Thanksgiving

This was the first year in a long time that all my siblings and their spouses were in town for the holiday. My aunt Mary was even in town! We started the Holiday with a Wednesday night cocktail party at my Mom's. Friends and extended family gathered for an evening of food and drink.
Thursday we all got together, again at Mom's, to cook and eat. All day long. After dinner we all sat around the table and played games. It was a wonderful day.

All of Porter's cousins had fun too.
Asher joined the adults for game time and helped keep us in check and obeying all the rules.
Zeth enjoyed dessert.
Madison, who turns one in a week and a half, enjoyed her first Thanksgiving too. She spent most of the day running and laughing.
Porter enjoyed his first Thanksgiving by playing, eating and sleeping.
Alice, who was also having her first Thanksgiving, had fun sitting at the table and watching us play games even though she's got a tooth coming in.

October

Almost eight weeks have passed since Porter joined us and a lot has happened.
He's gotten bigger. He's smiling and laughing and playing real hard for a little guy. He's also noticed the animals he lives with and thinks they're pretty interesting.

His Aunt Carrie came to visit. And his favorite surrogate aunt and uncle, Sarah and Jeremy came to visit.And we finally caught his anger at being burped on film. However, he has, since that evening, begun to get a lot more calm about this part of the eating process.

On the home renovation front, WE GOT A LIVING ROOM!!!!!
It's not all complete (the crown moulding, kickboard and quarter round, and the window and door trim haven't been put up yet). Thankfully Andrew and Corey mixed several primers to make enough to cover the walls so the primer is colored rather than white. Until we get the trim up we have a lovely blue instead of boring white!
I'll let the before and after pictures tell the rest.


The brick was originally covered up by water damaged plaster and lathe that was poorly covered by paneling. We liked it with the stone fireplace so Andrew cleaned it up a bit and added the lights above it. There are a few other final touches the mantel is getting later.
It's not perfect, but it's getting close!