Birthdays, Pumpkins and a SF Giants photo shoot

Tyler and I celebrated our birthdays in September. One of my gifts was a beautiful cake made by Tami, Tyler's sister. She is amazingly talented as you can see. It also tasted like heaven! We also headed to our favorite pumpkin patch the next week and were able to take a tractor ride, feed the ducks and check out the other animals on the farm. Tyler's beloved San Francisco Giants went the play offs and he went crazy making sure that every Blout had a shirt to support the team. We decided to take some pictures and ended up getting lucky and celebrating the World Series win, hence the Christmas card photo!

The Incredibles, a lady bug and a bumble bee

Landon and his cute duck buddy, Rylie

You can imagine how cool Tyler thought this pumpkin was...he thought it was a good omen for the Giants that night. Luckily he had his blackberry along for Trick or treating so that he could check the score!

For Halloween this year something that I swore would never happen did. Two of my children dressed up as super heroes. At least they were cute because apparently it is unavoidable. Landon got an amazing hand me down Dash from the Incredibles costume. He couldn't believe it as this has been his favorite movie this year other than Toy Story, but that is a given. Teagan then wanted to be Violet, also Incredible. I found her a costume online for a steal. When it arrived I realized why, it needed minor repairs and alterations. Maya was able to wear an adorable lady bug costume that Teagan wore for her second Halloween handed down from cousin Madison. I went in search for something coordinating for Taylor and literally stumbled upon a bumble bee that was an exact match to the lady bug which must be at least 10 years old. Those of you that know my O.C.D. can imagine how over the moon I was about this discovery! Teagan and Landon were able to wear their costumes a few times for various school and church parades and trick or treating. Taylor and Maya didn't go to any doors but mine, but happily rode in their wagon all toasty watching the other crazy kids.

Where are your ears??

Maya and Taylor love to play this game, which is nice since Mommy and Daddy have stopped playing it as of about 2 months ago but Teagan and Landon ask them where some body part or another is on a minute by minute basis...

snow, Snow and more SNOW!!!!

We have had quite a winter already. The last storm gave us about a foot and Tyler headed out to shovel and make some paths. In the morning we woke up to about 10 fresh inches. It has been a great exercise for me when Tyler is at work and the kids and Maggie are having a blast.

Pig Tails and Thanksgiving

Okay, so by now you know that my posts are more or less just a bunch of pictures that I have not had time to upload. In this post you will find exactly what the title says...Taylor and Maya are able to wear pig tails, FINALLY! We celebrated Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa just 10 min. away. So nice and great food!

A house becomes a HOME!!!!

Not sure if these will appear in a before and after way, but that is how I will attempt to upload them...

After a few weeks we are done with phase one of our remodel. Most likely for several years. We ripped out old carpet, painted dirty old walls, updated the master bath and ripped out more carpet. We were lucky to find beautiful (mostly) hardwood underneath and tile in the kids bathroom. The kitchen carpet had to be gutted and we layed a beautiful tile in there to match the entry and stairs leading up. We did a new front door and exterior lighting to update the outside a bit. We have fabulous neighbors and my kids already have best buddies right next door. More to come...