two years in the making

about two years ago our friend jason came over to help me paint the landing to the basement. dave was off leading worship at a church so it was jason, me and hayden. i was in the kitchen doing something, possibly telling jason what to do, when hayden came in and started jumping around. no surprises there.
the counter top in our kitchen was white ceramic tile with blue grout that i'm assuming the people that lived here before us did themselves. and they did a really poor job of it. it was nice looking, but in many areas the grout was not sealed properly so blue chalk would come up just by touching it. and in time the tiles started to loosen as well.
so hayden's jumping. and as if in slow motion i saw the whole thing happen. he was the perfect height at the time. he got right under the edge of the counter and came up right at the corner, where the tile was the weakest. ceramic tile busted all over the kitchen. he just stopped for a second and looked around like "oh crap. i'm in big trouble now." then he realized that "wow. that really hurt." and then the tears came. but not for long, this is hayden we're talking about.
jason threw down the paint roller and ran over to look at hayden's head. we only noticed a small cut that wasn't bleeding too badly, so i figured no stitches would be needed. i mean, he did run his face into the corner of the wall on his second christmas with my best friend's husband watching in slow motion and we didn't give him stitches then. so i'm trying to keep some ice on it while jason is cleaning up the ceramic tile in the kitchen, and even in the living room.
that was two years ago. our counter top has had the wood exposed on that edge for two years. so we finally got around to getting a new counter. and sink. several weeks back, dave and i busted out most of the ceramic tile and then that weekend my dad came over to help us install the new counter and sink. boy has it ever made a difference.
now we only need to patch up some of the wall, pick out tile for the back splash and install it. any guesses on how long that will take us?!
thanks for all the help, dad!!!

safety first. yes, he did wear goggles:


without the sink in, there is so much extra counter space. i thought for a few seconds about just not putting the sink in at all. i mean, the bathroom is right around the corner:
finished. well, just about:

our little monday visit

our good friends matt and niki had a baby boy the beginning of september. you probably couldn't tell they are our good friends seeing as though we just got over to visit them on monday. we had it all planned out to go over and have dinner and visit and all that fun stuff and then we got sick. and it hasn't stopped since. nobody wants their new baby exposed to the 80 year old smokers cough that talan has going on, so we stayed away. but enough was enough and we just had to meet little everett. too bad dave was at work. well, maybe before he turns 10 we'll all get together.
hayden had the best time running around their HUGE yard with their overly active lab. at one point i caught him climbing up on a plastic play house trying to reach a ball that was stuck in the garage gutter. he honestly thought that he could climb up on the play house and jump to the garage roof and get the ball. turk wasn't helping because he too was also trying to jump to get it. turk ended up crashing on the living room floor and hayden fell asleep on the car ride home. when we were going to bed that nite hayden started fake crying (mostly to get out of going to bed) saying "but i miss the dog. i want to see the dog again." i think at least once a week those two need to get together for a play date. sure made talking to my friend a lot easier.
i tried getting hayden to get in a couple of pictures with everett and talan, but of course, he refused. i'm making sure to document all the times that i ask him to get into pictures. that way, when he grows up and says "how come after talan was born there are no pictures of me?" i can show him that it was all his doing. we tried. we really tried. who knows what you all will be getting on your christmas card this year.
so anyway. it was a nice visit and i'm sorry it didn't happen sooner. here's the proof that we actually got there before his first birthday.

trick or treat

we finished october 2007 out strong by having hayden's school halloween party on tuesday morning, going trick or treating in downtown plymouth on tuesday evening and then having the real deal on wednesday evening. as usual, the family all went over to mom and dad's for a delicious dinner of chicken chili or regular chili (usually the chicken chili was made for jessica, but now she eats meat...YEAH!!!). after dinner we got the kids dressed up and headed out for some trick or treating. hayden usually goes from 6-8, running the whole time. this year we got close to mom and dad's house and planned on going up the other side of the street but he said he was done. very odd. i think he just wanted to get into the candy as fast as he could. in years past it was more about how many houses he could get to, now he realizes it's actually candy he's getting and he loves candy. maybe more than running. so we finished up a little before 7:30. rainah headed back a little earlier and talan just fell asleep in tina's arms when he was done. hayden left his wig on the whole time which shocked me. he would have left the beard on the whole time too if the stupid thing didn't keep falling off the whole time. but at least we got some good pictures. hayden asked me last nite if he was going out again and i had to explain that halloween is over until next year. i think the whole 2 nites in a row really screwed him up. guess he thought we'd just continue going out until the snow started to fall. well, i guess we could try. we didn't hit up our neighborhood yet.


jack sparrow. what?! he's actually looking AND smiling at the camera?!:
ARRRGHHH:
lobster out of water:
hayden as jack sparrow, rainah as an octopus, talan as a lobster:
creatures of the sea:
hayden got the hang of it early. this year we really didn't even need to go up to the doors with him. he would say "trick or treat" before they got to the door and then they would talk to him or ask him questions while putting candy in his bag and he'd just say "thank you" and start running to the next house. this kid is good. no time for small talk, gotta get to as many houses as he can!:

even the lobster got candy:

all that being carried around really tired him out: