Into the woods...

On Saturday we went into the woods to cut our Christmas tree.

It's always handy to bring a Jedi with you into the woods incase things get dangerous ;-)

Mya and Silas met up in the big field.


Levi showing off the tree he cut for his room.

Mya and Silas were fascinated by the bumper and trailer hitch of Papa's truck.

Noah looking very thoughtful and mature. Growing up too fast that boy.

The only way to get all five cousins in the same picture. Left to right: Levi, Jesse, Noah, Silas and Mya.

Daddy and Uncle Matt cutting down a tree.

Mya and Silas peaking out of Papa's truck.

It was a beautiful day. Usually our toes are numb by the time we get back to the house - but this year it was over 50 and WARM. So now we are in the Christmas spirit and ready to decorate.

ARGH

My three pirates.

Busy busy busy

A few more construction photos...from a couple weeks ago. Note the lovely shag green carpet - I swore 10 years ago when we bought the house we HAD to replace it ASAP since it was so hideous I couldn't live with it in all three upstairs bedrooms. HA! 10 years later and we're still living with green shag - but we will recarpet and do the stairs soon/in the next couple of months. Hey green shag is coming back in style, maybe we should stick with it - not likely!

Daddy's little helper:

Noah took the camera around to capture all the action - so here's a (not very flattering) rare shot of me in action.

Usually when Noah gets his hands on my camera I find things like this when I download my shots:

Noah and Levi both have requirements to do daily reading for school. Must be Silas was feeling left out because he went and got a picture book and sacked out on the couch with his brothers.

He thought he was pretty cool to be just like his big brothers. I think the thing I've been enjoying most with my little guy is watching how he looks up to his two older brothers and how they enjoy him and work to include him whenever they can - especially Noah.


When Levi was about Silas's age he got this big Pooh Bear for Christmas and it was love at first sight. He was very attached for many years and only in the past couple of months has transferred his attachment to his stuffed Eeyore. Well, Silas saw Pooh downstairs tonight and instantly claimed him as his new best friend. Won't hardly let go of him and loves to "wrestle" with him. Good thing Levi has move on already.

Trick or treat

Obi Wan Kenobi -note the cloak mommy spent 3 hours making the night before since Daddy decided his costume was too plain without it. It's supposed to be dark brown, but I didn't have any brown fabric, so I substituted dark purple and told him he must be a royal Jedi. He didn't seem to mind the color substitution.
A "Fighter-fighter" - to quote Levi - he's missing the really cool air pack that Daddy made for him in this picture - he decided it was a pain to wear it while walking through Main St.

Jedi and mouse:

I don't ususally like mice in my house - but this one is awfully cute.

All dressed up to visit the neighbors.

cutting off his baby curls

Though I loved his "long" hair that curled around his face, we knew it was probably time for a trim. It was a good 3 plus inches over his collar in the back and always looking wild.

Silas really didn't want a trim and complained loudly the whole time Daddy and I working around his head:

He decided to get over it pretty quickly and headed downstairs to show off his new "do" to his brothers. Note the still under construction stairs.

The end result is kinda cute - but I hate how much older he looks all of the sudden.

Look what we have in our house now!

Ever since we bought our house 10 years ago, we've been dreaming about doing this. Some people made negative comments to us about buying a 2 family home, but what a wonderful investment it has turned out to be. For 10 years we had the rental income coming in to cover expenses while I took maternity leave times three and also to save up enough money to FINALLY convert it to a single family home. We're going from 1000 sq feet and 1 bathroom - to 2000 square feet and 2 bathrooms (very necessary with three growing boys).

I'm happy to report that all my mad math skillz are actually coming in handy as well as those woodworking classes I took way back in junior high. Carpentry is really lots of angles and calculating and it's impressive when it works - that's not to say it works right the first time every time, but eventually, we get it there. Michael worked all day Friday, and I joined him all day Saturday along with a couple of hours of help from Dad Marshall. We have 9 out of 13 steps completed and soon we'll join the two floors of the house! Can you tell I'm excited?!?!

Silas of course thinks Daddy is putting all this work into building a giant indoor jungle gym just for him:

He immediately heads for the highest point he can reach and protests loudly when you try to remove him from the top.

And oh yeah, here's Daddy's tool bag that I'm not usually allowed to go near - wonder what mischief I can get into before somebody stops me.

There is no doubt that having stairs in this house is going to be an adventure with this little guy around. This week our plans are to finally cut through the floor, complete the last stringer of 3 steps and put up some kind of temporary railings. Then the boys can move into their new rooms downstairs and we'll have some much needed storage space. Obviously there's still lots of work to do, but to see it actually happening is wonderful!

The fair

Our yearly trek to the Topsfield Fair in MA. Not too many pictures because it was crowded and busy and we were mostly trying to get from place to place without loosing a child or two.

Family shot:

All six Withe cousins:

Silas checking out all the animals.

My guys on the ferry, Monday on the way home.