Kaitlyn's Birthday Weekend

Kaitlyn turned 4 this past Saturday. We had a busy birthday weekend. We were invited to the Noe's (a family in our church who live on a farm) for a square dance on Friday evening. Everyone had a blast dancing and trying our best to follow the instructions. Saturday morning, Kaitlyn's birthday, I took the girls to the Truman homecoming parade. They enjoyed collecting as much candy as the could hold. We came back to the house for a "brunch" birthday party. Kaitlyn had requested pancakes for her birthday meal so we chose to have the party in the morning. Deann made a special birthday pancake decoration for Kaitlyn. It was a Belle pancake. We had Grandpa and Grandma, Mike Cleary, and Aunt Melissa over for breakfast. After present opening and an early afternoon nap we went to a hayride/bonfire at another families home in our church. Again, we all had a wonderful time. The kids got to see all the farm animals and enjoyed their first hayride. We had a weenie roast for supper and after dark we went on a treasure hunt. The treasure was a big box of assorted candy. It was a busy but very enjoyable weekend. Here are some pictures from the weekend. Also included are some family portraits that Mike Cleary took of us last week.

Ryan having fun with a Santa hat.




Ryan all dressed up for the square dance.


Kaitlyn is ready to dance.


The girls had fun dancing with some friends.


Ryan getting ready to celebrate Kaitlyn's birthday.



Celebrating Kaitlyn's birthday together.


Kaitlyn and her birthday pancake.


Mommy's creativity on display. A Belle pancake.


Everyone ready to enjoy Kaitlyn's requested birthday meal-pancakes.


4 years old.


Kaitlyn waiting to open her presents.


Ryan was entertained by the balloon.


Mommy and Ryan trying to keep warm.


Meghan enjoying looking at the farm animals with her friends.


Kaitlyn, Ryan, and Mommy after the hayride.


The bonfire before dark.


The bonfire at the end of the beautiful sunset.

Amanda posing with Mike's hat. It's not quite the look we were going for.





This is a blooper pose with Ryan grabbing onto Kaitlyn's hair.

Kitchen Remodeling

We started to demolish and remodel our kitchen back on September 21st. These pictures show the progress up to the 19th of October. We are essentially finished but have a few details yet to wrap up. We will post some more pictures once we take them. We are very excited to have our kitchen back again! We are very thankful for how it turned out. We are especially thankful for all the help we received during the remodeling. Mike gave a lot of his time in helping. We also had Brandon, Adam, Jim (Dad) help with the project. Robert was our hired hand and did an excellent job.


Day 1 began by tearing out all the old cabinets.


Kaitlyn helped with her "work" boots on.


Meghan helped collect all the nails in her bucket.



There was no sparing these cabinets.



The carpet was a lot harder to pull up than we anticipated. It was glued down and did not come up easy!


Meghan helped Mike draw lines on the floor boards.


The window came out and went in all in one day. We were very thankful that part of the project went so quickly.


This is the "underlayment" that we put down before the vinyl flooring was laid. It required putting nails every 4 inches. That amounted to 3,500 to 4,000 nails. We were very thankful to have the use of a nail gun!



"Bob the Builder"




Unfortunately, we still had to beat down all the nails before we could have the vinyl laid. It was very noisy and quite painful on the wrists.


Mike and David mudding the sheetrock.


Jim (Dad) getting ready to paint.



We were unsure of the yellow paint at first but we really like it now that it's all finished. It looks great with the new cabinets.





Deann made the curtains.

Pictures of the kids

These are some pictures we've taken of the kids over the past few months. We wanted to share them with everyone.

Ryan enjoying some of his first spoon fed food.


Or maybe not enjoying it so much.

The kids having fun with Daddy.

Ryan loves his big sister!






Ryan loves to play in his walker.



He also enjoys his "johnny jump up".

Meghan and Kaitlyn enjoyed an overnight camp out with the other young kids in our church. They got to stay in a tent with Daddy. This took place over the labor day weekend.

There were lots of activities like a relay race with a cup that had a hole in the bottom.

Meghan and Ryan.


Kaitlyn and her dimples.



Kaitlyn and Ryan enjoying some snuggle time in the morning.