboat cruise down the Chena River then travel to Denali for the night. On the 16th we tour Denali National Park then head to Mt. McKinley for the night. On the 17th we will take a train from Talkeetna to Whittier where we will board the ship. I'm looking forward to the train ride and seeing the beautiful scenery and hopefully some critters.

The cruise begins at 8:30 pm on the 17th. It's a 7-day Voyage of the Glaciers cruise. Our first couple days will be spent cruising Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay. We will be stopping at the same three Alaska ports we had visited on our first cruise - Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. The ship arrives in Vancouver on the 24th where we will catch a flight home.

The weather this time will be chilly. On our first cruise we went in August and it was in the high 50's, low 60's. This time it will be in the high 40's, low 50's. Not looking forward to that but that just means we need to pack warmer clothes.

We are really excited and can't wait till September 13, 2014!

Necklace Rack

I have been wanting somewhere to put my necklaces so they wouldn't get all tangled up. Right now they have been in my jewelry box and it seems like it never fails that when I want to wear one it's all tangled up with another necklace. So I have been looking on Etsy for a jewelry rack. I saw this one and thought I could make this and it be way cheaper.

However, I don't think that happened. By the time I bought the wood, trim, stain and door knobs I think the price was close to the one on Etsy but at least I can say I made it myself. Right?

The board is the same length as the one on Etsy, I figured it was a good size rack. I looked everywhere for the onlay but I couldn't find one that was small enough. So I gave up on that and decided to add some trim instead. Now the door knobs. I looked at Home Depot, Lowe's, Target and Wal-Mart and none of them had the old timey knobs that I wanted. So I decided to look on Etsy and eBay. I found some on eBay that I liked. I decided on two clear glass knobs, a cobalt blue glass knob, a white rose ceramic knob and royal blue rose knob. Jeff put the rack together for me then I stained it. I wanted the same look as the one on Etsy, the distressed look but I looked everywhere for distressed paint and I couldn't find it. Evidently, to get that look there are ten million steps to achieve it and I didn't want to do all that. I finally found a stain, white wash pickling stain that I used instead. After, I stained it and let it dry for a couple days, Jeff put the knobs on. It's hanging up by my bathroom sink above my towel rack. One day I will paint the bathroom walls a light blue to match the royal blue rose knob. That will be my next big project as I want to also put up bead board in there. Maybe next year. Anyway, overall I liked how it turned out. What do you think?

They're Back!

Mom and Dad decided to come back into town for a visit. The last time they were here, in August, they were busy helping Nicole and Dave with the twins so they really didn't have time to visit with everyone. This time they wanted a real vacation.

Unfortunately, due to the government shutdown for 16 days, they weren't able to do some things they wanted to do. One of the things they wanted to do was go to Cape Hatteras and check out the lighthouse but the national parks were closed due to the shut down so that put a damper on their vacation.

Since I used so much vacation when Nicole had the twins I wasn't able to take off work like I wanted to. We did get a visit in at the Williamsburg Prime Outlets and Yankee Candle. Dad decided to stay behind and watch Haylee for Nicole, which was nice. Kimberly and Brayden weren't able to join Mom, Nicole, Noah, Jackson and I though. Kylie was sick that morning and the school called Kimberly to come pick her up right before she was leaving so she was pretty bummed that she wasn't able to join us.

Their week long visit went by pretty quick, as usual. It's always good to see them and hard to say goodbye.

Mom and Jackson

Twins First Sleepover

Nicole and Dave were invited to a wedding on the Eastern Shore which meant Haylee and the twins would be spending the night. I was a little nervous about the twins spending the night as they still don't sleep thru the night. I had Nicole pack their beds so they could sleep in them instead of our playard since we only have one of them and Haylee would have to sleep in the kids room.

Noah

Jackson

I didn't get much sleep as Jackson was making noises all night. I have to have basically complete silence when I sleep. A sound machine might have helped drown him out but once again, silence. Jackson was up around 3:00, after I fed him and got him back to bed, Noah was up to eat. Luckily, they didn't wake up at the same time. Then they were back up around 7:00.

Noah is laughing at Haylee

Jackson and Haylee

tummy time

All in all it wasn't too bad for it being the twins first sleepover. Hopefully, the next time they will be sleeping thru the night.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

On this special day

I want to thank you

for being a wonderful part

of my world

and giving me so much love!

Here's hoping your day is

as special as you are!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

We love you!