Schank Family Pictures

(l to r: Kade, Leah, Kent, Stacey, Me, Tim, Lacy, Kal, Jessie and Kort. Sitting: Dad with Emmit (3 months), Grandma with Evan (2 years), Mya (19 months) and Kylan(3 years)

Kade took our Schank family pics since everyone was here for Thanksgiving. Here is how they turned out. Not bad for not having too much time to take them and for it being freezing cold outside! I think he did a really good job (as always)!
Evan, Dad, Emmit, Grandma, Mya and Kylan

Kade, Leah, Kent, Stacey, Tim, Me, Lacy, Kal, Jessie and Kort.

Kylan, Grandpa, Emmit, Mya, Grandma and Evan

Some of Kent and Stacey's engagement pics. I think the above one is what they are using on their invitation.

Thanksgiving and more Kitchen

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year since Brett & Teri's kitchen was empty. It was a lot of fun to have it in our home and kind of neat for Tim's family since this is where they always had it growing up. We were able to also have Rayanne's family eat with us and it was so much fun to have them! Tim, Gav, Bill, Cam and Kyle all went and played flag football, but since it was so cold and I was helping Teri cook the dinner the kids and I didn't go this year, but they had a great time. We ended the evening watching the new Christmas Carol movie, which was extremely scary for a cartoon (see previous post). It was a wonderful day!

And here are the latest pics of Brett and Teri's kitchen. To answer a few questions, Brett (and the boys) tore everything out, then he and Laine did all the lighting, electrical and flooring and he and Teri painted. They have hired someone else to put the cabinets in. I believe it should all be done by the end of next week as long as there aren't any other delays.

The cabinets in the sink area. The dishwasher will go in the empty spot.
The island. The metal things sticking out the left are (I assume) where the bar stools attach.

Teri's new cabinets and drawers do so many cool things that I can't show with pictures, it is going to be awesome!!!

More Kitchen Remodel and the Kids

First things first - pics of the kids! We watched part of the new animated Christmas Carol with Brett and Teri and it was a little scary for my kids. Here's Mya with her big eyes during the movie. They just kept getting bigger and bigger during the scary parts!

And under the blanked, cuddled up to Aunt Tonya is Ky-ky. He wasn't a fan!
And here is Emmit watching basketball with grandpa before the movie.

Now to the kitchen. Here are some of the cabinets. All but 4 came in today. The rest arrive on Dec 6th, but they are going to install all the can on this Friday. So exciting!!!

These are the lighter cabinets that will go under the island. They have the same dark glaze in the crevices so that they all tie in. You can also see the new wood flooring. It is the same as the entry way.

These are the darker cabinets that will be in the rest of the kitchen and around the fridge.

Here's how things look from the front door. Everything has also been painted. The walls look white, but they are actually a lighter version of the ceiling, so they have a yellowish tone to them.

The view from where the stove will be.

A wide view from the pantry.

A taller view so you can see the light fixtures.

Can't wait to see how it looks when the cabinets start going in!

Fly Killing & Remodel Update

It's that time of year when we are over run with flies that are trying to escape the cold, so fly killing has been a popular and neccesary activity at our house. Even Ky and Mya join in and Kylan is actally pretty good at it especially in the morning when the flies are a little slow.

I love Mya's face and you can see Ky in action! And here is the latest from Brett and Teri's remodel:

The fridge in its new location and the new recessed lighting. The two empty holes in the ceiling are for the light fixtures over the island and then hang down a little.

Looking from the other direction. You can see the wall that they took out on the left hand side and the rest of the recessed lighting.

Kitten Playdate

I looked out the window this morning and saw a big, what I assumed was a barn cat, outside eating our kittens food, so I went out to scare it away. Well, it wasn't a barn cat, but a very nice cat and it had this cute little white kitten with it. A few minutes later another big mamma cat also appeared with a kitten that looks just like ours. It's been funny to watch them, because the mamma cats just sit next to each other and the kittens play. I guess even cats need play dates! And I guess all we had to do was put some food out and the cats would come! I just hope our kitten doesn't run off with them, we are actually starting to really like her! She is now super friendly and sleeps in her little house I got her and and not the engines of our cars! And Kylan wants to name her Astrid like the little girl in "How to Train your Dragon."

Emmit 3 months old AND 3 Bad Things Fixed!

Emmit turned 3 months old on Monday, but we've been a little busy so I'm posting it today. These pics were taken last week when it was still warm enough to wear shorts! Emmit is such a fun little guy! He is just so happy and he loves it when you talk to him - he will just smile and laugh in response and I think he is going to have the "Adam's laugh"! He sleeps 8+ hours at night and takes a 4 hour nap each day, and then cat naps in his swing or on the floor while playing the rest of the day (he can sleep through all of his siblings playing, fighting, crying, yelling etc). I just feel so spoiled with him!

To update the cat situation, it took until Tuesday and calling the dairy mechanic to get the stupid cat out, then we had to replace the belt. Stupid free cat cost me more money then I wanted to spend. We still have the other cat, but it now likes to hang out in Tim's truck, so we may be giving it back. We also discovered yesterday that our water heater had rusted out and had been leaking for who knows how long down into the crawl space under the house, but thanks to Brett it was replaced last night! My kids had also turned on the dishwasher while our water was turned off, so we thought it may be broken, but luckily it is working just fine! So that is our three bad things, so we better be good for awhile!

This is why I don't like cats . . .

. . . well one of the many reasons why. So, we live in the country now and in order to keep the mice away you kind of need a cat. When we first moved in we had John's cat and she was good. She was nice to the kids, didn't try to come in the house, didn't jump up on the BBQ when I was cooking, just wasn't annoying. Well, she disappeared. Then we had a couple other cats show up. One was really annoying - always tried to get in the house, jumped up on the BBQ, would even jump into our window ledges when the windows were open, so we quite feeding it and it eventually moved on.
Yesterday, one of the milkers brought us a couple kittens (well I'd say they were 3+ months old), a boy and a girl. They were white and grey and pretty, but pretty afraid of us and the kids. About an hour after they were here we couldn't find them. I looked everywhere and it ended up they were in the engine of my car, so we honked and they wouldn't come out. We poked them with a stick, they wouldn't come out, I even poured water on them and they wouldn't budge. They eventually came out on their own, but still very annoying!
When we were leaving for church this morning, they were under my car, so I got in and honked the horn and Ky said they ran away (mistake #1, don't trust a 3 year old), but just to make sure we popped the hood, checked around and honked for a very long time, then turned the car on, backed and out and the car makes a funny noise and dies. Yep, that's right, one of the stupid cats didn't just get killed, but got caught in a belt and we don't know how to get it out and so my car is dead in the driveway, we were a half hour late to church (the kids have colds, so we basically went in, I fed Emmit and then the kids and I left) and now we only have one cat.
I don't like pets period, but at least a dog can't get into the engine of your car!

Wedding Bells!

Kent will no longer be introduced as the "son/brother who isn't married". Congrats Kent and Stacey! We are so happy for you two!!!