Weekend with the McCollum's

This past weekend Dustin's parents were able to come up for a visit.  For the first time they were able to come up and just relax rather than help work on the house!  We took a drive on the parkway on Saturday and ended up at Mabry Mill.  After church on Sunday we did some shopping.  (We are now officially done with Christmas shopping!)  Monday night was Dustin's winter concert.  It was wonderful for his parents to be able to see all of his hard work in person.  

Thanksgiving

Better late than never, right?  

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend with the Nieter's this year.  It was a great time of cooking, eating, relaxing, and of course shopping!  It was a lot of fun to hit the Black Friday sales with the ladies.  I think we're almost done with our shopping!  

Somehow we only have pictures with Blake... you wouldn't even know that there were any adults around!  We'll try to do better at Christmas.  

Blake helping Uncle Dusty take pictures.

Practicing our crawling.

Ok, so there was at least one picture without us hogging Blake (he was probably down for a nap!)

It's beginning to look, feel and sound a lot like Christmas!

Well, we had our first "snow" yesterday. It was enough to cover the cars and the deck, but not much else. School wasn't even on a delay! I don't think it has gotten above freezing the last 2 days.
Christmas music has been playing in the stores since November 1st and it just started on the radio this past weekend. Next year it may be September when they start. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas but it keeps getting earlier and there are only so many songs that they can play over and over during the season.
Sorry, no pictures of the snow, we were too busy getting ready for work in the morning and it was all gone by the time we got home.

Lots of Leaves

Another Saturday, another day raking leaves.  Zoe was able to get in on the fun today!

Fall

Today was a great fall day.  After some running around, we took advantage of the 70 degree weather and raked the yard.  The trees are beautiful, but they sure do make a lot of work for us during this time of year.  We ended up with 11 big black trash bags and we only raked the front yard!  

All of those leaves still to fall!

Last night was also a lot of fun.  Dustin's band went to their football game and decided to have a little fun... rather than their regular show, they played "thriller" and did the dance too.  If you would like to see a video of it, a band parent posted it on their blog.  Excuse the yelling... the moms always get excited!   www.hiddenvalleyband.blogspot.com

Peaks of Otter

We took a day trip yesterday to Peaks of Otter in Bedford.  We had a picnic lunch then headed up the mountain.  It was a day trip and Zoe did great.  She had a lot more energy than we thought she would... staying ahead of us all the way up and down the mountain!  She especially loved the top, probably because there were a lot of people, including a little girl that kept slipping her Pringles!

Update

Here are a few more pictures of the house.  Sorry it's been so long... we have kind of been taking a break from working on the house.  

We have done some finishing touches in the study!  Mom McCollum painted the amazing picture above the computer.  We also painted the bookshelf and the computer stand (they used to be brown).  The paint is still drying on the TV stand and we are refinishing an end table that has a little bit of work still.

Yes, I know that the vent is out the window.  I was doing laundry at the time and we still don't have the hole drilled to send the vent out the side of the house.  There will be drawers above the cabinets between the washer and dryer.

Here is a picture of the completed bathroom!  Nothing left to do in here!