This Is Us

  I can’t even remember what year we bought our trailer, but it was like 2015 or 2016... Maybe even 2017. Haha! Anyway, we bought it for $500. Yep! That’s it. It is a 1978 camper, and boy can you tell! It’s 70’s green everywhere! But hey, it’s okay! It’s a great trailer and we’ve used it a lot. We haven’t changed anything in it, until this year. We bought outdoor fabric for the cushions and curtains. Two different, but matching, styles for the cushions and a different style, but again matching, for the curtains. Then we bought the peel-n-stick flooring. We also changed out the lights for LED ones. I sewed the new covers to be like pillow cases, so I didn’t have to worry about zippers. We bought the sticky Velcro to hold the opening shut. Although because I was in a hurry, I didn’t buy the fabric kind, and it does NOT work very well. I am going to find the fabric kind! We bought the fabric from JoAnn’s. It was on sale for 60-70% off, which is really nice! Outdoor fabric is expensive...

We bought our home in December of 2011. We have done a lot of changes to it. One thing I’m really excited about is our deck. Last year we moved the back door that goes outside, from the family room to the kitchen. Nick built an amazing deck, which we all love so much! We can watch fireworks, have parties, sit and relax, watch the kids play in the pool, eat our meals, soak up the fresh air and nature, and so many more things! It so wonderful! This is what the back of the house used to look like.  We had a little tiny cement pad, and one of the previous owners laid bricks down to make the patio bigger.  The back door was in the family room and there was a large bay window in the kitchen. This is where the door was and we closed it off and put a window in so we can still have lots of light in the family room. This is what it looks like now.  We like it so much better.  It makes our family room feel bigger, since we don't have to try and keep a pathway clear for the door...

When we moved in to our house over 8 years ago, the laundry room has been half finished. It had half the Sheetrock up, half painted, and was dark and dreary. Well, we finally finished it and I couldn’t be happier. It’s so “fun” to do laundry now! Our kids helped with all of it from framing in the walls, to mudding, to painting.  It was framed weird, so Nick had to fix it and put more in. The little parts that were painted were a dark gray. It was so awful. The kids helping: The process of finishing it: We put wainscoting on the back wall and new flooring. The finished product! Isn’t it wonderful what hard work can do? Nick built pedestals for our washer and dryer so we can put the laundry baskets under neath. We put a sink in, which is amazing. I can prewash and pretreat clothes, rinse things out, was my hands... it’s so great! We put cabinets in for all the soap, fabric softener, dryer sheets, etc. I just really love it!

Towards the end of September Xander's pre-school had their open house/meet the teachers night. Because he is going to the pre-school at the High School they start later to give the high school students time to prepare and learn before they are teaching the children. They do have a pre-school director, who is wonderful and is one of Brichette's friend's mom (that's how we heard about it). Going there got Xander even more excited about going to school, and asked everyday if today he could go. He would be so disappointed when it wasn't. But when the first day finally came he couldn't get his new school clothes and shoes on fast enough, and the time to start didn't come soon enough for him. We are so glad that he loves school. It will make life easier for all of us with him loving it so much. The pictures are of him and Nick making a pencil holder out of Legos. It's really cool.

Okay, so here is the update. We are having another baby! WHA HOO!!! Melissa has been very tired and exhausted, more than the other two pregnancies, so she hasn't felt like doing much. The baby is due November 25th. In the picture (not the best) the head is down, butt up, and then arms and legs. Melissa keeps calling the baby a her, because Xander says he is having a baby sister. We don't really have a preference, just that he/she is happy, healthy, and strong. We will find out the sex of the baby in a little over a month. We are having a hard time on names... so if any of you have suggestions we would love to hear them. I think the biggest part of us having a hard time is we don't want "normal" names, but nice, unique names. We were trying to find German names, but didn't like any of them. Melissa was looking for Egyptian names, but couldn't really find any. So we'll see what happens. We'll keep you posted.